Before I moved here, I didn’t associate Christmas or even Germany with candied nuts, but I do now. Amongst all of the Gluhwein and sausage stands at a Christmas market, there are always a number of candy stands. You can usually identify them by the bunches of heart shaped cookies with writing on them hanging from the rafters. The typical stall will have a range of chocolate dipped fruit and other sweets as well as a few flavors of candied nuts. We went to Frankfurt Christmas market and ended up at the most extensive candied almond stand I have ever seen. This wasn’t the typical stand either, no cookies or fruit, just almonds and tons of them.
Oh Almonds
Almonds are common enough in Germany. Marzipan, sweetened almond paste, is found everywhere in all manner of shapes and forms. So I really shouldn’t be surprised that if there was a nut to be candied, then the almond would be it. And Christmas time would be the time for it.
I don’t really want this post to be “hey tons of wacky almonds,” but “hey tons and tons of brightly flavored almonds.” I really enjoyed taking depth of field pictures at this stand. Almonds are lot more photogenic than I think people give them credit for.
A family affair
The stand is run by family Eiserloh and they have a website here. The stand was down a side street away from the main market, but that didn’t stop it from being crowded. The bright lights and tons of different candy coated almonds drew in people. Samples are definitely in order. Shiny metal shovels trickled a few of each type into hands and mittens of chilled passers by.
I have no real clue on the process, but it seems to involve a lot of sugar and almonds in a rotating drum. There must also be a time to add flavorings, cause man this stand had a ton of different flavors. Fifty according to their signs.
Sweet Choices
There were so many flavors to try that it was hard to make a choice. They had a range of chocolates down one end, but the other end were more exotic things like energy drink, rum, smurf, cinnamon and hugo (a German cocktail). We ended up buying a bag of rum almonds. Tasty crunchy sweet rum-y almonds.
Practical
Candied almonds and other candied nuts are pretty common at German markets. This specific stall we found at the Frankfurt market, though their website says they tour to other markets as well. A small bag(100g) in 2012 cost 3Euros.
We were in Frankfurt with their tourism office on a tour they hooked us up with, but all opinions are my own.
