Kinnikinnick Foods Inc.

I’ve been hearing about Kinnikinnick for years and finally had a chance to met the Kinnikinnick team at the Natural Products Expo East in Boston last year. Consequently, Kinnikinnick sent me a box full of samples.

I loved almost everything.

Out of the doughnut selection, the Kinnikinnick cinnamon were my favorites, they reminded me of apple cider doughnuts I used to get as a child. Not exactly but that cakey texture and taste. A pretty close approximation. The chocolate dipped weren’t as successful in flavor for me; the chocolate coating tasted off and the texture of the doughnut wasn’t as cakey.

KinniToos Chocolate Vanilla Sandwich Cookies and the KinniToos Vanilla Sandwich Creme Cookies were OMG. I shared the samples with a non GF, non-allergic eater who kept saying, “These aren’t Oreos?”

S'moreables Graham Style Crackers were a delight. Lighter, less crumbly than traditional graham but the right flavor. At the show I tried both the chocolate and the Graham Style KinniKritter Animal Cookies and gobbled those up too.

Perhaps I’m severely commercial cookie deprived but these treats are too good.

Why didn’t I try Kinnikinnick before? Because they still had nuts in their facility. As of last summer they have gone completely nut-free. I spoke to their owner directly, a lovely man, who was so pleased and proud to be able to make this change for our community. He said they had only one or two products with nuts so it wasn’t such a major shift. Yay!

For more nut-free info go to the Kinnikinnick website.

Now I did notice that they use a lot of pea protein so I asked them about this. From the manufacturer directly: "There is no connection with our pea protein and peanut allergies that I am aware of. We have many customers with nut and peanut allergies that use our products without any issues. The pea protein, pea fibre and pea starch we use are from yellow peas and the facilities do not process any nuts whatsoever." They also addressed pea protein tangentially on their blog.

Of course check with your allergist about your particular needs. I for one need to order some more goodies and then do a lot of sit-ups.