Finding good quality nuts online sounds straightforward enough until you start looking. Most general Australian stores carry almonds, cashews and not much else. Variety is what makes or breaks a nuts and dry fruits section.
Stores that specialise in Indian groceries online tend to stock a far more complete range than mainstream supermarkets. Here is what a properly stocked selection looks like and what to look for when you buy nuts online.
What a Full Nuts and Dry Fruits Range Should Cover
When you buy nuts online from a specialist Indian grocery store, the range ought to go well beyond the basics.
- Raw peanuts and groundnuts are a daily cooking staple across South Asian kitchens. They go into chutneys, curries, snack mixes and rice dishes. Availability in multiple pack sizes matters for households that cook with them regularly.
- Raw almonds should come in smaller and larger quantities. Buying in bulk makes sense for households that go through them quickly, so a store that only stocks one pack size is not the most practical option.
- Raw and roasted cashews appear in everything from kormas to barfis to trail mixes. Woodfire roasted and salted varieties are popular for snacking. A good range will carry both cooking-grade and snack-ready options.
- Raw pistachios have a shorter shelf life than most nuts, which makes an online store with strong stock turnover the better bet for quality. Older stock loses its flavour quickly.
- Char Magaz or mixed melon seeds are used regularly in gravies and sweets and are the sort of ingredient that is almost entirely absent from general supermarkets. A specialised store is the practical way to find them in Australia.
- Dry dates in black, dry plums, green sultanas, shredded coconut, desiccated coconut across a range of pack sizes and linseed meal all form part of a genuinely useful dry fruits section. Products like these tend to appear only in stores built around Asian cooking needs.
What to Check Before You Buy Nuts Online from a Grocery Store
Before buying nuts online, look for free shipping thresholds that work for your usual order size, and check stock availability across the pack sizes you need. It is also worth confirming whether the store carries branded products from trusted producers rather than unbranded stock. A wholesale purchasing option is worth checking for households or businesses that order in larger quantities.
A well-stocked online Indian grocery store will carry upwards of forty distinct nut and dry fruit products. Anything short of that and you will find yourself ordering from multiple places to get what you are looking for, which rather defeats the purpose.
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