There are plenty of nuts you can purchase if you want to. But imagine that all nuts were the same price. What nut would you buy then? If the person in question is me, one of my top two choices would be the cashew.

Imagine one of those things of "Fancy Mixed Nuts" that you can buy at Publix. The good kind that says "20% or less peanuts" on the outside. They have pecans, almonds, and even hazelnuts in them. But what nut do people peer inside and reach for and pick out before all those other ones? The cashew nut. They eat all those cashew nuts, you can bet your bottom dollar.

I dare you to dump your mixed nuts into a bowl at your next party and see if the cashew nuts don't disappear first. Then write me a postcard that says how sorry you are for doubting me.

While many other nuts are tasty in their own unique ways, cashews have what you might call a high class taste. They just taste like a special occasion. And indeed, any special occasion can be well complemented by our crescent-shaped friends— the second-best nut in the whole wide world.

Cashew

A crescent moon of flavor

In the night sky of nut jars

Cashew

A wooden-looking material

Concealing aromatic pleasures

Cashew

A global concatenation of nut admirers

Boundless in their praises for thee

Cashew

Lookin like Yoda

Probably grew on some kind of tree

Cashew

A princeling of foodstuffs

Finer than all but one other

Enjoyed, in purity, alone, unadorned

You can even find cashew butter if you look real hard

I bet it's great

Cashew.

Previously

Pistachios Are the Fifth-Best Nut

Almonds Are the Fourth-Best Nut

Pecans Are the Third-Best Nut

[Photo: Chelsea Gomez/ Flickr]