Take a taste of the three new flavors of Sante Nuts. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

Santé Nuts New Candied Flavors

The South Bay’s maker of gourmet nuts, Santé Nuts, has debuted three new flavors: Chocolate Almonds, Pumpkin Spice Pecans, and Bourbon Pecans.

The family-owned company was started by single mom Sara Tidhar, who parlayed her home-made recipes for candied and spiced nuts into a booming business. Her son and daughter now both work in the company, too.

I had a chance to try samples recently. What I especially love about all these nuts is that they maintain a pronounced crunchiness even with their coatings.

The Chocolate Almonds are a nice change of pace from the usual hard-shelled, candy-coated chocolate almonds. Rather than a shell of chocolate, these almonds get a coating of sugared crackling cocoa powder. That means the flavor of the almonds still sings through loud and clear without getting overtaken by the cocoa that adds a nice deep dark chocolate accent. There’s also a touch of salt that adds perfect balance.

The Pumpkin Spice Pecans will win over anyone who loves winter’s pumpkin spice craze in everything. Only, you can enjoy these year-round. They’d be especially wonderful in muffins or garnishing a coffee cake.

The Bourbon Pecans are addictive. The bourbon lends a lovely toasty, vanilla flavor. These pecans would be wonderful on a cheese plate or baked into brown butter blondies.

A 4-ounce bag of any of the varieties is $4.99 at Santé Nuts online.

Cherry Blossom Tea Experience

Spring brings blooms galore, including a special Cherry Blossom-Inspired Art of Tea experience at the St. Regis San Francisco.

The usual afternoon tea at the St. Regis San Francisco (pictured here) will get a cherry blossom-inspired twist throughout April. (photo courtesy of the hotel)

Available throughout April, it’s a twist on the hotel’s usual afternoon tea just in time for this year’s Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival. To go along with the tea, there will be East meets West treats such as Japanese milk bread (shokupan) toast, matcha tea swiss roll, korokke (croquette), and mint tea macarons.

The Cherry Blossom tea experience, $69 per person, is available by reservation only in the lobby lounge, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Champagne is available as an add-on for an extra cost.

To reserve, call (866) 716-8116.

SweetSpotSF Offers One Sweet Time

Satisfy your sweet tooth — and then some — at SweetSpotSF dessert festival, noon to 4 p.m. March 30 at the SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco.

Enjoy Three Twins mini ice cream sandwiches, Johnny Doughnuts’ 10-foot doughnut wall, and treats from a host of purveyors, including Bi-Rite Market, Rocko’s Ice Cream Tacos, and Frozen Kuhsterd.

Food Gal readers can get 10 percent off the ticketed price of $38 (includes endless desserts plus one cocktail or mocktail) or $55 (unlimited cocktails and desserts). Just use the code “FOODGAL10” at checkout.