Hazelnut Pleasure

The Hazelnut Debut from Hamburg-Ottensen

Brandgut Haselgenuss is a crunchy, vegan hazelnut spread made from almost 50% roasted hazelnuts with a hint of sea salt – handmade in copper kettles in Hamburg, and the first product from the small manufactory of Meike Grosch and Daniel Thaung. Roasty, intense, and with a fine crunch on the spoon.

The hazelnut spread Haselgenuss from Brandgut is a crunchy spread made from roasted hazelnuts, in a 160g jar from Hamburg-Ottensen. With almost 50% hazelnuts, a touch of sugar, vanilla sugar, a little sunflower oil, and a hint of sea salt, only 5 ingredients go into the jar – no palm fats, no emulsifiers, no industrial cocoa. Haselgenuss was the first variety that Meike and Daniel developed in their creative kitchen in Hamburg, and is thus the debut product from which the entire Brandgut range has grown.

Roasty, intense, with a slight crunch

Upon opening the jar, the typical, warm, caramel-like scent of freshly roasted hazelnuts rises – a smell that evokes every Christmas market in your mind, but without the children's carousel. The cream has a deep brown, coffee-cream tone, significantly darker than the caramel-light pecan variant YES, Pe Can. A little oil may settle at the edge – that's part of the Brandgut concept, because no emulsifiers artificially hold the cream together. Just stir vigorously with a spoon, and it's ready.

On the tongue, the hazelnut spread is first creamy and soft, then comes the intense hazelnut depth with a roasty-nutty tone, and finally, the fine sea salt ensures that nothing tastes bland – roasty, creamy, with a hint of salt. The crunch collects at the bottom: small caramelized nut pieces that give the spread its texture. Those who frequently reach for the spread know: it gets crunchier at the bottom. Therefore, the simple rule of thumb: stir well so that liquid and crunch remain fairly distributed.

We like it thick on sourdough with butter

The hazelnut spread is the honest alternative to industrial chocolate-nut spreads: no chocolate, no palm fat, just pure hazelnut. We like it best spread thickly on fresh bread – especially on hearty sourdough with a wafer-thin layer of butter underneath. The butter provides a contrast over which the hazelnut particularly happily wanders.

We also like it in muesli: a spoonful in the bowl, banana on top, a few raspberries – wonderful. It goes well with porridge, vanilla ice cream, and even works as a filling in a classic chocolate cake or a nut braid in autumn. If you like to experiment, try it for dinner: a dollop with strong mountain cheese, a young Pecorino, or freshly grated Parmesan – hazelnut and cheese have been friends since Italian rural cuisine.

Our tip: add a spoonful to hot oat milk, stir vigorously – and you have a homemade hazelnut cappuccino without a sugar feast. If you like more Brandgut ideas, you will find them with the pistachio-containing Peacetazie, the Mandelikat, and the sweet-and-salty YES, Pe Can.

The first Brandgut spread, from an idea at the Hamburger Dom

Behind Brandgut are Meike Grosch and Daniel Thaung from Hamburg. The two worked together for almost 10 years in a Hamburg advertising agency before venturing into their own creative kitchen in 2014. The catalyst for Brandgut, as they still tell it, was a walk with a bag of roasted hazelnuts at the Hamburger Dom – the warm, fairground sweetness of the roasted nut never left them. Why not bring exactly that into a jar?

The idea became Haselgenuss – the first product of the small manufactory, where the artisanal production was developed. The hazelnuts are caramelized in copper kettles, finely ground, and processed into the crunchy spread. Everything is vegan, without additives, handmade in Hamburg-Ottensen. After Haselgenuss, other varieties were added, but the roasted hazelnut remains the original form. You can find more spreads in our Brandgut collection. Meike and Daniel wish "brandguten Appetit" – and we have it, rightly so, we think.