Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Mexican/Japanese/American Peanut Snacks

     As readers can tell from all the slashes in the title, this one is more than a little confusing.  When I first picked these up, again from a Wegman's supermarket, I thought these were Mexican, since they were clearly marked, "Made in Mexico."  That the product name was "Samurai," complete with the appropriate sword in the logo, I figured, was kind of random, just a marketing decision.  But it turns out I was wrong.  "Japanese peanuts," usually referred to as "cacahuates japoneses" or "mani japones" in Spanish-speaking countries, and as "cracker peanuts" in English-speaking nations, were invented by a Japanese-Mexican.  Yoshigei Nakatani immigrated to Mexico in 1932, married a local Mexican woman, had kids, and converted to Catholicism.  Somewhere between 1945-1951 (sources vary), he developed a new kind of snack, by coating peanuts in wheat flour dough and then frying them.  He sold these in Mexico City, and they quickly became popular throughout the country.  Several others came up with versions of his snack, so now you can buy many variants of these special peanuts.
     Alas, I purchased an American knockoff.  From Tuty, a company that started in 2005 in Texas, and now has plants in Mexico, too.  (They also make other peanut-based snacks, cheese snacks, sweet bar snacks, and alternate flavors of cracker peanuts, including chili, habonero, and sriracha.)  According to a blog I read, although Tuty's Samurai peanuts are popular in Mexico, many Mexicans consider the Nishikawa ones to be the best.  Tuty's website is rather sparse about its history, or other information, but, to be fair, they are pretty new.  Also, they sometimes refer to this brand as "Samura," since the handle of the sword hanging below the word in the logo makes the "i" at the end of the word.  Even though it's clearly meant to be "samurai,"--it doesn't make much sense.
     Anyway, I had the classic Samurai coated peanuts, the coated peanuts with lemon, and the cacahuates, the uncoated chili-flavored peanuts.  My notes for each are below.

Samurai classic coated peanuts:  Look like tiny potatoes with their coating.  Taste pretty good, but since I really enjoy peanuts, this isn't unexpected.  Slightly salty, and tangier than most peanuts.  Overall were more than solid.

Samurai coated peanuts with lemon:  Slight lemon tang.  Didn't like as much as the classic one, or the chili ones.  Lemon flavor not as good. Not a very pleasing flavor pairing.  Not atrocious, but not especially tasty, either.

Samurai uncoated chili-flavored peanuts:  Just peanuts covered in reddish spice powder.  Spicy as advertised.  Not overly hot, but a nice "bite."  Pretty good--liked these better than the lemon ones, but not quite as much as the classic coated.

     Therefore, I would recommend these, except maybe for the coated kind with lemon.  It's pretty difficult to mess up peanuts as a food, and the "cracker peanuts" seem like a decent to very good variant of them.  (One notable peanut-based snack that is terrible is the Southern U.S. cultural abomination known as "boiled peanuts," which take a tasty treat and turn it into a revolting, salty mush.)  I wish I'd tried a more authentic Mexican/Japanese type, though.  Hopefully I'll get the chance, and then I can compare them to the Tuty ones.