The Investors Who Think Hazelnuts Will Be the Next Pistachios

Ivan Nechunaev (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

Joe Weisenthal (0:18)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:22)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:24)

Tracy, you know I've never had Nutella before.

Tracy Alloway (0:26)

I know that. I think we were talking about this the other day, and I said, and I mean this 100%, and I don't mean it to come off badly, but I genuinely feel really sorry for you for never having Nutella. I feel like you are missing out on one of the best things in life.

Joe Weisenthal (0:41)

And you know, I've never had the Dubai chocolate before either.

Tracy Alloway (0:45)

I know, again, my sympathy for you just continues to expand.

Joe Weisenthal (0:49)

So as everyone knows, you know, I'm just like a real ahead of the curve guy in most things. I was really ahead of the curve on having nut allergies. Because now like all kids basically have nut allergies, it seems like, or like half the kids in any of my kids class. But I was like really early on in the 1980s.

Tracy Alloway (1:04)

You were having nut allergies before it was cool?

Joe Weisenthal (1:06)

I was having nut allergies before it was cool. I'm aware that people love Nutella. I'm aware that people love Dubai chocolate, or some people do, or they at least like posting about it on Instagram, and all things pistachios, etc. And yes, but I take it it's all good stuff.

Tracy Alloway (1:21)

It's so good. Oh my God. It's, I mean, there is nothing better than eating Nutella out of a spoon. Or sorry, eating Nutella out of a jar with a spoon, preferably with a glass of milk. Like it is so good.

Joe Weisenthal (1:35)

It looks good.

Tracy Alloway (1:36)

Dubai chocolate.

Joe Weisenthal (1:37)

Have you had it?

Tracy Alloway (1:38)

I have, but I'm not that enamored with it.

Joe Weisenthal (1:41)

Interesting. I remember like, it was probably like a year and a half ago, and I just started seeing like signs. It was like, we have the Dubai chocolate.

Tracy Alloway (1:48)

Oh, they're everywhere now.

Joe Weisenthal (1:49)

But the other day I went to my, the local deli on my block and they had five, just on the counter, they had five different versions, five different companies selling it, five different products that you could buy, which I take as just some sort of, you know, chocolate with some sort of creamy pistachio in the middle. And if you break it open, it looks good on social media.

Tracy Alloway (2:10)

That's pretty much it. I do find it kind of funny that this like viral chocolate has come out of Dubai, of all places, which doesn't necessarily have a strong confectionary history, but it has certainly tapped into various luxury markets. So I think that's what's going on.

Joe Weisenthal (2:26)

I was looking through the conference called Transcripts on the Bloomberg a few weeks ago, and I was looking like, what companies have talked about this? And there's one big Swiss publicly traded chocolatier, and they talked about it, and they talked about, I guess it was a woman in Dubai just started making it, then they called it the Dubai Chocolate. Anyway, they were talking about how fast they adapted to TikTok trends, et cetera. But I guess the business of nuts and how it works, not something that we discussed much, maybe because of my own, I'm allergic to talk about these topics.

Tracy Alloway (2:59)

Well, there is one nut that you can eat.

Joe Weisenthal (3:02)

That's right, almonds.

Tracy Alloway (3:03)

Almonds, and I still manage to poison you once with almonds. I feel really bad about it. Yeah, how did that happen? I don't know. For listeners, I didn't do it on purpose. I bought him some of those Korean nuts that we've been talking about in the snack food episode, and they were almonds, so we thought they were okay.

Joe Weisenthal (3:17)

But like laced with something else.

Tracy Alloway (3:18)

Yeah. I guess.

Joe Weisenthal (3:20)

I didn't die.

Tracy Alloway (3:20)

Yeah. That's always a plus. I didn't kill my co-host.

Joe Weisenthal (3:24)

Anyway, despite my own, because I'm a journalist dedicated to learning about the truth about the world, I will get over my personal biases against nuts in pursuit of journalistic truth and learning more about how all these businesses work, the chocolate business and all these work, how these work just because I want to learn more about the world, even when I cannot partake of its goodness.

Tracy Alloway (3:46)