Living Tree Community Foods

I have been a regular customer of Living Tree Community Foods for many years. I became acquainted with them by trying a few products that I found on the shelves of local health food stores in the Bay Area and quickly became an online customer. Their foods are A+++ in quality and created for your optimum health. Everything is organic. My last order included 4 lbs. of raw cacao powder, walnut oil, black cumin seed oil, chocolate/​almond butter bars, golden turmeric butter and red flint corn polenta. I am particular about polenta and have for years been ordering it from a mill on the East Coast, but decided to give this red flint variety from Oregon a try. It is far and away the most flavorful polenta I’ve ever had. I highly recommend all of the wonderful oils they offer; also in my pantry are macadamia nut, brazil nut and olive oils.

I started ordering from Living Tree Community Foods several years ago. It used to be mainly nuts and nut butters. Over the years, they expanded with Coconut and Chocolate and other superfoods, grains and powders and chocolate bars and and and… and the list doesn’t end there! I love the fact that it’s all raw and alive, everything is delicious and amazing, it’s organic, it’s grown and harvested with respect to animals, soils, nature and human beings. Their customer service is very quick, any questions I have has been answered in quite a short time. oh and one last thing. everything is awesome. period!!!

Alive Organic Almond Hazelnut Chocolate!!! All of us chocolate lovers take note that this Living Tree alive organic creation is NOT chocolate as we know it. It is an absolutely sensual, smoothly spreadable and melt-​in-​our-​mouths nut butter that we can indulge in spoonfuls to satiate the physical hunger for sustenance and emotional craving for that any-​time sweet delight. The tropical aroma of coconut oil catches my senses when I slowly twist the top open. I inhale deeply in the jar. I know then that I would fall in love with this more than chocolate CHOCOLATE. What I notice next is the cacao and hazelnut fervently competing to take second place in this complexly rich flavored concoction. Dates and almonds modestly take their third place, but their presence will not be overlooked. Do give this Living Tree creation a try. It is an experience worth having over and over again.

Initially I found this company’s products a little disturbing: A slightly unhinged-​looking lady stared at me from a jar of almond butter, and I couldn’t tell if her expression was seductive or homicidal. And the company’s name reeked of Northern California brainwashing — «Living Tree Community.» Wait: Is it a company at all, or an end-​of-​the-​world cult? Is this almond butter going to be like Jonestown Kool-​Aid? I really didn’t know what to think. Every week or so I’d visit the nut butter isle at Whole Foods and return the crazy flower child’s gaze for a few heartbeats, then walk away.
Then I read their webpage. Not all of it, mind you — there’s a lot of content there. I read just enough to become convinced that these people are passionate. Whether I agree with all of their views or not, they are clearly passionate. So I placed an order on-​line.
Here’s what I bought: Tahini, almond butter (not roasted), cashew butter, Muir’s trail mix, olive oil, walnuts, and chocolate treats filled with almond butter.
I could go on about the virtues of these wonderful products for some time, but I prefer to be brief. Here’s what I found: The chocolate bars with almond butter were amazing; the tahini is out of this world (I eat it on multigrain toast with orange marmalade); I’ve been buying trail mixes for years and years, being an avid backpacker, but the Living Tree Community’s mix is unparalleled. (We all have our own preferences; since I tend to like a nut-​heavy trail mix, I added the walnuts I bought from the Community to the John Muir trail mix, and that made it perfect. However, my wife likes to add the Muir trail mix as-​is to her morning oatmeal, which makes it oh-​so-​indulgent.) The almond butter puts other almond butters to shame; it is in a category all its own.
Since that initial order, I’ve also bought the Community’s roasted almond butter and black sesame tahini (which I understand is unhulled, and while it doesn’t have quite the nutritional content that their regular tahini does — at least according to the standard measures printed on the jar’s label — I strongly suspect it is higher in certain phytonutrients).
The Living Tree Community’s products are pricier than their competitors’. And in my opinion, that’s wholly justified; the difference in quality is undeniable.
Yes, the labels seem a little weird, and the products have a «cult-​ish» feel. Ironically, though, it’s all the other junk in the market that evidences actual brainwashing. These people are the real deal; they are the peerless non-​conformists who set standards that leave the bigger corporations nipping at their skyward heels.

Over the years I spent a fortune here, happy to pay the prices which are higher than comparable items at a good store. I was even able to tolerate that they ship when they want to, not the day the order comes in, or the day after.
I tolerated the many mistakes to my orders — simply because at one time they graciously took care of it, usually by sending the correct product.
I even tolerated that every product’s label has a young woman on it, modestly dressed (said the owner) but never-​the-​less, it still feels like «sex sells.»
What pushed me over the edge was when my last order came and something was leaking. I called and very politely explained. I was told it would be ok to consume it. I said that I’d rather not and asked for another one.
I was on hold for over 5 minutes and when the girl came back I could hear the owner ranting in the background. She told me that they could not /​would not send another.
I was shocked. I pointed out that I’d been a customer since Bill Clinton was in office and in fact, on several occasions the owner tried to lure us into becoming investors!
Your mistake and not taking care of me and being very rude about it has me moving on. You clearly don’t want my money anymore. Or my investment money.

i may just be adding to the choir here, but their almond butter is the best on the planet! worth every penny… enough said.

Read about this spot having the best almond butter money could buy so I splurged on $ 100 of their goods and had them shipped.
The almond butter is ON POINT. It was like cookie dough to me, and I will continue to order from them. I haven’t even gotten to my other products yet. I should mention it is made from California almonds (supporting the US of A), and it’s blended to just the right consistency before you hit overly tacky in texture. I loved the texture.
Despite being the east coast snob that I am, this almond butter actually has me thinking I wanna check out Cali, the land of crazies, and see what else they have to offer. Now if that ain’t some powerful shit, I don’t know what is.

Great place for those of you doing the Raw eating seriously. I mail order from them… thanks Mom for the heads up! They have the best most delicious stuff and the prices are great. I recently saw one of their raw nut butters at a health food store here in NYC for over $ 20… it retails on their site for around $ 11 for 8oz.
I eat about 90% raw… mostly only go off when dining out with friends on the weekends, and its great to be able to get bulk amounts of nuts and dates and that sort of thing just to have around for when I need them and not have to spend an arm and a leg.

Almond Butter! So very good.
And this place makes the best!
Specializing in «Alive» foods, Living Tree Community foods is a great alternative to the normal health food stores.
The almonds, and dried fruits are very good and worth the price. The dried bananas are unique and very tasty.
But the butters, oh the butters, Cashew, Pumpkin Seed and Sesame, Macadamia, Hazelnut, are sensational! Their olive oils are also top notch. They also sell a «raw» olive oil which is light and very delicious. They feature grains and seeds, agave syrup, honey and even bee pollen.
So if you are into healthy foods, this place wont disappoint!
Prices are a bit steep. But the freshness of the products are far superior than the brands norrmally found in health food stores.