ALMOND PASTE is characterized as having a sweet and balanced almond flavor. American Almond brand Almond Paste is prepared from select grades of almonds grown in California. After blanching, the almonds are ground and then cooked with pure granulated cane sugar to a smooth paste.

KERNEL PASTE is made from apricot kernels. Inside the pit of an apricot is a “kernel” that has a distinctive almond-like flavor. Benzaldehyde is the naturally-occurring flavor component that we all identify as “almond,” and apricot kernels contain a lot of it. The apricot pits are shelled to yield their kernels. American Almond blanches the kernels to remove their skins, grind them and then cook them with pure cane sugar to complete the process. The finished product has a slightly stronger bitter almond flavor.