Hazelnuts, Cobnuts / Cobs and Filberts are all varieties of the same fruit from hazel tree. Pictured above cobnuts came from UK, Kent to be precise and they are in season now, other varieties are more popular in other parts of the World. From what I understand hazelnuts are the most round ones in shape, cobnuts are more oval and filberts are twice as long as wide… but please, correct me if I’m wrong. How are they called in your area?

In UK you can get cobnuts still young, in husks but once they will get older they will dry out and turn brown just like other similar nuts. They are coming in clusters of anything from 1-5 nuts together. Once they are still fresh they taste more like coconut or almonds soaked in boiling water for removing the peel and later, when dry they will resemble in taste hazelnuts.

Cobnuts are delicious itself or used as any other nuts in cooking, baking, desserts, etc. The Independent suggests serving them in husks and cracking them between your teeth but I would not recommend that… Even our hamster Toffy has hard time cracking them open so I have to use hammer to smash them a bit for him (!)