Brazil nuts

One US cup of brazil nuts weighs between 120 and 133 grams, depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. That range is the answer; a single number would not be. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Also called brazil nuts, brazilnuts, whole brazil nuts, dried brazil nuts, unblanched brazil nuts, bertholletia excelsa.

Brazil nuts publish as a range 120 to 133 grams per cup because two authoritative sources disagree by 10.8%, just over the 10% milled tolerance, and the disagreement reflects a documented labeling convention rather than one source being wrong. USDA FoodData Central entry 170569 (Nuts, brazilnuts, dried, unblanched) publishes a direct cup portion of 133 g/cup whole (density 0.5621 g/mL), with supporting per-kernel figure of 5 g suggesting approximately 27 kernels fit a spooned-and-leveled cup. USDA FNNDS entry 339423 confirms the same 133 g/cup figure. Retail brand labels from Sunshine Country, Basse Raw Brazil Nuts, and Nature to Go cluster at 28-30 grams per 1/4 cup, back-calculating to 112-120 g/cup — a value that reflects the FDA Reference Amount Customarily Consumed default of 1 oz per nut serving applied as if 1/4 cup equals 1 oz, rather than measured density.

Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa) are the tree seeds of the Amazonian Brazil nut tree, wild-harvested primarily in Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru. Unlike most commercially sold nuts, Brazil nuts are not cultivated at scale because the tree relies on specific orchid bee species for pollination and takes several decades to reach productive maturity, making plantation cultivation economically unfeasible. Nearly all Brazil nuts on the US market come from wild-harvested trees in Amazonian rainforest, giving Brazil nuts an unusually stable kernel size distribution across brands compared to more variable cultivated tree nuts like almonds or cashews.

Physical mechanism for the density range: Brazil nuts are among the largest commercial tree nuts, with individual kernels averaging 5 grams and measuring roughly 2.5 to 3 centimeters long. The irregular triangular-wedge shape creates significant inter-kernel air voids when packed into a measuring cup — approximately 27 kernels fit a spooned-and-leveled cup, with the remaining volume being air. USDA's 133 g/cup measurement reflects careful spoon-and-level measurement of intact whole kernels. Commercial labels at 120 g/cup reflect the FDA RACC labeling convention. Both figures describe genuine reference points bakers encounter, which is why the range spans them.

Compared to other nuts on the site, Brazil nuts at 120-133 g/cup fit into the whole-nut density cluster: cashews whole at 113-137 g/cup (state variance from raw to roasted), whole unblanched almonds at 142 g/cup, and other similarly-sized tree nuts. Brazil nuts pack noticeably heavier than sliced almonds (86 g/cup at KA) and slivered almonds (114 g/cup at KA) because whole kernels have less surface area exposed to air per unit volume than cut pieces do. Brazil nuts also carry a distinctive nutritional signature: a single kernel provides more than the daily requirement for selenium, making Brazil nuts one of the few foods where portion control matters more for micronutrient dosage than for calories.

Category assignment is milled, matching all other whole and cut nuts on the site under the fatty-nut fibrous-plant-particulate definition.

Confidence is low reflecting the 10.8% gap between USDA measurement and commercial label convention. For baking accuracy, weigh Brazil nuts rather than measuring by volume. If a recipe was developed against a USDA reference or a careful spoon-and-level measurement, use 133 g/cup. If a recipe was developed against a commercial brand label reading 1/4 cup = 28-30 g, use 120 g/cup. If in doubt, use 125 g/cup as a middle estimate. This entry represents a moat play for the site: King Arthur does not currently list Brazil nuts in its Ingredient Weight Chart, so no consumer baking authority publishes a direct cup weight, and no other cup-to-gram reference publishes the USDA versus commercial label gap for Brazil nuts with the physical explanation that the disagreement reflects FDA RACC labeling convention rather than a measurement error.