California-based entrepreneur and mother of two, Sarine Sahatjian, celebrates her Armenian heritage with Noosh brands.

By Adi Menayang

Noosh is one way to transliterate the Armenian word for ‘almond.’

“Noosh sounded like a fun word that also had a deep meaning for me,”​ Sahatjian, founder and CEO of Noosh​, told NutraIngredients-USA.

She was born and raised in Lebanon—her family descendants of Armenians who moved to the Levant following the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian Genocide in 1915. The Lebanese Civil War then prompted Sahatjian’s family to immigrate to the US in the 1970s.

Nuts, almonds in particular, play an integral role in the cuisines of both Armenia and Lebanon.

“We use nuts like almonds and pistachios a lot in entertaining and cooking​,” she said. “So they’ve always been a part of growing up. We always had them around, especially on holidays—we would always have dried fruits and nuts.”