When most people think of macadamia nuts, they imagine the crunchy goodness and creamy flavors of these delicious Hawaiian treats. Who would ever suspect that an innocent little nut could cause drama and temper tantrums? Strangely, that’s exactly what happened on a recent Korean Air Lines flight. The event has sparked a macadamia nut craze in South Korea and around the world, proving that the only thing worse than bad publicity is no publicity.

Source: Flickr

The drama began when the daughter of the chairman of Korean Air was served macadamia nuts after boarding her flight.The nuts were brought to her in a bag rather than on a plate, and this made the heiress quite angry. She proceeded to order the flight attendant who served her the nuts off of the plane. The flight had to return to the gate so that the flight attendant could disembark before the plane took off.

Not surprisingly, the heiress’ antics did not stay private for long. As word spreads of the incident, macadamia nut sales in South Korea are booming. Prior to the tantrum, macadamia nut sales accounted for about 5% of all nut sales in South Korea, but they now account for about half — and this boom happened without any promotions whatsoever. Everyone wants to try the Hawaiian treat that caused enough drama to return a plane to the gate.

Crunchy and delicious mac nuts are gaining popularity all over the world as internet memes and headlines about the heiress’ tantrum run rampant. If you’d like to try the nuts that lost a flight attendant her job and delayed a flight out of New York, we invite you to explore the choices at Hawaii’s Local Buzz. We offer many flavors of crunchy and delicious mac nuts, including smoky garlic, natural sea salt, and vanilla crunch.