Elite's Neshikolada Chocolate Bars

שטראוס עלית נשיקולדה

It seems there's been a huge demand for years now that Elite bring back their Neshikolada Chocolate Bars, which was very popular in the late '80s early '90s, before I had the privilege of living here in Israel. By the time I made Alyiah they were gone from the store shelves and I never heard about them until I read all the requests on the My Strauss Website I told you about in my review of Elite Strauss's White-Chocolate Kif-Kef . So after bringing back the Alma gums that everyone seemed to miss so much, Strauss decided that Neshikolada Chocolate Bars was the next nostalgic treat to remake.

The name Neshikolada is a "play on words" it's a combination of 2 Hebrew words

"Neshika" which means Kiss and "Shokolada" from the word Chocolate. So basically it's meant to be a chocolate that's "sealed with a kiss"

Here's the commercial that was on TV back in the late '80s early '90s that kind of shows just that...

I think that the issue with nostalgic candies is that more often than not what we're really "craving" is the innocence of childhood or the sweet memory that accompanied the chocolate bar and not the candy itself. Not only do our taste buds seem to change and develop as we grow up; making things that we enjoyed as a child seem too sweet or unappealing as we get older. But all too often the nostalgic product is "new and improved" and doesn’t taste anything like the "original" flavor we remember and crave. Since I never did taste the Neshikolada Chocolate Bars from 1986 I can't tell you if that’s the case with this item and I can't do a comparison. I just wonder if all the people that begged Elite to bring it back will be ultra disappointed or if maybe by some "Willy Wonka miracle" it will transport them to that "happy moment in time" and the sweet memory they are so desperately looking for in their sometimes busy adult life.       

When I first opened the Neshikolada Chocolate Bars the size and shape of the "mini cubes" reminded me of the Ritter Sport Chocolate bars.

Since I've yet to taste any of Ritter's chocolates I have no idea if the "look" of the bars is where the resemblance ends. But I did like the density, size and shape of all the mini cubes on this bar. I feel like it helps with "portion control".

There are 4 flavors in this new line of Neshikolada Chocolate Bars

1. Milk-Chocolate filled with Crushed Vanilla Cookies - 95 gram bar

2. Milk-Chocolate filled with Crushed Hazelnuts - 95 gram bar
3. Milk-Chocolate Topped with a layer of White-Chocolate - 85 gram bar
4. Dark-Chocolate filled with Nougat Cream - 100 gram bar

Milk-Chocolate filled with Crushed Vanilla Cookies

To me the chocolate itself tasted like almost all of Elite's Para milk- chocolate bars but the added vanilla cookies seemed to make the chocolate even more grainy and chalky than most of their bars. I was not impressed with this chocolate at all. 

Milk-Chocolate filled with Crushed Hazelnuts

I really liked that there was an abundance of crushed hazelnuts in this chocolate. Each bite was "chock full 'o nuts" that added a nice texture and flavor to the bar. The chocolate was not as gritty as the one with the crushed cookies but still it was a little gainy and far from a "quality" chocolate bar.

Milk-Chocolate Topped with White-Chocolate

I didn’t find anything special or exciting about this bar. It seemed like your "run of the mill" Elite white-chocolate & milk-chocolate layered bar that they tend to use on many occasions. I didn’t love it or hate it. If you like other Elite white-chocolate & milk-chocolate combos you are likely to enjoy this bar too.
As many of you who read my blog on a regular basis may know I'm a self declared "dark chocoholic" so I saved the one I was most excited about for last the;

Dark-Chocolate filled with Nougat Cream

In a way there seemed to be more of the soft & smooth nougat cream than I was anticipating. For me it kind of took away from the "pure" dark-chocolate taste I was looking for. Still I can't say it was awful, it wasn’t. The dark-chocolate was rich and chocolaty and I think the majority of the sweetness came from the soft nougat cream filling but it was far from a top quality dark chocolate bar and not something I personally would buy again.

Bottom Line: Aside from the name "Neshikolada" nothing about these "renewed" chocolate bars really "knocked my socks off" they seem to be your typical Elite chocolate bars in a smaller more dense shape and size, which I gotta say I actually prefer. Then again if these Neshikolada Chocolate Bars would have nostalgic significance to me I may be writing a very different review. If any of you do remember the chocolate bars from some 20+ years ago I would love to hear what you think of these new ones. Do they in anyway live up to your sweet memories of the original Neshikolada bar.   

85-100 gram chocolate bar 5.99 NIS

nostalgic Neshikolada

I found it interesting to read online that the same 85-100 gram Neshikolada bar cost 1.50 -2.00 Shekel back in the day. If we could maybe get Strauss (and all the other big companies) to actually listen to their customers request regarding prices and go back to those kinds of deals, maybe all the boycotts and threats of boycotts will end and I can get back to having tons of items to taste and review. 

Kosher Dairy Cholov Yisrael 

3 for 15 at Shufersal Deal

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.