Loacker's Rose Of The Dolomites

After recently reviewing the Loacker Snack Pack Wafers I was sort of pleasantly surprised to read about another new Loacker product called "Rose Of The Dolomites". At this point any and all Loacker products interest me and I look forward to trying them, this was no exception.

לואקר ורד הדולומיטים

Being that Loacker's Rose Of The Dolomites are more of a Chocolate Bon-Bon than a wafer it makes perfect sense that they would début them now; just in time for Rosh Hashanah. So many people will be looking for a small gift to bring along to the holiday meal as a way to wish their host a Happy Sweet New Year.



Source

When I opened the individually wrapped Loacker Rose Of The Dolomites I didn't think it looked like a "classic" rose. A quick Google search taught me about the roses that grow in the Dolomites mountain range of north-eastern Italy (and the ancient legend surrounding them). The photos I found of these Dolomites Roses do resemble the Loacker treats.      

I thought the milk-chocolate coated roses were luxurious and tasty. They're filled with a wonderfully creamy hazelnut filling that has a generous amount of roasted hazelnut bits mixed in. I especially liked the very thin wafer at the bottom of the rose which added just a touch of crispiness. It’s a wonderful extra texture that I really enjoyed.

This delicate and elegant chocolate hazelnut treat absolutely lived up to the quality that Loacker is known for.

A few days after I tasted the milk-chocolate coated roses I found out that they are also available in a 60% cocoa solids dark-chocolate coating version. Aside from the dark-chocolate coating everything else about these bon-bons are exactly the same as the original. Given that I much prefer dark-chocolate to milk-chocolate I was thrilled to try them as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed the rich, deep, quality dark-chocolate coating on these Loacker Rose Of The Dolomites treats. I liked the stark contrast between the richer dark-chocolate and the lighter hazelnut cream filling. Again the roasted hazelnuts and thin wafer added the perfect amount of texture. For me the dark-chocolate coating took this bon-bon to the next level.      

Loacker's Rose Of The Dolomites are all natural. They have no artificial food coloring, no trans fats and no preservatives. 

Bottom Line: Whether you're looking for chocolates or flowers to take along as a small hostess gift this coming Rosh Hashanah, you kind of get the best of both options with either of these Loacker Rose Of The Dolomites bon-bons, since they are actually a pretty flower and a delicious chocolate treat all in one :)   

Box of 14 individually wrapped chocolates- 175 grams in all - 25.00 NIS

Kosher Dairy

חלבית (לאוכלי אבקת חלב נוכרי) (ללא חשש חדש, אפיית ישראל, בהשגחת הרב ישועה חדאד, מילאנו) ובאישור הרבנות הראשית לישראל

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

This weeks Haveil Havalim Blog Carnival is now up on  

Just Call Me Chaviva's Blog

Palmolive Pomegranate Dish Soap

As I mentioned earlier in the week in my review of

St.Dalfour's Raspberry & Pomegranate Fruit Spread

Rosh Hashanah is less than a month away

I'm seeing more and more press releases for

Rosh Hashanah related products

Some are not even food items

for example

Palmolive

has a new limited edition

Pomegranate Dish Soap

פלמוליב סבון כלים רימון - לראש השנה 

I haven’t tried it but I'm guessing

that it may have some benefits for your skin

given what I mentioned a while back in my review of

Shavit's Pomegranate-Seed Oil Natural Shampoo

that pomegranate is very popular in

anti ageing toiletries, cosmetics and skin care products

Then again this

Palmolive Pomegranate Dish Soap

may just be a gimmick and

have no benefits to your

skin or your dishes at all

Still, it may be nice to have and use over the

 

Rosh Hashanah holiday and all the dishes

the big family meals produce



A friend who tried this new

 Palmolive

Pomegranate Dish Soap

 told me she really

 loved the aroma that it left in her
 
kitchen after she finished washing

all her dishes

she thought it

was extremely unique and pleasant  

 

I saw it "on sale" in a few stores for 9.00 NIS this week

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

LU's Granenbiscuits Milk-Chocolate Coated Time Out Cookies

In my review of Milka's Choco Moo Cookies I mentioned how they reminded me of Chocolate Digestive Biscuits. Well, these new Time Out Cookies are actually much closer to the original chocolate coated digestive biscuits in that they are not made with white flour instead they have 17% whole wheat flour and 30% oatmeal.

עוגיות טיים אאוט

Each Time Out Cookie is 79 calories, which is by no means a low calorie cookie. Still, being that it's made of whole wheat and oatmeal it's somewhat more healthy and you may feel a bit more "satisfied" after eating these Time Out Cookies than you would feel after eating a cookie made of white flour. In that way they are better for you than the Milka cookies. On the other hand, these Time Out Cookies also have plenty of sugar and a bottom layer of milk-chocolate. I'm guessing that’s what hikes up the calorie count. 

The press release claimed these cookies are "homemade style". I completely disagree. Although I thought they were OK, in my opinion they seemed very "commercial" and not "homemade style" in any way.

  

These Time Out Cookies are thinner than the Milka Choco Moo Cookies. I found them to be very crispy with a buttery taste; even though they don’t actually have butter in them, instead they are made with vegetable oil, so maybe what I really mean is that they were somewhat "oily".

The milk-chocolate layer on the bottom is OK but, I much preferred the milk-chocolate on Milka's cookie.

I liked that each 2 cookies are "individually" wrapped; it makes it very convenient to take them as a snack when you're on the go. You also get the extra benefit of protecting the rest of the box from going stale, always a good thing in my book. 

Bottom Line: for a whole wheat and oatmeal mass produced cookie, I thought these Time Out Cookies were OK. I think there are people that will really enjoy them. I personally didn’t love them or hate them. I do think the fact that they are made with whole wheat and oatmeal is a good thing but they are still 158 calories per packet.

195 gram Box – 6 packets of 2 cookies - 11.90 NIS

Kosher Dairy triangle K D

לאוכלי אבקת חלב נוכרי, אפייה ישראל, ללא חשש חדש, השגחת הרב אריה רלב"ג ארה"ב ובאישור הרבנות הראשית לישראל

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

Carmit Ego's Dark-Chocolate Coated Pretzels & Milk-Chocolate Coated Grissini

A few months before I started this blog Carmit, under their Ego line of products, was the first (and as far as I know still the only ones) to make a line of chocolate coated pretzels here in Israel. Their first two products were milk-chocolate coated pretzels and white-chocolate covered pretzels. Being the dark-chocolate fan that I am I was waiting and hoping that they will expand the line to include a bittersweet-chocolate pretzel as well. Low and behold, the other day I found just that; dark-chocolate coated pretzels, on the store shelf, along with milk-chocolate coated mini grissini (mini breadsticks)

          כרמית אגו בייגלה מצופה שוקולד מריר וגריסיני מצופה שוקולד חלב

A few days later I saw a press release about the new products that also mentioned a new chocolate coated cookie but I didn’t see that in the supermarket. If I find/taste the cookie I will either add an update to this post or, if I think it warrants it, I will give it its own review in a separate post.

I got my first disappointment when I opened the package to find that all the chocolate coated pretzels must have melted and then "re-hardened" to form a large lumped together mess. The chocolate had obvious sighs of chocolate bloom (whitish spots on dark chocolate). The blooming indicates that sugar and/or fat have separated due to poor storage. At some point the chocolate underwent a change in temperature, causing the chocolate to soften and re-harden. Although that's not an indication that the chocolate has gone bad, it still makes the chocolate and in this case, the coated pretzels, very unappealing to me.

As I mentioned in my reviews of Loacker's Wafer Snacks and Lindt's Double Milk Chocolate Bar, summer in Israel is simply the wrong time of the year to début anything chocolate or chocolate coated. I think Carmit should have waited just a few more months to release these chocolate coated pretzels. Or taken a cue from Elite's summer/refrigerator chocolate and made a product that can or should be refrigerated.

My second disappointment was with the lack of salt on the pretzels. If they are going for the sweet/salty trend, I thought they needed just a touch more salt to give the proper sweet to salty contrast.  

Finally, I was slightly disappointed, yet not surprised, when I realized that the dark-chocolate coating was a dairy dark-chocolate. I guess they add dairy to the chocolate because they think it needs it to improve the taste, but there are high quality dark chocolates on the market which are non-dairy that they could have used. Then again nothing about the chocolate coating on any of these Ego products resembles a high quality chocolate. So what did I expect from the dark-chocolate version?

I don’t have much to add about the Milk-Chocolate Coated Grissini other than the fact that I found them crispy yet very bland. I thought they needed a flavor of some sort or at least a richer/better quality chocolate coating.

Bottom Line :I was fairly disappointed with both these products. I'd say the Dark-Chocolate Coated Pretzels needed a bit more salt and the Milk-Chocolate Coated Grissini could have used some sort of flavor as well. In my opinion, they both needed a better quality chocolate. Lastly, I thought it was a mistake to début them during the hot Israeli summer.

120 gram bag 9.99 NIS

Kosher Dairy Badatz

 Update: Winner of 2012 Product of the Year Award Israel

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

St. Dalfour's Raspberry & Pomegranate Jam

With Rosh Hashanah less than a month away I'm starting to see many press releases for Rosh Hashanah related products. Many of them are pomegranate* items .

One such Pomegranate Rosh Hashanah product is St. Dalfour's Raspberry & Pomegranate Jam. I really like St. Dalfour's Four Fruit Jam and was very interested to taste this new flavor.

Well, I don’t really think I should be calling it a jam maybe I should call it a fruit spread. What sets St. Dalfour's "jams" apart from others, and makes it my favorite is; firstly, they are made of 100% fruit. Jams, as far as I read on line, are usually made with about 35% fruit and confitures have a minimum of 45% fruit, so these St. Dalfour spreads are really quite different, and much healthier, given that they have the highest fruit count possible; 100%!

Secondly, St. Daldour doesn't add any sugar to their jam/fruit spreads. They are all naturally sweet from the fruit themselves. I really like that. I should add that St. Daldour doesn't either add any artificial food coloring or preservatives, so basically you're getting a spreadable fruit. I find them really tasty and enjoyable.

This new flavor was no exception. I liked the Raspberry & Pomegranate Fruit Spread. At first I can't say I noticed a strong pomegranate flavor. I thought the raspberry was much more dominant. Not that I have a problem with that, seeing as I really enjoy raspberries. I'm just saying that when I first tasted the spread on Challah I actually forgot it even had pomegranate in it. When I tasted it alone, without bread, I did notice the pomegranate flavor but it was more of a "secondary note", it was there, just not the main flavor of this spread.

Bottom Line: Although I didn’t think pomegranate was the leading flavor in this St. Dalfour Raspberry & Pomegranate fruit spread I still think it was tasty and enjoyable. I absolutely plan on spreading it on Challah many times over the Rosh Hashanah Holiday (and beyond).

* Pomegranate is one of the symbolic fruits we eat on Rosh Hashanah. In the Bible, the Land of Israel is praised for its pomegranates. It is also said that each pomegranate contains 613 seeds just as there are 613 mitzvot, So a reason given for eating pomegranates on Rosh Hashanah is that we wish that our good deeds in the ensuing year will be as plentiful as the seeds of the pomegranate. (source)

284 gram container 14.90-19.00 NIS (right now 2 St. Dalfour Spreads for 30 NIS at Mega Bul and ShuferSal ,possibly in other stores as well)

Kosher Parve Chatam Sofer

סנט דלפור רימונים ופטל - בהשגחת חתם סופר בני ברק ובאישור הרבנות לישראל

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

This Weeks Haveil Havalim blog carnival

 is now up on Esser Agaroth's Blog 

Bazooka Cola Flavored and Strawberry Flavored Gum

Bazooka has two new gums on the market. One is Cola Flavored Gum and the other is Strawberry Flavored Gum.

מסטיק בזוקה בטעם קולה ותות 

Cola Flavored Bazooka Gum
I was so pleasantly surprised that I had enjoyed Chupa Chups Cola Flavored Magic Powder Lollipop that I was sure I would also like this new Bazooka Cola Flavored Gum. I didn’t hesitate and popped one in my mouth. HUGE mistake!!! Oh my goodness I thought it was AWFUL!

When I first put it in my mouth, before I even chewed the gum, I still thought I would like it. The gum seemed to have a slight tanginess to it, but after the first "bite" the so called "cola flavor" kicked in and I had to get it out of my mouth really fast!

I can't really tell you very much more about this Bazooka Cola Flavored gum. I don’t even know if it tasted anything like cola. I just know I could not stand the taste. I went straight to brush my teeth so I can get the horrible flavor completely washed out of my mouth as fast as possible.

Bottom Line: I couldn't handle the taste of this Cola Flavored Bazooka Gum. The only thing I enjoyed about this Bazooka gum was the "Did You Know Fact" printed on the wrapper, under the Bazooka Joe cartoon. So did you know "that an office chair travels approximately 13 kilometers a year?" 

Strawberry Flavored Bazooka Gum

After my experience with the Cola Flavored Bazooka Gum I was a little worried about tasting the Strawberry Flavored Bazooka Gum. I actually waited a few weeks until I had the "guts" to taste it. In comparison it actually wasn't all that bad.

I did notice a strawberry flavor but it wasn’t one of the most overpowering strawberry flavors I've tasted in a gum before.

The Strawberry Bazooka Flavored Gum was fine. The flavor was sweet but not "unbearably sweet", like I hate in many fruit flavored gum.

This gum is by no means "long lasting" after just a few moments of chewing and making bubbles the flavor was all gone.

Like the Hubba Bubba Gum I reviewed a few weeks ago, the size and shape of these new Bazooka Gums are very conducive to popping big fun bubbles.

Bottom Line: The Strawberry Flavored Bazooka Gum was OK. I didn’t hate it like I hated the Cola Flavor one but I didn’t love it either. I think there are better fruit flavored gums available on the marker here. If you really want a Bazooka Gum I would say stay stick to the original Bubble Gum Flavored Bazooka. Then again it's been YEARS since I tasted that and I don’t know what I would think of it now.

Both of these Bazooka Gums have no artificial food coloring.

Pack of 5 pieces (6 grams each) - 2.90 NIS

Kosher OU and Rabbinate Nazareth-Illit

       

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

Loacker Milk & Cereals and Choco & Nuts Wafer Snacks

You may know from my recent review of Loacker's Quadratini Vanilla Wafers that I'm a "fan" of Loacker's wafers so when I saw these new Loacker Milk & Cereals and Choco & Nuts Wafer Snacks I was excited to try them.

חטיפים אישיים לואקר

This new line of wafer snacks comes in three flavors;

1. Choco & Coco; milk-chocolate coated wafer filled with coconut cream and topped with coconut flakes.
2. Milk & Cereal; milk-chocolate coated wafer filled with milk cream topped with wheat-germ crispies
3. Choco & Nuts; milk-chocolate coated wafer filled with chocolate cream topped with hazelnut pieces

Rami Levi had them on sale the other week; one for 10.99 NIS but two for 17.00 NIS. Not being a huge fan of coconut I skipped that one and got the other two flavors. They come in a pack of four; each wafer is 22-26 grams.

The wafer part of both snacks was perfect, thin and crispy, just what I have come to expect from a Loacker product.

Not surprisingly the milk-chocolate coating on both wafers was completely soft and melted. Even thought today is September 1^st it's still hot enough here in Israel to make a big melted mess of chocolate coated wafers. Although they were melted I still really enjoyed it. The milk-chocolate on each wafer was tasty, rich and creamy.

I could absolutely taste the milk cream in the filling of the Milk & Cereal wafer. I thought it was a nice smooth and light contrast to the richer milk-chocolate coating.

The wheat-germ crispies on top tasted very much like Rice-Krispie cereal to me. I thought they added an interesting and different texture to the snack. Still, I would have been OK without them as well; the wheat-germ crispies were not my favorite part of the snack.

The chocolate cream in the Choco & Nuts wafer tasted like a richer dark-chocolate to me. Being the dark chocolate addict that I am I enjoyed this wafer even more than the Milk & Cereal wafer. Again I could have done without the added chopped hazelnuts but, I do have to admit, that like with the crispy wheat-germ the chopped hazelnuts did add texture and hazelnut flavor to this treat.  I'm sure many people will enjoy that.

Bottom Line :Loacker Milk & Cereal and Choco & Nut Wafer Snacks live up to the quality and taste I have come to expect from Loacker wafers. I may just wait until the weather cools off so the milk-chocolate coating will not be melted, before I treat myself to anymore of their rich dark-chocolate tasting Choco & Nuts wafer, seeing as that’s the one I liked best.

Pack of four 22-26 gram wafer pack 10.99 NIS

Kosher Dairy Chief Rabbinate Of Israel  

כשרות חלבית (לאוכלי אבקת חלב נוכרי), ללא חשש חדש, אפיית ישראל, בהשגחת הרב ישועה חדאד, מילאנו ובאישור הרבנות הראשית לישראל.
 

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