Aroma Light Grain Bread Gets I.D.A Certification

Aroma Coffee Shops now have a certification from the Israel Diabetes Association stating that their Light Grain Bread is appropriate for diabetics. Each slice of the Light Grain Bread is 50 grams and has 12.81 grams of carbohydrates.

לחם קל דגנים של ארומה תו  חברה לאגודה הישראלית לסוכרת (א.י.ל)

Lachmi Techina Cookies

לחמי עוגיות טחינה ועוגיות שוקולוז

There are two new Lachmi Cookies on the market a Techina Cookie and a Chocoluz cookie. Hazelnut in Hebrew is Egoza Luz so Lachmi called this chocolate hazelnut cookie Chocoluz.

Of all store-bought brownies I've tasted here in Israel it happens to be that Lachmi's brownies is the one of the better ones I've tasted. I like very rich, chocolaty, flourless brownies best, so even though I'm not sure that Lachmi's is flourless, it's still a rich chocolaty brownie that I enjoy. Since I like one product of theirs I thought maybe I would enjoy other things they make as well. So I got a package of these new cookies to taste and review.

The techina cookies looked and sounded more unique and interesting to me so that’s the one I chose to try.

Roladin's Levivot (Nir Etzion)

לביבות רולדין

When my friend stopped by the other night with a Chanukah treat; a package of Levivot from Roladin I was excited and yet surprised. I had no idea Roladin sold levivot. There was no mention of them on Roladin's website and when I had been to Roladin to buy the Chaser doughnut I didn't see any levivot on the menu or in the takeaway counter refrigerator. Maybe not all the branches carry the levivot? I was delighted that the store she was in had them and she was thoughtful enough to pick up a package for me.

The levivot she brought me were Sweet-Potato/Carrot/Potato Levivot. She said they had a package of potato as well but she thought these Sweet-Potato/Carrot/Potato ones seemed more exciting. As much as I love traditional potato levivot I agreed with her and was happy that she picked this pack.

Ben Ami's Baked Levivot

בן עמי לביבות אפויות

As I mentioned in yesterday's Ben Ami Baked Doughnut post they also had Baked Levivot. That’s actually what made me go to Ben Ami in the first place I had seen Ben Ami's head chef interviewed on TV talking about his baked levivot and I wanted to try them. They had two baked levivot; Sweet-Potato & Thyme and Swiss Chard/Mangold Leaves & Bulgarian Cheese. I thought they sounded interesting and wanted to try them.

Ben Ami's Baked Doughnut

בן עמי סופגניה אפויה

The head Chef at Ben Ami made a conscious decision this year to try and put a "healthier" spin on the traditional Chanukah products; Sufganiyot and Levivot. I know he isn’t the first to try such an idea but I was still curious to see what he came up with here are my thoughts. 

When it came to the sufganiyot he didn’t want to take part in the "can I come up with the most original and high caloric doughnut filling" competition that Roladin and Ne'eman took part in. Instead he focused on filling his doughnuts with different homemade jams and preserves. I didn’t buy any of those but they had a nice rustic and homemade look to them.

He also prepared a baked doughnut that he filled with a touch of vanilla cream. That I did taste.

Roladin's "Chaser" Sufganiyot

רולדין

In case you didn’t get enough of sufganiyot in yesterday's review of Ne'eman's doughnuts or maybe you don’t have a Ne'eman's bakery near you, today as promised in my review of the supermarket doughnuts, I'll tell you about some of Roladin's sufganiyot.

No I'm not helping out Elie Klein with his "Dough For Donuts" campaign by eating some sufganiyot for him :) If you want to know more about Elie's charity fundraiser, check out the interview Rafi at Life in Israel blog did with him or Elie's facebook page and get all the details about Dough for Donuts, now on to my review of the Roladin sufganiyot.

Ne'eman's Sufganiyot Chanukah 5772

When I saw Ne'eman's ad for this Chanukah's line of sufganiyot some of the different flavors seemed interesting to me. Ne'eman has come a long way from their humble beginnings, back in 1944 when the founder and grandfather Rabbi Baruch Ne'eman peddled his baked goods through the streets of Jerusalem's Bucharim neighborhood in a baby carriage and sold pastries, including sufganiyot, to the locals (as you see depicted in the pretty mural-like drawing on the cool box I got when I bought the sufganiyot).

Ne'eman now has about 40 branches all over the country. Since I think many of my Israeli readers have access to Ne'eman doughnuts I decided to give them a try and post a review.

Ne'eman has 13 different doughnuts in this year's line of sufganiyot. Here's what I thought of the 5 doughnuts I tasted.

Strauss Fresh Baby Carrots & Carrot Sticks

שטראוס נשנושי גזר טרי

Update: Strauss Fresh Baby Carrots & Carrot Sticks Won a Product of the Year Awards 2013.

 
On many occasions my friends and I have mentioned how much we miss fresh, ready-to-eat baby carrots. They were always a very popular healthy and covenant snack. Oddly, among all the wonderful produce available, here in Israel, prepackaged fresh, peeled & washed baby carrots were nowhere to be found.

Oreo Cakesters

Just a short post to let all Oreo fans know that Oreo Cakesters have finally made their way to Israel. Seeing as they've been around since 2007 my guess is most of you have tasted an Oreo Cakester by now and have formed your own opinions about them.

אוראו קייקסטר 

Klik Chocolate Coated Peanut Butter Flavored Snack

קליק חטיף בוטנים

Kilk's latest chocolate covered snack fits right into what seems to be a trend at the moment for Israeli snack companies. I'm of course referring to the peanut butter and chocolate combination "trend". Just recently we had Pesek Zman's  chocolate coated peanut butter flavored wafer fingers, shush's chocolate filled "bamba"  and now Klik's chocolate coated "bamba".

I know peanut butter and chocolate combos are not new to most of the world but somehow it feels like the Israeli companies just noticed it and realized how well they work together. I for one am a huge fan of the peanut butter/chocolate combo so I was very happy to try this new peanut flavored Klik snack.

Osem's Lachmit Crackers and Metal Box

Throughout the month of December you can find a promotional double pack of Osem's Lachmit crackers that comes with a specially designed metal box which fits one packet of the Lachmit crackers perfectly.

אסם קרקר לחמית עם קופסה

Shtuzim Peach Flavor & Coupon

                                                               

Not too long ago I saw a sticker on the

Vanilla flavored Shtuzim that a

new flavor is

coming soon.

I "kept an eye open"

and then last week I noticed

the new

Peach Flavored Shtuzim

on the shelf.

שטוזים אפרסק

The Krembo Challenge

קרמבו שטואוס, ריאו ומנבו של פלדמן

When Ya'aqov over at Esser Agaroth blog mentioned his Krembo Challenge Caravel it sounded like a cool idea to me. Then when he suggested that I may want to do a comparison between different brands of Krembos I thought that would be fun and interesting. So even though I don’t have a new Krembo to tell you about, I do have a fairly detailed comparison between Rio, Feldman and Strauss's vanilla and mocha Krembos.

In a way it may actually be a good thing that there isn’t a new Krembo flavor to post about because the one time I did find a creative new Krembo to review; the sour/courage Krembo, it was so awful that I'm not at all surprised they disappeared off the shelf really quickly.

Elite's Gummifletzet Candies

עלית גומיפלצת

Elite's latest gummy candy is actually another nostalgic re-release like the Neshikolada or the Alma gums. I couldn’t find any information about the older version; like when it was popular, how long ago it disappeared from the shelf and if/how it was different to these new Gummifletzet candies. Since I personally don’t remember them I'll just tell you about these new gummies. If you remember the old version I'd love to hear about them in the comments below.

Mooi Ganache Cookies

עוגיות הגנאש של Mooi

Mooi, as I found out, doesn’t actually manufacture any of their cookies. Instead they scour Europe for what they consider to be topnotch cookies and then market them here in Israel under the Mooi name and packaging.

They now have three new Ganache cookies on the market:

Ganache Praline Hazelnut- cookies filled with hazelnut cream, covered in milk-chocolate ganache, sprinkled with sugared chopped hazelnuts

Ganache Orange- cookies filled with orange flavored cream, covered in dark-chocolate ganache, sprinkled with shredded cocoa beans

Ganache Coconut – cookies filled with coconut cream, covered in white chocolate ganache, sprinkled with coconut.

Jordans Country Crisp Dark-Chocolate Curls Cereal

ג'ורדנס דגני הבוקר קנטרי קריספ

Given that Jordans Country Crisp cereals have been around since 1855 I wasn’t going to do a full review on them. I was only going to inform you that they are now available here in Israel. Since I am not from the UK I had never tasted Jordans cereals but I assumed many of you may be familiar with them.


Of all the flavors I saw on the shelf the one that (naturally) caught my eye was the dark-chocolate flavored cereal. (I've mentioned numerous times on this blog that I LOVE bittersweet chocolate and almost anything made with good quality dark-chocolate). So when I saw that the dark-chocolate curls cereal had a green balloon on the corner that says "NEW" I thought maybe its new to my British readers too so I decided to write a full review.

Energy Shape Cereal Bars Mix-Pack

I've noticed that for some reason

Israeli companies don’t really like to make

mixed packs of their product.

Maybe it's because they make more money

 from us buying each flavor on its own? 

I don't know.

Regardless of the reason I was

pleasantly surprised to see that

 Energy Shape

has decided to put out a

mixed pack of their soft cereal bars.

אנרג'י שייף חטיפי דגנים - מיקס

Bagsie A.M. Ha'emek Pizza flavored Snack

העמק באגסי חטיף בטעם פיצה

This past summer, in the throes of the "cottage cheese boycott"/local "high cost of living protests", A.M. Haemek first started selling their Bagsie; bissli-type snacks, for 95 agurot a bag. For one reason or another I didn’t get to review them then. Now that they added a pizza flavored snack I thought it would be as good a time as any to write a post about them.

Just for a price comparison Osem's Bissli 70 gram bags sell for about 3.40 NIS. So being able to buy this Bagsie 40 gram snack bag for 95 agurot is a big difference in price. The big question is whether or not the kids would enjoy the taste of these cheaper snacks. (I should add that all the major supermarkets have a store brand Bissli-type snack for about 2.30 NIS for a 70 gram bag but I have never tasted them so I do not know how they compare to Osem's or to these Bagsie ones)

Nestlé's Fitness Dark-Chocolate Coated Cereal

נסטלה דגני בוקר פיטנס שוקולד מריר

Nestlé has added a new cereal to Fitness; one of their "healthier lines" of cereals. It’s called Fitness Dark-Chocolate. In a way I was sort of waiting for them to come up with this idea. Being the dark-chocoholic that I am I was really interested in tasting this cereal.

This new cereal is the dark-chocolate version of Fitness's milk-chocolate coated whole grain cereal flakes. As with their milk-chocolate version not all the flakes are coated in chocolate but enough of them are.

For some reason I first tasted this cereal with milk. That’s kind of out of the ordinary for me because I much prefer cereals dry; without milk, but this day I was in the mood of cereal with milk for breakfast so I thought it would be the perfect time to try this new cereal.

Kolios's Today 3% Greek Yogurt with Honey

יוגורט יווני עם דבש מחלבות סלוניקי

As a result of this past summer's "cottage cheese boycott" some changes have been made to make it easier and cheaper to import dairy products from other countries. The idea being if there are more options in the refrigerator that means more competition and therefore local dairies will have to lower their prices. In the end we the consumer benefit from having another option to choose from and hopefully fairer prices. One such new imported yogurt is from a Greek company called Kolios. It's being imported via Villi Foods for Shufersal.

Aroma's, Mega Bool's & Shufersal's Chanukah Doughnuts

At the beginning of November I was a little taken aback and slightly sad to see Chanukah doughnuts/Sufganiot were already being sold at local supermarkets. It just felt too soon. I wish stores etc. would let us live in the present for a moment and not rush the next holiday or "time of year" on us. It felt like the moment Sukkot was over they had to kind of push Chanukah on us, even though in actuality it was almost 2 months away. Given my rant, you may be wondering why then I am reviewing/comparing these doughnuts almost 3 weeks before Chanukah. Well I thought I would take "inspiration" from the Haggadah where, in a totally unrelated context, it says "יכול מראש חודש" meaning "You can begin from Rosh Chodesh", so in honor of today, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, I thought it would be an appropriate post. Plus given that the doughnuts have been in the stores for almost a month I figured it was as good a time as any to do this review.

So here is my review/comparison of Aroma's, Mega Bool's and Sufersal's doughnuts.

Carmit's Milk-Chocolate Coated Marshmallows

כרמית מרשמלו מצופה שוקולד חלב

Carmit's latest Marshmallow treat is a box of 5 individually wrapped colorful "twisted" marshmallows that are coated in a thin layer of milk chocolate.

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the press release for this product was wow that sounds perfect for s'mores I gotta check them out.

Kapulsky's Sugar-Free Cakes

קפולסקי עוגות ללא תוספת סוכר

About two months ago I read a press release about two new sugar-free Kapulsky cakes, one Cheese Cake and one Chocolate Cake. As far and wide as I looked for them I could not find them anywhere. Mega carries Kapulsky's other refrigerated cake but every time I checked Mega and Mega Bool, in more than one city, I couldn't find the sugar-free ones I had read about. Even if I didn’t have this blog I would have been really curious to taste them. I mentioned in my review of Kapulsky cookies that I have very fond memories of the old Kapulsky restaurant and after the disappointment I felt when I reviewed their cookies, I sort of want to redeem the Kapulsky name in my mind, for old time sake.

A few days ago when I was at Mega Bool I decided to jot down the customer service number, from the back of a different Kapulsky cake, and I gave them a call to find out where I can actually find the sugar-free cakes I was looking for. The next day they called me back and said the Mega Bool I was at should carry them. If I can't find it I should ask them to order it for me. That's exactly what I did. As I was standing there the manger of the department called the distributor and I was told they would have the cakes in two days time. Lo and behold two days later they were sitting in the refrigerator section of Mega Bool as promised. I took one of each and thanked the manger, whom I saw as I was walking to the checkout counter.

All that to say… I don’t usually review things that have been on the store shelves for over two months. I think by then most people who are interested in the product would have tried it and formed their own opinion. Given that I had such a hard time finding these cakes I'm assuming others did too, so I guess they haven’t really been in the stores for two months. Maybe I can still consider it a new product?

Wissotzky's Masala Chai Green Tea

ויסוצקי תה ירוק צ'אי מסאלה 

For this winter Wissotzky has completely revamped the packaging on its full line of green teas. With the new green packaging and the name GREEN you really can't miss what this line is all about. While they were at it they added three new flavors to this line; Strawberry Green Tea, Litchi Green Tea and Masala Chai Green Tea.

Ritter Sport Chocolate Tea Biscuit Milk Cream & Cocoa

ריטר ספורט ביסקוויט

As with the Kellogg's Coco Pop Choc 'n' Roll post from two weeks a ago this Ritter Sports Chocolate bar is also an imported product that has been available in other parts of the world for a few years but just now made its way to Israel.

As I mentioned in the past one of my main reasons for starting this blog was because I couldn't find English reviews for new product on our local store shelves, but I did find a detailed English review from 2009 for this Ritter Sport chocolate bar.

Mentos Power Kiss Orange-Mint

מנטוס פאוור קיס

I found a new Mentos product on the store shelve this week called Mentos Power Kiss. I think it's been available in other parts of the world for a while but just now made its way to Israel. Still I could not find any online English reviews for this product I decided to give it a try and write a review of my own.

There were three flavors to choose from Peppermint,Spearmint and Orange-Mint. Lately I've been on a real "citrus flavors" kick so I decided to try the orange-mint one.

Sunfrost Frozen Vegetables & Legume Soup Mixes

סנפרוסט סדרת מרקים לקט ירקות וציר מרק

Update: These Sunfrost Frozen Vegetables & Legume Soup Mixes Won a Product of the Year Awards 2013.

Very often when I get home from a long day the last thing I want to do is start cutting up vegetables and making a fresh pot of soup but I'd be thrilled to have a hot bowl of soup made from real vegetables and not an instant powered mix. Bags of "fast freeze" frozen vegetables and legumes for just such occasions is not a new concept but Sunfrost took it to the next level and now has a line of soup bags that has everything you need to make a "fresh" pot of soup in one bag. You get the vegetables and or legumes as well as a "stock mix"". It's not a powder stock but a "puree" of ingredients that is the appropriate "stock" for the soup in your bag.

Bagel Bagel's Dakim Dakim Cheddar Cheese Flavored Thin Pretzels

So it didn’t take long for Bagel Bagel to get on the "flat pretzel band wagon" that Osem started with their "Shtuchim" and Meir Bagel continued with their "Shtuchaleh". But Bagel Bagel took it to the next level and they put out four different flavored flat pretzels that they're calling "Dakim Dakim". Dak means thin so Dakim Dakim basically means ultra thin. The four flavors are Cheddar Cheese, Sea Salt, Sour-cream 'n Onion and Seeds 'n Garlic (poppy seeds & sesame seeds)

Spring's Soft Drinks "Countries"

ספרינג ארצות תאילנד הודו ברזילסדרת משקאות

Spring's latest line of soft drinks was given the name "Countries" because each soft drink is "representative" of a different country. The three countries are Brazil, Thailand and India.

The Brazilian fruit drink is made of Apples and Caja Fruit. The one from Thailand has Banana, Pineapple and Coconut in it and the drink representing India is made of Peaches, Passion Fruit and Jackfruit.

I was debating which one I wanted to try. Having never been to any of these three countries, none of them brought back memories of a wonderful exotic vacation I was hoping to "escape into" via a glass of a fruit drink, so I went strictly by flavors.

WTF? Cariot Cereal

And now for something you don’t normally see on a cereal box

 and just another sign that abbreviations,

made popular by texting and tweeting,

have completely invaded every aspect of our life…

take a look at the name Telma gave to its latest Cariot cereal…

WTF?

 

WTF?  תלמה כריות

Tapuchips Kids Ketchup Flavored Snack

תפוצ'יפס קידס בטעם קטשופ

Tapuchips latest addition is a Ketchup flavored Tapuchips Kids potato snack.

Tapuchips Kids is a puffed baked snack made of potatoes that is meant to "melt in your kids mouth" in the way that cheese doodles "melt" in your mouth.

The other Tapuchips Kids products seem to be very good sellers. They even won a Productof the Year Awards two years running, so it makes sense for Elite to add to this line of snacks.

Ketchup flavor is a very logical choice, given that many kids love ketchup so much. I know some kids (of all ages) who would eat almost anything you put on their plate as long as it's drenched in ketchup.

Osem "End the Snacking" Cup 'a Soup

אסם מרק נמס - סוף לנשנושים

Osem's new line of "cup 'a soups" were given the name "Sof L'neshnushim" which can sort of be translated to something like "Put an end to snacking" I kind of like this name and think it's a good name for a line of instant soups.

I saw five soup flavors on the store display; Mushroom Soup, Tomato Soup with Noodles, Corn Soup with Noodles, Pea Soup and Vegetable Soup with Croutons. They come as a double pack meaning two portions individually wrapped yet connected together. Mega Bool had them on sale; two packs for 10.00 NIS. I decided to get the Pea Soup and the Vegetable Soup with Croutons. Had I seen a "chicken soup" option I would have chosen that, I think they do have one in this line of soups but I didn’t see it in the store I was in.

Elite's Peanut Butter flavored Pesek Zman

פסק זמן חמאת בוטנים

I noticed three new (limited edition) Pesek Zman chocolate wafer finger bars on the candy shelf and could not help but try one. The three new flavors are Cappuccino Truffles and Peanut Butter.

I've mentioned in the past that I'm not a huge coffee flavor fan/coffee drinker so the cappuccino one didn't sound so exciting to me.

Lipton's Pyramid Jasmine Green Tea

Now that autumn has officially begun and winter is just around the corner I started noticing a few more "wintery" products in the stores like a new Osem "cup 'a soup" (that I plan on reviewing soon) and some new teas. Today I'll review one of the teas, it's from a line of flavored Lipton Pyramid Teas.

I think I saw white teas and black teas in this Lipton Pyramid line but what actually caught my eye was the green tea. I may have mentioned in a past review that I'm not a coffee drinker but green tea is my hot drink of choice.

Elite's "Chocolate Para" Kids Cake + Coupon

עלית עוגות שוקולד פרה לילדים

As I have mentioned in past reviews of Osem and Elite cakes I'm not a fan of mass-produced cakes. If I can't have something home baked I'd much rather get something fresh from the bakery. So when I read the press release for these new Elite Chocolate Para Cakes I thought I was going to skip them.

Then as I was standing in the supermarket trying to decide if I should spend the 14.90 NIS, and possibly be disappointed, I got a call from a good friend who told me that she and her husband where here in Israel for a few days and before they get back on the plane this afternoon she'd like to pop by for a quick hello. I was really excited to see her. I knew I wouldn’t make it to the bakery in time so I decided to get this cake. As an extra bonus I'd be able to give you two more opinions, other than my own, in this blog post.