Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Tivall Broccoli Muffins




מאפינס טבעול
Tivall; known for ready-made food items like Schnitzel and vegetable patties among other; foods you can just pull out of the freezer and reheat, to have a fairly healthy meal in a matter of minutes, have added vegetable “muffins” to their ever growing lines of products.

These savory muffins are available in four flavors; Corn, Tomato ‘n Olive, Onion ‘n Leek and Broccoli. I chose to try the Broccoli one.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Strauss Magnum Black Ice Cream Bar


מגנום גלידה טריפל, בלאק ופינק
If I understood the press release correctly, a few months ago Magnum Strauss released an ice cream bar they called Triple. Then not too long ago, they added two more Magnum bars to the Summer 2013 line; one is called Black and the second Pink.

The Magnum Triple sounds very elaborate since it has a combination of white, milk and dark chocolate all in one ice cream bar. It’s a chocolate ice cream with a ripple of dark chocolate then covered in both white and milk chocolate.

Magnum Black Espresso is a Vanilla Ice Cream with a coffee swirl coated in dark chocolate. 

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Strauss Energy Bite-Size "Rice" Cakes


פריכיות ביס של אנרג'י מקבוצת שטראוס
Strauss Energy who I know best for their cereal bars have a new product on the market. They came out with a line of bite size puffed “rice” cakes. I put the word rice in parentheses because they are not made solely of rice, they are technically 5 grain cakes. Along with the rice flour they also have whole corn flour, whole oats flour, wheat and barley. Since I wasn’t sure what the right word to describe these “puffed 5 grain cakes” was; I thought most people call them rice cakes, even if they are not made of only of rice.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Yotvata Choco Chocolate Milk and Vanilla Milk Drinks


משקאות קיץ של יטבתה שוקו שוקולדי וונילה
Yotvata Dairy, which is half owned by Strauss Dairy, came out with two new milk drinks for the summer of 2013. One they are calling Choco Chocolate and the second they called Vanilla. I tasted both flavors.
 
First I drank the Yotvata Choco Chocolate Milk drink which I got in the smaller 250 ml bottle (I did not see that size bottle for the vanilla drink I only found it in the 1 liter bottle). The reason they called it Choco Chocolate milk is because they supposedly added real chocolate to the drink and not just cocoa powder; or whatever they use to normally make chocolate milk. 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Product Of the Year Community Event 2013 אירוע קהילת מוצר השנה 2013



מוצר השנה 2013
Last week was the 2013 Product Of The Year community event. Like last year, I had the privilege of being invited. As a blogger who writes about new products on the local market I was thrilled to be invited. Since my blog is mainly about food and drinks I will focus most of this post talking about the winners in those categories but I will touch on other products as well

 If you want to see a full list of all this year’s Product Of The Year winners  here is a link to the page where you can see all the winning products 

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Nature Valley Thins


I'm a fan of many Nature Valley Products, including the THE OATS 'N DARK CHOCOLATE CRUNCHY GRANOLA BAR and the Nature Valley's Dark Chocolate Soft Granola Bars so when I saw these Nature Valley Thins on the shelf I really wanted to try them. They are available here in Israel in two flavors; Whole Oates and Whole Oats with Peanuts. Both have a layer of chocolate at the bottom. I bought both of them to try.



Monday, May 20, 2013

Grape Flavor Fuze Ice Tea


Fuze Tea Israel, which is owned by Coca-Cola Israel, has a new ice tea flavor on the local market. Actually I think this is their first new flavor since they changed their name from Nestea to Fuze Tea last May (as I wrote about in this blog post). Since Fuze Tea was the old Nestea all the flavors that the old Nestea had are available under the Fuze Tea name but now that they seem to be settled into their new name they are ready to come out with a new flavor.

פיוז תה ענבים


Just by the way from what I gather, Fuze Tea Israel is not the same as Fuze Tea in other parts of the world. Here in Israel it really is the same exact product as the old Nestea was. They taste exactly the same whereas the new Nestea here in Israel tastes very different to me and I did not enjoy it. On the other hand, I have read and heard from friends in the USA and Europe that they hate Fuze Tea and it tastes nothing like the old Nestea.  So my conclusion is that Fuze Tea outside of Israel must not be the same product as the Fuze Tea made by Coca-Cola Israel and sold here.

I can’t say I ever remember tasting a grape flavored ice tea so I was curious to taste it. I thought it was refreshing and somewhat enjoyable but ever so slightly too sweet for me. Then again, I don’t really enjoy things that are even a drop too sweet. Since I think I’m not really the right person to go by regarding sweetness in many cases, I gave a glass of the Grape Fuze Ice Tea to my friend as well. She did not think it was too sweet whatsoever.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Ben & Jerry's Banana Peanut Butter Greek Frozen Yogurt


The day before Shavuot I was in the supermarket picking up some last minute items for the Holiday and I noticed they had a new line of Ben & Jerry's Greek Frozen Yogurts. There were three flavor options to choose from; Blueberry Vanilla Graham, Banana Peanut Butter and (I think) Strawberry Short Cake.

בן & ג'ריס יוגורט יווני חמאת בוטנים ובננה
Since dairy products are “the name of the game” on Shavuot I thought it would be the perfect time to try one. Then I saw the 2 for 40NIS sign so I picked two. I got the Banana Peanut Butter and the Blueberry Vanilla Graham.

The Banana Peanut Butter combo instantly made me think of Elvis’s famous sandwich, which always seemed like an odd combination to me. Still, it kind of intrigued me and, as I mentioned in my review of Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream, I usually enjoy when they mix sweet and salty flavors but the banana kind of worried me. As a whole I normally don’t like banana flavor in products. I very much enjoy fresh bananas but I don’t like when bananas are used as a flavor, so I was skeptical about this frozen Greek yogurt flavor .

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Milky Chocolate Pudding with Crunchy Wafers


מילקי וופל
In their continuous effort to come up with something NEW and DIFFERENT Milky Strauss has a new gimmick on the market just in time for Shavuot; the “Dairy Holiday”. It’s called Milky Wafer Crunch. With each Milky chocolate pudding topped with their signature whipped cream you get 2 (individually wrapped) triangle shaped crunchy wafers.

The idea is similar to the Milky's Whip Cream & Chocolate Spoons, I wrote about in April of 2012. There you had a chocolate spoon to use as a utensil to eat the whip cream, this time you are meant to use the wafer to scoop up the pudding and whip cream and then eat the wafer at the end.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Skittles


This isn’t a review it’s just an FYI … 

Skittles are now widely available here in Israel. Until now I saw them, on occasion, in some select mini markets that specialize in imported products but last week I saw 2 flavors on a huge stand in Mega Bul. Then yesterday I read a press release stating that Wrigley’s has officially bought Skittles to Israel.

The flavors they had were Fruits and Crazy Sour Skittles.

סוכריות סקיטלס


Monday, May 6, 2013

Pizza Toast Maadanot



מעדנות פיצה טוסט

Tnuva has a new product in their Maadanot frozen pizza category. They are calling it Pizza Toast. This frozen pizza is meant to be warmed up/baked in a pop-up toaster for 6-8 minutes on high heat. Kind of like a pizza “Pop Tart”. The outside crust/dough is meant to get toasted and at the same time as it warms up the pizza sauce and cheese inside, to give you a ready-to-eat pizza product in a matter of minutes.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream



פינט באטר קאפ גלידת בן וג'רי
A few months ago Ben & Jerry’s-Israel asked their Facebook fans which of 5 specific flavors; that had been off the local market, should be reintroduced. Peanut Butter Cup won with 35% of the vote. Creme Brulee got 23%, Cherry Garcia 16%, Banana Split 15% and Oatmeal Cookie got 11% of the vote.


I was happy that Peanut Butter Cup “won”. I really love peanut butter cups and, as I think I mentioned in my review of Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream, I really enjoy the combo of sweet and slightly salty flavors so adding chocolate covered peanut butter to an ice cream is a real win-win in my book.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Must Sugar-Free “Desserts” Lemon Meringue Pie Flavor Gum

I was never a super huge fan of gum. I always had very specific likes and dislikes when it came to chewing/bubble gum but for some reason over the past few months I don’t care for gum at all. I can’t remember when the last time I put a piece of gum in my mouth, if it wasn’t for the purposes of trying something new and possibly writing a blog post about it. There have even been a few new gums on the market that I didn’t review because I wasn’t interested in trying them. Then when I was at a rest stop in the Negev and I saw this Lemon Meringue Pie flavored Must Sugar Free Gum and I was intrigued I ”had to try it”. At that point I had not seen a press release about this “desserts” line of Must gums and I had not noticed them in any of the supermarkets I usually shop in so I got a pack to try, by now I think they are available all over the country and I even saw an ad for them on TV last night. 
מסטיק ללא סוכר בטעמי קינוחים: פאי לימון ושטרודל תפוחים וקינמון

The other flavor in this Must “Desserts” line is Apple Cinnamon Strudel. I would have gotten that too because I used to really like a good cinnamon gum but the apple part put me off. I really do not enjoy sweet fruit flavored gums and I was afraid the apple part would be dominant and too sweet for my liking so I skipped that option.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Tnuva Chocolate Milk 30% Less Sugar + Coupon


שוקו תנובה
30% פחות תוספת סוכר

Tnuva has a new Chocolate Milk on the market. This Shoko line of chocolate milk is made of 2% low fat low lactose milk, it's low Sodium, and contains 96% milk (leaving very little place for many other ingredients like water; which is added to say Yotvata's popular chocolate milk) but most important to Tnuva, it has 30% less sugar than their UHT Long Life Chocolate Milk.

I was wondering why they made a point to say it was 30% less compared to that specific product of theirs, then I remembered that a while back Tnuva lowered the sugar levels in their “Shock” line of chocolate milk by 20% so they had to point out that is this 30% less sugar than in the UHT chocolate milk and not 30% less than their Shock chocolate milks.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Osem's Flat Pretzel Kosher for Pesach



אסם בייגלה שטוחים כשר לפסח
A few weeks ago, when I saw the press release for Osem’s Kosher For Pesach Flat Pretzels I was skeptical about them but I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I wanted to try them. I also wanted to send a bag to my friend in the USA. Although she does not eat Kitniyot on Pesach I was sure she would enjoy trying them. Plus I always appreciate her take on new products and I like to have more than one opinion if I write a review. 

There are other snacks like Bissli, Apropo, potato chips, popcorn etc that have a Kosher for Pesach option and have been available here in past years as well as this year. But as I’ve mentioned many times, in past blog posts, pretzels are my “go-to” favorite salty snacks. I don’t love the fried/oily snacks as much as the baked pretzel-style snacks. Having a good pretzel option for Pesach would be wonderful for me. That’s if it tasted decent in my opinion, i.e. not like Matzo or potato starch. I’ve also mentioned in the past that I dislike the taste and texture of potato starch. As far as Matzo, if it tastes like Matzo I may as well just eat Matzo. When I saw that it was made mainly of corn flour, rice flour and soy flour I was optimistic and thought it may have potential.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Telma’s Kosher for Pesach Cornflakes


תלמה קורנפלקס כשר לפסח

Since I've reviewed many Kosher for Pesach products in past years (link to last years roundup here) I thought I had already written about Telma’s Kosher for Pesach Cornflakes, but when I looked back I realized I never did review this cereal. I only blogged about Nougat Filled Cereals for Pesach. I did mention the Telma Cornflakes when I reviewed Klik’s Chocolate Covered Cereal -Kosher For Pesach . Maybe that’s what I was remembering. I’m guessing that since I found those chocolate covered cornflakes to be kind of “stale” I didn’t think I would enjoy the Telma Kosher for Pesach Cornflakes to start with, so I must have skipped them in past years.


Friday, March 1, 2013

Strauss Milky White-Chocolate Pudding


Strauss added a new flavor to their ever-so-popular Milky pudding line. This time they went for a white-chocolate flavor.

מילקי שוקולד לבן
As with other Milky products this white-chocolate pudding also comes topped with their signature whipped-cream (which by the way, I don't love because I find it leaves an unpleasant shortening-like film in my mouth, but that’s nothing new.) If you like their whip-cream in any of their other 10 Milky puddings you will like it this time as well.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Oznei Haman Roladin 2013


אוזני המן רולדין

Roladin kind of surprised me this Purim in that they didn’t “go crazy”, as they normally do, in coming up with a bunch of ultra new and creative Oznei Haman.

Last year they did repeat some of the flavors they had come up with the year before, but together with a few new ones they became creative with the cookie dough and added things like coconut, coco bits, poppy seeds and cranberries to the cookie itself. 

This year all the cookies are the same butter cookie and have no added touches. I wonder if the Oznei Haman didn’t/don’t sell that well and therefore it’s not worth it to them to be as innovative as they are with their Chanukah Doughnuts or if they just could not be bothered this year, I don’t know.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Elite’s Kif-Kef Bar with Popping Candies


כיף כף סוכריות קופצות
Elite has 2 new products in their Kif-Kef line of products*. 

Kif-Kef wafer fingers are Elite’s takeoff on Nestlé’s popular Kit-Kat chocolate covered wafer bar. The new product from the Kif-Kef line that I will be writing about today is the Popping Candies Bar.

I’ve said many times in my blog posts that I really enjoy a good chocolate covered wafer. I recently wrote about the new Milka's Choco Wafers that were a real win for me. In my opinion Kif-Kef bars are not what I consider a good quality wafer or chocolate bar but I was curious to see if/how the addition of popping candies would affect the wafer finger bar.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Roladin Cupcakes



קולקציית קאפקייקס אישיות ברולדין
The other day I was walking by a Roladin and noticed cupcakes in the display window. I don’t go to Roladin that often so I was not sure if it was a new line for them or something that I just had not noticed before. I asked the sales person and he said they are new, so I thought I would treat myself and report back to you guys.

There were a few options to choose from but surprisingly the guy serving me had no idea what flavors each one was. I was even more surprised they did not have a “flyer” detailing each option; as Roladin normally has when they come out with a new or seasonal line. Since the server was of no help I chose the one that looked the most interesting and elaborate to me at that moment. It was a chocolate cupcake topped with a mountain of white cream covered in chocolate sauce/syrup then sprinkled with mini marshmallows.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Milka Choco Wafer


You may know from reading past blog posts of mine that  a) I really enjoy a good wafer and b)for the most part, I am a fan of Milka product (including their cookies and popcorn chocolate), so when I saw these Milka Choco Wafers in the local store I could not help but try them.


I was really happy to see that each of the 6 round milk-chocolate covered wafer where individually wrapped in foil to help prevent them from going stale once you opened the package. That is always a plus in my book. 

Monday, February 11, 2013

Tivall Pizza Flavored Potato “Snack” + Coupon


חטיפי תפוחי אדמה ברוטב פיצה של טבעול
Well for starters I'd say these triangle shaped potato bites are more like a side dish of sorts than a “snack”. They kind of reminded me of something between a larger smoother “Tater Tot” or a smaller Potato Levivah. Tivall is marketing them as a snack of sorts geared toward kids/teens to grab when they get home from school. They are supposedly pizza flavored (no cheese- they are parve) and therefore shaped like a very mini slice of pizza.


I would not suggest heating them in the microwave because then they will not be nice and crunchy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside, as they are intended to be.