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.

 

Of the 6 (down from their usual 8) options most of their Oznei Haman fillings are flavors they had in past years, including the more traditional Oznei Haman like; Poppy Seeds & Date (Masala=mixture of spices). Alongside flavors that have become “the norm” in the past few years for almost every bakery; Chocolate & Chalva. Yes they go the extra mile and make it a Double Belgian Chocolate as well as adding Belgian Chocolate Chips to their Chalavah, but I can’t consider this new or innovative; seeing as they are not the only ones to do these flavors, but more importantly, they did this last year as well.

The fifth flavor they repeated was the Caramelized Walnut with a touch of Orange and Vanilla. Granted that is a creative twist on the more common nut filled Oznei Haman, but like I said, it’s not new for Roladin- I wrote about it in my 2011 Roladin Oznei Haman review.  

The only really new flavor they have this year is A Plum & Silan Jam filling. Not being the biggest fan of fruit flavored fillings I wasn’t the right person to taste and review this Ozen Haman. My friend who tried it said “it was OK but far from my favorite treat”. He liked the richness of the texture and enjoyed how fruity it was but he thought the date syrup made it a little too sweet so he didn’t love the overall flavor of the filling. He added “this was not the Ozen Haman I would have chosen had I been able to pick just one; then again it was far from awful”.

He didn’t think the filling worked well with the cookie part of the Ozen Haman. Since I tasted the Poppy Seed one, I can say we both agreed the cookie was way too buttery/fatty for our taste. I did like that the cookie part was not too sweet so it left room for the sweetness of the filling but as a whole I did not enjoy the cookie. Looking back to my 2011 review, back then I also thought the cookie was too buttery and I didn’t care for it all that much. I know it’s called a butter cookie for a good reason, and I guess enough people enjoy it because they seem to continue using it, just I’m not a fan of it. 

I will add that I enjoyed the poppy seed filling. It was rich and tasty, sweet but not at all too sweet. I liked that they were generous with the amount of filling the Ozen Haman had in it. All in all; it was a nice poppy seed filling but nothing special or unique about it. 

Bottom Line: In my opinion there are better and less expensive Oznei Haman available here in many bakeries and supermarkets but if you like a very buttery cookie and one of the flavors they are offering “tickles your fancy” I’d say go for it. These Roladin Oznei Haman are not bad, just “not my cup of tea”.

Price: 9.90NIS for 100 grams;the Oznie Haman I got came to about 3.71 NIS each