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.

Three Yogurts I Recently Tasted + Coupons

source

As I’ve mentioned in the past yogurt is a category here; in the local Israeli market, that is constantly coming out with “new” products. I probably could write a review on a new yogurt or pudding a few times a week but frankly I don’t care to. I think it’s a little ridiculous that they take off the shelves successful products/flavors just to come up with a so-called new flavor or new product that is likely to be gone as soon as you start getting used to it and enjoying it. So instead of writing a few separate reviews I will do a roundup of three yogurts I recently tasted and tell you in short what I thought of them.

PriGat’s "Retro" Blood Orange Juice

פריגת תפוז אדום בטעם של פעם

A post about this “Retro” PriGat Blood Orange Juice was scheduled to get posted here in May but for one reason or another that didn’t happen. I’m sorry about that. The bottle doesn’t say that it's a limited edition product but sill I'm not 100% sure if this juice is still available, so I wasn’t sure if I should even bother posting this now but I figured in case it is available and someone was wondering about it I may as well publish a quick review of this juice.

In October I wrote about PriGat's Fresh Squeezed Red Orange Juice and how blood-oranges were very popular here in Israel some 63 years ago but then slowly disappeared from the local fields. About 5 years ago PriGat decided to plant a blood-orange orchard in Emek Chefer specifically for juice. They wrote in a press release that because of the limited amount of fruit they had in the orchards the fresh squeezed blood orange juice was not going to be a permanent product but only a limited edition juice. I guess they had some leftover fruit and decided to make a non fresh squeezed blood orange juice as well, for their  70^th Anniversary “retro” line of juices.

Yoplait White 1.8% Yogurt with Dried Fruit & Nuts at the Bottom + Coupon

יופלה לבן מעודן עם פירות יבשים בתחתית 1.8%

Yoplait added a new flavor to the Yoplait White Yogurt with Fruit at the Bottom line that I told you about in March. The new flavor is a little different than the other three in this line because this time they added dried fruits and nuts to the bottom of the yogurt as opposed to “fresh fruit”.

From what I could tell it had dried apricots, raisins and walnuts but I am not 100% sure. The ingredients were not listed on the container I got because I didn’t buy this yogurt but I got a free sample at the supermarket the other day. The sample container, they were handing out, was a different in shape and size to the one you can actually buy. There were no details or ingredients listed on the sample container so I am just going on what I tasted and saw in the yogurt itself and not on what they list on the container, so I may be wrong but from the photo I found online I think I'm correct.

PriGat's Pear Lychee & Pear Cherry Shakes

פריגת שייק אגס ליצ'י ואגס דובדבן

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac the summer officially begins here in the Northern Hemisphere this evening, but the weather in Israel was ultra hot this past week or so. It felt more like August then June and keeping hydrated was extremely important. For me there’s nothing like an ice cold cup of water to really quench my thrust but from time to time I do enjoy something like a juice or a soft drink just to "mix it up" a little. So recently I tasted a few new drinks that I plan on reviewing within the next few days. Today I'll write about the new flavors from PriGat’s Shake line of drinks. 

There are three new flavors in this line; Pineapple Banana, Pear Lychee and Pear Cherry. I’m not a fan of pineapple drinks so I skipped the Pineapple Banana and tried the other two.

Pri Niv Banana Based Drinks

פריניב נקטר עם בננה ועוד פרי

Until I read a press release about these PriNiv Banana Based Drinks I had never noticed anything from PriNiv in any of the stores I frequent. 

Turns out they are a smaller company that have not really made it into the main supermarkets just yet.

Until now Priniv drinks were mainly sold at gas stations/highway rest shops and the like, which must be why I had yet to see them, but now the company is working hard to get their products into more major supermarkets .

Muller’s 99 Yogurt Whipped Wild-Berry Topping + Coupon

 Müller 99 יוגורט קרמי עם קציפה

I tried Muller’s 99 calorie, 1.5% fat, Bio yogurt with whipped wild-berries on top. It comes with a passion fruit & peach whipped topping as well but of the two I decided to try the wild-berry one.

I thought the generous layer of whipped wild-berries on top of the yogurt was a flavorful, tart and sweet addition to the creamy 1.5% fat yogurt in the container. It was an interesting consistency, light and fluffy, but somehow it worked for me and I enjoyed it very much.

Yoplait White 1.2% Yogurt with Fruit at the Bottom - Free Sample

I have another quick post (with a link to a free coupon) for you today.

Tnuva-Yoplait has a new yogurt on the market. It’s a white “refined” yogurt with a thin layer of fruit at the bottom of the container. It comes in 3 flavors; Wild Berries, Orange and Plum. 

Winter Watermelon

אבטיח חורפי

Yes, you read the title correctly! Winter Watermelon :)
Ein Yahav's farmer Itay Gal & Chishtil (a global nursery corporation based in Moshav Nechalim whose mission it is to provide horticultural solutions, utilizing innovative and economic technologies based on cutting edge knowledge) "came up" with this new fruit. 

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.

Tzuriel's Goat-Milk Pear Yogurt

יוגורט עיזים אזס - צוריאל

A few months ago in my reviewed Tzuriel's Mildly Sweetened Whole Goats-Milk Yogurt I mentioned that they also had a few goat-milk yogurts with added fruits but I never did try those yogurts. Now Tzuriel has added a new fruit flavored goat-milk yogurt to that line. This time its pear flavored.

I actually had a hard time finding it in any of my local supermarkets but when I finally found it there was only one on the shelf but that’s all I needed in order to try it.

PriGat's Fresh Squeezed Red Orange Juice

 סחוט תפוז אדום פריגת

Update: This Fresh Squeezed Red Orange Juice, along with the 100% Fresh Squeezed Pomegranate Juice from PriGat Won a Product of the Year Awards 2013 in the drinks categorize. 
 
PriGat has a new limited edition fresh squeezed orange juice on the market. It's made with of blood-oranges and they named it "Squeezed Red Orange".

According to the press release, blood-oranges were very popular here in Israel some 63 years ago but then slowly disappeared from the local fields. About 5 years ago PriGat decided to plant a blood-orange orchard in Emek Chefer specifically for this new product. Their long wait is over and the Squeezed Red Orange Juice is finally in the store refrigerators. Because of the limited amount of fruit they have in the orchards this drink is not going to be a permanent product but only a limited edition juice.   

At first I thought it tasted a little watered down but maybe I didn’t shake it up enough before I poured my first glass because the second time I tasted it I thought it was much more flavorful and tangy than I had originally thought. Still, it wasn't overly tangy, like I was expecting it to be, but it was a little more "sour" than a "classic" orange juice, with maybe a touch in the direction of a red grapefruit juice.

Given that the blood-oranges Prigat used for this drink are of the Moro variety I was anticipating more of a sweeter orange taste with hint of raspberry but I didn’t really notice that. I did think it had a little "kick" to it and was somewhat "spicy". Maybe if I was comparing it to other blood-orange juices I would've picked up on the different notes and I would have tasted the raspberry 

but never having tasted a blood-orange juice before I didn't notice the touch of raspberry or the "sweetness" I was expecting.

That's not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, I did, but I was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t as "unique" or "special" as I was expecting it to be. Not to mention that I actually prefer my orange juice with a little more of dominant orange taste to it. 

What I liked most about the drink is the vibrant color the juice has. If I was hosting a party and wanted this color drink for one reason or another I think it would be fun to have this as an option, but on a regular basis I don’t think it's special enough to splurge and pay 13.00 NIS for a 1 liter bottle when regular PriGat orange juice or red grapefruit juice can be found at a fraction of that price.

PriGat's Squeezed Red Orange Juice is made of 100% natural red (blood) oranges and has no added sugar and no preservatives. Blood-oranges are known to be high in anti oxidants.       

Bottom Line: I like that PriGat planted blood-orange orchards and is trying to reintroduce this fruit that was popular here when the modern State of Israel was first born. Maybe as the orchard grows and PriGat has more fruit they can lower the price of the juice. Although this Squeezed Red Orange Juice was somewhat unique in the end I didn’t think it was unique enough to warrant its high price.

1 liter Bottle – 13.00 NIS

Kosher Parve Badatz

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 up early on Liberty's Spirit Blog

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 

Nestlé Fitness Cereal with Strawberries

נסטלה דגני בוקר פיטנס - תותים

Nestlé Fitness's latest addition to the cereal aisle is a limited edition whole wheat and rice cereal with big slices of real strawberries that were freeze dried in a new and innovative method in order to preserve the taste of fresh strawberries. Once milk is poured into the cereal the strawberries should plump back up and taste like you just added fresh sliced strawberries to the bowl.

As I think I've mentioned in a past cereal review or two, I much prefer cereals dry, as a snack than with milk, but this Nestlé Fitness cereal is not really intended to be eaten dry, the large slices of freeze dried strawberries just do not taste good without milk. So I tasted it with milk.

The whole wheat and rice flakes are nice and big. They remained crunchy and did not go soggy in the milk. That’s always a plus in my book. I thought the cereal flakes were tasty, but that’s not what's new about this cereal.

The strawberries did plump back up after a minute or two in the milk. I'm not sure if they colored the milk a slight pink shade or more likely that came from the small clusters of cereal that are coated in a wild-berry flavor. Regardless of the "culprit" it wasn’t so aesthetically pleasing to me, but it may not bother everyone.

Although they are "real and natural" I would not say they tasted like fresh strawberries. To me they tasted like a soggy artificial strawberry. Then again the artificial flavor could possibly have come from the powdered fruits on the clusters, I mentioned before. Maybe Fitness should have just left those clusters out all together, because I didn’t particularly enjoy how much that flavor overpowered the milk and cereal as a whole.

This new Nestlé Fitness Strawberries Cereals is geared toward women who want a healthy, satisfying and low fat cereal with 12 vitamins and minerals that are important for women; like folic acid and calcium.

Bottom Line: I think Nestlé Fitness had a good idea in wanting to add real strawberries to their cereal but for me this freeze drying process didn't do the trick. For now if I want cereal and milk for breakfast I'll stick with Kellogg's Special K Oats & Honey Cereal and I may possibly add in some fruit. So far I don’t think there's a good replacement for slicing fresh fruit into a bowl of cereal and enjoying it the way "nature" intended.

360 gram box – 26.00 NIS

Kosher Dairy- Bait Din Paris France approved by Chief Rabbinate Israel

אבקת חלב נוכרי - בית דין פאריס ובאישור הרבנות הראשית לישראל

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

         

Strauss's Light Blueberry Yogurt Pops

  שטראוס לייט יוגורט אוכמניות

All the ice creams I have reviewed recently;  Strauss's "Magnum Desire" Ice-Cream Bars, Nestlé Crunch Roll Ice-Cream Pops  and Nestlé's "Nok-Out" Mascarpone & Lemon Ice-Cream Bar have been highly caloric indulgences so today I have a low calorie, no sugar added treat to tell you about; Strauss's Blueberry Yogurt Pops.

When my friend in the US saw these yogurt pops in her local store freezer we decided to "review them together" and boy am I glad we did. This 26 calorie blueberry yogurt pop has real blueberries mixed into the yogurt with a ripple of cherry sorbet swirled though the center of the pop.

Although at first my friend was afraid she wouldn't really "go for" the blueberry flavor, as soon as she tried it she thought it was very tasty. She added "if I close my eyes it feels like I'm eating a frozen blueberry yogurt milk shake" I absolutely agreed with her! That is the best way to describe this wonderful treat.

If I'm not mistaken this is the first of Strauss's low calorie pops to have real fruit mixed in. I have to say I really enjoyed the blueberries. We both thought the real blueberries were a wonderful addition to the yogurt pop. Aside from one hard and ultra frozen blueberry my friend got in her bar, we both really liked the blueberries, and the rest of them were soft, chewable and a fun surprise as we ate the yogurt bar.

The sorbet swirl was terrific; we both thought it was the perfect amount. It added a nice extra texture and flavor to the pop. I had assumed it was blueberry but when I read the box it actually said it was cherry flavor. My friend said she thought she had noticed the bar had a cherry flavor but didn’t realize it was from the sorbet swirl. Regardless it "worked" for us and we really enjoyed it.

We actually much preferred the relatively small amount of sorbet in the bar, compared to Strauss's other low calorie yogurt pops, which are coated in a layer of sorbet. They are good too, but this smaller amount of sorbet, just in the center of the bar, was the perfect amount for both my friend and I. I'm guessing that just having the sorbet ripple in the center, and not as a coating, is part of what keeps the calorie count down on this bar compared to Strauss's other low calorie yogurt pops.

The 5 and 3 year old girls that tasted this yogurt pop were immediately hooked! They absolutely enjoyed everything about this yogurt bar. I would like to publicly thank them for waiting just a few moments so photos could be taken of the yogurt pop, for this blog post, before they each got their own bar to enjoy. Thank you girls for your patience J

These bars have less than 1% fat. They have added calcium and vitamin D as well as 2.3 grams of fiber per bar, and as I mentioned before they have no added sugars.

Bottom Line: My friend and I both really enjoyed Strauss's new Low Calorie Blueberry Yogurt with Cherry Sorbet Swirl Pops. The real blueberries Strauss added sets this bars apart from other low calorie bars for both my friend and I.  So if you're looking for a low calorie treat this Shavuot grab a box of these yogurt bars they are "kid tested mother approved"!

Box of 6 – 26.90 NIS

(I wish Strauss would sell these as individual bars in kiosk freezers and not only in a box of 6, so I can buy them from time to time when I am out and about.)

Kosher: Dairy Mehadrin Cholov Yisrael

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

Bulletin: Prigat's New Bottle Cap

Another new packaging of sorts that’s getting some attention is Prigat's new bottle cap.

The fact is the juices inside are exactly the same as they have always been. Prigat claims the new cap is intended to make it "easier to open". It adds no benefit to the juice itself. I, for one, had no problem with the old cap and never had a hard time opening them. I don’t really see the reason to make a bigger cap, using more plastic, which may or may not end up in the recycling bin. It must be that they are just fallowing a trend; a friend who lives in the USA pointed out, to me, that Tropicana Trop50 has a similar new cap on their bottles. (As far as I know Tropicana is not available here.)

Prigat added a sticker on the cap; because otherwise you would not have known if the bottle had been opened already or not. With the old cap you have a "security strip" at the bottom that visibly comes apart once the cap was opened but this new cap does not have that, so they added the sticker. If it's ripped then the cap has been opened. With all the technology we have available these days, all Prigat can come up with is a sticker! I wasn't impressed, but their juices are still perfectly enjoyable as they always have been.

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

Spring's Peach-Plum & Pineapple-Lychee Soft Drinks

"Spring" has added 2 new soft-drinks to their ever expanding line of drinks; Peach–Plum and Pineapple-Lychee.

These Spring soft-drinks have 16% fruit and use only natural food coloring. They do not have any added preservatives but do have added vitamin C.

Peach-Plum

With summer just around the corner, Peach–Plum seems like the perfect new soft-drink combination. When I first poured a glass of this soft-drink the pleasant aroma of the peaches and plums automatically made me think of summer.

Peach being 13% of the fruit in this drink it was clearly the main flavor but for me the 3% plum was a nice extra touch.

As with most sweet fruit drinks I thought they added way too much sugar. After I diluted it with water I actually enjoyed the Peach-Plum soft-drink much more.  

Pineapple-Lychee

This time the 12% pineapple was obviously the stronger flavor but I think the 4% lychee is an interesting addition and helped tone down the "tanginess", you normally get from a pineapple.

If you’re a fan of pineapple drinks, I think you may find this combination puts a slightly different spin on it, making it a little more exotic.

Again, for me, this Pineapple-Lychee soft-drink was too sweet. I needed to add some water but not as much as I added to the Peach-Plum drink.

I can see Spring's Pineapple-Lychee Soft-Drink working really well in a cocktail.

Bottom Line: After I diluted the Peach-Plum Spring Soft-Drink, I enjoyed the refreshing taste of summer.

For me, the Pineapple-Lychee was a little too exotic and different, but those who enjoy pineapple drinks would, most likely, see that as a plus.    

1.5 liter – 5.99 NIS

Kosher: Badatz (Kosher for Passover as well)

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

Prigat's Kiwi-Pear & Mango-Banana Shake

When I read the word "Shake" on the container I was expecting a heavy thick drink, closer to a milk-shake texture or a smoothie, that’s what comes to mind when I think of a shake;

Shaken beverage: a beverage made without milk or ice cream but blended or shaken like a milk-shake *a fruit or yogurt shake*

Turns out this "Prigat's Shake" is just a nectar, a thinner fruit-drink than a shake. I guess adding a few new nectar flavors is not as exciting to Prigat as starting a line of "Shakes".

There are 3 Prigat Shakes available; Pear-Kiwi, Mango-Banana and Apple-Guava

I tasted the Pear-Kiwi and the Mango-Banana Shakes

Pear-Kiwi Shake
In my opinion the pear and kiwi flavors worked well together, they sort of complemented each other. Pear was the main flavor but I also clearly tasted the kiwi.
I found the shake refreshing but I thought the drink was a little too sweet. They could have easily used less sugar, given that pear and apple (there is also apple concentrate in this shake) are sweet fruits to start with.

What I didn’t love about this shake is the kiwi-seeds floating around, and at the end, remaining at the bottom of the glass. Had it been a thicker shake I don’t think the kiwi-seeds would have bothered me but, with this thinner nectar, I didn’t like it.

Mango-Banana Shake

This time the Mango was the main flavor and the banana was secondary. The Mango-Banana shake was thicker than the pear-kiwi but still not as thick as a smoothie/shake, it’s also a nectar. By nature, mangoes and bananas create a thicker juice. It was a pleasant drink not too sweet or tangy yet nothing very special or extraordinary.

I'm not sure why they are calling it Mango-Banana when it has more mandarin concentrate in it than the mango and banana put together. The container clearly states that there is 40% real fruit in these shakes. If I do the math and there is 7% mango and 5.5% banana that is only 12.5%, which means 27.5% of the fruits in this drink are mandarin concentrate and some apricot puree. Maybe Mandarin-Mango-Banana-Apricot Shake was just too complicated of a name.

On second look I see that about half of the fruit in the Pear-Kiwi shake is pear and kiwi but it also has apple concentrate in it. At least in that case the pear and kiwi are still the majority of the 40% fruit in the shake.

Bottom Line: I thought the Prigat Shakes were fine, nothing amazing but not a failure. I could, however, do without so many kiwi-seeds in my cup. As a whole I wasn’t impressed enough to permanently add Prigat's Shake to my shopping list. Oh, and can we please "call a spade a spade" it's a nectar not a shake.

1 liter container – 3.99 NIS

Kosher: Badatz

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