Tirat Tzvi's New Thin Sliced Deli-Meat

Tirat Tzvi has a new product/gimmick on the market that allows them to put a nice big blue sticker on the package screaming

חדשNEW /

!!!In other words BUY ME

טירת צבי הודו דק אישי

Shortly before I began this blog most of the deli-meat companies, here in Israel, started selling an extra thin sliced deli-meat. Each company gave it a slightly different name but in reality they were all basically the same product.

 Soglowek, one of Tirat Tzvis competitors, even received a Product of the Year Award for their version. I actually enjoyed the extra thin sliced deli-meat and thought it was a nice new twist on a popular product.

Now Tirat Tzvi is looking for their next NEW product, after the Toast-Ready Cold-Cut, I reviewed in February.

For this "NEW" Thin-Sliced Deli-Meat, it seems to me, that all they did was move the number on the slicer a notch or 2 up from the extra thin slice setting, putting it somewhere between the regular cut and the extra thin cut and "voilà" they claim to have a new product!!

There are 4 meats to choose from in this line of "new" thin cold-cuts; Grilled Turkey 1% fat, Romanian style Turkey, Paprika flavored Turkey and Italian Smoked Salami

I tried the Paprika flavored Turkey.

It tasted perfectly fine to me, and I enjoyed it, but I think it's somewhat ridiculous to claim it’s a new product. Maybe call it a new cut but not a new product.

This new gimmick is only being sold as "individual" packages. They are 120 grams per package. Exactly the same amount as Tirat Tzvi's extra thin sliced deli-meat, but these are being called "individual" packs.

I don’t think that 120 grams is an individual serving. It seems too much for one sandwich/serving and you don’t have a proper cover to re-close the package for next time.

It also ends up being much more expensive than buying a full size package of the regular sliced Tirat Tzvi deli-meat.

I know other companies also put 120 grams of deli-meat in their "so called" individual serving pack so it's not only Tirat Tzvi that I can fault for this.

Bottom Line: Tirat Tzvi's New Thin Sliced Deli-Meat was enjoyable enough and tasty, but I don’t think it warrants being called a new product. Aside from which, the packaging bothered me too. I am not likely to buy it again.

120 gram package -14.99 NIS

Kosher: Rabbi Werner

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.

OfTov's Olive Oil Turkey-Breast Deli-Meat

Update: Of Tov won a Product of the YearAwards 2013 for their line of low fat olive oil cold cuts. I am not sure but I think this product may be considered part of that line. 

 
OfTov is trying to keep up in the extremely competitive cold-cut/deli-meat department, so they have developed a new product; Turkey-Breast Cold-Cut with Olive Oil.

There are 2 olive oil enriched deli-meat options; Turkey-Breast and Turkey-Breast with Herbs. I tasted the one without the herbs.

I enjoyed OfTov's new Olive Oil Turkey-Breast Cold-Cut. It tasted like a low fat "real" turkey-breast deli-meat, but in actuality it's not low fat. Low fat cold-cut turkey-breast normally has 18 calories a slice; this OfTov cold-cut has 23 calories per slice. Yes the fat is from olive oil, which is a healthier oil, that has many health benefits but it's still not a "low fat" deli-meat.

I was happy to read that there was no MSG, no gluten, no food coloring and no trans-fats. I did think it had a "healthy" taste, but I mean that in a good way.  It didn’t feel like I was eating "junk meat". 

Had it not said on the package that it was made with olive oil, I would never have known. It has a "fresh & clean" turkey-breast taste but there was nothing special or unique about the taste. The meat did not have an "olive-oil" flavor.

I would prefer if the turkey was sliced a bit thinner, but that's really not a big deal.   

I understand "cold-cut meats" is a competitive department which requires "creativity" to get the consumers to choose your product. Just like Tirat Tzvi's Toast-Ready Lunch-Meat attempt.  So it's clear why OfTov is "trying so hard" but…

  

Bottom Line: taste wise, this end result is not "special enough" for me to choose the OfTov Olive-Oil Turkey-Breast over a truly low fat, non MSG, non trans-fat cold-cut.

300 grams – 26.90 NIS

Kosher: Mehadrin

 (אויירבך (

Kosher for Passover No Kitniyot

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

Tirat Tzvi Toast-Ready Cold-Cut/Lunch Meat

After recently adding a line of sliced lunch-meats, cut in half, making it easier to prepare a half pita and cold-cut sandwich. Tirat Tzvi is now selling a lunch meat (cold-cut) for toasted sandwiches. I guess their thinking is, if you didn’t send the kids to school with the half pita version, you can serve them a toasted lunch-meat sandwich when they get home.

They advertise that the meat will remain moist and juicy even after being heated, between the bread, for 2 minutes in a sandwich-maker. Tirat Tzvi said they used a unique new technology to make the cold-cuts toast-ready. They claim, that this new technology also increases the aroma and taste as the meat is heated. 

You have 3 options: Smoked Salami, Grilled Turkey or Smoked Beef Shoulder. They all have 4% goose fat added which, I assume, is intended to gives it the extra moistness and prevent the meat from drying up when toasted.

I tried the Beef Shoulder.

I found it funny that they give you clear instructions how to prepare a toasted sandwich or a non-toasted sandwich. I'm guessing someone at the Kibbutz has a sense of humor :) or, maybe they just didn’t think anyone would actually read the entire back label of the package. Well I did!

So I followed their instructions, I actually made a toasted and non-toasted sandwich in order to do a comparison test. The lunch-meat did remain moist even after being in the sandwich-maker for more than the suggested 2 minutes.

For a beef shoulder lunch-meat sandwich it was tasty.

I actually preferred it (cold or hot) to the classic beef shoulder lunch-meat they sell. To me their original beef shoulder was very rubbery, it was a thicker slice of meat and I didn’t care for its texture or taste. As a comparison I toasted that one too. Lo and behold, it came out just as moist as the new version. (So-much for the "new technology" they claimed to have used.) The classic beef shoulder was actually a little bit better in a toasted sandwich than eating it cold, yet it remained somewhat rubbery even when it was toasted. For me, either hot or cold the toast-ready version tasted better.

This new beef shoulder lunch-meat does have 5% fat as opposed to 2% fat in the original version. That must be why I thought it tasted better and was not rubbery.

Another thing I learned, by reading the whole label, is that both of them have MSG along with many other artificial ingredients. After looking at other brands, I found that this is the case with many other lunch-meat /cold-cuts as well.   

Bottom Line: Although the original shoulder beef, when toasted, stayed just as moist, making this toast-ready version seem like a gimmick, the bottom line is, it actually tasted better to me than the original.

300 gram package -27.99 NIS

Kosher Meat: Rabbi David Verner, Chadera

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