I’ve been sitting on this post forever. I did a package swap with Jenny from Herbivore’s Heaven, back in early spring when I just got pregnant. You can read her review of the package I sent. I was carefully trying to pace myself with all the food, she sent so much! But then after awhile it became a wait game. I kept putting off making the nut roast because it involved turning an oven on during the hottest summer we’ve ever had. Then it became a wait game for the chocolate pudding. Truthfully I’ve never made any instant pudding in myself and the instructions aren’t in English. I’m a little scared to mess it up, but my plan is to just make pudding pops. But… my freezer is full of leftovers that are just for when the baby is born.
So I finally decided to leave the pudding mix out of the review and just finally post this thing. So thanks Jenny for all the awesome foods! Hopefully we can do another package swap next year (the shipping to the Czech Republic is expensive unfortunately T__T) because this was tons of fun. I got to try some yummy new foods, and some I found is available in the USA. I love reading your blog (and getting this package) because it really shows how veganism is different in various parts of the world, showing that people aren’t loosing cultural identity by going vegan.
Now- to the reviews. It’s a LOOOOONG post.
Oh boy, this gives me all the feels that American can’t compete. My husband loves bears. It is really easy, find some shirt with a bear on it- boom birthday gift done. We have bear prints, a bear growler, a stuffed toy bear, we even got a beer called bare bear. So when I saw these pure fruit yoyos with a cute bear on it, I already knew I would love it- and would have to share with my husband. I found that the graphic design was a lot more sophisticated than most American brands but the snack was even better than what I was use to. They are very similar to fruit rolls up, only the snack is thicker but thinner in the width, making it more like a gummy snack. It is a little hard to unroll, and you kind-of need to poke the middle and then unravel from the inside in (maybe giving it more of that yoyo sort of name). The snack also came with collectable cards, which are a little silly as an adult, but fun for kids. I got the apple and raspberry flavors, and I think overall liked the raspberry best.
I may have been a little hungry when I started to sort through my box, since I opened this up first. I love the packaging, it made me feel like I was eating some raw Pringles. What I really liked about these are that they were very light compared to other raw foods. The main ingredients were nuts, no they were actually vegetables, pumpkin and sweet potato. I liked the intense paprika flavor, not too salty or sweet. I liked the specs on the snack- the container was a total of 125 calories, almost 6 grams of fiber, 5 grams of fat (from flax seeds), and 4.5 grams of protein. The company is from the Czech Republic but the distribute in the UK, France, Netherland, and Belgium.
These are like fruit rolls ups but with flax seeds dehydrated right into it. I am not a big fan of these, like I am happily eating the whole box, but they remind me too much about why I don’t like animal crackers. See animal crackers are sweet, but too sweet to be crackers. But on the flip side they aren’t sweet enough to be a cookie. This in between state drive me nuts. That is how I feel about these flax rolls. The flax seeds really mellow out the sweetness, making wish this was more of a dessert. It is too bad they didn’t cut down on the flax seed and added more berries. But still overall tasty, and I would rather have these over the animal crackers.
I had high expectations for these, probably because I saw Eat Your Kimchi’s video on stroopwafels. Unfortunately this stroopwafel wasn’t like you saw in the video. The caramel-like center wasn’t gooey, but more like a commercial caramel, soft but mostly hard. Even though that is the case, I found these pretty tasty regardless. I like the hazelnut filling, and the overall treat wasn’t too sweet which I really appreciated. Looking for these? Apparently the company translates them to syrup waffles or hazelnut waffles, so I found a few sellers on Amazon.
I ate this snack and thought “no big deal, just a date coconut roll.” Then when I looked online for the product apparently it is made from no date. Nope, just coconut, carob, a sugar syrup, and rice flour. I would never of guessed! It was pretty tasty and something I would probably eat again. Apparently the company does a whole range of different types of rolls made from nuts, grains, and dried fruit. Carob is often forgotten about or thought to just be a cheap chocolate substitute, but it can really shine when given the chance and this is a product where it shines.
Oh boy were these cookies an enigma. I took my first bite and thought “uck tastes like burnt sugar.” I blame some where pregnancy thing because I ate it again, and burnt sugar was still on my mind, but in a much more positive way. It tasted really complex and delicious. When looking up the cookies online I read the translated list of ingredients, and just couldn’t comprehend. It is made mostly just of flour, tamarind syrup, and raisins! WHAT?! I was thinking it was some burnt sugar gingerbread cookie. Never would of guessed. Definitely the tamarind syrup is the bulk of the flavor, making a really complex cookie.
I was a little nervous about baking this. I don’t use connivence foods often, nor do I make savory “loafs” or “roasts” often. Not much of a European foodie? Not sure. My but weird fear of easy food makes no sense, but one day I was craving a veggie dish and figured I probably needed something a little more to make it a meal, so busted out this baby. I recommend making it in fall or winter (not in 90°F weather. T__T) It was pretty easy to make, just boil water, sit, then pop in the oven for 45 minutes. The end result was a really yummy loaf that made me think of Thanksgiving and the holiday season. The mix comes from a small co-op in Manchester UK, so if you live there or are visiting, I would recommend grabbing this. It is shelf stable, and fairly hands off for a night where you have time, but don’t want to spend too much time in the actual kitchen.
Let me first state something, I live in New Jersey. I know you are all going “no shit Jen, like all the restaurants you review are in New Jersey.” But there are a lot of Italian bakeries in New Jersey (hello Cake Boss!) and I HATED them. I never like those nasty cookies that lacked flavor. I think it was my Czech and German blood screaming for gingerbread. What type of birthday cake do I want? GINGERBREAD! Favorite Christmas cookie? GINGERBREAD PEOPLE! So it comes as no surprise that I friggin LOVE these cookies. They are puffy gingerbread cookies that are covered in a thin glaze. There is a hint of mint, which gives an unusual twist to the normal gingerbread flavor. Best part? I CAN GET IT CHEAP OFF OF AMAZON! How I love you Poland for making these dreamy cookies!
I kind-of forgot that I still had these chips to eat, which is a bummer since I was going through a sugar overload at some point. I have to say these chips made me notice how much sugar is put into most American savory snacks. Or how little flavor our crackers or chips are when they have savory flavors added to them. These chips were kind-of a consistency between a cracker and a biscuit. I assume the chips are made from lentils (since the label has a picture of a chili pepper and lentils). My only complaint is that they weren’t chili peppery enough. Still, they were a nice savory snack.
I really enjoyed this bar. It made me think of Lara bars, only much better. I remember catching a bunch of workers complain that every single Lara bar tasted like cashews and dates, and they are kind-of right. They all taste similar since cashews and dates are the major ingredients. This bar really makes things different by using almond butter, giving a very specific almond butter flavor. The bar is a little sweeter than Lara bars since it has some brown rice syrup in it, and I am fine with that. I would totally eat this again.
I can’t quite remember what raw food I made awhile ago that tastes very similar to these but pizza flavored raw food isn’t anything new. Something about cashews, sun dried tomatoes, and lemon juice really make me think of pizza. I loved the crackers just by themselves, though a nut cheese on top would be equally great. I was so hungry that ate the whole package (354 calories, 16g carbs, 11g fiber, 11g protein) which was pretty satisfying. The best thing is that there is raw onions in the crackers but they don’t leave bad onion breath- a problem that I have with most raw foods.
These were interesting. I’ve had Japanese snack mixes in the past so I was thrown off by these. Usually they are made with both wheat and rice, and this I think was made mostly from wheat, which made the snack a little more dense than normal. Overall I thought they were too sweet and not enough soy and seaweed flavors for my liking. The snack was good, my husband ate them all, but it didn’t have enough of the flavors that make them “Japanese.”
I make granola at home for my husband’s breakfast. Yup, he puts granola on his oatmeal, and since oats on oats seems a little intense I try to make his granola very nut, fruit, and buckwheat groat heavy. So it is nice to have “normal” granola for myself. This has been great to sprinkle on my acai bowls, and on my vegan “nice cream” bowls. The granola has a very light flavor, letting the sweetness come from wheat syrup and the dried fruit. This is perfect for dessert, when granola can easily be too sweet.
Goody Good Stuff: Sour Fruit Salad
Okay the flavor “sour fruit salad” might not be conjuring up the tastiest image. I mean I am thinking of some 50s canned fruit cocktail salad, but these were really tasty gummy snacks. Again, another dessert I haven’t had in a very long time. The snacks were pretty much perfect, they weren’t too sticky and didn’t get stuck in my teeth, and the flavor wasn’t nearly as sour as what I thought. It was more of a natural amount of sour, maybe the puckered cheeks level of sourness is an American sort of thing? It is actually really easy to find on amazon luckily.
I think out of all the fruit and nut bars in this package, this one is my favorite. It is a Polish brand, the same one that made the Urwis jabłkowy below, so I am not 100% sure on the ingredients, but I can make out/guess that there are figs and goji berries. I love figs in raw foods, but most people prefer dates. Dates are all fine and dandy, but there is a certain tart and sweetness that you get from figs, oh and those yummy little seeds are yummy as well! I think what I like about this bar was how tart it was, not too sweet, and enough nuts to keep it very filling. The bar was bigger than most, making it great for when you are fairly hungry. Too bad it doesn’t seem easily available internationally.
Mango Fruit Bar
Man I can’t find ANYTHING about this bar. I think it is made by the British company Mark and Spencer. Though it kind of stinks that the English ingredients are covered by the Czech translation (oh well, it happens) but it appears to be made almost completely made out of fruit! Not 100% mango, but I think that might be a good thing. I tossed it in my purse to eat after getting my blood drawn, and it was great for making my wooziness go away (I don’t like the idea of getting my blood drawn…. the more I think about it, the more likely I will pass out XD) But I was not ready for how soft the bar ended up being since I am use to there being some nuts of something in the bar. Still yummy, but sweeter than I am use to.
I have been living on bars on the go. The flavor is pretty yummy, but a little too sweet for my personal taste. It is like most raw bars for flavor and texture. It is made mostly of hazelnuts and dates, which give it a flavor very different from say, Lara Bars. There is also some rice protein powder in there to boost the protein to fat ratio that you get from the nuts. My only complaint is that the nutritional guides for Czech Republic always gives the nutritional information for 100grams, making it really hard to figure how much protein and fats are in a bar. I normally don’t harp over these things, but I tend to like to know what is in my pre-portioned foods. Makes you appreciate how America does their nutritional guides. Although the Czech way does give you an idea of nutritional density, helping you pick more nutritious foods overall.
Raw Chocolate Pie with Pink Himalayan Salt
Let me first say I am sad by the name of this, why pie? There is no crust, no circle, nothing that makes me think of pie. It’s okay to call yourself a chocolate bar- really. So that is what I will call it in my review. Now that’s out of the way, this bar is amazing! I followed the instructions and placed it in the fridge before eating. It was alright, but pretty tasty. I ate about half, and saved it for later. When I went for the second time I let the bar warm up a little bit and it was amazing. The trick is to let get warm and more a melt in your mouth feel without it melting in your hands. I love the chunks of salt and crunchy almond bits. I also adored the perfect little hint of lacuma powder in there. Next time I am in England (lol yeah like that will be anytime soon) I want to try all the different flavors.
Jenny sent a few envelopes of these Twinings Buttermint Tea since it’s one of her favorite. It was perfect timing since it had a simple ingredients list- mint leaves. Although Twinings is a pretty famous tea brand that is found all around the world, it is a flavor that has a limited release and I have certainly never seen it in the US before. I drank it all, and now will keep my eyes peeled just incase they ship this flavor into the states.
Oh boy, Polish… a little harder to find information on since it has a few letters that aren’t part of the English alphabet. Haha. I am not sure fully what this is other than an apple flavored snack bar. It was really sweet, yummy, and I would totally eat it again. It was a little hard to open, which is only a problem if you get the bad case of the hangries. The bar is pretty low calorie- I think about 145 calories.
I think this is a German brand, but I remember seeing this on blogs based in England. I was pretty excited about this since it has been so long since I have had a good white chocolate bar. I am not a HUGE white chocolate fan, but it is rare to find it vegan, so I enjoy it when I get my hands on it. The bar was so super smooth and had so many flavors going on, which is great because an all white chocolate bar would fall flat. My only complaint is that I wish the bar wasn’t so sweet, this is a complaint I tend to have with almost all European chocolate bars though. Aside from that I would totally get his bar over and over again.
Alexa’s note: I loved this sandwich. Everything tasted fresh and the sauce on the seitan was delicious. I’m usually more partial to tempeh but this item seemed too good to pass up. I think the only thing I would do next time is maybe request it on a wrap. This may sound sacrilegious but if there is too much bread then I get distracted from the rest of the food. I also have a very small mouth and cannot fit a real bite in…the bread was really good, but I personally would have preferred it to be all wrapped up together. I also loved the use of the sprouts – which may sound odd, but dishes that I usually happen to order have sprouts as a garnish. Let me tell you, those lil’ guys are a really refreshing addition to this item!
