If you've a regular reader of my blog then you may have noticed the "Around the World" tab at the top. I started this challenge, to review snacks/chocolate from at least 80 countries, with a lot of enthusiasm, but I have to admit that it's been a long time since I last featured a new country. One of my blog resolutions for 2014 is to pick up this challenge and complete the initial stage of 80 countries by the end of the year.
Since I always try to find these international snacks in local shops or grocery stores around London, rather than ordering from specialists online, I decided to take a closer look at the World Foods section in my local Tesco. They have quite a large selection of kosher groceries and I was immediately drawn to this Taami Chocolate bar. It's described as a milk chocolate bar with puffed rice and nougat-caramel cream filling.
The Elite chocolate factory was established in 1933 in Ramat Gan, Israel, and merged with a company called Strauss in 2004. The Elite Taami is one of their classic chocolate bars and it seems that it is especially popular with teenagers and younger people - if anyone has further information please feel free to leave a comment below!
From the description (milk chocolate, nougat, and caramel) I thought this chocolate bar might be a bit like a Mars bar, but with added puffed rice. It turned out, of course, to be quite different, without any of the chewy texture of a Mars Bar. Instead the Taami chocolate bar is filled with plenty of puffed rice within the sweet nougat layer, which gives the bar a crispy, almost wafer-like, texture. The layer of caramel on top is quite soft and adds a lovely contrast to the crispier layers underneath. The outer layer is made up of a thin covering of milk chocolate which is very sweet but has a decent enough cocoa flavor. The overall combination of crispy, crunchy layers and sweet caramel with chocolate all creates a very tasty chocolate bar indeed and a great success to rekindle my Around the World challenge.
If you've tried the Elite Taami chocolate bar before then I'd love to know what you thought in the comments below. Thank you!
Around the World: Elite Taami Chocolate Bar
Country of Origin: Product of Israel.
Rating: 8 out of 10.
Nutrition: 203 calories per 40g bar.
Purchased: Tesco.
Price: £0.70p.
