Tasty changes and innovations on the shelves

One of the anchor snacks on the Israeli shelf (and on our own private home shelf) woke up this summer with a strong urge for a refresh, a makeover.

Apropo Tubes is the result of this urge. First, a change in shape to a kind of cylinder that declares itself ready for dipping and diving headfirst into dips and spreads, and then two new flavors – sour-spicy, strongly seasoned in comparison, and onion rings, excellent and even more addictive than the norm.

It is not yet clear whether this change is here to stay, and from the start it’s hard to beat the original Apropo, but as a summer diversion it’s cute, and as an execution it’s hard to deny this charm.

One of the oldest and most successful brands in Poland – 1898, and still counting – lands in Israel with the help of AGAT&D with decidedly required sweetening ambitions.

Wawel’s pioneer delegation highlights sugar-free products without food coloring, and based on maltitol. For now, it includes crispy chocolate bars with filling (with cocoa or vanilla cream, NIS 13.90–14.90), as well as wonderful toffee candies (NIS 14.90–15.90), buttery-milky-caramelly, like once upon a time, even for those who never ate them before.

A summer collaboration, targeting summer vacation audiences, connects Nestlé’s breakfast cereals and the gaming collection of Razer, from Banda.

The move, under the justified aspiration of transferring breakfast to ON mode, includes branded packages of Cheerios, Cini Minis, Lion, Crunch and Delicate Crunch, and a worthwhile daily raffle with a worthwhile prize accordingly (for those who feed the code on the inner tab of the boxes). From there, you can simply continue the day in anticipation, with a big bowl and a big spoon, of course.

A category usually crowded with routine options and directions gets a relatively surprising and very welcome twist.

The Deli series by Starkist, from Diplomat, is based on yellowfin tuna and promises premium fillet cuts, hand-cutting, and a product that focuses on what matters.

These promises are mostly fulfilled, with excellent tuna as a base, wonderful olive oil (certainly relative to the genre), and a combination that can easily be eaten as is, even as a serving on a big table opened for guests. The series, produced in Thailand, includes three flavors – tuna in olive oil (which also won this round with blessed simplicity), tuna in olive oil and chili, and tuna with lemon and black pepper seasoning, slightly loud compared to its peers.

Summer amusements and a cross-brand matchmaking plan by Strauss have produced a beverage collection – or at least a base for beverages – for practically all household members.

Shokolit MIX is a hot-season edition that pairs the rather legendary chocolate powder with no less legendary chocolate snacks – Pesek Zman, Kif-Kef and Mekupelet. The package includes 18 individual servings, in an excellent to-go move for trips (and even abroad travel), and the entire move makes perfect sense, in the sense of how was there not one until now, really. The challenge of flavors, more precisely their distinction, is a bit more blurred, and it’s hard to say that in a blind tasting one could immediately identify which chocolate is involved. Does it matter? An impressively empty bag will testify that it doesn’t.

Alongside this fun, Pesek Zman flavored capsules are also being launched, little sisters to last year’s chocolate capsules. They contain no coffee, and highlight cocoa and nutty caramel flavors, working excellently as a hot treat but even better as a base for a proper summer shake.