the whinery 2.0

I went dairy-free about a year and the half ago, except I haven’t been completely diary-free. I’ve given up everything except milk chocolate bars. I don’t eat them often but every once in a while I’ll have a bar. I’ve tried a few dark (dairy-free) chocolate bars and I’m slowly weaning myself off those milky delicious bars.

This was an impulse check-out item purchase; I was in line at Bosa Foods waiting to be checked out when the bright red packaging beckoned. I was a little hungry and for $1.99 I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try it.

Kras is a Croatian chocolate manufacturer that’s been in business since 1911 and Dorina is the brand name. Kras has a popular Choco Bar (or Bonbonnière, as it’s also fancily called) that every chocolate lover who happens to be in Zagreb, (Croatia’s capital) should visit.

The bar I got was the 3.5oz milk hazelnut bar, it turned out I wasn’t as hungry and didn’t eat it until days later.

My mom took one look at it and asked “what is that?”

“Chocolate” I responded

“Why can’t I read what’s on here?” she asked turning it over

“It’s Croatian chocolate” I said

She says in a dumbfounded tone “Why would you buy Croatian chocolate?”

I have nothing, and she walks away shaking her head mumbling “Croatian Chocolate…”

It’s pretty basic rectangular bar with sectioned squares, comes wrapped in the standard foil and has bright red packaging on the outside.

The taste is rich, creamy and sweet, reminiscent of a Ritter bar. What surprised me was that the hazelnuts weren’t whole or in chunks. Instead there were tiny pieces of hazelnut speckled heavily throughout. I didn’t enjoy that aspect of the bar, maybe it’s because I’m used to huge chunks of nuts in chocolate bars. I felt there was something lacking with the tiny pieces and it had an annoying way of getting stuck in my teeth.

For $1.99 I probably would have bought it again if I weren’t giving up milk chocolate bars for good. It’s slightly better stuff than your average bar of chocolate and the taste isn’t bad.

Occasionally when I’m grocery shopping; I’ll throw a new product in the cart, hoping to find that one food item that’ll… change my life. Mostly, it’s been more misses than hits; but I remain forever resilient and hopeful. This is how I ended up with a box of Ines Rosales Sweet Olive Tortas.

I was at the Italian shop the other day stocking up on my pantry staples when I came upon them. It was the packaging that called to me; it had a certain simple wholesome Mediterranean-ess to it. I gave it a once over and decided to give them a try because I liked the ingredient list.

Each cracker/flatbread is wrapped in its own wax paper; it’s flaky, light, crispy and sprinkled sparingly with sugar. It tastes light and flavourful, it’s amazing! It has just the right sweetness and crunch and it’s very delicate. There’s a subtle hint of anise/liquorice that in my opinion binds the flavours.

I was so impressed and awed by my find that I scuttled online to find out more about this wonderful discovery. It turns out it has an equally wonderful back-story. The company has been making these tortas since 1910 in Seville, Spain. The tortas are made with extra virgin olive oil, flour, sugar, sesame seeds and anise seeds and essence. It’s made in small batches; hand flattened and contains no additives or colorants. I like the fact that it has no diary or eggs (it’s technically vegan!).

There are six individually wrapped torta in a box for around $6.00CAD – it’s totally worth it.

I brought some along on a recent trip to Seattle two weekends ago and after a long day of running around, I sat in a park, took a nice long break and had a torta with my coffee, it felt incredible and everything just seemed perfect in that moment.

I’ve even had it with water and it was amazing. My dream is to visit Seville one day and go to the Ines Rosales Factory to personally thank them for making a product that could very well… change my life.