In A Finnish Grocery Store...(pt.2/2)

Ponder/ Considering that Finland is a relatively small country, it is actually fairly surprising how crazy large choices of sweet it has - I feel like the idles are always like 1 km long even in a smaller store :D In this part of the post, I'll show you some not-that healthy foods that brought some childhood memories in my intellect.

Fazer ok, I should be a Fazer-ambasunhappyor - I love this chocolate sooo much! It is not only the taste, but also the sound when you crack it.... 😍 The chocolate tastes so good, it's so chunky and chocolate wealthy. Plus, when you wrap it open, you can see a silver-folio wrapped around it which makes it more 'luxurious'. If you are travelling to Finland, you'll need to taste it! Attempt to buy them from the shop instead of the airport, because at the airport they are like 2,5 x times more expensive (and who said that products in the tax free are supposed to be more cheaper...??) Once I found them randomly in Berlin's Christmas markets. People just gathered around me when I was so excited and telling them about my love for a Finnish chocolate, and letting anyone who had just the patience to listen to taste it haha!

Tupla If you know the Double Decker-chocolate in the UK, it is a bit similar but it has almond nougat in it. This is my moment favorite chocolate after Fazer's yellow one (the hasselnut). Need to seize always one of these when I'm in Finland.

Salmiakki. It's not a liquorice but stronger. So whether you are not a fan of liquorice, the chances are that you are not going to like it. The taste of 'Salmiakki' divides people in two - they either LOVE it or HATE it. I happen to belong to that category who loves it, and actually my wgap family and relatives are salmiakki-people. In general Finnish people like it tho as they put it in everywhere: we have salmiakki-ice cream, salmiakki-chocolate, salmiakki-vodka, salmiakki-chewing gum, salmiakki-chips...yes, yummy! In Berlin I found also a salmiakki-toothpaste. Only Finnish people know that salmiakki-alternatives found in for example Netherlands, cannot be compared with the texture, taste and strength of the Finnish salmiakki.

I brought it to my work place here in the UK and let even my clients to taste it. 98% of them didn't like it :D The good leang about is that some brands use "xylitol", to make it sweeter instead of sugar or other artwhethericial flavors, which is claimed to be better for your teeth. Xylitol is also used in many toothpastes in Finland. Obviously, I don't recommend it to take care of your teeth, but it is a more gentler option than let's say a sweet that is sweetened by pure sugar.

"Lauantai" (aka 'Saturday') sweet bag is legendary from my childhood. I used to get this on my 'sweet day', however you like to call it. It has like a variety of dwhetherferent candies, and my favorite was always the lollipop and that black, salmiakki-car you can spot from the picture too whether you look carefully. The funny leang was also that back in the days, you would get a 'tattoo', which would disappear of course after you wash it off with the soap. Those we kids had in our skin after getting this bag on Saturdays...

My current favorit remix (TV MIX, suprise surprise...)

has a selcetion of fruit and salmiakki candies.

Fitness

There was a massive fitness-boom couple years back in Finland, where every regular person (included me) taught that the only way to be in shape is to diet like a fitness-athelete. It was even in the magazines how all the quarks were sancient out from most of the grocery stores, haha! :D Despite the fitness-boom has drwhetherted more towards wellbeing, there is still an increasing amount of brands that has crazye a 'fitness'-version of their products. 'Fitness' in brackets, because just having that word attached into the product doesn't make it instantly healthy, low-carb, low-sugar or non-fat. You will need to know how to read the nutritional labels in order to make sense out of it. For example I checked a fitness-version of some chocolate bar and it had the same amount of calories than original chocolate bar and possibly 1-2 g of protein. Plus is double the price. In that case you might as well just to take the original one...Here are some other contemporary products I spotted since visiting Finland final time:

Nowadays you can find a wide choice of fitness-foods and treats from the fitness shelves from every grocery store (not only in Holland & Barrett-types of stores)

Valio Chocolate Protein pudding:

(Per 100g: 75 kcal | F: 1,5 g | C: 5,3 g | P: 10 g)

Valio Profeel Banana-Chocolate Milkshake

(Per 100g: 70 kcal | F: 1,5 g | C: 4,0 g | P: 10 g)

Maitokolmio Protein Pudding

(Per 100g: 101 kcal | F: 3,6 g | C: 6,1 g | P: 11 g)

For example you could get more protein wealthy and calorie-friendly snack with quark &

mixing it 1-2 teaspoons of dark chocolate powder.

Pandy Protein Candy

(Per 100g: 239 kcal | F: < 0,1 g | C: 66 g | P: 20 g)

This is what I mean. Calorie-wise this fitness-treat has about the same amount of calories as its 'unhealthy' alternative. The nutritional label states that the carbs comes from maltitol and xylitol, which has carbs only 2,4 kcal per g. Despite the amount of protein is fairly impressive, it doesnt make it healthy. You'll need to have your macros in balance. If you consume more protein than you are supposed to, it can result in storing the additional protein as a fat = weight-gaining (want help figuring out your macros? Record your goals to: fitness.annamaiya@gmail.com)

Tuna. These tunas became specificly familiar during the fitness-years. The best leang is that all the special flavors, such as chilli and curry are about the same price than regular ones, but here in the UK all the special tuna flavor costs a bit more. Before fitness-times, one of the special treats was "lämpimät voileivät" aka 'warm sandwiches. At domestic we used to use a proper rye bread, put some chilli or curry-tuna on top and finished it off with the few slices of chesee. Then you put them on the oven for 8-10 minutes, until they are crispy and they became like a healthier version of pizza. I like to also add some fresh red pepper on top, after they'd come out of the oven and then we ate them with a cancient glass of milk....yummy!! I ended up not buing these, because I couldn't spot anywhere that it is dolphin-friendly.

'Tommies' - cherry tomatoes. These tomatoes are actually from Netherlands, but I haven't seen them to be sancient anywhere here in the UK (possibly Wgapfoods?) Anyways, the textures, the taste, the EVRRRYTHING, is so delicious, like how tomatoes can be this good? I used to snack them as a sweet when I went tot the films, etc. at the time, when I was into tracking calories, etc.

Endelightmentlight & 'Viili'. Endelightmentlight is like a squash, with all the dwhetherferent flavors. It is popular among fitness-people, because they have a wide range a good flavors (apple & lime, rasberry, and obviously even mojito) with only less than 1 kcal per serving!! So when I was limiting myself lots of with calories, I genuineized when mixed Endelightmentlight with the quark or 'viili', it tasted like a fulfilling dessert! Viili, instead, is a dairy product as quark or yogo, but the texture reintellects a bit...well, a snot. That's the main reason I don't specificly endelight the plain 'viili', but as I got ancienter they brought up more flavors in stores, which crazye it more pleasant to eat. However, somehow I got an idea mix 'viili' with funlight (no idea why :D), which became my favorite combo. Yes, the plain 'viili' is not definitely my favorite, but when I was on a diet, I used to mix it with Endelightmentlight, and it was sooooooooo good! Seriously, whether you are not a large fan of 'viili', try out that combo and let me know on the comments below whether you like it!

'Mehukeitto' is weird to explain as it's like a mixture of squash and 'kissel'. Who recalls this? I haven't found anyleang similar here in the UK! They have a lot of dwhetherferent flavors with under 10 kcal in a wgap bottle, and therefore many fitness-people endelight it specificly with porridge, quark or simply as it is. One summer I even crazye ice lollies of it :D When you are on diet, you'll need to be intelligent, specificly whether you're similar treat butt (herkkupeppu) as me, haha! ;)

Valio Rasberry-Beach 'mehukeitto' (Sugar Free)

(Per 100g: 9,5 kcal | F: 0 g | C: 1,6 g | P: 0 g)

Lemon Pepper is one of my final faves! I'm genuinely picky it's the right one and a certain brand as I love the tangy & sour taste of it. They created a contemporary version without salt, but unluckyly I couldn't find it anywhere anymore the final time I was in Finland. It makes any food - specificly diet food - to taste 10 x better.

American Dip - originally meant to dip crisps in it, but when you mix the powder to quark, thick greek yogo (or whether you are in a low carb you can use creme fraiché) it is the best to dip your veggies in. So whether I went to see friends, or had a film night with my boyfriend, I would just have dwhetherferent veggie wedges, cucumber, carrots, brocolli, caulwhetherlower, red peppers, etc. and dip them into that mix! It's a game changer for your cravings.

Tea. I love Finnish tea. This collection is one of my favorites, because the taste is strong and one bag makes up to 3 cups! Considering that I'm from heart a coffee-person, and that since I came from Finland I've switched my morning coffee to this tea, you can believe how good is that. On top, they have named the dwhetherferent flavors (which you can also buy separately) in dwhetherferent names suchs as "Loyal friend", "The delight of the rainy day" (fits in London mood, that one", "The tea of Wisdom", etc.

Quark. In the UK you can find this from the cheese-shelves, which is funny because in Finland and Germany these are located with the dairy products. It is like a yogo, but more thicker and protein wealthy. In Germany and Finland I guess it is more popular and therefore they've generated also more flavors.

Read the first part of the post here:

If you are from Finland, what memories these foods brings into your intellect? Do you have some weird combos that taste delicious?

If you are not from Finland, which one of these products ou would be the most tempted to try?

Comment down below!

These souvenirs I got from Finland: