Rosies Gluten Free Cereals

I occasionally meet people who are a little jealous of me being a gluten free blogger.  Most of the time this is met with bemusement from me, being a blogger is hardly flying me around in first class whilst staying at the ritz.  But then, sometimes, I remember that I get packages of free food in the mail.  Then I completely agree with them and think that life isn’t so bad really.  Who doesn’t want some surprise gluten free food.  On this occasion, the lovely people from Rosies sent me a box full of their cereal offerings, five boxes and two milkshake breakfast type things.  Happiness indeed.

After surviving on home made muesli and granola for my breakfasts for years (I gave up on most German cereal offerings a while ago) it was quite a welcome break to just pop a box open and eat.  The first one I tried was the one with the monkey face on, obviously.

Choco Pops, gluten free and vegan.  I’ve had off brand coco pops before and they were never quite the cereal that I used to consume as a child.  They never had the right crunch or they never turned the milk the right amount of chocolatey.

Thankfully though, these were absolutely amazing, just what I remembered eating.  They retain their crunch just long enough and the left over milk is deliciously chocolatey.  They are way and above any other gluten free chocolate based puffed rice cereal I’ve bought.

Next up I needed something a little more healthy (I may have finished the choco pops too quickly).

Organic Oat Muesli, sounds healthy, possibly dull, possibly a bit to grey/beige.

To be fair, it does look a little that way in this photo, but after you add a little milk it is most definitely not.  It has the perfect balance of fruit to nuts to oats.  The dried fruits are just dried enough and don’t require any tough chewing.  All in all a rival for the Choco Pops as my favourite, only in a more adult healthy way.

Next up we have Red Berry Flakes.

They were pretty great in terms of gluten free cereal, the same as the choco pops, just the right level of crunch and flavour.

Next we have the superfood pomegranate, raspberry and chia crunchy muesli.

The flavour of this one was amazing, another perfect balance of crunch and berry.  Although, this is the only cereal I had a minor problem with, the pomegranate seeds were always a shock when you’d get one of them in a bite.

The last cereal is the Oats and Apple Porridge.

I haven’t been a fan of the pre-made porridges I’ve bought here before, they’re usually somewhat inferior to what I can make myself with some rolled oats.  But again, Rosies are pretty great at getting that perfect balance of flavours and their porridge is simply great (as it seems with every cereal that they do).

Lastly, we have two of their breakfast in a glass milk shake drinks.

These were a little less amazing than the cereals, mostly as I wasn’t a huge fan of the consistency (it can get a little too gooey for my liking), but adding extra milk soon sorted that problem out.  The caramel one has a really great flavour to it and was easily my favourite of the two.

In conclusion, Rosies products are pretty amazing.  They are far far above any of the German gluten free cereals I’ve bought and better than a lot of the British ones too.  I would highly recommend that you give one a try, the only downside is that it’ll be hard to go back to anything else.

If you’re looking for them, I’ve seen them on sale in Rewe fairly often.

Genius in Germany – Part 2

If you have read my first post on Genius, you’ll know that the most amazing thing in the world is happening.  Genius Gluten Free are launching here in Germany!!  No more long shelf life bread.  No more solid ‘brick buns’.  No more sadly eating sandwiches that are a bit naff.  Just good, fresh, gluten free bread.

It has been almost two months since I learned about all this, but, to be honest I’m still just as excited.  Mostly as I can now actually walk into a supermarket and buy Genius bread, even if for the time being it’s only in a few participating Kaisers.  I mean, just look at it!

‘But, what should I buy?’ I hear you say.  Well.  A good first try is their white loaf.

It’s nice and soft, fresh and approximately a million times better than any other gluten free loaf you can buy here.  Now I know that some of you may prefer a harder loaf.  But we’re talking about sandwich bread here, you simply cannot make a good sandwich with a solid block of bread.  It’s just terrible.

Also, their dark loaf and their similar ‘traditional’ dark bread are pretty damn good too.

This one is the best for making toast.  Especially cheese on toast, it’s simply amazing, mostly as it actually toasts like real bread.

There are of course, their amazing muffins and their absolutely ridiculously good buns.  Check out my first post on Genius for my review of them.

For now, there is just a trial in eight Kaisers stores.  So if you want Genius to stay here in Germany you should go and buy 5 loaves a day.  Right now.

• Bergmannstrasse 5, 10961 Berlin
• Nollendorfplatz 8-9 10777 Berlin
• Neue Kantstrasse 29, 14057 Berlin
• Clayallee 336, 14169 Berlin
• Winsstrasse 18, 10405 Berlin
• Revalerstrasse 2, 10243 Berlin
• Baumschulenstrasse 31, 12437 Berlin
• Boelschestrasse 32, 12587 Berlin

 

Genius in Germany

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, it should come as no surprise that I’ve been unhappy with the state of gluten free bread in Germany for many years.  Yes, technically, the bread you can buy now is much much better than what you could buy six years ago.  But, saying that, I have also become desensitised to how bad the gluten free bread is here and I have lowered my standards a little to accept it.  All of this unhappiness is due to the fact that I have sampled very good gluten free bread back in the UK and in other countries.  I know how good a gluten-less life could be like and, in comparison, how bad it is here.

Thankfully though, the lovely lovely people at Genius Gluten Free have decided to save us all and launch their products here in Germany.  Now, some of you (probably the British amongst my readers) will have just experienced their head exploding with joy.  For the rest of you unfamiliar with Genius, they produce perhaps the best gluten free bread you can buy in a supermarket, anywhere.  Now, this is quite a statement and I’ve not tried every single bread in the world, but there is such a difference between the Schaer and Schnitzers of the world and Genius, I feel pretty comfortable saying it.

First off, and most importantly, they make fresh bread.  There is no three month shelf life in sight here, no long list of chemicals pumped into the bread to make it last forever to satiate those nervous store owners.  As a result it’s pretty healthy (well, as much as gluten free bread can be) and tastes roughly a million times better.  Who knew that making a bread to have a good taste, texture and be eaten fresh would be good? (oh, only all those gluten tolerant people who get to do it every day)

If you’re thinking “Oh, I’ve tried all that gluten free bread before, it’s terrible.  I’ve given up completely on bread and I’m not going to bother with another one.”.  Give it a chance.  Buy a loaf or two and some rolls.  You will be happier.

At the moment they’re only launching a limited selection of their products and, for now (see more below), they’re available on foodoase.de here :

http://foodoase.de/shop/system/?func=searchdo&field_17=Genius&

I was fortunate enough to meet up with the owner Lucinda and their German Genius team a little while ago and just look at the bounty they provided me :

Four types of loaves, muffins and buns!  Happiness.  Plus, they gave me a little deeper knowledge into the company and what it is they’re trying to do.  Basically to make life normal for us, to make us feel like we don’t just have to ‘make do’ with bad gluten free products.  How many times have you bought a packaged loaf from some biomarkt that was probably baked a month ago and had to reactivate it with grilling or some such just to make it taste passable?  Other people don’t have to do this, so why should we?

But, I know you really want to hear about the actual bread.  So, the first thing I had to try was the white rolls.  The easiest way to put this is that rolls like these are simply not available here in Germany.  You can buy ‘rolls’ here but they’re more akin to a solid lump of stone that has never even heard of the concept of air.

Yes, they are every bit as amazing as they look.  Soft, delicious and very close to ‘real’ bread.  You simply have to try them to believe how good they are.  Plus they have a seeded version (they are equally as good, although this photo was taken a few days later when they were a little less fresh, hence the slight crumble).

Then, of course, I had to wash down the rolls with a muffin.  Just look at it.

Lemon and poppy seed.  It was easily better than any muffin I’ve had here, even those ‘freshly baked’ ones that are available in cafes.

Then there is the fruit bread.  Another one of these products you cannot buy here and it is simply delicious.

There are other loaves, a couple of darker ones and a white, but for now I’ll leave you with the tease of the ones above.  The reason for this is that they will soon start selling genius in a few select Kaisers!!!  YES!!!  Actually just being able to walk to the shop and buy some on a whim!!!  It will be a trial to see how well the breads sell, so we’ll all have to go and buy lots and lots to convince them to stock Genius forever!  I’ll post up part two of my review then as a little reminder.  Although, if you can’t wait, be sure to check out Sole Satisfaction for her own review (and amazing photos) of all the genius breads here.

The list of Kaisers for the trial is as follows :

From Monday 1st February :

• Bergmannstrasse 5, 10961 Berlin
• Nollendorfplatz 8-9 10777 Berlin
• Neue Kantstrasse 29, 14057 Berlin
• Clayallee 336, 14169 Berlin

From Tuesday 2nd Februrary :

• Winsstrasse 18, 10405 Berlin
• Revalerstrasse 2, 10243 Berlin
• Baumschulenstrasse 31, 12437 Berlin
• Boelschestrasse 32, 12587 Berlin

Product Review – Schär Meisterbäckers Vital Frischbrot

I used to spend a lot of time on this blog complaining about the terrible state of gluten free bread here in Germany.  To be fair, when I started back in 2010, the glutenfrei bread here was pretty abysmal.  Tasteless bricks of compressed sand for the most part.  Fortunately for us, all those German manufacturers were not sitting around resting on their laurels, they were busy tinkering and experimenting, gradually providing us with better and better bread.  The latest I’ve tested is the Schär Meisterbäckers Vital Frischbrot, a bit of a mouthful to type so, if I refer to it again, I’ll call it Vital Brot.

The packaging is much the same as all of the other Schär fresh breads, a giant balloon holding a soft squishy loaf.

Inside you get the usual plastic tray containing the gluten free goodies.  The vital brot (yay, i referred to it by name again) is pretty good by my standards.  There’s a good flavour to it, nothing too strong, just about right.  The texture is great too, not too crumbly and the little seeds add some bite.

In conclusion, I’d recommend it, I think it’s my favourite of the frischbrot from Schär.

Product Review – Gluten Free from mymuesli.com

One of the joys of running this blog is that I am occasionally invited to product launches and events, there’s something about free food that just makes it taste better.  Recently mymeusli.com invited me to partake in an open day at their offices to sample their gluten free muesli options, great!  After some introductions and other niceties I noticed a rather large selection of tubes, all containing muesli goodness.  I was definitely being optimistic and hoping that they would be mostly gluten free.

Unfortunately, this was not the case.  Not really their fault, but mine.  I always rate the importance of a company providing Gluten Free products in line with the importance I place upon eating said Gluten Free products.  If only the world agreed.  They do, however, have a couple of tubes of glutenfrei goodness, helpfully coloured in such a way that they stand out from the rest of the line.

The two options are berries and chocolate, the two best additions to any breakfast in my opinion.  The muesli itself is rather good, much better than the dusty offerings from Verival, Herz or Hammermühle.  It is less prone to crumbling and has a little more flavour to it.

All in all, I’d recommend buying some.

Unfortunately mymuesli were not able to provide a list of places you could buy the Gluten Free tubes and so far I have only seen them for sale in my local Rewe.  So, I’d keep an eye out for them, but it may be best to order online.

Website – They can be a little hard to find on the site, but there is a link at the very bottom of the page.

Product Review – New Schnitzer Breads

I often lament the state of gluten free bread here in Germany, but, if you ignore the bricks made of rice whose recipes haven’t changed in 10 years, it is possible to actually find something decent these days.  Thankfully, due to this blog, a little while ago I didn’t even have to go and search for some.  I just received a package in the mail from Schnitzer one day and much to my delight it was filled with their new range of breads!  As ever, at first I was skeptical, another bread, why, it’ll be the same as all the others!   But my negativity did not last long and I soon broke into the Bio Focaccia.

They come in a pack of 4, separated into pairs in their own container, I assume to help with not stuffing your face like a maniac 4 at a time.  10 minutes and 200 degrees later, I had these on my plate.

Granted, they are not much to look at, and to be honest they were a little on the thin side.  But they tasted pretty good, even if a little chewy.  In a pinch I’d buy them, but if I had the option I’d plump for the Schaer alternative, they’re a bit more bread like.

Next up were a range of three types of baguettes.  For starters, I went with the classic.

They come in their own little cardboard container with the two baguettes wrapped individually, a thoroughly sensible decision.  After a little baking (which is a must with any of the commercial gluten free offerings) I had this little twist of food.

Inside it was pretty soft, not chewy, not dry and it also had a pretty good taste to it.  Happy, it is good bread, but I was not amazed.

Next up came the rustic baguette.

Rustic is what is says and rustic is kind of what you get (I’ve never been too clear on what exactly rustic is, and never cared enough to actually find out).

This one was a definite improvement on the already passable classic baguette.  It had a much better texture and taste to it, whilst keeping and nice soft moist interior.

Finally I came to the pinnacle, the Grainy baguette.

It certainly sounds better, but then I’ve always had a thing for grainy bread.

Happily it was rather sublime, maintaining the soft interior, complete lack of a sandcastle like texture and a superior taste.  I was hard pressed to tell the difference between it and the memory of ‘real’ bread I contain in my head.

In conclusion, go and buy the grainy baguette now, if not find the rustic and be content that they’re pretty damn close to the real thing.

Available in most places that sell the Schnitzer range.

Product Review – Rewe Sandwich Bread

For some reason, when I saw that Rewe were offering their own brand of gluten free products, I wasn’t expecting greatness.  I hoped, as always, that it would surprise me and be good, although I expected disappointment.  But, I may have been burned too many times by buying a new variety of glutenfrei bread, taking it home and discovering it was lacking in many ways, so I thought, what the heck, lets buy some and give it a try!

Now, if this review was a hollywood romantic comedy about falling in love with bread, I’d be saying ‘well, after I tried it I had a huge surprise! it’s actually amazing’, but alas, this is the real world where disappointment exists and the end result was somewhat terrible.

As you can probably tell from the picture, it’s solid, dry, has an air of staleness and is very prone to crumble into dust.  Plus, the slices themselves are rather tiny.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that Rewe is accommodating us gluten afflicted, they ARE making an effort and their range is pretty good.  I just wish it was something better and not more of the same.

In conclusion, I cannot recommend it.

Website

Product Review – Semper Glutenfrei Pasta

One of the larger pains from being one of the gluten afflicted is that most ready meals are out of your reach, they often contain some form of wheat, mostly as it’s a cheap way of packing out cheap food.  In some ways, it’s a benefit not being able to eat such things, it leads us to eat fresher and healthier food, even if we have the slight downside of mostly cooking it ourselves.  But, there are those occasions when you simply do not have any free time, you’re in a rush and need something quick and easy.  Thankfully, there are some gluten free ready meals, of a sort, available and I received a couple of them through the post (along with a small red hedgehog cheese grater) from the Swedish brand Semper.

The first I tried is the Fusilli Funghi.

I was a little concerned with the small packet, ideas of a single serving vary from person to person, plus with the amount of water the instructions required, it looked a little odd in the pan.

But, as with all ready meals, some faith is required that the end product will appear.  Thankfully, the water soon thickened and this is what popped out at the end (with a little cheese based assistance).

All in all, it was good enough, especially as I had to put no effort into making it atall.  I’d forgotten such a simple pleasure.

The second packet was a Penne Carbonara.

I had much the same thoughts, but was a little excited to see the word ‘Bacon’ on the packet.

The little brown squares are said bacon.  It could of been worse.

The end result was pleasing enough, again, with the ‘no effort’ part enhancing the whole experience.

In conclusion, they are quick, easy, taste as good as you’d expect any ready meal to taste.  But as they’re about the only gluten free version of a pasta ready meal, I’d definitely buy a few to stick in your cupboard.

A side note though, I have yet to spot them for sale in Berlin, so your only option may be online purchase.  If you have spotted them, please comment on this review so others can find them too.

Website

Product Review – Schär Backstuben Express Fein

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I’ve never been impressed with the gluten free bread offerings here in Germany.  Generally they’re all sturdy lumps of bread with a stale consistency, which, upon entering your mouth, crumble into a powdery dust.  But, thankfully, things are changing, even if a little on the slow side.  A while ago I came across a new offering from Schär on the shelves of my local reformhaus (it’s hard to miss as it comes in it’s own giant balloon like package) and promptly purchased some with the notion that it would be the same as all the previous offerings.  Passable, but not great (my positivity that it’s worth buying new breads, as they may actually be good, mixed in with my negativity that all gluten free bread here is generally bad).

So, when I actually tried some, I was pleasantly surprised.  It’s soft, fairly fresh and doesn’t crumble too much.  On my personal scale of ‘Compressed Sand’ to ‘Are you sure this isn’t gluten bread?’, it’s up there, around the 8.5 out of 10 mark, and it’s definitly the best glutenfrei bread I’ve had here.  The only grumble I have is that you do not get many slices, but it’s not the end of the world.

In conclusion, yes, buy it, although expect to be mostly satisfied rather than amazed.

Website

Product Review – Terra Nova Brötchen

I like walking into a shop and being surprised by a new item of gluten free food, something that I was not expecting, it completely cheers up my day, especially if that new food is something that you couldn’t buy previously.  Now, you may be thinking “well, that’s just a simple packet of two gluten free bread rolls, they’re available everywhere are they not?”, and I don’t blame you for such a thought, I had the same one when I first moved here.  But, for some reason, they were not sold here.  You could buy tiny rectangular rolls, which whilst tasty and good, were not suitable to put a burger in.  I do not know why this was the case, I am just happy that it is no longer.

The buns themselves are pretty good in terms of glutenfrei products here, although, as with all gluten free bread here, it is a little on the hard and crumbly side.  Thankfully, not too crumbly though, not enough to cause a bother at least.  Certainly not enough to stop you grabbing as many as you can and being happy you can eat a proper burger again.

In conclusion, I’d recommend them, even if mostly for their bun-ness.

Available in : Quentin Reformhaus Alexa and many other places.