With the arrival of Ashkenazi Jews fleeing persecution in Europe during the second aliyah to pre-state Israel, they brought with them their traditional foods and confections including the predecessor to the krembo. Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats were popular as homemade sweets among the Ashkenazi in the early 20th century. The first manufacturer, the Whitman Company, coined the name Krembo. In Hebrew, the wordkrembo is a combination of krem and bo. A mocha flavour was introduced in 1967. In 1979 Whitman was acquired by Strauss which has the major part of the krembo market in Israel. During the 1980s and 1990s smaller manufacturers introduced additional flavours such as banana and strawberry but failed to achieve a significant market share. In 2005, Strauss signed an agreement with Unilever to export ice cream and krembos to the United States and Canada due to a demand for products of this type with strict kosher certification. Under terms of the agreement, they may be sold only in kosher supermarkets and import shops. The distributor in North America is Dairy Delight, a subsidiary of Norman's Dairy. In 2007, Nestlé introduced an ice cream variation of krembo called Lekbo.
Overview
Due to Israel's Mediterranean climate, with long, warm summers, krembos are a seasonal treat sold only four months a year, from October to February. They are not sold during the rest of the year due to their fragility and as they are prone to melting when exposed to heat m Krembos are the most popular confection in Israel, with over 50 million krembos are sold each year—an average of 9 per person.
Nutritional information
The average krembo weighs 25 grams and has 115 calories. According to the fine print on packing foil, per 100 gr of krembo there are 419 calories, 3.2 gr protein, 64 gr carbohydrates ; 16.7% Fats and 67 mg Sodium.
Halachic rules related to Krembo
Under kashrut, the dietary rules of Jewish law or, some orthodox rabbis find significance to the order in which one eats a Krembo. The blessing over the biscuit is boreh miney mezonot, whereas the blessing over the cream and chocolate is shehakol nihiyya bidvaro. According to halacha, when eating a dish of mixed components, one need pronounce only the blessing over the main components, thus for a chocolate croissant one would say the blessing over the dough, and skip the blessing over the chocolate. But in the case of the Krembo, there is no consensus as to which is the "main" component: the biscuit, or the cream and chocolate. One solution is to bless over each component separately.
Israeli rock band Kaveret's hit song "Shir HaMakolet" mentions a character buying Krembo. In the Hebrew version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, translator Gili Bar-Hillel translated Dumbledore's favourite sweet as a Krembo, instead of a sherbet lemon. Alon 'Krembo' Sagiv is a fictional character in the Israeli cult film Mivtza Savta, as a child on a kibbutz he once stole an entire case of Krembos and locked himself in his room. With the entire kibbutz waiting for him outside he had to dispose of the evidence and ate the entire case, earning himself his much-loathed nickname. Although considered a children's treat, sociologists have found that it is consumed as a comfort food by Israeli expatriates in the United States, evoking nostalgia for their childhood.
