Switzerland - Snacks Nom Nom Nom

June 06, 2022

UNLEASH THE SNACK MONSTER!!!

You didn't think we would let interesting or (new) snacks get away from us, did you?

Here are some (non-traditional) snacks that we chomped on while in Switzerland. It's my first time seeing them.

First, we tried this Ovomaltine Crunchy Roll that we got from the bakery section in the supermarket. It costs about 2.20 CHF ($3.13 SGD). Ovomaltine is known as Ovaltine in Singapore. There's no Milo to be seen here - Ovomaltine rules the shelves here!

All the pastries and bread are left on open shelves for seemingly the whole day...so we were not bearing much hope that this would really be 'crunchy' as advertised. To our surprise though, it was! Just wish we could make it warm and toasty - this pastry would then be the perfect snack in the cold! It was always hard to find warm things to eat in the convenient stores here. Wish they had the microwave option or even a hot beverage machine station.

Next, we tried this Chocolate Knoppers bar. It also comes in a cube shape.

This is a sweet bar of hazelnut chocolate, with a layer of rice krispies. Yum!

In the drinks category, we tried some local beer, called Cardinal Blonde, which is a pale lager. It's light as expected but since I now like darker stuff like stout, we didn't order more of it. It was pretty cheap though!

We saw some people buying something called Rivella and after a few times I decided to look it up to find out what it was.

It's apparently a soft drink created in 1952 made from milk whey. Haha, the Swiss really find every way to milk all parts of the cow. The internet describes it as a cross between Calpis (a Japanese yoghurt drink) and a bubble tea. Rivella is supposedly healthy too, containing minerals, micronutrients and lactose.

It usually comes in red and blue flavours. The red is the original while the blue is a low calorie option.

First taste of the original: Oooh! This was fun and fizzy. It isn't as strong as Calpis but has a mild sweet and refreshing taste. Can't believe this is kind of natural and healthy? I think it does contain sugar though.

Well the blue one is supposed to be even healthier...

We could not discern any great distinction between the two. A delightful find!

We also tried some of their potato chips. The flavours are not wildly unique like the Asian Lays flavours, BUT the upside is their chips seem to be quite sturdy and thick! I saw the Zweifel brand everywhere.

I tried some hot and spicy flavours, as well as Zweifel Paprika. Paprika is quite common here - we once bought a cheese spinach crepe and the lady seasoned it with paprika. Paprika is kind of mild to me though.

The potato chips are thick compared to say Calbee or Lays. Addictive and salty as potato chips go.

Ah? I see you noticed the chocolate bar too. The Chokito bar from Nestle tastes pretty much like Mars, but coated with mini rice bits. It's OK but nothing special.

After almost two weeks of train stations, we spotted lots of people buying this particular brand of instant coffee, "Lattesso" from the convenient shops. Had to go satisfy my curiosity and grab one of my own.

Turns out it offers a little cookie on its lid! It carries flavours like espresso, mocha, macchiato, lactose-free, sugar-free, salted caramel and reduce calories.

I drank my coffee on the train, just like how the locals do it. The cookie is wrapped in aluminium foil.

It is smaller than I thought but a cute butter cookie is better than no butter cookie. Crispy too! Definitely a fine companion on your romantic train ride.

As for the coffee, it is lightly sweet, creamy and has a nice caramel flavour to it. At the price point of 2.40CHF ($3.41), it's a great takeaway option and definitely beats crappy machine coffee if you're in a hurry.

Side note: the three Airbnbs we stayed in all had Nespresso machines! I didn't know it was such a common thing in Swiss homes? Perhaps Nespresso machines and capsules are an easier, cheaper and more convenient coffee option for them, compared to how we Singaporeans can get kopi (or Starbucks) way more easily at almost every corner of the street.

Finally, I don't know if you consider yoghurt as a snack but I guess I'll classify it as a small eat. We tried a few yoghurts (or jogurt as they spell it) and these two are our favourites.

The Cappuccino flavour from this brand that we could only find at the supermarket Denner. It's a cheaper, discount supermarket, kind of like Sheng Siong in Singapore. We frequented it 🤣

We also like this Hazelnut flavour from COOP (the slightly pricier but higher quality supermarket). I think this is their house brand! We also tried the Mocha flavour but this one was much better because it had little chopped hazelnut bits in it. The supermarket yoghurt scene in Switzerland has so much to offer! In Singapore we usually get (boring) fruit flavours.