Best Sellers

The 3in1 stick is Ukrainian office and petrol-station coffee: tear the corner, tip it into hot water, and the morning is handled for small change. ...

The Nussklasse bars are Ritter's whole-nut line - the ones a German shopper reaches for when the nut should be seen and heard, not just tasted. Rit...

The mint square is the Ritter that lives in the glovebox and the desk drawer - dark chocolate, a cold green filling, and the same snap-off corner a...

Ritter Sport Joghurt was a German first when it arrived in 1971 - nobody had put yoghurt inside a chocolate bar before, and it landed squarely in t...

Gurabija is the plain almond biscuit a Macedonian household keeps in a tin for whoever comes to the door, and it carries the days between the holid...

In North Macedonia the long box of wafer sticks is what gets opened when guests arrive and the coffee goes on: everybody takes two and nobody count...

In Poland the small brown Maggi bottle lives on the table beside the salt and pepper, and a few drops go into rosol, over pierogi, into tatar - it ...

Fruhlingssuppe is the clear soup that turns up on German tables around Easter and then keeps coming back all winter, because it is on the table fiv...

In a German kitchen the Fix sachet is what a Tuesday looks like - minced beef in the pan, the bag torn open over it, and the sauce done before the ...

Surowka z czerwonej kapusty is the jar a Polish household opens when there is roast meat and potatoes and the plate needs something sharp against t...

On Polish Easter tables the horseradish jar stands next to the blessed eggs and white sausage, sharp enough to stop the conversation for a second. ...

Blue Hawai is the bottle that stops a table - bright blue glass in a row of reds and greens, and it sells from Gulf supermarket shelves to Beirut k...

Berry Mix is the darker bottle in the Freez row, the one the older cousins take when the strawberry is too sweet for them. Freez Mix Berry Mix is a...

The red bottle is the one the children get first at a Lebanese birthday table, one each, straight out of the ice bucket. Freez Mix Strawberry Mix i...

Pomegranate is the flavour a Levantine table recognises before it is named, and Freez sells it the way it gets drunk - cold, fizzy, in a bottle pai...

In Beirut the painted Freez bottle comes out of the shop cooler in July and the cap is off before the money is on the counter. Freez Mix Lemon &...

Maoam is what German kids chant at the kiosk counter, and the Bloxx cube is the shape it takes when one piece has to last the walk home. Maoam Blox...

Zacuscă is what a Romanian family cans in October, in a yard full of blistered peppers and roasted eggplant, to be opened one jar at a time all win...

Dulceață de fructe de pădure is the jar Romanians reach for at papanași time, thick with blackcurrant, blackberry and raspberry off the hills. This...

Coacăze negre grow in Romanian kitchen gardens, and the jam gets spooned onto plain buttered bread by the grandmother who boiled it. This is Rauren...

Dulceață de nuci verzi is the jar a Romanian host brings out on a small saucer with a glass of cold water, one dark walnut per guest. This is Raure...

The big purple slab is the one a Balkan family buys for the whole table, not the pocket — the bar that comes out after Sunday lunch and goes around...

The purple Milka bar with whole hazelnuts is the one German and Balkan children learn to snap along the squares so the nuts stay whole. This is Mil...

Jamaica rum in a German pound cake is a Sunday-afternoon habit, the bottle kept in the cupboard for baking and nothing else. This is Schlünder Jama...