Snacks & Sweets

Molochna kraplyna - the milk drop - is the caramel that lives in a bowl on a Ukrainian sideboard, and its twisted wrappers end up in every coat poc...

Yummi Gummi is the bag a Ukrainian parent buys at the kiosk to settle an argument on the way home, and the little bears always go first. Roshen Yum...

In Germany and Austria the lilac wrapper has needed no explaining since 1901, and the Triple bar is the one people open when a single kind of choco...

The Hauchzarte Herzen carton is a fixture of German Valentine's and Mother's Day - wafer-thin heart-shaped tablets in a flat gift box, bought on th...

Waffelini is the bar that goes into a German school Brotdose or a glovebox - five in a sleeve, near enough one for each day of the week. Milka Waff...

Choco Pause is the packet a French or German household keeps for the four-o'clock break, when the children come in the door and something has to be...

Groovy Crunchy Brezel is Ritter's pretzel square, and in Swabia - pretzel country, and Ritter's own home ground - putting salted Brezel pieces into...

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...

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...

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...

Životinjsko carstvo is the chocolate every Croatian and Bosnian kid remembers hunting for the missing animal in the album — the trading happened at...

The Milch-Schnitte is the after-school bite half of Europe grew up on — pulled cold from the shop fridge and gone before the bag was zipped. Kinder...

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...

Milka's Oreo-filled cookies are the packet that turns up at a Balkan children's birthday next to the homemade cake. This is Milka Cookie Sensations...

Milka Oreo White is the bar teenagers in Skopje and Belgrade pick off the kiosk shelf when they want something sweeter than the plain purple one. T...

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...

The small Stollen is the one that goes into a Christmas parcel or an office desk drawer in Germany. This is Schlünder Butter Christstollen from Sch...

Bratapfel, the baked apple, is one of the fixed smells of a German winter, and the apple Stollen carries it in a loaf small enough for two people. ...

In German homes the Stollen is cut thin through Advent, one slice at a time, so a single loaf lasts all four weeks. This is Schlünder Butter Christ...

A Baltic winter evening ends with strong coffee and a dark Pergalė tablet passed around the table. This is dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts — wh...