Nutella

In 2003, my mother and I went on vacation to Turkey to visit our family and friends during the summer. To add a little more context to this, my entire family from both sides of my parents were born and basically raised in Turkey. I was the first one from both sides to be born in America. We are not Turkish, we are full blood Armenians.

So now that you know that I can get back to my trip to Turkey. It was summer break, and I was out of school so we stayed there for nearly two and a half months to get the full benefit of our plane ticket.

We spent the first and last two weeks of our visit in Istanbul where my dad's side of the family is, but we traveled to Samandag, Hatay, Turkey and spent most of our summer there with my mom's side of the family.



We were eating breakfast one day and my uncle bought us Nutella. I've hadn't heard of it before but I saw that it had chocolate in it so I instantly spread it on some homemade bread, tandir ekmeği, and fell in love. Turns out that during the second World War, the creator found that he didn't have enough cocoa beans to make the spread, but he had endless fields of hazelnut. So he mixed them together and voila. An Italian Pastry maker, he had a dream to make cheap, affordable candy that was delicious, he put this Nutella blend into a candy that we love today, Ferrero Rocher.

When I got back to the land of the free, I only found Nutella exclusively in some local middle eastern markets. They were also the actual Nutella imported from Italy, which for some reason has a bolder taste than the one manufactured in the US. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the stuff. Nobody had any idea what it was. Actually, Nutella became really popular in my area two years ago. Three years ago people would look at me funny when I said that I had Nutella for breakfast.

Well now that everybody knows about it they have created National Nutella Day on February 5th. So celebrate.

The taste of Nutella is amazing. It's definitely very thick and creamy. There is a perfect balance of chocolate and hazelnut, neither overpowering the other. It's also perfectly sweetened. I enjoy eating it in many ways. My cousin liked to eat it straight out of the jar. I basically like it on anything, but my favorite way of eating it is with Honey Wheat Pretzels. I just love dipping them together and consuming them as a snack or dessert. Another way I absolutely love eating Nutella is substituting it as jelly in my peanut butter sandwiches.



One thing that everybody should realize is that this stuff is not as healthy as the Nutella comercials make it out to be. It has nearly 0 nutritional value for the calories. People all over Europe understand this, and even they eat it in moderation as a treat. This product should be regarded as a treat and eaten in small quantities. I know it's hard and feel for you, but slow down. America's obesity problem does not need to get worse with this stuff.

This is probably the longest review I have written so far. It's not because I'm in a particular writing mood, it's just that I love this product so much. It just has so much to offer. It's like the best thing that can happen to a chocolate and nut lover like me. If I could have one single complaint about it, it would be that the oil separates from the spread. This problem isn't too bad in the colder months, but during the summer I sadly give Nutella up. I don't have air conditioning in my home so my Nutella will separate like colors in a lava lamp.