Not Your Grandma's Passover Seder
Many New and Healthier Products Now Grace the Passover Table
There are many new brand names and Kosher products available for the Passover Seder table in 2008. Many are healthier and lower in calories than more traditional brands.
There’s a regular cornucopia of new foods and wines available for thePassover Seder table in 2008. Recently, many of these new Kosher products were showcased at KosherFest, a specialty trade show held each year in New York City.
"This Passover, the emphasis is on products that are either healthier or gourmet, including foods made without spelt, low cholesterol, low fat and low sugar items," Menachem Lubinsky, the co-producer of KosherFest (and editor of Kosher Today ) explained.
Many new brand names have entered the market, in fact, and will be on many store shelves in time for this year’s Passover Table. They include Oxygen Imports, Ora’s Organics, Pereg, Sweet Dreams, Castle Spirits and Reisman’s, among others who will showcase their new products at this year’s KosherFest, to be held at the Meadowlands Convention Center in New York City, November 11-12 in 2008.
Lubinsky attributes this change in more traditional – and fattening – Kosher and Passover delights to the "changing demographics of the Jewish community."
The majority of observant Jews, especially among the Orthodox communities in America, says Lubinsky, are younger consumers, with a "rich appetite for the new and different."
Passover Wines
No where is this more evident, it seems, than with the Passover Seder wine. The Seder meal dictates that four glasses of wine be consumed as part of the yearly ritual feast. In years past, this has often meant four glasses of those richly sweet, sugary products that Grandma enjoyed. Think Manischevitz. Today, the wine on the Seder table might as easily be one of Royal Wine/Kedem’s ten new Passover offerings from around the world, ranging from Cabernets and a Shiraz to a Medoc or Chardonnay. All are significantly drier in taste and more like the "normal" table wines paired with meals everyday.
Baked Goods
As the Passover Week has demanded that observant Jews rid their homes of all leavened grain products – in remembrance of the speed in which the Jews were forced to leave Egypt – desserts and other grain-based products on the Seder table have traditionally meant items like macaroons and meringues that require no flour or anything that can be constructed from Matzah meal. But bakers have been honing their skills in the last few years and producing Passover bakery items that include even cookies, brownies and layer cakes that are free of Chametz.
Beverages and Condiments
This year’s Kosherfest will also feature a wide range of organic (and Kosher) black, green and herbal teas; Turkish coffee, organic honey, Halva, kiwi and mango preserves, exotic marinades, date spreads, peanut butter and even curry.
Matzah
Even matzah is getting a makeover. This year, KosherFest will feature matzah that was created from whole wheat and was high in dietary fiber – and 30 percent lower in calories.
But, while the Passover Seder Table this year might offer more choices than ever in terms of foods, wines, beverages, desserts and all sorts of goodies, the bad news is that Kosher distributors are reporting that they have not been immune from the steep price hikes facing the entire food industry today. Prices for many of their products are expected to be anywhere from 15 to 25 percent higher in 2008 than they were last year.
