The complete guide to Krembo — Israel's most beloved winter confection. 50 million sold each year, available only October–February. Vanilla and mocha flavors, kosher certified, shipped from Israel to the USA. Shop now at KosherTop.

Every October, something changes in Israel.

The supermarket shelves that were empty all summer suddenly fill with silver-foiled towers. School lunchboxes acquire a new occupant. Office kitchens develop an unofficial policy of communal sharing. Children begin debating, with total seriousness, the correct way to eat it.

Krembo season has begun.

Krembo (קרמבו) — a biscuit base, a dome of whipped vanilla or mocha marshmallow cream, covered in a thin shell of dairy-free chocolate and wrapped in silver foil — is Israel's most beloved confection. Over 50 million are sold each year, roughly nine per person. It has been a staple of Israeli childhood for three generations. And it is available for only four months of the year, from October to February, because it simply cannot survive an Israeli summer.

You are reading this in October. Krembo season just started. There is no better time to order.

What Is Krembo?

Krembo is three things in one:

1. A thin, crisp biscuit base — like a small, round tea biscuit
2. A dome of whipped marshmallow cream — light, airy, sweet, taller than it looks
3. A coating of dairy-free baking chocolate — thin, slightly bitter, snapping cleanly when you bite through it

The whole thing is wrapped in silver foil, individual portions, and sold in boxes. Each piece is about the size of a large golf ball — small enough to eat in two or three bites, substantial enough to feel like a treat.

Ingredients: Biscuit base (wheat flour, sugar, palm oil), marshmallow cream (sugar, glucose syrup, egg whites), chocolate coating (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla). Kosher: The chocolate coating is dairy-free (parve), making Krembo one of the few chocolate confections that can be eaten after a meat meal. This is a significant practical advantage in kosher households. Season: October to February only. Krembo cannot be stored in heat — it melts, collapses, and loses its texture. This is not a design flaw. It is a feature. The limitation is what makes Krembo season an event.

The History of Krembo

From Denmark to Pre-State Israel

The treat that became Krembo did not originate in Israel. Its ancestors were Northern European chocolate-coated marshmallow biscuits — versions of which exist in Denmark (flødeboller), Scotland (Tunnock's Teacakes), and other countries. Ashkenazi Jews fleeing persecution in Europe brought homemade versions of these confections to Ottoman Palestine during the early waves of aliyah.

There is a practical theory about how Krembo became an Israeli institution: ice cream factory owners, facing the collapse of their summer sales during Israel's cold winters, created a treat that could fill the gap. A winter confection to replace the summer ice cream. Whether or not this origin story is precisely accurate, it captures something true about Krembo's role: it is Israel's winter comfort food, the thing that fills the seasonal void left when the weather turns cold.

The Name

The original name of the treat, used by the Whitman Company that first manufactured it commercially in Israel, was considered offensive and was retired. In the 1960s, the product was renamed Krembo — from the Hebrew words krem (cream) and bo (in it). "Cream in it." Simple, accurate, and slightly endearing.

Strauss Acquires Whitman — 1979

In 1979, Strauss — today one of Israel's largest food companies — acquired the Whitman Company and with it the Krembo brand. Strauss has owned and manufactured Krembo ever since. The product has remained remarkably unchanged: in 2018, Strauss removed the aluminum foil wrapper and replaced it with a paper one (a sustainability decision that caused genuine public debate), but the recipe itself has stayed essentially constant for decades.

50 Million Per Year

Today, Strauss sells over 50 million Krembo units per year in Israel — in a country of approximately 9 million people. That is roughly nine Krembo per person, every winter. No other confection in Israel comes close to this level of per-capita consumption during a seasonal window.

In 2005, Strauss began exporting Krembo to the United States and Canada under kosher certification — the first time the treat was officially available in North America.

The Two Flavors

🍦 Vanilla — The Original and the Best-Loved

The original Krembo. Vanilla marshmallow cream in a chocolate shell on a biscuit base. The vanilla filling is light and airy — not heavy like buttercream, not dense like marzipan — with a clean sweetness that works perfectly against the slightly bitter chocolate coating.

Vanilla Krembo is, by far, the most purchased flavor. If you have never had a Krembo, this is the one to start with.

Best for: First-time Krembo buyers, the classic Israeli experience, gifting to Israelis abroad, anyone who loves chocolate and marshmallow Kosher: Parve — chocolate coating is dairy-free

🛒 Order Krembo Vanilla →

☕ Mocha — The 1967 Addition

Mocha Krembo was introduced in 1967, joining the original vanilla. The filling is coffee-flavored — the same airy marshmallow base, but with a mocha note that pairs differently with the chocolate coating than vanilla does. For coffee lovers, mocha Krembo is the more interesting choice.

Best for: Coffee lovers, those who find vanilla too sweet, the Krembo upgrade Kosher: Parve

🛒 Order Krembo Mocha →

The Great Krembo Eating Debate

This is not a trivial matter. According to Strauss's own research into how Israelis eat their Krembo:

• 69% eat from the top down — starting with the chocolate dome, working through the marshmallow, finishing with the biscuit
• 10% start with the biscuit — eating the base first, then the marshmallow and chocolate together
• 11% have no strong preference

There is a minority view that the correct approach is to unwrap the foil, flip the Krembo upside down, and eat the biscuit last — saving the structural base as a final act. Others bite straight through the whole thing at once.

There is also the freezing camp. Some Israelis freeze their Krembo, producing a firmer chocolate shell and a denser, more intense filling. Others microwave it briefly for a gooey center. Neither approach is wrong. Both have passionate defenders.

What is clear: there is no neutral way to eat a Krembo. Everyone has a method, and everyone is prepared to defend it.

Krembo in Israeli Culture

Three Generations of Childhood

Krembo has been part of Israeli childhood since the 1960s. Three generations of Israelis grew up eating it at birthday parties, finding it in their lunchboxes, buying it from the school kiosk. For Israeli adults living abroad, a box of Krembo from KosherTop is not just a snack — it is a memory that can be tasted.

Harry Potter's Krembo

In the official Hebrew translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Dumbledore's favorite sweet — described in English as a lemon sherbet drop — was translated as a Krembo. The translator, Gili Bar-Hillel, made the decision deliberately: she wanted Israeli children to feel the same sense of something beloved and slightly eccentric that English readers feel when they read "sherbet lemon." The substitution worked. An entire generation of Israeli Harry Potter readers now imagines Dumbledore eating Krembo.

Krembo Shortages

In 2017, a shortage of Krembo was reported across Israel — supply chain disruptions affecting Strauss's production led to empty shelves and genuine nationwide distress. The story was covered by national media. This is the level of cultural significance Krembo holds: a shortage of it is news.

The Season as Event

"Krembo season" is a real cultural phenomenon. Israelis who have been watching for the return of Krembo to supermarket shelves since March greet the October appearance with genuine enthusiasm. Social media fills with first-Krembo-of-the-season photographs. Families buy boxes. Schools serve them at parties.

The seasonality is part of the product's identity. If Krembo were available year-round, it would lose something essential. The scarcity — real scarcity, built into the product by climate — is what makes each Krembo season feel like a small national celebration.

Why Order Krembo from KosherTop?

Shipped Directly from Israel

Krembo available in the United States is often a small run exported by Strauss, limited to a few East Coast kosher supermarkets with Jewish communities large enough to make stocking it viable. Outside those areas, Krembo is essentially unavailable.

KosherTop ships Krembo directly from Israel to anywhere in the USA — bringing the seasonal treat to Israeli expats and kosher food enthusiasts regardless of where they live.

Fresh in Season

We ship Krembo during the Krembo season (October–February). Orders placed during this window receive fresh, current-production Krembo from Israel — not old stock from a warehouse.

Kosher Parve — A Real Advantage

Krembo's dairy-free chocolate coating makes it one of the few chocolate confections that can be eaten after a meat meal in a kosher household. This is not a minor point. For observant families, finding a kosher parve chocolate treat that is genuinely delicious — not a compromise — matters. Krembo is that product.

Gift for Israelis Abroad

A box of Krembo sent to an Israeli living in the United States is one of the most appreciated food gifts possible. It says: someone remembered what you miss from home, and they found a way to send it. At the right time of year, it can arrive as a complete surprise — Krembo season starting, unexpectedly, in an American city.

Krembo Serving Ideas

The Classic: Remove foil, eat from top to bottom, finish with the biscuit. No accompaniment needed.

With Coffee: Krembo and a cup of Elite Turkish coffee is a classic Israeli pairing — the bitterness of the coffee against the sweetness of the marshmallow is genuinely excellent.

Frozen: Wrap box in a bag, freeze for 2-3 hours. The chocolate becomes firmer and the filling denser. A different and excellent experience.

Party Platter: Unwrap six or eight Krembo, arrange on a plate, bring to any gathering. They disappear immediately. This is reliable.

With Children: Hand a child their first Krembo and watch them decide how to eat it. The decision is always made with great deliberation.

KosherTop is Israel's premier online store, shipping authentic Israeli food — including Krembo during its season, October through February — directly from Israel to customers across the USA and worldwide. Based in Hod Hasharon, Israel. Operating since 2015.