Throughout human history, food dominates and is a characteristic element of the cultural culture of every place, race and era. The culinary variety has a huge range, but the same is found in the frequency and content of the main and small meals.
Because small meals, these light meals or leftovers have been consumed by humans since ancient times. Modern civilization, let alone Western, did not discover this word with four letters. Snacks hide a lot of history behind them and constitute an entire culinary philosophy.
Because very simply snacks, or kolatsio as we call it in our country, covers the small needs for food during the day, between the main meals. They are what give us strength and energy to continue. In ancient times, these tended to be natural, sweet foods that required little or no preparation, such as grapes, figs, or apples.
The big change in the historical path of snacking is found in nineteenth-century America with the peanut as the protagonist, where interest in snacks gradually shifted from natural foods to prepared commercial foods, high in salt, sugar and fat. After the Civil War, the peanut flavor spread north, where it became incorporated into the culture of baseball games and vaudeville theaters. Popcorn followed, and the snacks first bore the stigma of being sold by unhealthy street vendors. Middle-class etiquette of the Victorian era (1837–1901) categorized any food that did not require the proper use of utensils as inferior.
In the early twenty-first century processed and packaged foods are what are now considered snacks. The term "junk food" was of course popularized much later, in 1972 by Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Concern over empty calories continued, and of particular concern was the targeting of youth by snack companies.
To be more precise it was from 1950 that the United States became a nation of snackers. Manufacturers introduced a range of packaged snacks that catered to basic cravings for sugar, salt and fat. By the 1980s, people were snacking everywhere – at home, at work and at school, as well as while in the car or walking down the sidewalk.
The snack, especially the packaged one, became part of American pop culture, and spread throughout the Western world and heavily in Europe, much like Coca Cola. They also started to have special names... "morning snack", "school snack", "work snack", "afternoon snack", "bedtime snack", "late night snack" or "midnight snack" and it goes saying.
This lasted until 2000. It was at the turn of the millennium that concerns about the loss of healthy eating patterns and the overconsumption of foods with little nutritional value began to be strongly expressed. And there was the big shift… to the status quo ante.
Traditionally, snacks were made from ingredients commonly available at home without much preparation and designed to be portable, quick and filling. Often fruits, nuts, salves, creams and butters, cold meats, leftovers, sandwiches and sweets are used as snacks.
In Greece, before we introduced the habit of snacking, we always had kolatso. Etymologically it is a medieval Greek word "kolatsion" and Venetian from "colazione" meaning breakfast. Conceptually it has always been the snack, the breakfast, eaten between the main meals – the tenth or afternoon meal in other words.
However, what is certain is that whether we call it kolacho or snack, the junk food that we prepare ourselves is part of Greek culture and our need for it takes off during the summer.
A little bit of the heat that doesn't "lift" heavy and large meals, a little bit of travel, the sea and holidays, young and old we love these little injections to fight hunger. And we never stop looking for ideas for sweet or savory snacks for the whole family.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the OLYMPOS Papagiannis he has thought for us before us. With a wide range of "all star cast" healthy and nutritious products, such as tahini, tahini cocoa, tahini honey, super spreads in various flavors (peanut butter, peanut butter cocoa, tahini cookie), nut creams in many flavors, they give us the basis to create sweet snacks combined with fruit and not only that, to make cool and hearty smoothies, to incorporate them into salty sandwiches, yes..., yes..., yes... the imagination when you have the right raw material never ends!
And for those who move or do not have direct access to their kitchen OLYMPOS Papagiannis has the solution again with the packaged nut bars, the halvadakis in individually packed pieces and in various flavors, and always without the addition of preservatives or sweeteners.
Like we would have made them ourselves at home!!
