Last year, bazaar was lucky enough to meet and interview the wonderfully talented food writer Annabel Karmel for an in-depth interview at the bazaar sponsored Taste of Q8 food festival, so it is no surprise to us that Costa Coffee has chosen to collaborate with the best-selling children’s cookbook author. Annabel flew in on a special visit to Kuwait to launch the new Healthy Kids’ Snack range available now at Costa Coffee locations across Kuwait.

Many in the global food industry recognize the incredible work that Annabel has done over the last 25 years promoting simple methods and delivering great tasting recipes, using only a few ingredients of the highest quality and easy to follow instructions. With this tasty new range, Costa Coffee is able to continue to provide customers here in Kuwait with great choices for food on the go, whether you are quickly dropping by a Costa to take away, or you’re enjoying time spent with family and friends at any one of their cafés. A spokesperson for the company added, “At Costa, we are passionate about offering great food that perfectly complements our handcrafted coffee. We have always looked to offer a wide variety of fresh and delicious options to keep the busy working family fuelled throughout the day.” The new menu items are also available for delivery at home, school or office as you can order Costa Coffee online with trycarriage.com or by using the Carriage food delivery app. Make sure you don’t miss out as, for a few more days only, with these menu items, there will be a lovely little creative gift to keep both your kids, or big kids, happy.

Look out for our interview with @annabelkarmel and Phil Broad on the new @CostaKuwait range, on https://t.co/gCfi9CQNDn #costakuwait pic.twitter.com/qvULJbFc7z

— bazaar.townnew (@bazaartweets) October 25, 2017

bazaar sat down with Annabel herself and Alghanim Food and Beverage Vice President, Phil Broad to ask them more about the new menu at Costa Coffee’s Boulevard Mall location, “It is a natural fit for us” confirms the duo, “as we have the same vision that there should always be healthy menu choices for children.” We ask Annabel about what motivated her to work with Costa Coffee, she immediately answers, “Phil!” but follows it quickly with, “Am I allowed to say that?” It’s very obvious that these two have a great deal of respect for each other and the worthy mission of delivering change to the misunderstood relationship between children and food. It is so important to guide parents through this phenomenon of confusion which happens with parents all around the developed world.

“We have been conditioned to believe that chicken nuggets, chips and burgers are the only things that children are ever going to eat. But, if you only give children attention for trying something new, they will soon realize that it is only by eating these new healthy things that they will get attention from mum, and you will break the pattern of the children demanding bad food choices. If you don’t break that pattern, then they won’t get that variety, and they won’t get the nutrients that they need to grow.”

On top of that there is the question of Kuwait’s incredible affinity for desserts, and love of all things chocolate, cookie, or cake, to which Annabel responds, “I think you can have sweet tasting things that don’t contain sugar, and we’ve proved it with our Bites.”

“Energy Bites” are bite-sized treats filled with oats, peanut butter, chia seeds, and naturally sweetened with dates; “Date and Carrot Bites” are the perfect snack for mums on the go and their little ones. These bites contain fresh grated carrots with oats, coconut and chopped walnuts. Both these bites are delicious balls of raw ingredients, ensuring all the natural goodness of each ingredient is maintained throughout the process of making them. The Bites are also perfectly sized for children’s little fingers to hold.

Date and Carrot Bites. Courtesy Costa Coffee Kuwait

There is the “Date and Apple Muffin”. A winning combination of apples, sultanas and date makes this muffin the perfect treat for any time of day.

The “Chicken Pasta Salad” is a healthy twist on pasta salad using only the finest ingredients of whole wheat fusilli pasta with chicken breast, spinach, parmesan cheese, tomatoes and fresh pesto dressing.

For Halloween they have added the cutest little “bat biscuits”, and these are wonderfully crumbly cookies!

As bazaar can see that Annabel and Phil have such a jovial relationship we decide to play a little game with them. We asked each of them to answer “Which is his/her favorite item from the range”. They have to write down their guess, and then we check the answer with the other person. Annabel guesses first and we check with Phil. “What’s your favorite item?” and he answers the Energy Bites…turning over the card, Annabel has written “My Energy Balls!” She got it right. This is very impressive so far.

Phil Broad (left) and Annabel Karmel tell us their favorite products! Source: bazaar

Annabel Karmel’s guess for Phil Broad’s favorite (left) and Phil’s guess for Annabel. Annabel won! Source: bazaar

Phil has been holding onto his card with a grin on his face and Annabel with a resigned sigh is wary of his guess. “It’s going to be something naughty, I just know it’s never going to be a straight answer” and Phil gleefully turns over the card. “BAT”. They then start laughing as he exclaims, “She’s batty!” but then clarifies that Annabel is crazy about Halloween. Annabel does say, after the disclaimer that of course she loves them all, that the carrot balls are her favorite. This is the sweeter of the Bites options and we agree that it is the perfect choice with a mug of something hot.

Annabel Karmel is ‘batty’ about Costa Kuwait and Halloween

Each time we meet with Annabel we are more impressed with her commitment, energy and focus. She’s flying off in a few hours to China, but makes sure she asks us for a copy of our latest issue.

We give one to Phil too, but whisper to him that he can leave it in the café if he likes, as Costa Coffee outlets are also distribution points for bazaar, but he promises he will read it. We shall quiz him on the articles the next time we run into him.

Try the new menu items in all Costa Coffee locations in Kuwait or order on the Carriage app. Follow @costakuwait on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.