What to take for colleagues in Germany (from UK

[User5512]

DH started a new job last month. He is travelling to Germany tomorrow to meet his team. They are all based out of Berlin. What can he take from here (UK) for the team?
Jaffa cakes?

Boxes of biscuits are my go to when visiting clients/colleagues overseas.

German people often don't like British tea IME. However they do tend to like the idea of trying it. If he does bring a box of bog standard tea bags, he should locate some fresh milk in the nearest German supermarket and take it to the office himself. It is less likely to find any milk in a German work fridge but even if he does it is likely to be UHT, which makes the tea taste strange.

The colleagues may be apprehensive about the idea of tea with milk in; so if he does offer to make a brew for everyone he should first explain that the tea is very strong and bitter, which is why milk (and often sugar) is added. But IME many Germans prefer even their coffee without milk.

If he wants a cup of tea in his hotel room, he should bring his own bags.

Shortbread or Harrods biscuits.
Do they have good tea in Germany or is it that Liptons muck that tastes of dust? Some good strong Yorkshire tea.

A nice tin of tea, they have lovely ones in M&S.

Used to live in Germany, they don't really rate our Christmas cake/pudding/mince pies ime. They like cheddar and tea. Also Crackers (the sort we pull on Christmas Day, not the crackers for cheese!) always go down well too.

M&S have great tins of biscuits at the moment, very decorative and some even light up I think!

Also light up bottles of gin with glitter in. M&S food hall would be a good place to trawl and a lot cheaper than Fortnum's, Liberty's etc.

I agree the Marks tins are lovely. I'm not sure they are going to be a lot cheaper than the 6.95 fortnum tin. Maybe a bit cheaper.

A bottle of Scotch and a tin of shortbread goes down well. I gave these to the mayor when we bought a house in France which I was told is the norm to give a gift to the mayor in a small village. He seemed happy with it. I got my planning permission anyway.

You can't take Christmas crackers on a plane though as they are classed as explosives.

My BIL lived in Munich for many years. Top of his list of requests were pork scratchings, cheddar cheese, pickled onions and Quality Street. Not sure how useful that is!

Basset's liquorice all-sorts always go down well. As does fruitcake and anything from the Mr. Kipling cake selection.

Orange marmalade
Crackers and chutneys
Thornton's chocolates

I used to live in Berlin. Shortbread absolutely, or fancy biscuits of some kind. Not chocolate! There's already amazing chocolate in Germany, rocking up with Quality Street would be weird. No to mince pies. Fancy biscuits are not too weird but very British so hit the mark perfectly.

I wouldn’t bother with cake or chocolates. What they have over there beats what we have, hands down.

Maybe shortbread.

When we lived there our German neighbours asked for things like popcorn flavourings, Jack Daniel’s barbecue sauce…

We have German friends.

They always request Curry Powder. Dairy Milk and Plain Flour. .....to make Yorkshire Puddings with, so maybe packet Yorkshire Pud mix??

I traveled to Germany often for my work. Mince pies were always a big hit as there is no equivalent in Germany. Top tip though, explain that they are sweet spiced fruit pies. Some German veggie colleagues latched onto the word "mince" and thought they had meat in them!

Rich fruit cake.

Kryten: yep, my German bf stayed with me in my flat in London, I bought some mince pies and cream, he looked horrified at putting cream on meat. I'm now married to him living in Germany, the things I miss are,,, ginger biscuits, chocolate oranges, crumpets, monster munch and self raising flour.

Germany has Jaffa cakes and Quality Street, and neither are perceived to be very English).
i would take short bread and tea (of course Germany has tea, but it will feel more special to have a cup of Tetleys 😂). Or a selection of Walkers crisps, salt and vinegar, prawn etc - everything that is not Paprika.
or crumpets.

yep, any biscuits. All the standard supermarkets ones (except digestives) don’t exist in Berlin. Custard creams etc. usually go down well, all the Christmas treats are different so mince pies etc…would work. Shortbread you can usually buy in the big supermarkets. The standard biscuits is what you need. Little packs of different flavor crisps are also non-existent out there (paprika rules, yuck, salt and vinegar you can get but that’s probably the limit). So multipacks of crisps very popular.

I’ve had success with Tunnocks tea cakes, crumpets and some biscuits and crisps but be prepared for them not to like them, tell you they are full of artificial ingredients and be very visually unimpressed (Berlin standard) lol.

(I have just moved back to Uk after 5 years living in Berlin)

Salt and vinegar crisps.

They view them with uncertainty and excitement.

gentleman's relish

or

seaside rock

maybe for the next trip as neither will be available at the airport

Fudge normally goes down well. I don't think you can take cheese into Europe anymore. Twining's earl grey in black boxes (the normal supermarket one) is very popular because Twining's export available in Europe is floor sweepings. The black boxes are really expensive here. Earl or lady grey can be drink without milk so go down better than English breakfast

For colleagues, you can't go wrong with a bag of Heroes or Celebrations (both purchasable in duty free). Its at the right gifting level which I find to be important - when you know your team well (and believe me, that can take years with german colleagues) you may get specific requests like creme eggs or s&v crisps but I think they would consider it a bit random otherwise

M&S do indeed have some lovely tins of biscuits that are all singing, all dancing. They're also doing Extremely Chocolatey custard creams and bourbons, so exciting! They often do nice tins of tea bags too. Their gold tea is as good as Yorkshire. You'd have to take some flavoured crisps or pickled onion Monster Munch. Im very partial to bags of Rashers, cheesey Wotsits, Walkers Roast Chicken crisps etc

You can get salt and vinegar crisps in any supermarket.

I don't think it matters that German chocolate is in general higher quality than Roses etc, because the fact it is familiar means it is more likely to be well received, and unfamiliar enough to be a novelty.

Curry powder and stuff that Brits abroad or Germans who have experience of British food request are not likely to be well received in an office situation. Things like pork scratchings and pickled onions are a bit of an acquired taste!

I think biscuits and/or chocolate that is not marketed in Germany (anything Cadbury, even though this is essentially identical to Milka) are likely to be the best crowd pleasers.

If you want to be a bit more daring/experimental then tea or some kind of marmite - the spread itself (and then buy some FRESH bread - NOT toast/square bread - to serve it on) or twiglets. But these are likely better gifts for after the team is better known, otherwise they might come across as lukewarm.

But, I'm guessing he's probably already on his way and has selected something :)