What to send my American friend?

[Josie1968]

Hi

I have an American friend and want to send her a surprise box of treats.. things she can’t get over there.. I’ve thought of Yorkshire tea bags and Cadburys chocolate (heard their chocolate isn’t the same as ours?) HP sauce, crisps and biscuits I’ve heard are popular. Has anyone got any other ideas of what I could send?

Thank you x

That’s very kind of you to do this for your friend. Check which food items can be sent by mail.

I live in the US but I was born and raised in the UK so the things I would suggest and the things I crave most (Branston pickle, mincemeat for mince pies, Cadbury anything, etc) may not be to get taste as she’s not used to them. My husband was born here and had never lived anywhere else. The first time he tried an orange KitKat he thought he’d died and gone to heaven. He couldn’t believe something so wonderful hadn’t made it across the Atlantic yet. When my mum comes to visit she always brings orange KitKats for him.

We can get Tetley and PG Tips here in large supermarkets bit I’ve never seen Yorkshire tea here so that would be a good idea. My husband was also fascinated by Hula Hoops. 😂 Jelly Babies. There is nothing like that here.

My friend always sends us Yorkshire tea bags and marmite. We can get marmite where I live but it’s the smallest tiny jar for almost £5!!!!
She will also send chocolate - silly things which make me laugh, freddoes, crunchy, fudge bar etc and last time she sent monster munch and skips.

Postage costs have risen significantly at the moment though and it’s almost £15 extra to send than it was 2 years ago so I’ve asked her to stop because it costs more in postage than the actual items. And takes about 3 weeks to arrive now!

I live abroad and also miss monster munch and hula hoops. And salad cream

Thank you all for the suggestions.. I’ll get shopping now! Yes I think the postage is quite expensive but it’s a special treat so will take the hit!! 😂😂 do you have Tate and Lyle golden syrup over there?x

Definitely include the golden syrup. Can't get it anywhere.
I like the kinds of inexpensive chocolate you can't get in the US - galaxy bar, minstrels, lion bar, Cadbury's buttons (you can get the big flat bars of Cadbury's chocolate, but not the smaller things).
I also bring back "exotic" flavors of crisps (in the US the flavors are so limited - plain, salt and vinegar, BBQ, maybe ranch/chive, and occasionally others). Friends here were extremely intrigued by prawn-cocktail flavor crisps and smoky bacon (not actually sure they liked them, but they found them novel).

I’m American, live here. I have a good friend who moved from here to Florida. She asks me to bring M&S gold label tea bags, Percy pigs, and when I’m flying over, scones from Waitrose. Last spring it was hot Cross buns she asked for too.

Definitely check what you can send. My chocolate selection boxes for American family got returned to me year before last!

@ruthypfdraper that’s strange, I wonder why!! I thought chocolate was ok to send. What a shame 🙁

If you're sending by Royal Mail then be aware that the weight limit is 2kg and that costs me about £30 a go 😱 2kg sounds like a lot but it's not really once you've got a couple of heavy bars of chocolate in for example.

My American friend always buys various flavours of Twinings when in the UK.

@ruthypfdraper

Definitely check what you can send. My chocolate selection boxes for American family got returned to me year before last!

Oh that’s really weird! My family send us selection boxes every year! They often arrive very battered but they do arrive.

It depends on where your friend lives.

I live in Houston that has a large UK expat community (husband is from England) and I can pretty much get most things at our regular grocery stores plus, we have specialty British goods stores.

Other cities in other states could be a British goods wasteland.

The one thing I always asked for from my MIL were magazines. I am a cook so I appreciate BBC Good Food for recipes or the Sainsbury's/ Tesco/ Waitrose Magazines because they show all the trends and different food products sold over the UK. I also liked the home and garden magazines like Living, BBC Homes, Home and Garden, Countryfile, etc...

I used a courier company and when it came back I checked and it was on their prohibited items list. I was so cross at the time, but less so when I ate the chocolate myself

@elp30 she lives about 30 minutes from New York :)

😂😂

@ruthypfdraper 😂😂

I can get golden syrup here on the East Coast. IME Americans do often enjoy British sweets & biscuits. Marmite less so. Hersheys went and had a big tantrum over grey market Cadbury imports so places that used to have them don't anymore. (American Cadburys is made under licence by Hersheys and it's not very nice IMO) Also British KitKat is much better than American.

I've never had a problem with chocolate using normal post.

My parents live over there as does my sister. They can pretty much get everything you have mentioned. My mum always asks for custard powder and paxo stuffing. But if Americans have never had them they don't need those!

The reality is if she is American she may not actually like marmite or know how to use it. Friends have never been impressed and even spread it thickly as Nutella.

Does she drink tea? Many over there don't. Their tea is generally weaker and most drink it without milk if they do.

You may be better off with sweets/chocolate which are lighter to ship anyway.

Two things my family enjoy, which are hard to get in the US, are Barley Cup and Bendicks Bittermints. Also huge boxes of Twinings Earl Grey- I know it's boring, but American Twinings tea bags are individually packaged(!) and very expensive. Probably not worth sending though...

Does your friend like mustard? Bung in a jar of Coleman's ?
Shortcake.
Hobnobs
Paxo?
Sarson's vinegar?

There are stores which sell UK products like Jaffa cakes, Ribena, PGtips etc and chocolate. I have to say though it's often a bit dusty and stale (the biscuits, chocs).

I don't think I miss any products from the UK (expat living in US) but a good Christmas pudding wouldn't go amiss sometimes.