After spending some time in San Francisco a couple of years ago I came home with fond memories, a skip in my step and a suitcase full of crap from the 7/11.
I’m one of those people that has to try new things; a new restaurant, new chocolate bar, new drink or some sort of new device. I have this compulsion to try anything and everything, just so I don’t feel left out. After sampling a lot of American sweets and drinks (candy, soda, whatever they call it) I found a good handful that I really liked.
Taking trips to the USA every couple of weeks to stock up wasn’t a practical solution to my Mountain Dew cravings. So I hunted for people in the UK who supplied the products I wanted and instead of finding one bloke on Ebay who imports stuff once a year, I found a whole pile of people in the UK who constantly make massive orders of American food, supply warehouses full of goods and websites dedicated to the practice.
My bank balance doesn’t thank me for my addiction as it can be a little costly, but I don’t particularly care.
Mountain Dew
Although now available again in the UK, just (I haven’t seen it anywhere), it is the most imported product. It is America’s 4th most popular soft drink and it’s a completely mystery to me why Pepsi haven’t introduced it permanently to the UK (it had a short flitter back in 1996 but didn’t last very long). To describe the taste…It tastes like someone poured Lilt into a 7up then added a shit load of extra sugar and a Lime. Hope that helps…uhh. Its nice.
Lucky Charms
One of Americas favorite cereals for about 40 years, a combination of frosted oats and colored marshmallows that tastes like the love child of Frosties, Cheerios, some sugar and Stay Puft from Ghostbusters. So after 23 years of eating British cereals I’ve switched my regular morning intake to Lucky Charms. I refuse to move on to “grown up” cereals, So whereas my missus stares at me from across the table with darting glares as she nibbles down her Waitrose wholewheat nonsense. I sit across from her childishly enjoying some sugar coated goodness and doing a puzzle on the back of the box. I SOLVED THE MAZE AND FOUND HIS LUCKY CHARMS!!
Pop Tarts
As a student I consumed a fair amount of Pop Tarts, but as far as I knew there was two flavours. Chocolate and Strawberry, but no there is loads of flavours that Kellogg’s have cruelly hidden away from us Brits for years. Did you know you can get…Dutch Apple, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Apple Strudel, Frosted Blueberry, Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Frosted Cherry, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Banana Split, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Frosted Chocolate Fudge, Cinnamon Roll, Frosted Cookies & Cream, Ginger Bread, Hot Fudge Sundae, Frosted Raspberry, S’Mores, Frosted Strawberry, Strawberry Cheese Danish, Frosted Strawberry Milkshake, Vanilla Milkshake, Frosted Wildberry, Blueberry Muffin, Cookies ‘N Creme, Blueberry, Strawberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Wild Berry, Chocolate Strawberry, Chocolate Vanilla, Strawberry Blueberry, Maple Brown Sugar, Dulce De Leche, Guava Mango, Chocolate Banana Split, Orange Cream, Apple Cinnamon and Chocolate Fudge.
So yeah, don’t you feel like you’ve been fucked over as a Pop Tart fan. I can personally tell you that the Apple Cinnamon ones are immense and nearly all of the Frosted range taste great (with maybe the exception of Frosted Cookies ‘N Creme which tastes like arse).
Big Red Gum
Yep this isn’t for everyone and in fact 99% of the people I know who have tried it, hate it. Its a strong cinnamon flavoured gum. It was available here until the mid 90′s then they discontinued it. Now these things happen, but…Big Red was launched by Wrigley along side its sister product Juicy Fruit. Juicy Fruit continues to be sold in the UK despite (and stop me if this turns into a rant) tasting like an armpit. Juicy Fruit is probably the worst gum I have ever tasted, I will never understand people who are actually willing to pay money for it.
100 Grand
To be honest, chocolate bars in America probably have some sort of UK counterpart. 100 Grand’s are nice, but its a Lion bar with caramel. People rave about Milk Duds (chocolate covered Caramels) but they’re just Poppets. A 3 Musketeers Bar is a Milky Way and so on. One thing you will notice is how many US chocolates have peanut butter as a main ingredient, i’m not complaining.
AVOID!
Two products that I just don’t understand. Or more correctly two flavours. First up Sharkleberry Fin Kool Aid, a recently resurrected flavour that I probably hate so much because A) it tastes like acid and B) despite tasting like it burns I cant put my finger on the actually flavour, is it Cherry? Is it peach? Is it Petrol? and C) I’m very unsure of sharks in sun glasses.
The second flavour is something only America has (as far I know), Wintergreen. Wintergreen is a collection of plants that are herby type shrubs and berry plants and thats apparently a good taste. Its like eating a fucking conifer! This is officially the worst flavour in the world, Id rather eat a dead cat than have to taste this flavour again. Go on, order a packet of these Tic Tacs, if you can finish a packet your a king among men.
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