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Best products to bring back to Europe from the US
I'm a US citizen living in Berlin, and I'm currently back in the US (Northeast Ohio specifically) for a family wedding. We've got a lot of extra room in our suitcases, so I want to bring stuff back that's hard(er) to get ahold of in Germany. I figured this is a good place to ask for any recommendations from others who live in Europe or have experience traveling!
As an example, here are some of the common recs I've seen in threads on r/germany:
- bulk OTC meds like aspirin and tylenol (not hard to find in Germany but cheaper in the US)
- brown sugar
- double-acting baking powder
- Frank's red hot sauce (maybe other hot sauce as well, Germans are not a spicy people)
- Ranch dressing (I've heard the powdered kind is better bc it's easier to pack?)
- Adobo seasoning (probably other Latin American ingredients too but this one specifically is a must-buy even for my white ass)
- specific brands of candies & junk food not available in Germany (though ime this category is the easiest to find at US-themed international stores, albeit at high prices)
- Levi's jeans for some reason (I don't really get this one tbh but I always see Germans saying it in threads)
I know for sure I'll get home and immediately regret not having purchased something. Anyone with experience traveling between these two continents, please let me know if you think of something missing from this list!
Just a minor note, if you do bring back some of those things (such as double acting baking powder) be prepared for your bag to be search at security and keep those items right on top so that they don't have to dig through the whole thing first. I've traveled with powder or powder adjacent substances before (coffee grounds, tea, etc) and it almost always sets off some flag triggering a search. So just pack accordingly to save yourself the hassle!
As for what to bring back: I do a lot of traveling between the US and UK, and whichever direction I am going I am most often requested to pack snacks from wherever I am. Just every day chips and candies which can be hard to find internationally are always a hit for people, especially flavors that may not be available in the destination country.
I’d offer to bring back electronics for friends. (Mind: only one of each “type” so you can claim it’s for personal use.) Electronics are a lot cheaper in the US, and there are more offerings.
Besides the obvious snacks, like certain North American candy bars, chips, cookies, and whatnot... the food items I missed the absolute most (as a Canadian) when I lived in the UK was boxed Mac & Cheese, Peanut Butter, and proper Hot Sauce. You could find them in some larger supermarket with an "International" section, but even then not always. So whenever I went back to visit Canada or the US, I would always bring some KD, PB, and hot sauces back with me when I returned to the UK.
Things may have changed now, since that was over a decade ago, and so maybe they're more widely available in the UK and Europe these days. But I doubt it.
Peanut butter is luckily not too hard to find anymore (they've got big American flags on all the jars lmao) but mac and cheese is a good rec, sometimes I just crave that Kraft nostalgia.
Peanut butter is american??!?! Culture shock!
In Hong Kong we always had on, especially on (HK style) french toast, and obviously Canada and us is big on it, so I always thought it was international.
Me too honestly! I grew up with it in the States and assumed it was like that everywhere. But Europe isn't as keen on it, they're more likely to go for Nutella on toast. It's marketed as American much like maple syrup is marketed as Canadian. Luckily both are easier to find in Germany nowadays but there's definitely less variety in them than back home.
My wife (then girlfriend) was in Poland in 2016. She's vegan so Peanut Butter is a staple in her diet. She couldn't believe how difficult it was to find any anywhere.
Luckily in our travels since it's seemed to get easier to find every time.
What was that popcorn butter you mentioned to me a while back? Because this is a strong contender for stuff you can’t really find here.
I wasn’t the recommender, but I use and love Flavacol on my popcorn.
Yeah, it was Flavacol, @Adys
A box would last most people a decade or more too, since you don’t need much per batch of popcorn. 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels, I only add about 1/2 teaspoon of Flavacol, since it’s potent stuff. So that’s a good recommendation!
Browse /r/SnackExchange to see what American snacks people are asking for.
Apparently kosher salt doesn't really exist outside of the US. Salt is pretty heavy so it might be easier to order online.
Have a scroll through the spice mix aisle. Old Bay, Lawrey's, Creole, Montreal Steak and Everything Bagel sound American to me but they might be popular in Europe as well.
There are a bunch of local root beer brands. Spring Grove and AJ Stephen's are my favorite in the Midwest.
Marshmallows and dried chili peppers were things I've seen requested.
ooh this is a good point, marshmallows in Germany taste quite different than the ones I'm used to
Specifically our large fluffy ones!
I don't know if it's the same in Germany, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding kosher salt in Portugal. I can find (relatively) expensive flor de sal or some salt that doesn't like dissolving, but I miss the familiarity of kosher salt.
I agree with grabbing spices and OTC meds, we stocked up on Costco-sized containers of a both before we left. My wife would kill for some proper popcorn salt. In non-food items, I've had difficulty finding Band-aids, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, and Ziploc bags in the size and/or quality I want.
I lucked out and found some imported diamond crystal in bulk on amazon a few years ago that'll last me a while, bc you're right, kosher salt is weirdly impossible to find here.
Hot sauce seems like a winner if it’s hard to come by in Germany. Everyone has their favorites, but Cholula, Franks, and Sriracha are my staples.
I second the folks mentioning seasonings as well. There are any number of American (or Central & South American) spice blends and seasonings that I would imagine are harder to find in Europe. Old Bay and Elote Seasoning are two that come to mind.
If you were in the south I’d say really good barbecue sauce…there ain’t nothing like it.
If OP is going to a Latin American market to buy adobo, then might as well kill two birds with one stone and get rocoto hot sauce.
It puts all the other hot sauces mentioned here to shame. Not only in heat level (a little goes a long way), but its flavor is better (doesn't have that vinegar taste that most sauces do).
My sister used to live in Kansas City and my parents shipped me a bottle of BBQ sauce from there in a care package once! They apparently started getting it shipped from there to Ohio for themselves lmao
Levi's are incredibly expensive jeans in Europe, fraction of the price in the US.
Are you guys big on Japanese snacks? That could be a contender. American sweets tend to be way way way way too sweet for Asian people, and if the Germans are not typically spicy people maybe some wasabi flavoured snacks will be quite a nice surprise.
Of course Korean ramen will be SO SPICY so they might be really cool for a challenge.
There might be some niche things too like instant out of a box Japanese or Korean meal kits or build your own miniature gummies kits
I mention them because one can get a lot of East Asian stuff in regular American grocers now. :)
Oh yeah the US grocery stores are definitely way better for east asian stuff than German ones. But luckily I live in a big enough city that I can go to asian supermarkets for my east asian stuff. My wife and I have tried some super spicy Korean ramen from this before - I couldn't handle it but she loves them!
German living in the US here.
I agree with many things on your list (except brown sugar, never had a problem getting that in Germany). However, I would consider the purpose of bringing those things. I.e. if it's for gifts for friends, people will probably enjoy weird candy or hot sauce more than a big pack of meds unless they specifically asked for those.
Another thing to consider, though heavy, might be to bring a few craft beers, especially from local breweries that don't export.
The purpose of stuff like OTC meds is for us to keep at our home in Germany lol. "Stocking up" I guess.
Germany has sugar that's brown, but brown sugar in the US (and I think also UK?) refers to sugar that's been mixed with molasses, which has a much different texture than brown cane sugar (I think in the US they market that as "natural sugar" or "raw sugar"). It's useful for baking specifically, good for moist cakes and cookies.
Oh, I wasn't aware there was a difference for the sugar, that makes sense then. From a quick look around, it looks like you could also make your own with Goldsaft if you ever run out.
Maybe I should try US brown sugar first and see if there's a difference, but you can get molasses and plain sugar in Germany, so there isn't much of a point to buying a product that mixes the two. Beyond that, if you know what to look for, there's also relatively flavorful brown cane sugar in Germany. Alnatura's brand comes to mind. Stupid expensive if I recall correctly, but regular brown sugar doesn't come close in taste. I should get another pack for cinnamon sugar toppings.
Chipotle chiles in adobo sauce on the other hand is an ingredient I lacked the other day.
Not having to figure out the ratio between molasses and white sugar and it being not particularly expensive in the US are reason enough to bring brown sugar back imo. It doesn't spoil and it makes following American recipes wayyyyy easier.
German brown sugar is very good for other applications of cane sugar though. My wife loves it in her Caipirinhas.
Yeah, that's the kinda stuff where the real high quality stuff shines. The alnatura one (and I'm sure plenty others I haven't tried) is, afaict, not refined all that much, so you get a lot of interesting flavors in there, much more than with molasses. Works well in applications with simple, subtle flavor profiles, where you can actually taste it. Caipirinhas is a good example, but anything where you springle plain sugar on top is also worth a try. Like Berliner. Or, Pfannkuchen I guess, where you are.
That said, for american bakes goods (that is, chocolate chip cookies for me) I actually enjoy having a bit of control over just how molasses-y the cookies are.
TSA has strict rules on liquids, so be careful how much you bring and follow the rules. You might consider shipping any liquids via a package and the mail instead of trying to transport them yourself.
TSA rules on liquids typically apply to carry-on luggage not checked baggage afaik? Most transatlantic flights give you some checked bags for free.
...I did not intend to post this to ~hobbies, I thought I put it in ~talk. Sorry to whoever ends up moving this! I must've fat-fingered it without noticing.
I moved it into ~hobbies. All moderation actions can be found in the topic log to the right of every post.
Ah okay, I'm on mobile so I only see that if I click on the sidebar. Thanks for moving it then!
I think there may have been a mixup and @mycketforvirrad kept this in ~hobbies whereas @sparksbet meant for it to be in ~talk, so I have actually move it there now!