You might think I am crazy, but Dr. Pepper from the States tastes different than Dr. Pepper here (bottled in the UK I think). How much different? Enough where I found I don’t like the Dr. Pepper I found here. And since American Dr. Pepper is my favorite soft drink, I found myself adding one more thing to the list of American products I cannot find here, or if I do find here, are different.
Here are my top food products that you people in American should not take for granted. And I know these are all packaged goods, and I could try to make things myself, but where is the fun in that when a company already makes them good enough?
- Yummy flour tortillas: Ok, this is aimed mostly at Texas, where a good flour tortilla makes the foundation for good TexMex food. Here – you can only find the stiff Old El Paso brand.
- Snack Pack Pudding: For me, I miss the basic chocolate one. Pudding here is more mousse-like.
- Good ole butter popcorn: Germans prefer ‘sweet’ popcorn. Not like kettle corn (I wish), but lightly sweetened. You can find “American butter” salty popcorn in some American sections of larger grocery stores, but this is Jolly Time popcorn, who uses the word “butter” very loosely. You know that brand, right? No? Take my word for it, you don’t want to – disgusting! At least when I go to the English movie theater, they have it done right.
- Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup – again, you can find a weird off-brand version in some American sections of grocery stores, but again, disgusting. Lucky for me I have should enough to last me while I am here thanks to a coworker visiting Germany.
- Blueberry muffin mix: Specifically - Betty Crocker Wild Blueberry Muffin mix. Muffins and cakes here are a bit different – they tend to be rather dense. American cakes tend to be fluffy and, say what you will, what I prefer.
- Cornbread mix – Anything branded “American” – like pizza, soup, etc – probably has canned corn in it. Because us Americans LOVE OUR CORN, right? Whatever – I do love cornbread, and they don’t sell mixes here. And I am not sharing my stash of Jiffy Cornbread mix. Sorry.
- Varieties of Cake mixes and frostings: If you want American cake mix here – you will find 2 flavors: Chocolate and Carrot. Frosting? Chocolate and Vanilla. Where is my Cream Cheese Frosting?? Spice Cake? Red Velvet? Life is hard.
To combat having to “rough it” over here, we often ask our visitors to kindly bring us items we are missing. For instance, here is the food stash my parents brought over last year (not pictured – the other non-edible products they brought too):
So what is typically in the American section of German grocery stores (those that have one) that I haven’t already mentioned??
- Carter’s American flag root beer
- Marshmallow Fluff
- Rocky Mountain American Marshmallows
- Strawberry Frosted Poptarts (a brand I actually know!)
- Barbecue Sauce
- Cheese-Whiz style cheese
- Bisquick Mix (another real brand!)
- Some strange brand of Mac & Cheese
- Hot chocolate packets
- Griffin’s pancake syrup
- Crisco shortening
Isn’t that great that those foods sum up American cuisine? I know I always cooked every meal with each of those items, just like Germans only eat sausage and pretzels, washed down by beer.
One thing missing from my list of products I can’t find? Oh yeah – American Dr. Pepper. Why is that?? BECAUSE I RECENTLY FOUND SOME!!! Yes – imported Dr. Pepper cans! I have recently found two grocery stores that have this. I have bought their stock up a few times, and Noah finds this all rather amusing. At one point, I looked up from trying to fit as many cans in my arms as possible, to see him snapping my photo. Whatever – at least I can now scratch something off of my list!
