My brother and I are visiting relatives in Greece this Fall. They are putting us up for a week. We’re trying to think of what gifts they might enjoy.
Problem is, most things that first come to mind–wine, cheese, chocolate–are better in Europe.
Forty or fifty years ago, we could have wowed them with Levi jeans, or vinyl albums.
But today, about the only things the U.S. does best are guns, SUVs, and Harleys. All of which present obstacles to commercial airliner transport. They would also invert an old saying: the Greeks would fear the Americans bearing gifts.
Acoustic guitars too, but AFAIK none of the relatives play.
Are there any high-end liquors that are better or cheaper here?
Suggestions from European residents are especially welcome.
Europeans might do fancy chocolate better, but your relatives might like a big bag of M&Ms or some other American brand of candy. They might be available locally but may be expensive.
There are a lot of liquors that are just not sold outside the U.S., especially small batch Many micro-distilleries don’t even sell outside their state.
Bourbon and rye whiskey are both American spirits that you don’t find as often in European stores. At least, not much beyond the standard Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, etc.
I agree with bringing local specialties. Those will be something unusual.
M&Ms, except for the extra-special flavors, and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups are easy to find in most European countries.
When I visited relatives in the Netherlands (more than a decade ago) they had never heard of 15 bean soup mix, and my aunt said she had only ever seen a few types of beans. When I got home I mailed her a bag of 15 bean mix and she wrote that it was amazing the number of beans we had available to us. I don’t know how excited your Greek relatives would be to receive such a thing, but my aunt seemed to enjoy it.
If their English is good, you might consider a regional American cookbook of some kind, perhaps with some American measuring tools like spoons and those cup/half cup/quarter cup nesting metal measures.
Some people might enjoy receiving cheap souvenirs of the kind that (for instance) feature the Statue of Liberty or the Alamo, or sports jerseys featuring American baseball or football teams.
Recent trip to Sweden and brought War Heads and such for the kids, and some American kid books, and for the parents some local roaster coffees (they are coffee fans) and coming from Chicago, Larson’s Devil in the White City
We have those here. In general American chocolate isn’t especially popular because European chocolate is better.
My suggestion for a novel-experience type gift: a couple different bottles of high quality BBQ sauce.
American style BBQ is hardly known here. Restaurants don’t know how to make it properly and generally don’t bother; the few that do rarely make it well. (I’ve found two exceptions in seven years.) You can get cheap bottles of BBQ sauce in the “ethnic” aisle of some stores (next to the marshmallow fluff and HP sauce), but it’s uniformly terrible, overly sweet and unsophisticated.
A couple bottles of proper American BBQ sauce, accompanied by a recipe for, say, slow cooking pork ribs in the oven, would be unique and probably appreciated.
I’d suggest being careful about foods. I’ve never had a problem bringing wines or beers or spirits from elsewhere into Canada (which is my home), but things get interesting when you get into cheeses or meats. Processed foods, such as bagged potato chips, packaged candy bars, and yes, jarred/bottled barbecue sauce, are just fine; but an unsealed wheel of cheese from Wisconsin might not be. I’d guess that Greece would be about the same about what they let into Greece.
Suggest that you stick to American spirits or wines. A nice Kentucky bourbon or a fine Napa California wine would likely be most welcome.
I brought a plastic sealed wheel of cheese back from the Dutch side of Sint Maarten a few years ago. Totally legal per the cheese shop and everything I’d read. However. my gf wrapped in a plastic garbage bag which was then wrapped in a towel, which was in my backpack.
Going through security in the US, the cheese was sweating. On the scanner it resembled a certain type of explosive and the TSA guy responded accordingly. Eventually everyone was laughing and telling me I was a good sport, but it was a scare.
The next year I told my gf no cheese, and she complied. However we brought a dog back with us. Lots of work traveling internationally with a dog!
If it’s not too impolitic, maybe you could tell your relatives in advance that you’re going to bring something in any case and that they might as well give you some ideas as to what they want!
Personally, as a resident of Europe, I would love the gift of… delivery. I’d like to be able to order (and pay for) something super-specific of my own choosing on US Amazon, eBay, etc., to be sent to my visiting American relative’s address, and have him/her bring it to me.
The reason is that, when I see something online that I want, I usually can’t bring myself to order it because the added cost of international shipping is ludicrous.
I recently visited friends in Italy, and i brought some excellent local chocolates and a laser cut jigsaw puzzle that i knew would interest them from a local company. I also asked if i could bring them anything, and they said, “no”, but it turns out it’s hard to get ibuprofen in Italy, (at least where they live) and i should have brought them an extra bottle.
They have excellent chocolate local to them, but what i brought is very different in style, and (imho) a little better. But mostly, different enough that you might enjoy having access to both.
I wouldn’t have brought the puzzle to a random European, but they are puzzle friends and this particular puzzle is extremely interesting to puzzle people, and happens to be very nicely made.
Anyway, so i guess, yeah, something local, but also, something your relatives are likely to enjoy. And you know detailed info about your relatives.
The request I always get when visiting a friend in France is home-baked Toll House cookies. And if you like the BBQ idea, a dry rub mix or any other kind of typically American spice mix (Old Bay?) might go over well.
I’m in Maryland, so @Eva_Luna, Old Bay would be perfect.
My brother and I were born and raised in West Virginia (where our father spent most of his life in the U.S.) so some moonshine would be quite appropriate. There is no shortage of boutique moonshine distillers. And maybe balanced with another bottle of a good-quality liquor. Crown Royal? A single malt Scotch?
My brother thought of an excellent West Virginia food item: pepperoni rolls. As iconically West Virginian as it gets, and transportable without refrigeration.
