[QUOTE=badbadrubberpiggy]
I need some ideas. I’m doing a “swap” with some online friends, and my swap-ee is in the UK (Portsmouth, specificially)…
I know she likes coffee & chocolate flavored things, too.
[/QUOTE]
chocolate, eh? How about you sending her some Moon Pies, and she sends you some Wagon Wheels.
I almost did that with a doper, but it never came to pass.
I echo the grape jelly idea - you just can’t get that over here.
And really high quality maple syrup is also very rare.
I agree that you shouldn’t even think about sending chocolate. British choccy is leagues better than American stuff.
Other US candy that people don’t know about here: Hot Tamales and Candy Corn.
We don’t have salt water taffy, either. I wonder what it’s like.
I like beef jerky, which seems to be totally unavailable over here.
[QUOTE=Struan]
I like beef jerky, which seems to be totally unavailable over here.
[/QUOTE]
Seen it in Sainsbury’s though never particularly wanted to try any.
Beef jerky is starting to show up in some supermarkets and a few petrol stations. I love the stuff, but it’s hellishly expensive for what you get.
[QUOTE=badbadrubberpiggy]
I had no idea grape-flavored stuff wasn’t available in the UK. It just tastes like “purple” anyway, not really “grape”. Blackcurrent needs to be more readily available in the US, IMO.
[/QUOTE]
The only thing I’ve found here that tastes like grape flavoured stuff I’ve sampled originating from the USA would be actual grape juice - Welch’s purple grape tastes like it has artificial grape flavour in it (it doesn’t - it’s completely natural - it just tastes like it does)
Your comment about tasting ‘purple’ is funny though, because blackcurrant tastes purple here - it’s all just a matter of familiarity.
[QUOTE=Peter Morris]
We don’t have salt water taffy, either. I wonder what it’s like.
[/QUOTE]
Someone I used to work with brought some back - it’s sort of like nougat, sort of like fudge, sort of like [del]Opal Fruits[/del]Starburst.
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
Beef jerky is starting to show up in some supermarkets and a few petrol stations. I love the stuff, but it’s hellishly expensive for what you get.
[/QUOTE]
It’s like bresaola taken to its logical, tasty, chewy, extreme.
Does it really taste nice? I’ve always assumed it would taste like dog food. Though possibly that’s due to the supermarkets not really seeming to know where to display it and I’ve often seen it near the petfood aisle.
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
Both those products are blackcurrant-based
[/QUOTE]
Yes I know, I was just sorta saying in case you’d forgotten, as if anyone could
[QUOTE=zelie zelerton]
Does it really taste nice? I’ve always assumed it would taste like dog food. Though possibly that’s due to the supermarkets not really seeming to know where to display it and I’ve often seen it near the petfood aisle.
[/QUOTE]
I must get around to trying dog food sometime so I can make an adequate comparison. 
Jerky tastes like salty, peppery meat - not unlike the taste of salami. The texture is typically quite hard and leathery, requiring a fair bit of chewing (which is part of the attraction, for me).
There are ‘jerky treat’ pet rewards - so it may be those you saw.
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
Grape jelly. Just not available in the UK, in fact, grape flavour candy and grape soda too. Purple things are blackcurrant here.
[/QUOTE]
Grape soda is pretty easy to find if you know where to look. Both my local Sainsbury’s and Tesco sell it, but it’s on the ethnic foods aisle, not with the rest of the fizzy drinks. You’ll also find it at many West Indian shops.
Taffy just reminded me of Chewits.
Mmm…salt-water taffy! You’re making me homesick! I’m from NH, where I used to get salt-water taffy every summer. Now I’m landlocked, and salt-water taffy isn’t very common out here in the midwest.