Note that even in the case of whiskey, it may be bottled locally even if it’s imported. My uncle worked for Alberta Distillers Ltd. (owned by Beam Global Spirits & Wine, the company that makes Jim Beam), and he mentioned that whiskey can be shipped to Canada in “concentrated” form and then water is added locally for bottling.
So you say. I disagree. Having travelled extensively in the US, and sampled your culinary delights, in private homes as well as in restaurants, I would say that the American-branded products that are produced here and that we enjoy are on par with yours.
Really, are you trying to say that a can of Campbell’s Chunky Soup is different, depending on whether it comes from the US or Canada; and that the Canadian product is inferior? Could you provide a cite to back up your assertion?
You are, of course, entitled to your opinion; but I would suggest that unless you can provide a reputable cite, that all you have is your own personal opinion.
I’m not surprised. Ballantine’s Gin was distilled in England, then shipped in casks or barrels to Canada, to be bottled by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and sold in its stores. The importation, and subsequent adulteration in some cases, of certain spirits (usually, to bring them down to a 40% abv strength), is something Canadians should be aware of.
The idea that I can get a (for example) 50% abv bottle of (say) Smirnoff vodka in the US, but cannot buy it in Canada, is silly. Thankfully, this attitude is disappearing in Canada, but still applies to some products.
Cask strength whiskey is handy for bulk aging. It’s quite a space saver, because 160 proof will fill half as many barrels as 80 proof. Shipping barrels that way also means no shipping of bottles either.
My reason for thinking this is based on my experience traveling in Europe. Admittedly that has been limited to France, Spain and Italy; since all three produce so much wine it shouldn’t be suprising I would fail to see California wine in any wine shops. It may have been there but I didn’t notice it. It seems likely EU countries with little or no wine industry would be likely to have more variety on the shelves.
From the website you link to it seems the volume of U.S. wine imported to the EU annually comes out to roughtly 250 million liters of wine. The total annual consumption of wine in the EU for 2010 was 15.8 billion liters of wine. (PDF warning)
That means wine imported from the U.S. represents 1.6% of the wine annually consumed in the EU. (I doubt all of the wine imported is consumed in the same year but I trust you see my point.)
By that measure I think my characterization that there is not much California wine being sold in Europe is more or less correct. YMMV of course.
In Singapore, where I currently live, just about all food is imported. It is a city state after all and they don’t produce much food of their own.
Most meats and produce seem to originate from Australia. Beef, pork and mutton are almost always from Australia. A lot of chicken is from Australia too, but most seem to be from Malaysia.
Much of the vegetables and fruit are from Australia as well, although when it comes to tropical stuff, it’s out of Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Rice varies. Again Australia is up there, but so is Thailand. Potatoes for some reason, is one of the few things which you can get which is grown in Singapore, but a lot of imports from the US.
As for brand names, Tabasco, various orange juices not from concentrate, Old El Paso, all the American potato and tortilla chip brands. California wines are available too, but then so are wines from just about every corner of the world.
Basically, you can find a lot of the American brand names here. Almost every supermarket here has an import section catering to specific requests for the ex-pats living here. And they are good at it. I remember making a request for Swedish caviar and no more than a week later, sure enough there it was at my local supermarket. Every supermarket also has a Japan aisle because of the number of Japanese ex-pats here. And some now also have a Korean aisle for the same reason. But American and European tend to be grouped together in an international aisle.
Overall, most of the food found in the supermarkets in Singapore is from Australia and Malaysia.
In the small town where I now live, I can go to the local supermarket and find an entire aisle of “gourmet” foreign domestic market products. The variety of products and range of countries represented is not insignificant; it’s not just Lu cookies, Brandt zwieback, and Heinz Baked Beans. Many products have the original domestic market labels, with Nutrition Facts stickers applied to meet US food labeling laws.
Can I go into a typical supermarket in … oh, the UK or Western/Central Europe, and find a similar foreign gourmet/specialty aisle with more than just a token selection of a few American products on the shelves?
Slightly off-topic: in US border regions, it’s normal to see products from the adjacent country on the shelves of local stores, which you won’t see elsewhere in the States. For example, oddball Mexican candies, snacks and laundry detergents in El Paso and Las Cruces; and Canadian candy bars, Canadian cigarettes and Red Rose Tea in western New York. Only in Canada, eh? Liars.
To follow up: here’s the UK/Ireland section of my local supermarket.
http://i.imgur.com/AFKrx.jpg (Wah, wah, wah! AmeriKKKa sucks because I can’t find a decent cuppa!)
There’s even a South African section.
If I go to … oh, a Sainsbury’s in Dinglecaster-Upon-Loo, will they have an equivalent American food section?
Elmwood, I am mildly envious. In most of the Publix supermarkets in my area, we don’t have an entire aisle devoted to international foods, and a lot of them are missing things that are normally readily available in Publix supermarkets in other parts of Florida*. I did, however, find a treasure trove of expanded international foods in Winn Dixie of all places; they even had some stuff I’ve never seen in a “mainstream” supermarket’s international aisle before, like za’atar seasoning, Yuzu citron juice, Japanese udon noodles and sheets of nori. Still can’t find any decent taboule around here.
*Where’s all the damn Hungarian Hot Paprika?!? The stuff is great for making certain dishes and you need the heat of hot paprika to do the job. It looks like I may have to order it online from Amazon or stock up when I visit Central Florida.
It really depends on how you look at it. Keep in mind we produce vastly less wine than Europe because we consume far less wine per capita. (Actually because of high degrees of tee totaling in the Bible Belt and such America is generally ranked very low amongst OECD countries in terms of per capita alcohol consumption in general.)
In that context it is worth noting that 7% of our wine ends up in Europe, so while when compared to the vast output of countries like Italy or France it is obvious we do not produce much wine it is still notable that of the wine we do produce a non-negligible portion of it ends up in Europe.
As far as I know, no-one tries to imitate Tabasco Sauce. Firstly, I don’t think anyone can. They use a special process and unique ingredients. Most hot sauces try to carve out their own flavor profile. Tapatio is different from Cholua.
I am aware of and basically agree with the points you make here. Keep in mind my original comment expressing surprise was within the context of what the OP originally asked, namely
(Bolding is mine for emphasis)
All I claimed was I found it hard to believe you would find much California wine available in Europe. Not zero, just not much. I doubt anyone living in Europe would take the position that they see tons of wine choices from the U.S. in their local grocery store or wine shop.
Pretty much every store selling wine in the U.S. will have at minimum 1 or 2 choices from France or Italy. In fact, finding wine from Spain or South America is pretty much a no brainer in any large city in the U.S. right now. I’m sure if someone wanted to make the effort they could find a store in Rome, Paris, Madrid, etc. that has some California wines for sale. I think you would have to hunt around but I don’t deny you could find it.
Interestingly, from the USDA link I cited earlier, the vast majority of U.S. wine imported to Europe is cheap bulk wine. From page 7 of the report:
So, if you are in London you should be able to load up on some Carlo Rossi pretty easily. In Brussels or Vienna? Not so much.
I guess I thought it more likely the U.S. wine imported by the EU would have been high end wines. Go figure.
I remember Philidelphia Cream Cheese being the one of the few cheeses consistently on the shelves in the Japanese supermarkets. I thought that was really strange, but it was definitely welcomed!
Yeah. I can’t speak for anywhere else in Europe, but, as you’ve discovered yourself, Californian wine is widely sold in the UK.
Actually, “widely sold” simply doesn’t cover it – “ubiquitous” would be more accurate.
I literally can’t think of a single place I’ve been to that sells wine – from specialist vintners to the local newsagent/convenience store – that doesn’t have a choice of Californian wines.
They used to have Dr Pepper here, in supermarkets and everything, but now it’s only in some specialised import shops.
Which fills me with tiny rage, because it’s about $3.50 a can.
Off the top of my head. here’s some standard American things you see in stores here and that people generally buy a lot of IME.
Tabasco Sauce
Coke/Pepsi
Jack Daniel’s and Kentucky bourbons
French’s Mustard
Heinz Ketchup
Budweiser
Coors
Mc Donald’s/Pizza Hut/Burger King/KFC
Various fresh fruit and veg.
There’s at least one store in Dublin city centre that has a speciality American foods section, including American breakfast cereals, and various other products that aren’t typically available in an Irish supermarket.
FWIW, the main thing Americans complain about here is that the peanut butter isn’t as good as at home. I believe the aforementioned store sells the various popular American brands.
If you’re curious to see what American wines a typical British supermarket stocks, here’s a link to Tesco’s page for North American white wines:
I hope that works for people outside the UK. It’s their online shopping site, but accurately reflects what is available in their stores. 14 types listed, compared to for example 28 French white wines, 14 South African, 30 Australian.
There aren’t typically American food sections in our supermarkets but that’s because, just like the UK and other major markets, American brands already proliferate in every section of the store, even if the products haven’t been directly imported. In some instances it’s funny that two products will have pretty much the same packaging but will be taste different because of where they were packaged.
I think if we had an American food section, it would consist of some of your more wayward cereals, Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Cheez Wiz and peanut butter.
American maple syrup is made from corn? Well, that shouldn’t be surprising. In Canada we make it from actual maple sap. 
I know that in Italy I only see Italian wines in grocery stores. I guess I could probably find imported wines as well, but I’d have to specifically look for them.