joe randel's art dump

This, dear readers, is the first ever official Snack Swap post.

Some time ago we made an exchange with friends.  Some of our Canadian cookies and treats for some American ones.  The results where lack luster.  I proclaimed that all American candy sucks, put forth the idea of snack swap (a concept I dreamed up a year or so ago) and the challenge to prove me wrong.

Okay, so I wasn’t really looking to be proved wrong.  I know every place has their own snack foods, good and bad.  Lots of people came out and said that the ones we received where crap and that there are far better ones out there.  I was more then willing to start up snack swap with anyone that would step forward with a list of treats to trade.  Fucitol, from the DeviantArt community soon sent me a note with a list of snacks and asked if I was willing to swap for the items listed.  I picked the ones I’d never heard of and sent him a list of my own.  He made his choices, and so began the journey of snacks to new and exotic locals to be enjoyed (or not) by  strangers linked only by a shared curiosity of what junk other people eat.

So about a month ago I was greeted by my foreign snacks on my step.  I rushed it inside and eagerly cut it open to set free my new snacks.

Right on top of everything was a post card from Fucitol with a nice picture of Washington on it.  This made me so happy.  It was a nice personal touch to the package that made it extra special.  Underneath was nice collection of new things to try.

• ChexMix Bar
• Aplets & Cotlets
• Wild Huckleberry Chocolate Bar
• Teriyaki Chips
• Almond Roca
• Chukar Cherries – chocolate cherries

I (and my wife) quickly opened that ChexMix bar first.  We found it to be more granola bar than chocolate bar.  Not a bad thing, as it tasted quite good but not really like Turtles as the package said it would.  Next one we tried was the Aplets & Cotlets… thing. 

It’s sort of hard to explain.  It’s like this soft, chewy apricot… chew.  With walnuts and a powder covering the whole thing. My wife wasn’t a fan but I quite liked it and would totally have it again.

We then tried the Huckleberry bar.  This looked like a locally made confection which I thought was great.  I love local stuffs.  The bar was quite good, although a bit too sweet.  The filling , while oozy, was very tasty but would run out of the bar if you didn’t eat it fast enough.  Over all, it was good and I quite enjoyed it. ^_^

The Chukar Cherries where… umm… awesome!  I love cherries to start, but put them in chocolate and man… *^_^*  Plus it seemed they where really dried cherries in there  and not some fake cherry thing.  An insta fave!

The Almond Roca was also enjoyed a great deal.  It’s this crunchy, taffy/caramel center with chocolate on the out side and rolled in almonds.  Yum!  I actually saw these in a store close to where I work the other day so it looks like I won’t have to swap for these in the future.

Last was the teriyaki chips.  They where quite tasty and wife and I eat them as we watched Survivor.  This was actually my wife’s snack of choice from the swap and is sad that she can’t buy them up here.

THE FLIP SIDE

It wouldn’t be a proper snack swap with out hearing what was enjoyed on the other side.  So, with out further waiting, here is Fucitol’s opinion of what I sent him.

Cadbury Caramilk: Good chocolate. Good caramel. Cadbury rocks. I was curious as to whether there was a significant difference between the Cadbury brand in the US and the ones in Canada. If there is one, I couldn’t tell.

Aero: Puffed chocolate. The air bubbles gave a different mouth-feel experience. The effect is less pronounced with the caramel version. The chocolate itself was good – just as something from Nestle should be.

Eat-More: Chewy toffee interspersed with peanut bits. It wasn’t the toffee I was expecting in taste or texture, and I liked it very much. I’ll probably look for some of these bars the next time I’m in BC.

Big Turk: Turkish Delight with chocolate coating. I wasn’t impressed with the chocolate, but to be fair, it’s called “Big Turk” and not “Chocolate with candy filling”. It tasted vaguely familiar – not like other turkish delights, but like something else I’ve had before that I can’t recall at the moment. I think this candy bar has an acquired taste to it – after 3 bars or so, I’d probably be hooked. The little bit that got stuck in my teeth tasted better and better as I worked it out.

Hickory Sticks: Shredded potato chips with hickory flavoring. Pretty much what I expected, but with smaller “sticks”. My shirt and the floor liked them too.

Chip Nuts: Peanuts with a potato chip coating. Yum! I liked the original flavor the most. If they made these with cashews, my head would probably explode from delicious overload.

I also sent some maple candies because… heck… I live in Canada.  It only seemed fitting.  Any future Snack Swaps will get some of these.

I was also going to send a post card, because I loved the idea.  But I couldn’t find any post cards in any of the stores I went to. o_O So I grabbed some speech cards and drew a quickie picture on it.  I think I’ll continue to do this as well with future swaps.

So that’s it!  It was a great swap and I very much enjoyed all the treats that I got.  It sounds like my snacks where also enjoyed on the far end of the continent.  This was so much fun and it just hardens the idea of trying more snacks from other places.

Who will be the next to swap?