American Treats Taste Test

Recently my mom sent me a package from the US.  She put in some popular candies and treats to represent 3 holidays I’ve missed, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. It ended up working out great because I opened the package on Easter as if it was a perfectly timed Easter basket!

The candies were:

Peeps

Peppermint Jelly Beans

Pop Rocks

Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies

Cadbury Chocolate Eggs

Conversation Hearts

And

Some of her homemade sugar cookies!

I was obviously most excited about her sugar cookies. Anyone reading this who is familiar with her cookies knows, but if there are any people who aren’t familiar- they are the best cookies you could ever have. I don’t typically like sugar cookies or shortbread cookies but her’s are different. Not to mention they are beautifully decorated, putting even the most expert decorators to shame.

Anyways, if I keep talking about the cookies, we’ll be here all day! 😂

It is still Ramadan so we decided to do a taste test after the breaking fast meal.  Over the course of 2 days, just to break it up.  My little host sister and my host mom were the perfect taste testers!  My little host sister absolutely loves sweets so it was right up her alley.

On the first day, we tried the Peeps, Jelly Beans, Pop Rocks, Conversation Hearts, and my mom’s cookies.  The favorites of my host sister were the conversation hearts and my mom’s cookies.  My host sister did not like the pop rocks because they were a flavor that is sour and sweet and she’s not a fan of sour things.  My host mom liked everything except for the pop rocks as well, for the same reason. It makes sense though because I like to buy lemonade and they think that’s too sour as well!

On the second day, they tried the chocolate eggs and the Girl Scouts cookies.

The chocolate eggs were a big hit but I think it might take a while for my host family to come around to the thin mints. There isn’t really any sweets here that are mint flavored besides actual mints and those are only really used after eating and not as sweets.

I understand because there are some dessert trends here that I just can’t get on board with, no matter how many times I have them. One is brownies with cheese. Cheese is very typical to find on desserts here. I’ll probably end up making a separate blog post on that.

Anyways, the point is it was interesting and fun to share some typical treats from different holidays in the US. There are not a lot of places to get American candy here and if there are stores that have it, it’s often expensive due to transportation and import costs. In the smaller villages the only candy that’s also in the US is Oreos and Mentos.

I’m glad my parents sent this package so I could try some treats with my host family.

Below are some photos. I didn’t take a lot because we were all in the moment but I did take a few!