Snack Swap… with Australia!

So… there’s this community on livejournal where you can sign up to swap snacks with someone else in a different country. You turn in an application and then you are paired up with someone. After that you get in contact with your swap partner, exchange emails to find out likes and dislikes (this is the time when you make requests for specific items!)… go out and buy everything, ship it out… and wait for your package to arrive!

I had been dying to do this for a very long time… and now, I finally got the chance to do it. :) My partner was from Australia and it was her first snack swap as well, so we were both learning as we went. I ended up sending her about $30 worth of snacks in a large priority box and thus shipping cost around $60. So it’s not cheap, kids. If you want to participate, you’d better be willing to throw down some serious cash for your snacks… otherwise, you might as well just order from online.

Okay, so I had an awesome post written out… but then I somehow deleted everything when I tried to make the cut, so… I guess here’s the short version of what I had typed out earlier.

BUBBLE-WRAPPED. I’ll admit, I shook the box the moment I got my hands on it. By then, I was already super excited and even more impatient. (I was tempted to just tear open everything and see the spoils of my package without taking any photos… but I resisted)

The package actually came for me yesterday, but I wasn’t home to sign for it and so I had to take a little road trip to the post office where it was being held (captive). However, now I know where a weird post office is, where a public library is… and I also managed to discover an awesome food truck… but more on that in a later post.

NO BUBBLE WRAP! SO MUCH STUFF INSIDE THE BOX. SO MANY SNACKS. BUT WHAT DID IT CONTAIN?

All of the snacks, in all their glory. I was filled with such glee as I arranged my snacks in a nice fashion. (and just so everyone knows, I haven’t opened or tried anything yet! but I will… very soon… and when I do, I’ll probably post some product reviews and photos in groups so that I don’t spam my own blog).

To start with the savory portion of the package… I asked her to include something chicken flavored because there’s not many (if any at all) chicken flavored chips in the States (unless you really look for them). And then my request was just simply to please include some Australian chips – and she totally delivered.

From L to R: Smith’s Chicken flavored chips, Cheetos Cheese & Bacon Balls (I have never seen these being sold here in CA before), Twisties Cheese Flavor (from what I know, this is a pretty popular/standard brand of chips in Australia), and Toobs Original Flavor (I have no idea what this is, but it claims to be saucy!)

From the category of big bags of sugar… ;) My swap partner herself is a huge fan of sweets and chocolate and gummies… so when she asked me if I wanted to try chocolate flavored gummies, of course I said yes! So that’s what that bag of “chicos” is on the far left (is it just me or does it seem a bit… racist?)

Then comes the Darrell Lea licorice. One thing I noticed Americans always asked their Australian or New Zealand partners for was licorice… so I thought, why not? Turns out you can buy Darrell Lea licorice on Amazon or at grocery stores like Bristol Farms… HOWEVER, the packaging is different. The one my swap partner sent me is called: magic mango… but the one you buy on Amazon/at Bristol Farms is just called mango (and it’s also labeled as soft eating licorice). I wonder if there’s a difference…

Next is what is probably the most exciting thing for me: ASSORTED MINI CADBURY CHOCOLATES!!! I think my three exclamation points will suffice.

And last are… dark chocolate mint Tim Tams! Because you can’t swap snacks with someone from Australia without getting Tim Tams, right? I had already tried the original flavor of Tim Tams so I asked her to send me a different flavor. And she was kind enough to provide a list of the flavors she could buy and let me choose. So I went with dark chocolate mint… which I hope will be a cross between kit kats and thin mints.

SO MUCH STUFF. SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF CHOCOLATE. THAT IS ALL.