Well I cannot imagine eating one of those Hershey bars..those type of low-end chocolates taste chalky to me.

..but I will tell you a supermarket chocolate that I think is great..Lindor. This has been around for ages but I just discovered them..the chocolate rolled around a soft center...

Cimbrone the only people who should feel their "reasoning abilities have been questioned" are those who firmly believe that everyone in the world has the same taste they do. If you fit into that category, so be it.

It's great that you are passionate about chocolate. Many people are. But yes, there ARE people who couldn't tell a Hershey Bar from a fine chocolate from Europe -- in fact, some would prefer the Hershey Bar -- hard as that may be for you to understand. There are some people who given a choice would actually choose an orange over a piece of chocolate -- even though you clearly wouldn't. And there are some people who would feel honored to have a friend go to the trouble of lugging a crate of oranges all the way from another continent just because they are even "slightly" better than the ones they can buy -- but never do.

And the idea that "all of us" lug home fresh fruit (particularly whole oranges) from the market is just plain absurd. Very, very few people in this country -- and even fewer in Europe --lug home fresh oranges from the store weekly, if ever. Come on now. Maybe they could, but like buying flowers, it isn't something they normally do. Actually, I'll take that back. I'm willing to bet FAR more Europeans buy fresh flowers every week than buy fresh oranges. Wanna bet on that?

My only point is that there is no reason to think that EVERYONE in the world has the same judgemental tastes about two different things that you do. Nor is is logical to think that everyone in the world is even a chocolate lover or has the same taste in chocolates other people have. People need to KNOW something about their gift recipients. Hopefully anyone who knows you would know to give you find chocolates and not a crate of oranges. But there are others who actually might have a different choice.

Okay, okay...how 'bout some chocolate dipped orange wedges? Or a bottle of Grand Marnier? :)

Good European chocolate does carry a premium in the US, of course. After all, it's come a long way to get to the shelf, and besides that it's ... good. But American tastes have certainly evolved in the past 10 or 20 years, and a lot more people are eating a lot more premium chocolate. Sure, our typical candy bars have more in common with a cola, and Belgium's with .... what? Champagne? A fine port? Cashmere?

As far as chocolate bars or something like them, I'm a Ghirardelli fan - for baking, too. California's best commercial chocolate stacks up against the competition. Amazingly, even though Ghirardelli has had multiple changes in ownership over the past decade or two (including Lindt, which is not a favorite of mine) the quality has held up. I need to try another California entry, Scharffen Berger.

But even Hershey now markets higher-quality chocolate - you won't find it at a convenience store, but it's out there and it's better than the old standby. No small part of this should be laid at the feet of reports that chocolate - the kind filled with cocoa and cocoa butter - is good for us! The fine print on those stories always tell you they're not talking about a Mars bar or a Whitman's sampler or even a fancy box of Godiva, but the good stuff. Not candy per se, but CHOCOLATE. If this has driven Hershey to make a better bar, good enough.

>Lindor
Lindt is more expensive, but not nearly as good as Feodora imho. Lindt does offer a large selection of chocolate christmas tree hangers (kids love them) and they sell a lot during this season, but then there's Gubor that's alot cheaper and just as good.

Is it common in the US, to hang chocolates in the christmas tree for the kids, like it is over here? Once christmas is over it's always interesting to see how fast they disappear :-)

I guess it must seem odd to people living in Spain or Italy that some of us (or at least one of us) load up on things like canned tuna fish when we travel in those countries! After all, we do have tuna in the US! When I think of al the foods I have schlepped home from various trips.....!

EK, that's the truth! But it's a good thing, and consumables are, to me, better than stuff that will fill up my few vacant corners ... and if I hadn't brought home a tin of Morganti coffee from Italy, I would never have written them for more, which lead to a great friendship. (I had to get more -- my friend had written a book while drinking that brand every day at the Caffe Guidi in Sutri. When I noted their slogan is "Il caffe d'autore", I figured it might help me finish a book, too.)

logos, I don't know of a chocolate-on-the-tree habit in the US. We used to add a few dozen cellophane-wrapped candy canes to our tree, then eat them through the month.

Mimmel, check with the Florida Dept. of Agriculture website. I asked a similar question last week on the US forum and a poster told me that you may not take fruit out of the state because of citrus canker.

However, if yours is coming directly from a grower the rules may be different. I was going to bring Meyer lemons out of my parent's yard back to Alabama.

ekscrunchy, I too have discovered Lindor only recently (even though I live in Switzerland since more than 20 years) and agree with you. It's an excellent "supermarket chocolate". I bought a box of mix Lindor with classic milk (red), dark, white and crunchy hazelnut. My favorite is hazelnut but other are good too.

Perhaps we should all avoid buying fruit from Florida.
See http://tinyurl.com/298wbf

As someone who lives quite near a lot of the migrant labor, primarily picking tomatoes, let me tell you that HUGE strides are being made. Is migrant labor a wonderful life? NO. Will it ever be? No. But it is well supervised here in our county, and great numbers of migrant housing that are really good have been built and are provided. Many "former migrants" now stay to work in other labor areas as well now, and social services is doing a pretty good job keeping up with things. Our Habitat for Humanity is a large and successful one -- providing housing for many immigrant laborers who are becoming a valuable part of our social structure.

So boycott buying Florida produce and set the industry back about 10 years -- the times that Independent article seems to be describing.

Here is the list of products which I bring from the USA to Germany for myself:

- really good chile sauce
- canned green chiles
- cactus preserve
- margarita marmalade
- Underwood chicken spread
- Oreo cookies
- jerky
- Key lime pie

Do not bring oranges. Do not bring chocolate. Do not bring Bourbon Whiskey (you can buy Jack Daniels in EVERY supermarket - and Maker's Mark is too strange for European palates).

To each his own, but I'm trying to picture the look on the faces of my European friends as I hand them a can of Underwood chicken spread!!!

"Maker's Mark is too strange for European palates?" I do not understand that statement. Are you saying that few "Europeans" would appreciate a good bourbon?
(I just used MM as an example, I realize there are lots of other fine examples..)

Some people are misinformed. After all, when you consider that Southern Comfort has been French-owned for more than 10 years, the world appears to be a strnge place.

wow~ what an incredibly strange list of suggestions!

SPAM is always appropriate. Especially if you bring one of the Limited Edition 70th Anniversary cans...(but not the low sodium..not as a house gift!)


http://www.spam.com/seventy/

EK, you crack me up. Ah, but spam and beans ... there's a dish filled with nostalgia. At our house the spam was crusted with brown sugar ... and I lived to escargots and soft shell crabs, sushi and testicles, and many other delights that would have seemed very strange indeed in our house.

But I digress.

Must a house gift, even from an international traveler, be exotic? I can buy Jack Daniels on my street, too (or any brand of bourbon or other spirits made, I don't doubt) but please, when you come to visit, know that you are free to bring some along!

Now there's the other side: what would you bring when you go to visit an expat countryman? Americans abroad might like the Oreos or peanut butter or even the bourbon, if it's terribly pricey in their home away from home. Or ...?

I can buy Dewar's Scotch any time I want, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it if someone brings me a bottle as a gift.

I guess I'm missing the boat that a gift has to be something you can't buy on your own? Like the flowers, or nice chocolates I think giving someone flowers or candy is nice, but I don't know anyone who doesn't have access to buying them on their own. What am I missing here?