Someone schlepping at least 5 kilos in a suitcase across the ocean, containing a gift that can be bought better quality and cheaper at any florist, supermarket or gift store, located 20 feet away from the home of the one that recieves the gift.

And expensive trash imported from overseas noone wants or eats. (peanut butter, oreos and beef jerky).

Oops, I just recall the local supermarket sells all those things too, and turkish, greek, french, italian, ukranian, ..., specialties.
Can you buy turkish marshmallows where you are?

<Can you buy turkish marshmallows where you are?>

No, I can't. Maybe you can bring me some next time you are visiting Seattle?

>>>"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 am saying that Europeans are accustomed to tastes of Single Malt Whisky, Cognac and fruit spirits.

And, if you give them a precious bottle of ultra-premium Bourbon, and if they taste it, the reaction might be disappointing.

Premium Bourbons like Maker's Mark have a very strong acetone taste which to which European palates are not accustomed. Last Saturday, I again tasted one of those ultra-premium Bourbons (I forget the name, but it had a racing horse on the stopper), and again I smelled this acetone aroma. Sorry, but I prefer Scottish Single Malts (my favourite is Lagavulin).

(Here writes someone who owns a cask of Springbank, matured in Sherry oak hedgehogs.)

I can also bring Ukranian butter cookies and candy :D

traveler, with all respect, you can't mean that your palate represents the whole of Europe? Surely the Brit with a 3-night-a-week curry habit is no tablemate to the Bavarian sausagemeister or the Milanese milliner?

Meanwhile, I'll join you in a slow single-malt at your earliest convenience. ;)

i like the sound of the list traveller, apart from the jerky, chicken spread (?) and the oreos (you can get oreos anywhere nowadays).
however your comments about bourbon are, silly.
we are accustomed to fruit based cognac? what?

Traveller, I am not sure how you came to be the spokesperson for the population of the continent, but if you insist on putting the kibbosh on bourbon (I don't know about any acetone taste; single batch bourbons are all the rage here in NYC right now and I am not speaking here of something as common as Maker's Mark) here is another thought:

Johnny Walker Blue is blended whiskey, not a single malt, but I cannot imagine many imbibing Europeans would turn their noses up at receiving a bottle as a house gift!

Unfortunately, apart from TC, who we already know has impeccable taste, no one else here has grasped the WOW-factor of the limited edition SPAM...

The limited edition SPAM definetely has a big WOW factor!

Has anyone already mentioned wine from Florida? Since most wine from the US we get here is from California, it would also have a wow factor (IMO).

Cowboy, have you tasted Florida wine? Made from some version of muscadine, the only grape hardy enough to survive the Florida heat. Vile stuff.

While I agree that traveller is way off the mark trying to lump all Europeans into having the same taste, I'm even more appalled that he wants to label Europeans as being so limited and narrow minded in their tastes.

So a person has a love for single malt scotches (as I do), does that really mean he's unable to appreciate anything else -- like a fine bourbon? How silly is that?

Touche, Patrick. My buddy is a true connoisseur of single malt scotch whose second love is Hendricks gin. (I like Hendricks, though I don't prefer it above all others as he does. Good choice for a martini; for a gin & tonic I favor Bombay Sapphire. But I like trying different things and am more likely to have a chort list of brands I don't buy ...)

Anyway, if someone should be visiting me from Edinburgh (or Louisville) and wants to bring along the symbolic gift of a 30-yr old Macallen (or Knob Creek) they should not be deterred by the fact that I can buy those down the street. I can take myself out to dinner, too, but it's nice when someone else does!

chort list: a "short", "changing" series; a listing that inspires a chortle;

First I craved an orange, then chocolate and now a fine bourbon. Which will I choose as I stop by the kitchen on my way to bed?

Bourbon at 8.30am is a really bad idea, how about breakfast.

The ORANGE! And not one but two --- of those delicious little California Clementines "Cuties" that you can only get this time of year. Hope you guys in Europe can get them! Yummmm.

No, but I just bought 500g of argentinean apricots. (2€) That'll bring my Co2 balance deep into red territory. Logos is destroying the worlds climate, yeah!

Let's go wasting, it's christmas time. :D

Nice and juicy.

Nice and juicy.
As are the moroccan cherry tomatoes. 250g for 1.29€
I'm sure, they're loaded with psticides. :D

The clementines that I have seen in New York come from either Spain or Morocco. Mmmm!

Father Clément (real name Vincent Rodier), agricultural manager of the orphanage in Misserghin, Algeria, created the clementine (Citrus clementina) in 1892 by crossing a mandarin orange tree (Citrus deliciosa) with a bitter orange (Citrus salicifolia) that had already been crossed with a sweet orange (Citrus sinensis).

China represents 49% of world mandarin and clementine production.
The United States accounts for 2%. (Spain 8%, Brazil 5%, Japan 5%).