exbayern

This may be a somewhat alternative to Tempo (Canadian product, don't know if it is sold in America)

http://www.royale.ca/Page.aspx?id=248

They sell a '3 ply ultra king size' but again I don't know if it is the thickness of a Tempo.

And I just ordered another pair of Italian shoes from Amazon.COM as my shoe size falls into 'Things to buy in America - unavailable in Germany' Women's shoes rarely are stocked higher than a size 40 in Germany.

Tyrwhitt

I'm an American who has lived in Germany and now live in Canada. I was both drooling and snickering at everyone's lists. Luckily for me, in Calgary there are multiple European delis that import or make nearly everything that has been mentioned directly from Germany with no alterations. Generally run by first-generation immigrants, so they know what they're buying. I get my special-edition Lebkuchen tins each year, all the Oetker products you want, tissues, paper napkins, all the Ritter Sport bars you can think of...real German bakers bake real German bread every day...real German Metzgers prepare real German sausage (or Danish, or Hungarian, or Polish)...real marzipan for my baking. You get the drift. Put YYC on your next Mileage Run and stock up to your heart's content. Well, you might want to wait until Canada lets you take carry-on baggage again...you wouldn't want to be feeding the baggage handlers that well!

tfar

Good post. Welcome to FT, by the way.

I am jealous, though. A German Metzger and Baecker, I'd kill for that. Can you imagine fresh Laugenbretzeln for breakfast? Really not good for the waist line but oh so delicious.

Till

longwaybackhome

I've got Royale tissues that my mother purchased for me somewhere in Connecticut. I might be able to mail them to the highest bidder because they hurt my nose I've never used Tempos so I can't compare the thickness.

As for Ritter Sports, do they still make the kind with coconut? One of the local stores says they've stopped.

And, umm, my Werder Bremen shirt is only available in Germany.

exbayern

There is only a limited line which is for export market; the full line includes the 'flavour of the year' (2009 was the Karamell Nuss for instance, 2010 is almond milk cream), the holiday flavour (2009 Spekulatius and the large size Gold treasure), the summer flavours (usually white chocolate and milk chocolate with fruit fillings), the alcohol flavours, the large size specials (like peanut and cereal) and retired flavours brought back (2009 Olympia) as well as the Rhum mini bars and other treats.

I am not a fan of coconut and it doesn't look like it is still an active flavour on the website. But then again it is not something I would look for.

The factory is worth a visit although the price of the 'regular' bars is nothing special. The mystery grab bags, seasonal flavours, and wax wrapped bars are somewhat of a good deal, and if you purchase €100 they give you one free bar.

exbayern

Some places to find decent ones (or Laugensemmel)

• Wegman's stores in PA
• Whole Foods in Miami Beach
• Ralf's Bakery in WA (does mail order)

And what is with the German sausages in Thailand??!! I have not seen such a wide variety in a long time (Siam Paragon)

Tyrwhitt

Thanks, Till. You've hit my problem on the head. The German baker in Canmore bakes fresh Bretzeln daily. Made the mistake of buying two dozen recently. Turned out to be a dozen for me, a dozen for my husband, several (Belgian) beers...all gone by the next day. I have to stay out of there. Maybe I should try to covet tissues instead of bread, as others here do.

fred8ab

I step beside of food and just want to make you aware of the big outlettown Metzingen. South of Stuttgart. If you stay here you can find many European brands and for a real good price.

I'm sure you will find Boss, Joop Escadam Jill Sander Hilfiger and all others everywhere else in the world but - as Hugo Boss comes origianl from Metzingen that the reason why all the stores are located here - I'm sure you will find soemthing nice to take with you.

tfar

You each had a dozen Bretzeln and Belgian beer over a 24 hour period???!!! Whoa! How much was the weigh gain. I recently lost 6kg. After spending four weeks in Berlin and getting Brotchen and Bretzeln every morning for breakfast I gained three kg right back. Took me a month to lose another 1.5 of those gained back.

Till

bluepig1

I will be in Munich Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon (next weekend, so it will be cold, I'm sure). First visit to Munich, so I'll cram in a lot of quick sightseeing - probably Marienplatz and Viktualienmarkt. Hotel is near Old Town.

I'm interested in buying 1-2 bottles of good German riesling - can anyone recommend a good wine bar/shop in these areas that might let me taste (small tastes, not whole glasses) a few to decide what to buy?

I'll probably just pack the bottles in the middle of my suitcase - any suggestions to prevent breakage? After Munich I have a flight to GVA and 3 days in Geneva before returning to the US.

Thanks!

christianj

Just found this post and as someone who travels to Germany frequently and has lived there in the past I'll bite on jumping in on this thread.

First of all I want to add a little insight into the comments by people that food products sold in the US by german (or foreign for that matter) manufacturers are different than those sold oversees. What you need to keep in mind is that food products imported into the US need to be manufactured according to US FDA requirements. Basically what this means is that ALL ingredients need to be approved by the FDA for use in food products. Some products manufactured and sold in Germany do not meet all of these requirements and manufacturers thus need to change the recipe/ingredients in their products to meet FDA requirements. The biggest issue for most is food colorings but even some other ingredients are not allowed here in the US. Add to that the labeling requirements for food products here in the US and it can be a pain for companies to import/export items.

Now the next part...some of the original foreign products sold at smaller delis are basically what are referred to as a blackmarket imports. These items often are imported without meeting all of the rules and regulations set by the FDA. They come in on shipments from the various countries and get into the country without meeting all of the FDA requirements. How do they do that....the FDA does not check all containers because they simply do not have the manpower. These products are sold in smaller outlets and usually are in the original german packaging without any english text and definitely without a nutritional facts panel if a food product. Large retailers like Trader Joe's, Aldi USA, CostPlus World Markets, etc. will NOT buy these items because they have very stringent Quality Control Depts that make sure the products meet the FDA production and labelling requirements. The small retailers...some of which have been mentioned here don't seem to care as long as they sell the stuff. They don't do the due diligence to make sure the ingredients, packaging, labelling, etc. meets all of the FDA requirements. There are alot of potential problems/issues with this happening. Say for instance that a consumer in the US buys a product from a smaller retailer in the US that does not meet the FDA requirements and becomes ill or has an allergic reaction or something. The manufacturer will not be liable for this if they did not export the product and if the product was imported into the US even though it was not intended to be exported.

Now back to the original topic after I added this bit of info. I typically will pick up the following products when I'm in Germany either for myself or friends:

- Erdnuss Flips (suprised no on has mentioned these...they are my favorites from when I was a kid and I'm suprised that no one in the US carries them...other than Aldi during their german week when I stock up)
- Penaten Creme (good for acne breakouts too by the way)
- Labello Rose
- Wunderkind Skincare (Wolfang Joop's new company after he sold his Joop brand years ago. Their men's eye cream is the best I have found.)
- A creme containing Ibuprofen that is available in Apotheken in Germany to put on sore muscles
- Latschkiefer Oil or creme
- Alcohol filled chocolates
- Bounty candy bars (like Almond Joy just better and without the nut)
- Feldsalat seeds (not sure why they don't have this salad variety here in the US)
- colognes not available in the US

I also buy most of my shoes and eyeglass frames in Germany even though they are not cheaper. The selection is so much bigger over there than here in the US.

Oh and if you are looking for Teewurst on the east coast...go to Wegmans. Theirs is really good and so is their liverwurst. As for wine, I won't mess with bringing that back on a plane when I can get it at my local liquor store.

exbayern

All of the products I mention have 'crap' added for the US market. Pick up a packet of powdered soup or broth in Germany and it may have a half dozen ingredients; pick up a similar product from the same manufacturer in America and the list is 2-3x as long, with a lot of chemicals and/or additives.

I find it very hard to believe that a product does not meet American FDA requirements because it is too devoid of crap.

soitgoes

Yeah, I don't think it's the FDA requirements.
I think it's more that many of the European labels outsource the North American production. A lot Knorr and Oetker stuff sold in North America is produced in Canada.

exbayern

And even then, the items sold in Canada are often the 'clean' ones, such as Nutella and Maggi noodles, vs the items sold for the American market.

christianj

I'm not going to debate this with you but the fact is that many european products are changed for the US market due to FDA regulations. What is considered crap as an ingredient in Germany is not necessarily considered crap as an ingredient in the US. All ingredients used in Germany are not allowed in the US and vice versa. The "crap" added could also be an ingredient that increases the shelf life of a product which might be necessary due to lower sales of the product in the US. That's just the way it is! Some manufacturers don't export to the US because the products need to be changed too much or they just export items that don't need to be changed at all. In addition there are costs associated with printing packaging that meets the FDA requirements. If they don't run special packaging then they at least need to add labels, etc. For manufacturers it really is a balancing act between the costs associated in importing/exporting the product to the sales potential here in the US. As for the length of the ingredients listing, I could go into a big long explanation of what the labeling requirements are in the US vs. Germany but I will spare everyone on those details.

As stated above, don't underestimate the FDA requirements on products sold in the US or even in Canada. Some manufacturers do indeed outsource the production of their products for other markets. If the manufacturer allows the outsourcing company to produce the product with a different recipe then it is of course going to be different and the manufacturer has accepted the difference in the product.