Traveling Without Actually Going Anywhere: Universal Yums from Austria

The first Universal Yums box in 2023 came stuffed with snacks from Austria. We hadn’t had a box full of Austrian treats before, so this was a first! While chewing on Austrian snacks, we listened to Austrian classical and folk music.

First in our box was a dark chocolate banana bar, which did not look appetizing whatsoever! It also tasted nasty! It actually had banana in it and looked like a banana. I do not like banana, except for banana bread, so this was not a good treat for me. Apparently, banana is the second most popular fruit in Austria! The most popular fruit is the apple.

Next, we tried paprika pea crackers. The packaging said they were a “pea based bread crisp with paprika seasoning.” They were not my favorite, but they weren’t disgusting. They tasted like a light wafer, not dense, with seasoning. We then ate cheesecake wafers that had cheesecake flavored icing inside the wafers. It was very light flavoring, but very good!

What I found disappointing was that I noticed on the packages of the paprika pea crackers and the cheesecake wafers that it said they were made in Germany. I was disappointed since this was supposed to be a box of Austrian treats, not German treats.

After eating the disappointing banana bar and German treats, we ate a crispy caramel milk chocolate bar called Bobby! The caramel had a peanut butter like consistency. It was good, but the consistency of the caramel threw me off. I expected the caramel to be a in a liquid form like how it is in a Milky Way.

Lastly, we ate chocolate tree stumps. They actually looked like tree bark! A thin crispy wafer covered a rod of milk chocolate. It was probably my favorite treat this month since it had the most chocolate!

I did like that most of the treats this month had chocolate in them, but I was slightly upset that we only got five snacks in this box. Our last two boxes each had seven different snacks! Also, two of the five snacks were made in Germany, not Austria. Hopefully, next month’s box will be better!

A fun fact I learned about Austria includes how the oldest zoo in the world is located in Austria! In 1745, Emperor Franz Stephan had a zoo built for the royal family; 40 years later in 1785, it was opened to the public. In addition, the famous candy of PEZ was invented in Austria. Why didn’t our box come with PEZ?!?

Stay tuned, because next month’s box will be a Brazilian box!