Traveling Without Actually Going Anywhere: Universal Yums from Spain

This month, I received my box of Universal Yums full of snacks from the European country of Spain! And of course, there was a booklet inside full of trivia and fun facts. I learned that Spaniards like to throw food! In the La Tomatina festival, participants throw tomatoes at each other, and at the Jarramplas festival, people throw turnips at a person beating a drum and dressed up as a monster! They must really like food fights in Spain!

In addition, Spain is one of four countries in the world that has no lyrics to its national anthem! The anthem is strictly instrumental music! Also, when children lose their teeth, instead of leaving them for the tooth fairy, they leave their teeth for a talking mouse named Ratoncito Perez!

While eating the treats, we listened to Spanish flamenco music! Flamenco is a form of song and dance from gypsies from the southern part of Spain. It is typically danced to guitar music. As they say in Spain, “Vamos a comer!” That means, “Let’s eat!”

Our first treat was a bag full of spicy mango gummies. They definitely smelled like mangoes, but they were gross and awful! They were incredibly spicy! My husband, David, hates spicy foods, and he also does not like gummies, so this was a double whammy for him! I finished my gummy, but David did not finish his. We ended up throwing out the rest of the bag. There was no way that either of us would eat anymore! I still do not understand how David likes wasabi but not these spicy treats. Remember when he ate all the wasabi flavored chips from Ukraine??

Next, we ate lemon and black pepper flavored potato chips, which I felt was very similar to a previous treat we had from Italy that combined the flavors of lemon and pepper. I actually liked this combination, and I will certainly be finishing this bag of treats!

Next up was a bag of fried bacon and cheese cones shaped like Bugles. David thought they tasted better than Bugles. I really liked them, and I liked them equally to a Bugle. If you don’t know, a Bugle is a cone-shaped corn snack. Afterwards, we tried a chocolate toffee. I found it to be hard and chewy, and it got stuck in my teeth. David surprisingly liked it!

We then spent awhile trying to open up the next snack, as it was in a hard case. The case was full of M&M shaped candies that had a hard exterior like an M&M. They were white chocolate and caramel candies. Instead of saying M&M on them, some said, “Gold,” and others said, “Lacastaos” on them. I liked them, but David said they were okay. He is not a big fan of white chocolate, so that was not a big surprise to me.

Next, we snacked on pistachio toffees. The booklet describes them as “ridiculously creamy soft candy.” I have no idea what candy they were talking about, but it was not these candies! Mine was much harder and chewier than the previous chocolate toffee we had tried! I felt like I was getting an exercise workout for my jaw! David got his toffee stuck in his teeth and did not like these at all! Finally, we tried a custard cream cortadillo. This moist cake was definitely soft and creamy! I was not a huge fan of the custard, but David loved it! It is known that Catholic nuns in the southern part of Spain created the first cortadillos, but the nuns in several different cities claim that they were the first to create these treats. Whoever invented them did a good job!

Overall, David’s favorite snacks were a tie between the custard cream cortadillo and the lemon and black pepper flavored potato chips. My favorite were the fried bacon and cheese cones. I thought the worst yum was the spicy mango gummies; David concurs but also thought that the pistachio toffees were equally bad. The weirdest yum was most definitely the spicy mango gummies! I still cannot believe that people actually like them!

I have traveled to Spain before. My family and I were on a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea, and we stopped in Barcelona. Actually, it was our last stop of our cruise. We toured the city mostly to see the works of the architect Antoni Gaudí. One of his most famous works is La Sagrada Familia which is a huge cathedral. It is absolutely gorgeous and a bit gaudy, but it’s actually not even finished! It’s projected to finish in 2026. I would love to go back and see it when it’s completed! When I go back to Spain, I also want to see Flamenco dancing. I would not be interested in seeing a bull fight though; I could pass on seeing that. My husband, David, has not been to Spain before, so it would be fun to go with him!

After this box, I will get one more box, as my husband had gotten me a six month subscription for Christmas. I cannot wait to see where my last box will come from! But who knows, maybe we will get more boxes? I say that because my husband put out an idea that we renew the subscription so we can keep getting global snacks. After the next box, we will talk about it and see if we think it would be worth it. We do have a lot of fun trying the new snacks and learning about different countries from around the world. I shall keep you updated!

*I was not paid for this recommendation.