Traveling Without Actually Going Anywhere: Universal Yums from Türkiye

Did you know that the country of Turkey changed its name to Türkiye? I found out when reading the informational packet in the Universal Yums subscription box that I received in June! In December 2021, the UN changed the country’s official name. Türkiye is how the country’s name is spelled and pronounced in Turkish. Turkey was how it was spelled and pronounced in English. I am glad for Türkiye that they are being true to their language and culture.

The first snack in this box was sweet corn pretzel pieces which tasted like burnt pretzels with a hint of corn flavoring. Yuck! Secondly, we ate a coffee coconut cake which said “snowball” on its packaging. I loved it! My husband thought it was too airy and had too much coffee flavoring in it. It definitely smelled like coffee! I would describe it as a spongy chocolate coffee cake with a hint of coconut flavor. Apparently, Turkish coffee is made with unfiltered coffee beans that are ground to a fine powder and simmered with sugar water!

Next up were cola marshmallows. They tasted like marshmallow but I couldn’t taste any cola or soda flavoring. I could definitely taste all of the sugar though! My husband did not like these at all! They were shaped like mini soda bottles, which made them cute! We then tried a date cookie bar that looked and felt like a NutriGrain bar. It was also similar to a fig bar or a Fig Newton, but not as thick as them. I liked the date cookie bar, and my husband rated it as an “eh.”

We then sampled honey mustard and onion rice cakes. These were gross! They smelled like nail polish remover! My husband thought they smelled awful but tasted good. It’s so interesting how our taste buds can be so different from each other! Lastly, we tasted cocoa hazelnut mosaic cookies which were nutty flavored cookies with a very thin chocolate filling. I could see the sugar, and this cookie was delicious! I felt like I had saved the best treat for last! From the pamphlet, I learned that the cookies had tahini in it which is a traditional Turkish paste of ground sesame seeds. I believe tahini is also used to make hummus!

Some interesting facts from this month’s box include the following:

1) Türkiye is the home of the world’s first temple. Gobekli Tepe predates farming, writing, and the wheel!

2) The city of Istanbul is the only major city that falls on two different continents! Part of the city is in Asia, and the rest of it is in Europe.

3) Instead of the United Kingdom and China, Türkiye is the world’s largest consumer of tea!

Overall, it was an alright box. The July box will come from the island nation of Indonesia! Stay tuned!