Traveling Without Actually Going Anywhere: Universal Yums from the Netherlands
The March 2023 box came filled with snacks from the Netherlands. We had already gotten a box from this country before, so I was really hoping the box would come with stroopwafels since I had remembered them as being super delicious from the previous box. I have also been to the Netherlands before, but I do not remember seeing any of these snacks while I was there in 2017.
The first snack was gouda cheese crispies. These were decent — not amazing and not horrible. They tasted like crackers with a slight cheese taste. Next, we ate sea salt and pepper chips. They were crunchy and had a good combination of salt and pepper. The seasoning was not overwhelming, which I appreciated. My husband thought that these potato chips tasted better than Lay’s chips!
Following the potato chips, we tried a hazelnut cream milk chocolate bar. This was incredible! The creamy chocolate melted in my mouth, and it had a slight amount of nuts, which in my opinion, is the right amount of nuts! We then ate spice cookies. They looked like scared gingerbread people but they tasted good, just like gingerbread!
Next up was my favorite — caramel stroopwafels! I am so glad that Universal Yums included these again in the Netherlands box! They are sugary waffle cookies with a thin amount of caramel filling. Yummy! Lastly, we had another treat that I know we had in a previous Netherlands box: fruity gummy cars. These were too and chewy; I didn’t even finish my first car because it was too chewy and got stuck in my teeth! I hate it when gummy candies get stuck in my teeth! My husband didn’t try this snack because we’ve had this snack before and hew knew he would not like it.
While snacking, we listened to modern Dutch pop music and Dutch hits. We also learned from the informational packet included in the box that Amsterdam has over 2,500 houseboats and the Netherlands has about 18 million bicycles! The Dutch have a sport called fierljeppen; this involves pole vaulting over canals! The Netherlands also has about 60% of the world’s flower bulbs. Our April 2023 box should be coming with snacks from Belgium, which is another country I have visited!
