Traveling Without Actually Going Anywhere: Universal Yums’ Holiday Box
The last box from Universal Yums in December 2023 was their holiday box with snacks from all around the world. The first snack was also in our December 2022 holiday box: salted egg yolk popcorn from Taiwan. It smelled awful, same as last year. I didn’t eat it this year. David tried one and immediately threw the rest in the trash. Here’s how I described it last year: “This snack was absolutely gross! The popcorn was soft and had a strong, unpleasant smell. It almost had a caramel corn-like consistency. It was one of my husband’s least favorite snacks in this month’s box. Apparently, eggs are typically eaten at most celebrations in Taiwan!”
The second snack was raspberry macaron chocolate truffles from France. Thankfully, these were delicious! It was a creamy chocolate truffle covered in powdered chocolate and barely tasted like raspberry. Last year’s holiday box had Popcorn Flavored Truffles from France. The third treat were mocktail bonbons from the United Kingdom. And what do you know — we had Strawberry Trifle Flavored Bonbons from the United Kingdom last year. This year, the mocktail bonbons were chewy and super sweet; I just wish they weren’t so chewy.
The fourth treat was a dulce de leche filled plum cake from Argentina. Thankfully, this and the rest of the treats in the box are different from what was in our holiday box last year. The soft moist cake was not my favorite, but it wasn’t bad. Next, we ate white truffle potato chips from Spain. These were good and had a bit of a black pepper flavoring. Trained dogs find the truffles in Spain! Then, we tried crab candy from Ukraine. The packaging said “crabs” but had a picture of a lobster…??? Weird! The outside of this candy looked like a peppermint candy cane, and it tasted like that too! But the inside of the candy tasted like a Butterfinger! It got stuck in my teeth, and David said it was like peanut brittle.
Lastly, I ate milk chocolate with strawberry popping candy from Italy; David did not partake. It was a thick chocolate ball with pop rock candy inside. It was such a weird sensation in my mouth to be able to hear the candy pop in my mouth! I wouldn’t eat it again, but it was cool to try! This month’s pamphlet had holiday trivia including the fact that a bottle of wine is in the center of Norway’s holiday kransekake cake; 18 layers of cake surround a bottle of wine! Also, it’s considered good luck in Japan if your first dream in the new year includes an eggplant, a hawk, and Mount Fuji! This is because eggplants represent accomplishment, hawks represent cleverness, and Mount Fuji represents success.
Stay tuned to learn what country our January 2024 box was from!
