• BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 hours ago

    Twizzlers.

    I tried them in the US and it just felt like I was chewing on a piece of plastic.

    On the other hand, unlike most of the people in the comments, I love licorice.

  • RalphWolf@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    3 hours ago

    The disgusting Harry Potter every flavour beans. They had jelly belly jelly beans that tasted like dirt, grass, booger, vomit, ear wax, and others I can’t remember.

    • MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 hour ago

      I’ve only tried one, blind, it was worms. Never again. That was over twenty years ago and I still gag just thinking about it.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    7 hours ago

    Hersheys “chocolate”. I spit it out, and a bit embarrassed, asked “could it gone bad during the flight?”

    Well, obviously this stuff does taste like vomit, and Americans seem to be OK with that. Explains a lot about American behavior. If chocolate here would taste like that, we probably would have more mass shootings, too.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 hours ago

      Hersheys used to be our only choice. However now that we have better choices, many of us are waking up to chocolate as a good thing (other than the sugar rush). It can be hard to get over the price and quantity difference though.

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        4 hours ago

        Luckily, we are spoiled for choice here. German, Swiss, Belgian, English chocolate all around. And no Hersheys anywhere.

    • Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 hours ago

      I’m allergic the something they put in mass produced milk chocolate over here I think. Idk what it is, I’ve no allergies I know of. But if I have a Hershey Kiss, my throat burns a little after, feels painful.

      This doesnt happen when I have good dark chocolate, it’s only the garbage mass produced chocolate. US chocolate wasn’t always this shitty, but it sure as fuck is now. I doubt there is much actual cocoa in it these days

  • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    7 hours ago

    I tried some matcha mochi once. It didn’t really taste good, but the worst thing about it was that it was just boring.

  • Ludrol@szmer.info
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    8 hours ago

    If I had to choose between leather belt flavoured licorice and vomit flavoured Hershey’s. Licorice wins everytime.

      • Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        6 hours ago

        I’ve tried the licorice thats made with ammonium chloride.

        I love love love, licorice. Theres a store by me that often carries international candies and goods. I saw salty licorice there, and it sounded good, so I bought a little bag of the stuff made in one of the nordic countries, it was a bit ago, I don’t remember which one.

        Driving home with a piece in my mouth and I taste it. Why do I taste cat piss? Wtf? My face sours, and ammonia comes to mind. My nose flairs, I spit it out. I get home and search up ammonium chloride, which I found on the package lable. I’m horrified what I find. It is processed with ammonia. WTF

        Salty licorice might be good, but y’all can keep the ammonium chloride stuff, I’m good. Taste like cat piss smells

  • Aksamit@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    13 hours ago

    Salted liquorice.

    I had a Norwegian friend who waxed lyrical about this stuff. So when I saw it for the first time in a shop, I grabbed a packet to nibble on while waiting for my train.

    Plain black liquorice is delicious and salt makes everything taste better, and the Norwegian seemed like a nice, relatively normal person who enjoyed other things I liked. This was a low risk choice of mid morning snack, I thought to myself.

    I was wrong. So very wrong.

    This stuff tastes like it was peeled off the bottom of a shoe after walking through the city all day. It’s not salt either, it’s freaking ammonium chloride.

    To paraphrase the Wikipedia:

    The mineral is commonly formed on burning coal dumps from condensation of coal-derived gases. It is also found around some types of volcanic vents. It is a product of the reaction of hydrochloric acid and ammonia.

    And Scandi’s put this on liquorice and like it. Even the kids. Madness. It took my all not to heave into a bin after trying it and like six cups of black tea to get the taste out of my mouth.

    I gave the Norwegian the rest of the packet and he laughed at me while I watched him eat it because I looked so horrified.

    • kylie_kraft@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 hour ago

      ammonia

      I like black licorice overall, but your description reminded me of my own worst candy experience. I brought these black licorice cat coins at World Market. The cat shapes were appropriate in the worst way. They tasted the way cat pee smells. It was completely unexpected and overpowering. I looked at the ingredients, and there was fucking ammonia in them. Horrifying. I will never understand how anyone could enjoy a candy that tastes like snacking out of the cat box.

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 hour ago

      Droppies! They’re an acquired taste. I worked with a lot of Dutch people at one point and they were always bringing them in. There was one kind I swear that had a powdered coating it was dipped in which only could have been weed killer.

    • breecher@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 hours ago

      As a Scandinavian I am ok with this being a general opinion outside of Scandinavia (minus a couple of countries), because that just means there’s more for us.

    • gerryflap@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      6 hours ago

      This stuff is like cocaine to me. Liquorice with salmiak is my favorite candy. It’s so interesting seeing people who didn’t grow up with it dispise it so much. Nowadays I don’t but it anymore because I can’t stop myself from speed running all the candy once it’s in the house.

      • Aksamit@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 hours ago

        It hurts, but it’s delicious. Svenskjävlar! is the world’s saltiest licorice.

        Lmao, you all are built different or something. How many can you eat before it starts melting your tongue?

        • MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 hours ago

          I mean, yeah, I’ve been salty liquorice all my life. But this is not something you binge on, it will eat up the roof of your mouth after just a few.

          My go to is a combination of a sweet liquorice and a salmiak and chocolate covered almond. Pop one of each and munch away. Usually drink milk to save my stomach lining…

          🤣

  • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    13 hours ago

    First of all, licorice is good actually, though black jelly beans are trash.

    One time I bought olive flavored gummies from the Asian market because I love olives and I was curious. Absolutely horrible, didn’t even finish one.

    • Aksamit@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      5 hours ago

      Chinese olives are from a different plant entierly to western olives btw. I’ve never had them candied but they’re really good pickled as a side dish with spicy food.

  • thesohoriots@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    19 hours ago

    I’m seeing a lot of black licorice mentions, but there’s a special hell for Läkerol’s menthol black licorice.

    • Aksamit@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 hours ago

      This just brings to mind the dreaded menthol filter tipped liquorice roll up. These were never intentionally done, but running out of either ordinary tips or blue rizla would often end up with being the only option.

      I quite cigs years ago but for some reason I’m really craving one of these right now, ha ha.

  • gigachad@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    14 hours ago

    That’s an easy one - Durian bonbons from China. Durian is also known as the “stink fruit”. You need many hours to get that taste out of your mouth

    • Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      14 hours ago

      I like fresh durian but the candy tastes like rotten onions to me. There’s also a kind of durian twinkie. Tried it once, almost threw up.

  • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    edit-2
    18 hours ago

    Related anecdote: When I worked an offshore rotation with people from all over the world, I made an effort to bring candy that I’d never seen outside of Scandinavia. It was always amusing to see people sampling candy I liked when they weren’t used to the ammonium chloride branch of flavors.

    And once I brought this:

    Everybody who weren’t Norwegian, Swedish, or Finnish (sadly we had no Danes on board) absolutely hated it. Especially the Americans and Brits.

    Everyone except Mario, that is; a Croatian geophysicist. He loved them. His voice still lives rent free in my head over ten years later, saying “Sweet candy is for kids”

    A few trips later I brought one of my favorites for basically the same result, but this time with Jim (from Illinois, iirc) complaining that it made his mouth physically hurt:

    Mario loved that one even More.
    The only thing everyone on board liked was the obscene amount of chocolate my navigator brought every trip.

    But to answer the question: Twizzlers. I bought some when visiting the US a couple of years ago. It tasted like oily sweetener (as in, clearly not actual sugar). That’s when I learned that American and European wine gum are flavored very differently.

    Footnote: Durian and durian chocolate is quite alright once you get used to the slight farty smell from each packet you open.

    • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      15 hours ago

      I will defend my rubber flavoured twizzlers til the day I die. Do they taste like you shouldn’t be eating them? Absolutely. Will I still eat an entire bag of twizzlers at the movie theater every single time? You betcha.

    • Deestan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      19 hours ago

      Take a bag of those pebers and dump them in a bottle of vodka. Let them dissolve overnight. Bring to a party and you will be instant friend of any scandinavian.

    • owenfromcanada
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      19 hours ago

      Yeah, American candy has about the lowest standards. Canada isn’t much better, but there’s a noticeable difference in the quality of chocolate in common chocolate bars. We once did a side-by-side comparison of KitKats (we live right on the border) and the difference was stunning.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        15 hours ago

        We once did a side-by-side comparison of KitKats (we live right on the border) and the difference was stunning.

        Bad comparison on that one. KitKat brand in the USA is an entirely different company that the rest of the world. So they aren’t even the pretending to be the same recipe.

        • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          7 hours ago

          At least the US KitKats aren’t Nestle.

          I won’t say I’m boycotting Nestle per se, but I try to avoid their stuff. There’s a bag of strawberry cheesecake KitKats from Japan on my desk, lol. They’re pretty good.

      • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        19 hours ago

        If you like KitKat, try and see if you can find this one:
        .
        It’s similar, but better.

        One American candy I actually like is Reeses peanut butter cups.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          4 hours ago

          Reese’s is one of my favorites too, but objectively it’s horrible, down there with hersheys chocolate. They successfully made it addictive, rather than taste like peanut butter or chocolate. Try something like a Trader Joe’s peanut butter cup and it’s a world of difference.

          It won’t keep me from my Reese’s but at least I’m aware of it

          • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            34 minutes ago

            Reese’s tasted a whole lot better 20+ years ago. Now it’s just gritty sugar with peanut butter flavored ‘essence’ added. Same goes for Cadbury eggs which are completely inedible now.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              15 minutes ago

              I always wondered about that but I don’t eat frequently enough to notice when it changed

              • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                12 minutes ago

                Eating them infrequently is exactly how I noticed the change especially with the Cadbury eggs. It used to have a creamy center that has been replaced with what tastes like a spoonful of gritty Betty Crocker sugar frosting. Reese’s are less obvious but also just taste like sugar (or HFCS) to me now and they were my absolute favorite as a kid as someone who’s not really into candy.

          • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksM
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            3 hours ago

            Will do once I’m in the US, although I need to figure out an explanation for the vast collection of JD Vance memes on my phone first.

            • grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              19 hours ago

              I love this site! I only order from them once a year because it’s expensive (I usually ask for a gift card for Christmas), but they have so much awesome stuff. The paprika Pringles are to die for.

          • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksM
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            19 hours ago

            Well, it could be (I just grabbed it off of an image search), but the product is real and found all over Norway.

    • Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      19 hours ago

      I’m a brit and have loved tyrkisk peber and other “salty” liquorice etc. sweets for a long time. I had a big bag of the hot and sour flavour and was rather sad when I ran out.

      • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 hour ago

        If you feel like DMing your name and address to an internet stranger who may or may not send you anthrax spores, I can (claim to) mail you a resupply stash on Monday.

    • Uff@lemmy.worldBanned
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      19 hours ago

      Same in Canada. Everything is fake. You’ll see transmission fluid before you’ll see any real sugar in the ingredients.

    • Vanth@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      19 hours ago

      sweet candy is for kids

      I vibe w Mario. I haven’t had either you mentioned, but they seem my speed. I go for the saltiest licorice you crazy Scandinavians can come up with.

      (am an American who warns people off my candy stash, but they still try it and think I’m pranking them)

      • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        19 hours ago

        Sometimes it’s a hit. I was going somewhere with an Uber in Houston once, and the driver needed to stop for gas. I took the opportunity to head inside the gas station for some supplies, and while I was queueing and minding my own business while the guy in front of me had his stuff scanned by the cashier, and he suddenly said “Oh, and his stuff too”, offering out of the blue to pay for my stuff. (Seriously, does that happen sometimes? I’ve never heard of it before nor after. He must’ve been in a good mood). I wasn’t holding much stuff, so sure why not, once my initial WTF-factor had worn off.
        I gave the guy a tin of Tyrkisk Pepper as a token thank you (I happened to have some I bought at my home airport that I planned on leaving at the head office). When he asked what it was I just said “Scandinavian candy, be careful”. He actually liked them.