World of Snacks is traveling the globe in search of the best cakes, cookies, chocolates, chips, and candy.  So far we’ve explored a total of 28 different countries. Tonight, we are moving on to lucky number 29 and maybe number 30.  Our foreign snack comes from the Island of Tortuga in Haiti! (or so it seems)

Tortuga, named by Christopher Columbus for its turtle shell shaped look, was once a popular pirate hideout.  Our snack under review today, consists of an ingredient that was very coveted by these buccaneers.  What could this ingredient be?  Of course it’s rum!  The company that manufactures this Caribbean treat has adopted the name of the Island; they are called Tortuga International Holdings.  Our snack under review is the number one souvenir export of the Cayman Islands.  For those who are good at Geography, you may wonder how a snack form Tortuga is an export of the Cayman Islands.  Well, Tortuga International Holdings operates out of several countries including the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Barbados, and the US.  Combined their state-of-the-art bakeries they produce over 10,000 cakes a day.  Our sample comes from their Barbados factory.  Let’s take a look at the Tortuga Caribbean Rum Cake.

Upon opening our box contacting our Tortuga Caribbean Rum Cake we pulled out a vacuumed sealed cake.  It looked a little strange and once opened the smell was very alcohol based.  Our taste-test panel included two children and the smell was so strong it made us verify that this snack contained less than 1% alcohol.  Once the smell dispersed a little we cut it up and passed the samples around to our tasters.  It’s a good size, we had a group of 7 testers total, and we still had some left over.  The cause for the left overs was not related to the taste.  Every person involved was truly in love with this “cake from Tortuga.”  Although it’s a popular seller on cruise ships, it was all testers first experience. The cake was outrageously moist, as if it was prepared that day in our own kitchen.  The texture was perfect, firm and crumbly at the same time.  The rum flavor was pleasant and subtle, unlike the initial smell.  It really seemed to be a treat and lends itself to being a good gift item.  Overall, a very positive reception by our panel.

Will World of Snacks offer the Tortuga Caribbean Rum Cake as apart of the normal inventory offered for sale online?  It’s a definite maybe.  We are not sure when and if we will feature either of these countries as a staple in our lineup.  We may dedicate a broad Caribbean Snack section in our store, and if we do this rum cake will absolutely be included.  If you are just joining us our British Snack Store has just launched.  Every month this year we will expand our international selection of snacks by one country.  Next month we will feature US snacks exported around the world.  The month after we have yet to decide which country will be included in the expansion.  If you are searching for a foreign snacks be sure to vote for it here and help us decide. To stay up-to-date with our progress and receive special offers be sure to leave your details to the right.  Keep on snacking world!

When we decided to open an online store and international snack blog one of the most exciting countries we wanted to explore was Japan.   For many years we’ve heard rumors of outrageous flavors of snack brands that are based out of the US.  Well, the rumors are true and we are several reviews into delicious and rare snacks from Japan.  We hope to add Japanese snacks to our inventory later in the year.  Until then, we will continue to highlight some of our findings and narrow down our inventory selection.  Our snack imported from Japan under review today is made by Doritos. 

Doritos has an interesting history.  They came about in Casa De Fritos, a Mexican restaurant in Disneyland.  The restaurant produced their in-house chip until a distributor asked to take them regionally to other restaurants.  They caught on and two years later Doritos were mass-produced and offered for sale all over America.  Today they are among the best selling chips in the world and come in a variety of flavor in the US and across the world.  Our review today is of a rare flavor that is only available in Japan.  Let’s take a look at Pizza-La Doritos.

Our sample for our snack review is a fairly large single serving bag.  Pizza-La is the largest delivery chain of pizza in Japan and their logo is placed across the top in a white bar.  Under the name “Pizza-La” the package reads “All the taste and topping you want on a pizza straight from our oven to your door.”  Under that there is a supreme pizza, a gold triangle that reads “Get’s” and a profile of a smiling man that reads “Open up with your Smile.”  We tried to open with our smile, without any luck we decided to rip them open and start our taste test.

Will World of Snacks offer the Pizza-La Doritos in the US and shipped worldwide?  We definitely hope so.  We want to carry every single flavor offered in Japan. We previously lined up a suppler in Japan and had everything set to go but unfortunately the arrangement fell apart.  We are currently in negotiations with others.  Until then, why not try some of our British Snacks?  If you’d like to be notified when our Japanese Snacks are added to our store be sure to leave your details to the right. 

Throughout December our International Snack blog was dedicated to reviewing British Snacks in anticipation of the launch of our online store.  Now the store is open, we will continue our search for the best snacks in the world.  Today we are heading north, to Canada to review a snack by L.B. Maple Treat Company. 

The L.B. Maple Treat Company is based out of Grandby, in the outskirts of Montreal Canada.  As a producer of a variety of high-quality Maple syrups, spreads, cookies, candies, and gift packages, L.B. Maple has grown from a 52-acre farm in 1975 to a 100,000 square foot facility and is now a leader in the Maple industry.  They currently produce a range of products under the L.B. Maple Treat Brand, Uncle Luke’s Maple Syrup, and an assortment of private label offerings.  Our Canadian snack under review today is Maple Sugar Candies by L.B. Maple Treat.

Our snack came in a cardboard rectangular sleeve with a transparent window to highlight the candies. The surrounding graphics appear to be maple trees and the overall presentation has a very autumn feel to it.  The Maple Sugar Candies themselves are placed into dark red cups and appear rather high-end and appetizing without even having to open the box.  Well, how do Maple Sugar Candies by L.B. Maple Treat taste? 

Will World of Snacks add Maple Sugar Candies by L.B. Maple Treat to the international snack store?  We are not so sure that we will.  We do want to explore other snack items offered by L.B. Maple Treat but this one didn’t do it for us.  So far our store only offers British Snacks, but each month this year we will add a new country and their best cookies, cakes, candies, and chips to our inventory.  In February we are expanding to include American Snacks.  For March, we haven’t decided yet.  Help us choose which snacks to offer by voting for your favorites.  Also to stay up-to-date and receive special offers be sure to leave your details to the right.  Keep on snacking world! 

Today is the 1st of January and our international snack store is officially open for business!  Over the last year we have traveled the world in search of the best candy, chocolates, cookies, crisps, cakes, and gummies.  Our goal was literally to locate the best snacks in the world and offer them for sale online with international shipping.   We launched our store with British Snacks and every month in 2014 we will add a new country and their snacks to our inventory.  Even though our store is open, we will continue writing articles on our ongoing search for additional inventory.  We opened today with 33 British Snacks for sale in the US and we have an additional round of snacks from England set to arrive by the middle of this month.

One of the snacks that will be included in our inventory expansion is the Yorkie Biscuits by Nestle.  In fact, most of the additional snacks to be added will be biscuits, so if you can’t find what you are looking for in our British Snack shop, don’t worry!  To be honest, we never heard of the Yorkie Biscuits until we did a review for the Nestle Yorkie Chocolate Bar.  After falling in love with the bar, we knew we had to get our hands on the biscuits version of this snack.  Let’s take a closer look.

Our British Snack under review comes in a dark blue wrapper that is nearly identical to the Yorkie Chocolate Bar.  The logo placement and text is the exact same, the only real difference is the word “Biscuit” runs along the bottom of the package.  Upon opening the wrapper I personally became a little worried, it too looked exactly like the Yorkie Bar, it even comes in the same trademark segments.  What are we getting into?  We had see what the Yorkie Biscuits taste like to determine.

Will World of Snacks offer the Yorkie Biscuits by Nestle for sale in our international snack store?  Yes! These and other biscuits will be added to our selection of Snacks from England.  Head over now and get your hands on some of other recently reviewed items or leave your details to the right and we will let you know once the British biscuits arrive. 

1/05/2014 UPDATE:   Nestle Yorkie Biscuits are now available for purchase online in our international snack store.