Mince pies to the USA

Amazon are not in Australia (apart from for books which come from the USA anyway)

Last week an Advent Calendar cost me £8 to post
It is extortionate!

When sending christmas gifts I send the toys via Amazon.com so they are delivered usually free and go directly.

More personal stuff I post via Royal Mail. The 2kg limit is usually around £27. It's amazing if attention is paid to sourcing lightweight items just how much you can get in a box at under 2kg.

TIP: If possible wrap in bubble wrap and use a plastic bag (or a bin bag folded several times). You can save sometimes about 250g on the weight of a box.

Often I cut away any surplus cardboard not needed to enclose everything, to cut the weight, and then secure/reinforce it using parcel/masking tape.

If extra space is there I fill it with Tayto Cheese and Onion Crisps, made locally and highly sought after as a 'taste of home'

Last week an Advent Calendar cost me £8 to post.

Amazon.com which is the USA site have mince pies. You can have them delivered directly. Mr Kipling, Walkers etc. Upon reading the reviews it seems that some are shipped from the UK.

I regularly send favourite biscuits to the USA so I'd just buy some with a long use by date and send them myself. Pack well. I know that up to 2kg weight can be sent as a small parcel and takes 7 - 14 days delivery.

Apparently the American version is different to the ones we have Jacky, and the sauce is not like Heinz.

Just posted a small parcel to the USA. It was £12!

Surely baked beans is an American invention?

I know my cousin usually takes a few bits back with her when she visits but every now and then she crosses the border into Canada where they can buy some English foods. She stocks up and sometimes just hopes she manages to get it all back into the States lol. She gets 'proper' Somerset cheddar cheese, baked beans, crumpets, crisps, chocolate etc.

I used to have an American friend who made mince pies from an old recipe which included real meat. I can't remember which state she was from but she assured me it was common practice there.

Tanith This thread might be of interest
britishexpats.com/forum/usa-57/mince-pies-645493/

I wouldn't risk sending food to the States yourself. I once tried to take some posh, dry-cured, vacuum-packed bacon in for my son and it was confiscated & tossed into a big bin

The web site that Riverwalk linked to actually has mince pies right at the top of the main page. Except they aren't calling them mince pies, they are "mince tarts".

But they're not tarts because they have a lid on. Oh dear, how are we going to teach these Americans about British food?

We have this in the stores. I think the problem is it isn’t a tradition here. I’ve had mince in cookies and pies.

There is a company that sends British food/items (+ a selection of Waitrose groceries) around the world to (mostly) expat customers. They deal with all of the paperwork and customs etc.

www.britishcornershop.co.uk/

Ime of sending food goods to the US, commercial is ok but they're very suspicious of home made. Also, I think mince pies sent through a postal service are likely to end up as...er...mince!

Using a British food provider in the US or making her own is a better option.

Maybe send a bought or homemade jar of mincemeat and let her make/buy the pastry herself.

We used to send typical English biscuits to an American relative, but the cost of postage always very much out weighed to cost of the biscuits. We then found a company that is based in the US that imports English/British products that you can buy to be delivered in the US. The company we used was set up by a British couple who saw the need for this. It worked very well.

Would the USA allow even dried fruit and pastry posted?
Many countries will not allow fruit and veg imports which may be harmful to local produce.

Largely because they are worried about potentially harmful organisms which may contain bug, viruses and fungi etc which might spread plant disease.
Not unreasonable really.

(Welshwife) >>When we first came here it was impossible to buy parsnips as they were considered animal food - now you can buy lovely ones.<<

Same here in Germany with Swedes, WW - my favourite vegetable and I can get them about 1 weekend a year here. My mother in law would turn up her nose and say it was cattle fodder.

I introduced an American friend to crumpets and she developed a taste for them - buys them and other goodies from

British Food

My mother in law, a postal innocent, bless her, sent my son an Easter egg when we were living in the Far East. With no extra packaging it arrived in roughly the same sized pieces as chocolate buttons, and melting rapidly!

Thanks everyone I think maybe I'll just tell her find some herself in the US . They are pretty fragile to post on reflection.

The French around us like Christmas cake, pudding and mince pies! The one thing I gave neighbour's one time they could not eat was a jelly!
When we first came here it was impossible to buy parsnips as they were considered animal food - now you can buy lovely ones.

Yes we offered them to our French neighbours who didn't take to them at all. Strange British custom ?

I hope your friend gets to try mince pies, tanith. We were stationed in a large NATO HQ and had a lot of American friends who didn’t “get” mince pies. They all initially thought that the ‘mincemeat’ was just that! Once they could be persuaded to try them, they were usually sold, although the inclusion of suet in the mincemeat did entrench the view that Brit food was to be viewed with the utmost suspicion!

I wonder what condition they would be in after the deliver services had finished throwing them around.

The postage would probably be three times the price of the mince pies though.
Apparently Walkers will post mince pies to several countries, and some places overseas have 'British' shops.

Send her a recipe - it would be much easier!