Although we have many great sweets and chocolate bars available from around the world in the UK, there are still many that haven’t made their way over to us. America is known worldwide for its wide variety of candies and sweets that are only available in America.
In the UK, we now have specialist American Candy shops and websites that import certain candies, but they often come at a higher price point. Some candies mentioned on this list may be available at these stores, but they are not widely available.
So, whether you’re headed on holiday to the States or are just curious as to what’s available in America, read this blog post for 15 candies and sweets that aren’t widely available in the UK!
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Baby Ruth Bars
Despite being a favourite candy in America since the 1920s, Baby Ruth bars have never made it over international waters. The bar itself is made of peanuts, caramel and milk chocolate flavoured nougat, covered in milk chocolate.
If you’re wondering what to compare it to over here in the UK, the most similar chocolate bar is probably Snickers. Both are made of very similar ingredients, but the nougat featured in a Baby Ruth does not contain any peanuts.
Flavoured M&Ms
We have M&Ms over here in the UK, including milk chocolate, peanut, crunchy and salted caramel. But, that’s nothing compared to the flavours they have in America!
Walking into your typical supermarket, you’ll be overwhelmed with the amount of different M&Ms on offer. Without being able to count every single flavour in store, it seems that they have around 50 flavours throughout the year including Christmas, Halloween and Easter limited editions.
American flavours include:
- Peanut butter
- Almond
- Dark Chocolate
- Mint
- Fudge Brownie
- Birthday Cake
- Coconut
And that’s just naming a few! Whatever flavour you can imagine, you’ll be more than likely to find it over in America. Unfortunately, there isn’t really an equivalent for many of these flavours in the UK. But, searching some specialist American candy stores may help you find a few flavours.
Peeps
Peeps are a seasonal staple in America, popular around Easter and other holidays. Peeps are coloured marshmallows, shaped into bunnies, chicks and other animals and shapes depending on the season.
They are made from sugar, corn syrup, food dyes and a pinch of salt. Not only do they come in different colours, but different flavours too. These flavours include cotton candy, gingerbread, lemon delight, candy cane and chocolate covered!
Original Peeps are very difficult to find in the UK, and unfortunately we don’t have an alternative to them in the UK.
Grape Flavoured Candy
Grape is a popular flavour in America when it comes to sweets and candies, however we don’t tend to have grape flavour over here.
In America, they have a different variety of grape known as the Concord grape that is used to make grape jams, juices and sweets. Over here, our purple coloured sweets and drinks are usually blackcurrant, a flavour that they don’t have in America.
In America, grape flavoured sweets include skittles, jolly ranchers, airheads (known as grapeheads) and sour patch kids. They even have grape flavoured fanta, kool aid and jams. They taste nothing like the grapes we have in the UK, so if you’re interested in trying a new flavour in America, pick up something grape!
Junior Mints
Junior Mints were created in 1949 and have been popular in America ever since. They consist of a creamy, fondant mint filling in a dark chocolate coating and are small and round in shape.
Although not available in the UK, a chocolate over here that is similar in flavour is an After Eight. Though they’re both entirely different shapes, they have practically the same ingredients.
Candy Corn
Halloween without Candy Corn in America is almost unheard of! Candy Corn are made to look like pieces of sweetcorn, they’re a multicoloured pyramid shape with yellow, orange and white representing the colour of fall harvest.
Their flavour is based on vanilla, honey sugar and butter making them a delicious sweet treat, with a soft and chewy flavour.
Americans are divided over the flavour, with people either loving Candy Corn or hating it, much like Marmite! We’d recommend giving it a go on your next trip to America to see what the fuss is all about.
Charleston Chew
A staple chocolate bar over in America, a Charleston Chew is flavoured nougat covered in a milk chocolate coating. These candy bars have been around for decades and now come in three different flavours, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.
A popular trick over the years has been to put a Charleston Chew in the freezer for a few hours. Then, once they’ve frozen, smack them against a surface to create multiple, bite-sized pieces.
100-Grand Bars
Originally called the $100,000 Bar, this chocolate bar was created in the 1960s by Nestlé. It is made of caramel with chocolate and crisped rice coating. The most similar chocolate bar that we have over here in the UK that I can think of would be the Toffee Crisp, although they still have their differences!
Hershey’s Kisses
Although many Hershey’s bars are now available in UK supermarkets, including milk chocolate and cookies and creme, Hershey’s kisses are not as easy to find. In America, Hershey’s kisses are popular around Valentine’s Day due to their sweet name.
They’re also popular around the rest of the year, with Hershey’s producing around 70 million kisses a day! The chocolate itself is just individually wrapped milk chocolate, but they are shaped like little teardrops.
The chocolate is so popular there is now Hershey’s Kisses flavoured cereal, that you may find hiding down an international aisle in your local supermarket.
Sugar Daddy
Sugar Daddies are essentially a block of chewy caramel, on a lollipop stick. They are produced by confectionary brand Tootsie Roll industry, which specialises in caramel flavoured treats.
As well as Sugar Daddies, Sugar Babies are available as a companion to the caramel pop. Sugar Babies, also not available in the UK, are bite-sized caramel sweets covered in a layer of milk chocolate. We have no alternative to the Sugar Daddy in the UK, but Sugar Babies are similar to the caramel flavoured chocolate you get in a pack of Revels!
Butterfinger
Butterfingers are not widely available in the UK, but they can be found in certain specialist candy stores that appear on the UK high street. Butterfingers are popular in America and have been since they were created in the 1920s.
You’d think they’d be flavoured like butter due to their name, but they are actually made of a layered, crisp peanut butter core covered in milk chocolate. Butterfingers also come in two smaller, snack sized chunks called Butterfinger Bites Snackerz, which are essentially just mini versions of the full size bar.
Butterfinger Snackerz have smoother peanut butter layer when compared to Bites and the original bar.
3 Musketeers
3 Musketeers is a chocolate bar made by Mars, Incorporated. It is made of aerated, whipped mousse covered in milk chocolate. It’s relatively similar to a Milky Way bar that we get over here!
Originally, the bar featured 3 flavours, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, but due to rising costs during the war they opted to sell a larger version of the most popular chocolate flavour.
Nowadays, they introduce and phase out limited edition flavours regularly. These flavours have included Hot Cocoa, Strawberry, Mint, Birthday Cake and Marshmallow.
Dum Dums
Dum Dums are American lollipops that were introduced in 1924 and have been popular ever since. Obviously, we have lots of hard lollipops over here in the UK, but Dum Dums offer so many flavours that are simply not seen on our shelves!
These flavours include:
- Blue Raspberry
- Bubblegum
- Butterscotch
- Cotton Candy
- Cherry
- Cream Soda
- Grape
- Fruit Punch
- Root Beer
- Watermelon
- Strawberry
And that’s just naming a few! They come in multipacks and single flavours, meaning once you’ve found a favourite you can stick to it!
Warheads
Another hard candy only available in America, Warheads are individually wrapped, extremely sour sweets. They’re on the same level of sourness as a freshly cut lemon! The candy itself is a sweet, lemony flavour with a sour powder on the outside.
Although Warheads aren’t available here, the closest match would be Toxic Waste, which is ironically also an American candy!
Fruit Gushers
Simply known as Gushers, Fruit Gushers are an interesting candy. They are a fruity flavour, soft, chewy candy. They also have a syrupy, fruit juice centre that releases in your mouth once you bite into it.
Gushers come in a variety of flavours, including a sour version. They also have a spicy version, known as fiery! Definitely a must try if you’re heading over to the States any time soon.
After reading this blog post, I hope that you’ve found some new candies and sweets to try on your next trip over! Make sure to leave space in your luggage for all the treats you’re bound to pick up.