Edible goodies as souvenirs/gifts

[blythe]

After several cruises, and at this stage in our lives, my husband and I are not interested in shopping for jewelry/watches, t-shirts, or any olher regular souvenir items. What I would like to do is bring back food items representative of the various ports we will be visiting on the Equinox cruise in April (Cozumel, Roatan, Puerto Limon, Colon, Cartagena, and Grand Cayman).

Bearing in mind airline restrictions, could you suggest some good food items that I might look for. I plan to buy some rum cakes in Grand Cayman as those are always a big hit with my family back home. Taffy has also been mentioned but I've never tried that. Any favorite foods that you like to bring home to family/friends?

[curacaoqueen]

From Grand Cayman, rum cake and taffy, check out the craft market across from the tender area, Miss Ivy sells hot sauce and jerk sauce. Also Cayman sea salt and bath salt.

[misterbuds]

I'll find out in less than two weeks on my Equinox cruise to the majority of these ports. I know Costa Rica and Colombia is known for coffee. My sister went to Costa rica last year for a week and she brought me back coffee and some special kind of sauce/liquid seasoning that they use on a lot of food. Can't remember the name though, but it was the size of a hot sauce bottle. She said it was pretty popular there.

 

We also like bringing back edible goodies from where ever we travel. I plan on buying coffee on this cruise in costa rica and colombia and of course my cayman rum cake from grand cayman. I particularly like the one I bought last May that had raisins in it. It was delicious. I enjoy trying unique things so if I see something different I'll buy it to try it.

[blythe]

I know I'll buy coffee and rum cakes but am a little leery about buying liquids. Any problems with the airlines with having bottles of liquids in your luggage? I haven't fully studied the whole 3 oz gel/liquid rule; haven't flown in 5 years.

[Dunmore2]

We are on the same cruise as you, blythe and also like to purchase food items. Usually we wrap breakable items in a dirty t-shirt and then put them in qt ziploc baggies. They can go in our checked baggage that way. otherwise, 3 oz is the limit for each container in a carry-on.

[blythe]

Thanks. I'll bring along some extra ziplok bags. Does anyone have any other suggestions for yummy food items to bring home? I plan to ask our tour guides for suggestions in those ports where we take a tour, but we are skipping the organized tour in the Caymans and just doing our own thing.

[griffy116]

We grab the usual items, but we LOVE them: Coffee, rum cakes, vanilla, rum, hot sauces. Unfortunately, we usually have to re-stock the rum cakes while on-board as we eat one of them as a "munchie" at night :(.

[Dunmore2]

I have never had a rum cake. Is it like a poundcake soaked in a rum/sugar mixture? If it had brown sugar and nuts, I could easily see myself munching on one at night too!

[blythe]

Hi, Mike! Thanks for the responses. I see that you will be joining us on the Cabin Crawl! Can't wait. As for the rum cakes, they are sort of like a pound cake soaked in rum. They also come in a variety of flavors and are all delicious. My Mom still talks about the one we gave her from our last cruise.

You've all given me some good ideas. I had not thought of buying vanilla but will have to try that. When I mentioned buying coffee to my husband, he said that the coffee they sell the tourists is not the really good grade coffee. Any thoughts on that?

[griffy116]

I'm not a gourmet, but I am an avid coffee drinker. The coffee we purchased was really good..I love strong, rich coffee. My favorite favor of the rum cake is coconut, but they are all yummy...and great with a cup of the coffee. The hot sauces were for my Grandson..he's the fan of hot sauce, not me. The vanilla for my Mom, who bakes. We put these in bubble wrap and in zip locks, inside our checked luggage.

[blythe]

Thanks for the great suggestions. I'll definitely bring extra bubble wrap and zip locks to package my goodies. So much food, so little space in my luggage!

[Dunmore2]

We have had coffee from Colombia when Mike worked there. Extremely good, in fact, the best coffee (strong too) that we have ever had. We plan on buying some in Costa Rica also. Grand Cayman is also known for their gourmet sea salt and luxury bath salt.

[blythe]

OK, I'm convinced. I'll plan to buy some coffee in Costa Rica and Cartegena. We are doing a private tour in Cartegena and I assume that our guide will be a good source for recommendations.