Newbie...help!

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sunnyshine
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Newbie...help!

Post by sunnyshine » Wed May 25, 2011 11:00 am

Hi, I am moving to Helsinki at the end of July, having been offered a job last Friday...amongst attempting to pack up my UK life in under 2 months, I am wondering about food and drink in Finland and was hoping someone could help me out!
I have to decide whether, in my airfreight allowance, to take...

Hellmans Light Mayo
PG Tips Tea and other teas, like Earl Grey
Cadburys Chocolate
Marmite

My job comes with a fully furnished apartment, and so I should be able to fit in some food related products!

Can I get any of these things in Finnish supermarkets??

Sorry if this seems a bizzare request, any help really is greatly appreciated

Thank you :)



Newbie...help!

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interleukin
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by interleukin » Wed May 25, 2011 11:12 am

These guys, http://www.behnfords.fi/index.php?language=en carry a bunch of funny foods that might be essential for someone arriving from the UK (I don't even know what half of the things are). The prices are gonna be high, though, so if you use a ton of something, bring some with you.
Most people don't worry too much about these things and just bring stuff back when they visit home once in a while.
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Upphew
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by Upphew » Wed May 25, 2011 11:15 am

sunnyshine wrote:Hellmans Light Mayo
PG Tips Tea and other teas, like Earl Grey
Cadburys Chocolate
Marmite
Hellmans: seems to be available at local K-market (or more likely Citymarket, same chain): http://www.ruokapirkka.fi/ruokapirkka/6 ... ?pgnumb=43
PG Tips: if you browse around here, you'll see that people bring them here, as the local tea prices might be quite shocking to you. Also PG Tips are not available, afaik.
Cadburys: http://www.behnfords.fi/
Marmite: http://www.behnfords.fi/advanced_search ... ite%20125g might be available at larger/st stores, ymmv.
Thing to remember about Behnford's: speciality shop, special prices.
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simon
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by simon » Wed May 25, 2011 11:19 am

My local supermarket is Hellmans Mayo now, bit pricey but worth it

English mustard can only get the powdered type now, but that's not too bad

Cant get decent tea.

Cadburys chocolate, not available

Marmite you can get but you pay through the nose.

Branston pickle I would take if you like

Walkers crisps

Assortment on your favourite chocolate bars

paracetamol's, razor's, cod liver oil tablets


Basically that's what I would take from the top of my head, but their probably is more

sunnyshine
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by sunnyshine » Wed May 25, 2011 11:22 am

Wow, thank you very much for the help! I will definitely be having a look at the links :) I am an obsessive tea drinker so it looks like I will need to be bringing vast quantities. I've already told family and friends that they will have to send me care packages, and bring stuff with them when they visit!!

irnbru
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by irnbru » Wed May 25, 2011 11:41 am

sunnyshine wrote:Cadburys Chocolate
Once you get used to Fazer you wont care less about Cadbury.

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zetorpilot
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by zetorpilot » Wed May 25, 2011 12:14 pm

I'm personally not much of a tea-drinker, but Lidl's English Breakfast tea isn't a bad substitute for the real thing :D

Having said that, bona-fide UK teabags are a permanent feature on my list of things to bring back (from my UK trucking trips) for friends.

Illiniguy
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by Illiniguy » Wed May 25, 2011 10:20 pm

The key is to bring as much alcohol as you can. Alcohol prices are insane in Finland.

sunnyshine
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by sunnyshine » Wed May 25, 2011 11:40 pm

Yes, I've heard that! Don't want to take up all my allowance with alcohol though....Might have to buy some at the airport!

Rosamunda
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by Rosamunda » Wed May 25, 2011 11:53 pm

You can get PG Tips in the ethnic food stores in Helsinki and also Café 51 on the Hanko Road. I drink them when I run out of Yorkshire Tea which I bring back from the UK.

Also, bonjela, antihistamine, etc (anything you would normally buy from Boots is cheaper in the UK than here).

Wouldn't bother with the majo or the chocolate.

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Pursuivant
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by Pursuivant » Thu May 26, 2011 10:16 am

There is no salad cream :lol:
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Upphew
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by Upphew » Thu May 26, 2011 12:04 pm

Illiniguy wrote:The key is to bring as much alcohol as you can. Alcohol prices are insane in Finland.
You should visit Norway... on top of the fine church burning music they have nice taxes on alcohol and tobacco.
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sinikala
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by sinikala » Thu May 26, 2011 12:51 pm

Hellmans has recently launched in big supermarkets over here in little 250 ml squeezy bottles as opposed to jars. I bought a couple of different ones a plain & a garlic cflavoured but AFAIK they don't do the light yet. The jars are available in the likes of Citymarket & Stockmann, the latter being the only place I've seen light version.
There is not a huge price difference - perhaps double. If you are moving to Helsinki don't bother with mayo, it's quite heavy and eats luggage allowance - better to use the weight allowance on tea.

PG Tips is available in Stockmann & Asian shops, but they sell them at crazy prices €22-24 for a box of 240. Early Grey is widely drunk here boxes of 25 are around €2.5. Boxes of 50 slightly cheaper €4.5? Bring as much tea as you can drink, the local prices are 5-10x higher than in the UK.

The local equivalent of Dairy Milk is Fazer Blue, it's edible - a bit crisper & less creamy than Dairy Milk, but actually not that tempting to buy. So I don't.
There are no Cadbury's chocolate products on sale outside Behnfords & the ethnic shops, so we occasionally bring things like Crunchies, Frys Turkish Delight, Fry's chocolate cream, Flakes.
Pick and Mix is widely available but the tastes are quite alien and the quality is a bit iffy ... no sherbert lemons, no everton mints, no chocolate limes, no aniseed balls but a huge variety of salty licquorice and gelatin based chewy sweets - all vile. You can get toffee and strawberry bon-bons but they were never my favourite. My missus is Finnish and she prefers the selection you get in the UK too, so it's not just me. :wink:

Marmite is only AFAIK available in Behnfords, in the smallest jar size, at €5. Which is only a little cheaper than half a kilo in the UK. (4x the price)

Bring teabags, sweets & marmite. Forget the mayo.

Other food / junk food I bring: crumpets, vegetable Oxo, smoked paprika, garam masala, salt & vinegar Kettle chips, nestle evap. there are no real local equivalents.
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sunnyshine
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by sunnyshine » Fri May 27, 2011 12:15 am

Wow ok thank you for all the help! You are lovely people :)
And now I have a whole shopping list of things to take...crumpets and kettle chips! How could I forget these??
Can you really not buy garam masala? I will take that too!
230kgs really isn't going to go far when I've added clothes, my wii, books, shoes...so on and so forth...

sunnyshine
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Re: Newbie...help!

Post by sunnyshine » Fri May 27, 2011 12:20 am

Another question (sorry)...do you have to declare items like crumpets or tea?


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