Some meals and snacks are so ingrained in Canadian culture that they find it hard to break into the US. From sweet tablets with American competition to outrightly banned egg-shaped chocolates, here are 17 Canadian foods you wouldn’t find easily with the neighbors down south.
Poutines
Unless you’re moving to cities in the northern border regions, poutine is generally unavailable across the US. Even the poutines you see in border regions usually don’t have fresh cheese curd and, instead, replace it with other cheeses that take away the Canadian feel from this delicacy.
Smarties
Unless you have links to specialist importers that bring Nestle Smarties into the US, laying your hands on one can turn out to be a treasure hunt. Smarties aren’t distributed in the US because a US company has trademarked the name “Smarties” for its own tablet sweets.
Bagged Milk
As common as they are in Quebec, Ontario, and the Maritimes, bagged milk is a terribly unfamiliar sight in stores across the US. This is because milk producers in America don’t generally operate under the metric system. If not, instead of bottles and cartons, this system may have forced them to use bags for more accurate measurements.
Peameal Bacon
You’re only getting your favorite corn-covered pork rolls for breakfast if you make them yourself. Americans even call them “Canadian bacon” or “Canadian back bacon,” given how unique they are to Canadian cuisine and culture. You’d have to settle for some smoked bacon instead.
Montreal Bagels
The closest thing you’ll get to Montreal bagels in the US are New York bagels. Just have it in the back of your mind that you won’t get the smaller, thinner, sweeter, less salty, and smoke-flavored versions you have grown to enjoy over the years.
Bloody Caesars
You won’t get your Bloody Caesar—the official cocktail of Canada—in the US. Instead, you’ll have to settle for the American version, Bloody Mary. If you happen to see one in the US, you’re probably still in a bar along the Canada-US border.
Pure Canadian Maple Syrup
The weather conditions in Canada are so perfect for the maple tree that 85% of the world’s maple syrup comes from it, as the government itself reports. Of course, you’ll find pure maple syrup in the US. But you wouldn’t easily find maple syrup with the same exquisite quality as those made in Canada.
Timbits
Although Timbits have been in America since 1981, they’re only available at Tom Hortons. Now, the problem is that there are only 637 outlets in the US, and 39% of these are in New York alone, per ScrapeHero. This means, unless you’re in New York, these Tom Horton donuts are some of the rarest treats to find in America.
Butter Tarts
This dinner dessert, particularly revered as a cuisine in Central Canada, will be hard for you to find in America. Although you may see replicas such as pecan pies and even “butter tarts” sold in pastries in the US, they miss out on the unique flavors of the Canadian treat.
Caramilk
Cadbury’s Caramilk chocolate bars are exclusively made in Toronto. In the US, you’ll only find similar chocolate bars that may not be as sweet and chewy as you would like. The closest you’ll get to them is Caramello, which is another Cadbury chocolate bar.
Coffee Crisps
If you moved to the US in the 1990s, you could easily get your hands on a Coffee Crisp thanks to the card collectible company Pro Set. Sadly, Pro Set went bankrupt, and the coffee-flavored wafer chocolate bar has been hardly available ever since.
Big Turks
Your low-fat, jelly-filled chocolate bars are only manufactured in Canada and will also be extremely hard to find in the US. What’s even more jarring is that, unlike coffee crisps, big turks have never been sold or distributed in the US since their debut in 1974.
Nanaimo Bars
If you want some Nanaimo bars, you either order one online and have a long wait after, or you simply go for alternative prayer bars. These vanilla chocolate chip bars from British Columbia also have an origin shrouded in mystery, with some calling them the New York Slice, Mississauga Bars, Edmonton Esks, and London Smog Bars.
Kinder Surprises
Your favorite egg-shaped chocolates and their toys are literally banned in the US. They can’t be sold even along the US border, and the FDA law that upholds this prohibition has been around since 1938. It’s essentially a ban caused by the non-nutritive items in them—the toys that make your Kinder Surprises fun in the first place, Yahoo shares.
BeaverTails
The BeaverTails company prides itself on having 140 locations worldwide. The catch is that most of these are in Canada, and there are only three locations in the US. As Food Republic shares, unless you reside at Fayetteville in Arkansas, Farmington in Utah, or close to the Dollington Amusement Park in Tennessee, all you can do is long for them.
Swiss Chalets
Now, for an Ontario favorite. Swiss Chalets are so rare, you won’t even find them in Quebec or British Columbia. There were previously outlets in America, but the last of them, which was in Buffalo, New York, closed way back in 2010.
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