When Canadians walk into an American convenience store, they will quickly realize it’s not just an “everything’s bigger” version of Canadian ones.
Between the chips and candy bars are aisles packed with foreign-looking snacks with odd flavors and weird combinations.
Here are 9 American convenience store snacks that would seem downright unfamiliar to Canadians.
Easy Cheese (aka Aerosol Cheese)
Americans buy cheese from spray cans that look identical to whipped cream cans or cans of hairspray. Once you twist the nozzle sideways, you will see a sticky orange cheese rope flowing that is strangely soft and salty.
Canadians find this concept absurd because cheese comes in blocks or slices where they live. Since Canada’s food regulations heavily scrutinize dairy and preservatives, you won’t find Easy Cheese on shelves north of the border.
Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies
This is another gas station lunchbox legend. A sandwich of two extremely soft/chewy oatmeal cookies with a thick layer of white frosting in the middle.
For a long time, you could find some Little Debbie snacks in Canada, but the company pulled out of Canada entirely just a few years ago. If you live in Canada and have that sugary, marshmallowy oatmeal craving, you’ll have to cross the border to satisfy it.
Gardetto’s Snack Mix
Walk into any gas station in America, and you’ll see enormous bags of Gardetto’s. It’s a salty concoction of pretzels and breadsticks, but what you’re really digging for are the “Rye Chips”.
Dark, crunchy and heavily seasoned with garlic salt, those little shards of carb goodness aren’t found in Canada.
Canadians do have snack mixes, but none of them highlight those hard, crispy pieces of rye bread. Nine out of ten Canadians will try them once and immediately wish they could buy just the chips.
PayDay Candy Bars
Most candy bars are covered in chocolate, but the PayDay is a big exception. This candy bar is one big lump of sweet, chewy caramel that has been rolled in a thick coat of salted, roasted peanuts.
PayDays are salty and sweet at the same time. Because Canada’s candy selection is dominated by chocolate-covered classics like Mars bars or Crispy Crunch bars, seeing a “naked” peanut bar is bizarre to a Canadian consumer.
Funyuns
Funyuns are like fried onion rings, but they’re actually crunchy corn puffs. Funyuns pack one powerful punch of salt and leave you with seriously nasty onion breath.
Canadians have a few different onion snack rings, but none of them are “fluffy but crunchy” or as brightly colored as the real thing. Funyuns are loved by some and completely despised by others due to the intense flavor.
Bugles (Flavoured)
Bugles are corn chips molded into tiny cone shapes that kids like to put on their fingers and look like witch hats. Canadians are used to seeing one variety of Bugles: “Original”. Sometimes you may find nacho flavoured ones as well.
American convenience stores offer these snacks with an insane range of unique flavors. You can find Bugles dusted with Nacho Cheese sauce, Ranch dressing, or even sugar coatings like Caramel or Chocolate. A Canadian visiting a U.S. gas station is often shocked to see a “sweet” version of a corn chip.
100 Grand Bar
Hidden away in the depths of the American candy aisle is the magnificent 100 Grand bar. Combining chewy caramel, “crispy rice” (like Rice Krispies), and milk chocolate, it’s a candy bar that is surprisingly crunchy yet oddly stretchy.
Canadians have bars with “rice” in them, and they have bars with caramel, but Canada does not have this glorious concoction of the two.
Usually, if a Canadian wants a “crunchy” bar, they get a Coffee Crisp, which is a wafer and tastes totally different.
Nutter Butters
Nutter Butters are crunchy cookies that are molded to resemble an actual peanut shell, with creamy peanut butter filling sandwiched in between. They’ve been loved by Americans for generations.
Canada loves peanut butter just as much as their southern neighbors, but for some reason, this peanut butter brand never made it north of the border. Canadians can find “peanut butter cookies,” but they are missing out on this adorable peanut shape and the amazing taste.
A&W Cream Soda (The American Version)
Order a Cream Soda in Canada and you will more than likely receive a bright pink, fizzy drink that tastes like super sweet vanilla with a fruity undertone.
American A&W Cream Soda is brown and tastes like you deserve a hearty serving of creamy vanilla bean. It’s almost like drinking Root Beer without the extra spices.
A Canadian taking a sip of American cream soda is usually very confused because they are expecting something that looks like pink bubblegum.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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