Sending a food parcel

[Emily Ball]

My son is living in Japan at the moment and I'd like to send him a few food items which are unobtainable or extremely expensive there. (home -made cake and tea bags would be included ). Weight and customs restrictions are  obviously the main considerations. Has anyone got any suggestions, based on their own experience maybe?  

[Lillabet]

When my cousin was overseas with the army I know my aunt sent him boxes from this site www.boxhappy.com the sweets apparently always went down very well.

I know you want to make your own box rather than buy one but the site might give you a few ideas about the sort of things that can be posted well.

I don't know anything about customs restrictions in Japan though...

[ICEMANSAV]

send a bottle of johnny walker, that is the biggest bargaining tool out there!

[Emily Ball]

Nice one icemansav ; but I reckon postage would be exorbitant - I sent him a very lightweight silk suit and it cost over �17. But your post prompted me to do a bit of research on Scotch whisky and I learned that Scotch accounts for 20% of all U.K. food and drink exports and that Greeks drink more Scotch per capita than any other nationality. I would have thought it would be the Scots themselves. You live and learn.

[Emily Ball]

Oh yes and excise duty and Vat make up two thirds of the price of a bottle!

[Artful]

Postage soon mounts up, don' forget. But myMam sends OXO cubes if I run short and no-one is coming over (to France). Oh! and packets of loose leaf tea - I like Chritstmas tea for example.
What I ask for is marmite (you can get it over here but only in piddly little jars),  decent horseradish sauce, Stones Ginger Wine, all sorts of spices (mixed spice, mace, mustard seed - I make lots of chutneys), Sandwich Spread, Branston Pickle, stem ginger...

Hope this will give you some ideas Emily Ball. The last thing I asked for was a block of creamed coconut - that is impossible to find over here, or I haven't managed to anyway.

[ICEMANSAV]

Also Emily, If you know someone who uses a courier often to that country, they may be able to get a discounted rate rather than use the post office. We use a courier for frequent collections and delivery to Japan and it is very cheap in comparison. Interesting point about the scotch whiskey!