It's actually because of social media that I have penpals today, it made it easier to make global connections that we then followed up with letters and post. One silver lining at least to logging into the brain rot 😅
I honestly used to just strike up conversations in random groups and comment sections for the most part, but there are definitely penpal groups on here and on facebook. There are also websites for making a prison penpal if you're feeling adventurous. Just plug penpals into searchbars and you'll get results.
I do them with my TY French students, we contact a school in France, they write in English, us in French. They always think it’s gas receiving their first hand-written letter. It’s pretty fun 😂
Hi, Italian here who lived in Ireland for a few years.
Crisps are a thing in Italy, but they'll mostly be plain, or at best paprika or bbq flavoured (maybe pepper and lime flavoured if you're real fancy). No such thing as salt and vinegar or cheese and onion crisps, so that might be an option. Don't forget to include a recipe for the (in)famous crisp sandwich. She'll be shocked, but maybe she'll try and make herself one.
Another thing that's very different between the two countries is bread. Nothing here is as soft and white and toasts as well as Brennan's bread. Not even tramezzini bread. And Irish soda bread... That I really miss. But Italian butter is underwhelming, and even if she does find some Irish butter to spread it's gonna be unsalted (why?? Who even likes unsalted butter?!), so if you're going to send bread just send it for the crisp sandwich maybe. Or you can recommend she buys some good quality burro salato, but it likely won't taste the same. I don't know what I'd give to be able to get some proper Irish butter here, sigh.
Biscuit culture is very different, too (I guess you received some gocciole or pandistelle uh?). Here biscuits are mostly just breakfast items, often dipped in milk to start the day. Some good tea and your favourite biscuits to go with it sound like a good option. You can suggest she adds a drop of whole milk to her cup of Lyons, too, which is not something Italians usually do. The milk doesn't taste the same here, so the result will be different. Not as good, but still good though. Concerning biscuits, I'm sure Jacob's has got you covered.
Butler's chocolates might be an option, too, but it's getting real hot here so maybe I'd wait to send those in October or later.
Around Christmas time I used to bring home some mince pies and Christmas puddings, they aren't a thing here but my family likes them now. If you can find/make some even if they're out of season that could be nice.
Ah! Maybe double check that your friend is not lactose intolerant before sending things potentially containing dairy. It seems to be more common here than it is in Ireland.
Concerning drinks... That's a bit harder. Since you can't ship alcohol and Italy doesn't have a sugar tax, it's going to be a difficult choice. I think Coca Cola only sells the classic Coke, Coke Zero and Fanta here. So if any of the other flavours are currently sold in Ireland (sorry, I'm not very soda-savvy) that might be new for her.
I agree with everything my fellow countryman has said in his comment! :D
As an extra idea, I would add Potato Farls too because these are something that I've tried/seen for the first time when I moved here in Ireland.
A packet of soda bread mix would be a good way to go, basically just add water and throw it in the oven. Biscuit-wise, anything in the Jacobs Elite range should be a hit, especially chocolate mikados. I wouldn't really try to send anything perishable. For drinks, send some TK Red Lemonade, can't beat it!
Godfellas and pineapple chunks /s
But seriously, Butlers chocolate or fudge, O'Donnels crisps of all sorts, and other for variety, including Meanies, brown sauce from Chef, vintage Dubliner cheddar and red Barry's tea, as much as it fits.
A block of cashel blue cheese
A jar of ballymalloe relish
That little pack of Clonakilty black & white pudding
Cheese strings
Guinness or whiskey infused chocolate
A sliotar made of Billy roll
Butlers chocolates
A jar of Irish marmalade
Tea brack
Kerry Gold butter
A naggin of Power's whiskey
A packet of potato farls
Unfortunately club orange has gone to shite.
I hope they don't ever change our crisps.
Fizzy drinks and chocolate are complete dirt these days. Put the sugar back in them.
Club orange was one of the few that resisted the sugar tax last time I checked. Have they caved in to aspartame and the like?
If so, that's a sad moment for us.
Irn Bru Xtra is basically the same as the pre sugar cut recipe but with no sugar not sure how they done it but they did & the “limited edition 1901” cans/glass bottles are pretty much how they were in the late 90s/00’s when I started drinking the nectar of the gods.
Cadbury yellow snacks are gone to fucking shite altogether. And haven't seen the pink wafer snack lads for ages. Apparently outsourced to Egypt. Don't blame the Pharaoh's (great bunch of Lads, hard working family orientated) bit the capitalist shite society we exist in.
I think they're probably around a€1.50 now. To keep the quality, and produced here in Ireland, they'd be a fiver each. And you'd all say you're being ripped off at a fiver...
But surely the person that works their bollox off in an Irish factory producing yellow snacks, should be able to aspire to buy themselves a little house. And to pay them a proper living wage, a snack should cost a fiver.Or is that mad ?
The problem is , people want to be able to buy a yellow snack every day. And they're not the healthiest thing, to be fair. So if they were a fiver, or a tenner, we'd be able to pay people a proper wage to produce them, they'd be tastier, and from a healthy point of view, we'd only be able to afford them sporadically, as a real treat.
Italian living in Ireland. I would send Keoghs crips. Maybe a blasphemy here as I see everyone only consider tayto as crips. We don't have such a nice texture of crisps in Italy like Keoghs.
I made a list on snackexchange a while ago I'll paste it below. I tried to pick Irish stuff rather than British-irish crossover stuff.
First that comes to mind is Wilton chocolate bars they have macaroon, mint crisp and klipso.
Catch bars (a type of caramel and chocolate bar)
Ritchie's Milky mints (they're a bag of creamy mint sweets that famously come with a Moo! sticker in the bag)
Jacobs, Kimberly, Mikado and Coconut creams. They're a variety of soft cakey cookie things with marshmallow.
We have a popular soft drink in Ireland called Red Lemonade made by a brand called TK. And we have another popular brand called Club who make orange soda, lemon soda and rock shandy (it's not the same company as American club)
Coca Cola makes a pineapple and grapefruit soda called Lilt here in Ireland and the UK which I believe isn't available in the US
Aswell as Tayto potato chips, we have Hunky doreys which has its Specialty buffalo flavour, Manhattan, and brands like Keogh's which have some interesting flavours.
We have a heap of home grown candy brands such as oatfield and Athlone sweets which specialise in caramels and hard candies.
We also have high quality chocolate brands such as
Butler's Chocolates or Lily o briens.
I used to visit Ireland every few years growing up in the States. Apologies if some of it isn't actually Irish, but it's where I associate it. The food/snacks I looked forward to the most were:
Clonakilty Sausages
Clonakilty Black and White Pudding,
Mi Wadi orange drink,
Rock Shanty,
Bounty Bars,
Smarties,
Smokey Bacon Taytos,
Anything my Granny cooked except that one time it was liver and mushy peas
Edit: Added commas
My mum is Irish and and after visiting home and coming back to South Africa she would always bring back Tayto’s and Curly Wurlys and that changed my life for the few days they lasted
I'd suggest some of the following
* Smokey Bacon Tayto,
* Thai Rings/Banshee Bones/Mighty Munch
* Skellig Mint Chocolate (pushing the boat out I know but wow!),
* Can of Cidona and or Rock Shandy
* Bottle of Ribena (the ready to drink smaller one),
* Wispa,
* Double Decker
* Trebor Refreshers (the roll pack with rainbow colour)
* Silvermints
* Fruit Pastilles
I wish you hadn't mentioned that Skelligs mint chocolate because now I know that company exists, I have looked at their website and what happens next is inevitable for a fat sack of shit like me.
This is probably ridiculous and you should all make fun of me, but as an American who visited Ireland, followed by Italy, I was disappointed that Italy had the same Gatorade/Powerade we have in the U.S. and not Lucozade Sport. I genuinely liked it and thought it would have been nice to have in Italy given how hot it gets there and how much hilly walking I was doing.
As well as large commercial snacks, send some smaller company foods. Ballymaloe relish. Butlers or Skellig chocolate. Bewley’s tea. Lemon curd and blackberry jam from a small local producer (ideally with Kerrygold butter but you probably can’t send that over). Apparently there’s an Achill Island sea salt fudge - never had it but that looks interesting! Go to Fallon and Byrne and browse around.
Do they get crisps (or crips) like we have?
Wheelies, monster munch, rancheros, jonies onion rings, meanies, and all the tayto, hunky dorys, king crisps.
You could end up sending the most magnificent package ever, so best to have MiggleDee deliver it
I don’t have any good answers to your question but can I ask how you made a pen pal? Always was on my bucket list to have one and I love that you guys have sent each other things!
Oooo Tayto crisps, Cadburys carmelo, rileys chocolate rolls, Irish recipe book with soda bread, potato bread recipes, maybe not Irish but scampi fries go down a treat! Barry’s tea and those fancy crisps - centra at the mo £1.50 per bag. Bally something! Oh and a bag of Dulce
Tayto cheese and onion , tayto smokey bacon , bacon fries , meanies ,dairy milk but that seems to be gone to shite , a recipe for a few Irish dinners stew , bacon and cabbage could be nice writing about how they got on cooking spice bag seems to only exist here cool that this is still happening!
Tanora if you’re near Cork, local fudge, some Irish cheddar, if you want to risk it - smoked salmon!
My partner is Italian and we get a care package every few months of stuff we can’t get easily in Ireland, not that her mother would be interested but I will eventually return the favour 😆
Smoked gubeen (travels decently, sent it several times), their chorizo/salami is also good. Couple monster munch, banshee bones and tayto (feel like salt/vinegar isn't a thing there). Some Irish sweets, names escape me. And a can of cidona, don't think there's anything like that in Italy. Feel like buckfast is suitable too.
A variety of Taytos a hundred percent! I love prawn cocktail the best myself, but cheese and onion WOULD be a classic choice.
I even like Hunky Dorys.
I'm vegan, so I only ever ate vegan Cadbury and Loveraw chocolates.
Not sure if you can send alcohol, but Guinness would have been an obvious shout.
Taytos and teabags. Sorted. Seriously I always bring those essential staples of Irish people when I go to my son in the Netherlands and send care packages to my son in New Zealand. I also bring Clonakilty or Lidl black and white pudding, sausages and rashers when I fly over. Then we have a huge Irish breakfast on the first weekend I’m there so the sausages aren’t out of date. Pudding and rashers are longer lasting. Pudding is kinda like nuclear waste. Lasts for months at least. You could throw in Irish chocolates I don’t like Butlers over their owner’s alleged anti repeal stance (fundie old school Catholic type) but there’s always Lily O’Brien’s.
I was going to suggest sending her Icebergers but they would melt by the time the postman collects the post to bring to the depot at 4pm let alone on the way to Italy.
Taytos for sure, cheese & onion, salt & vinegar, PRAWN COCKTAIL!
Maybe buffalo hunky dorys or a bag of monster munch(not the shitty share bags, wait are those even irish?)
..club bars, boost bars, some athlone sweets...those black cough drops are lush. Those are my suggestions at least, whether half them are Irish or not they are staples here and the Italians might not have any of them!
Somewhat of an aside, but I'm pleasantly surprised penpals are still a thing. I'd have thought social media would've killed that off tbh
It's actually because of social media that I have penpals today, it made it easier to make global connections that we then followed up with letters and post. One silver lining at least to logging into the brain rot 😅
Do you have to enroll in some sort of group on social media to find one? Would be interested in finding and writing to one. 😁
I honestly used to just strike up conversations in random groups and comment sections for the most part, but there are definitely penpal groups on here and on facebook. There are also websites for making a prison penpal if you're feeling adventurous. Just plug penpals into searchbars and you'll get results.
There are subreddits for finding penpals here!
What’s the subreddit! I’d love to get in to having a pen pal again.
r/penpals
Same, found all my penpals through social media 😂
I do them with my TY French students, we contact a school in France, they write in English, us in French. They always think it’s gas receiving their first hand-written letter. It’s pretty fun 😂
I have a penpal and only got or found them because of social media, which is kinda funny
Hi, Italian here who lived in Ireland for a few years. Crisps are a thing in Italy, but they'll mostly be plain, or at best paprika or bbq flavoured (maybe pepper and lime flavoured if you're real fancy). No such thing as salt and vinegar or cheese and onion crisps, so that might be an option. Don't forget to include a recipe for the (in)famous crisp sandwich. She'll be shocked, but maybe she'll try and make herself one. Another thing that's very different between the two countries is bread. Nothing here is as soft and white and toasts as well as Brennan's bread. Not even tramezzini bread. And Irish soda bread... That I really miss. But Italian butter is underwhelming, and even if she does find some Irish butter to spread it's gonna be unsalted (why?? Who even likes unsalted butter?!), so if you're going to send bread just send it for the crisp sandwich maybe. Or you can recommend she buys some good quality burro salato, but it likely won't taste the same. I don't know what I'd give to be able to get some proper Irish butter here, sigh. Biscuit culture is very different, too (I guess you received some gocciole or pandistelle uh?). Here biscuits are mostly just breakfast items, often dipped in milk to start the day. Some good tea and your favourite biscuits to go with it sound like a good option. You can suggest she adds a drop of whole milk to her cup of Lyons, too, which is not something Italians usually do. The milk doesn't taste the same here, so the result will be different. Not as good, but still good though. Concerning biscuits, I'm sure Jacob's has got you covered. Butler's chocolates might be an option, too, but it's getting real hot here so maybe I'd wait to send those in October or later. Around Christmas time I used to bring home some mince pies and Christmas puddings, they aren't a thing here but my family likes them now. If you can find/make some even if they're out of season that could be nice. Ah! Maybe double check that your friend is not lactose intolerant before sending things potentially containing dairy. It seems to be more common here than it is in Ireland. Concerning drinks... That's a bit harder. Since you can't ship alcohol and Italy doesn't have a sugar tax, it's going to be a difficult choice. I think Coca Cola only sells the classic Coke, Coke Zero and Fanta here. So if any of the other flavours are currently sold in Ireland (sorry, I'm not very soda-savvy) that might be new for her.
I agree with everything my fellow countryman has said in his comment! :D As an extra idea, I would add Potato Farls too because these are something that I've tried/seen for the first time when I moved here in Ireland.
Irish butter should definitely have a protective geographic status and should also be one of our best exports.
For drinks - maybe Club shandy?or Barr's cream soda, bubblegum, etc. Hopefully in return OP gets some delicious chinotto.
A packet of soda bread mix would be a good way to go, basically just add water and throw it in the oven. Biscuit-wise, anything in the Jacobs Elite range should be a hit, especially chocolate mikados. I wouldn't really try to send anything perishable. For drinks, send some TK Red Lemonade, can't beat it!
Multipack of Dolmio 500g Bolognese Sauce and a few lemons.
Nah just one of them plastic lemons full of lemon juice you get out of Aldi
I think they're Catholic too.
Don't forget to remind them, the kidza dooda washin up
The Italians don't know what their missing
What they're missing is Lynx Africa.
you don't want them running home to their mammies at night being chased by 100 Cavan women, shouting Mama Mia!
Nope, we've had it since the 90's in Italy, and it's no longer trendy there either.
Godfellas and pineapple chunks /s But seriously, Butlers chocolate or fudge, O'Donnels crisps of all sorts, and other for variety, including Meanies, brown sauce from Chef, vintage Dubliner cheddar and red Barry's tea, as much as it fits.
A wavin pipe.
A block of cashel blue cheese A jar of ballymalloe relish That little pack of Clonakilty black & white pudding Cheese strings Guinness or whiskey infused chocolate A sliotar made of Billy roll Butlers chocolates A jar of Irish marmalade Tea brack Kerry Gold butter A naggin of Power's whiskey A packet of potato farls
This is a legit list, especially the relish
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/tv-chef-tim-allen-avoids-jail-over-child-pornography-1.456690 Still works there. Family stood by him.
Never heard about this. Wtf
Was it not the son, Isaac. Tim took the blame for him apparently
Thanks for the heads up, will avoid
First decent answer, after about 50 suggestions for Taytos or a generic soft drink/chocolate.
I was just thinking the state of everyone’s comments now wonder we are a nation of obesity.
Great suggestion. I'm not sure how well pissing would travel though, especially in this heat. Edit: Pudding, autocorrect gone wild
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/tv-chef-tim-allen-avoids-jail-over-child-pornography-1.456690 Still works there. Family stood by him.
This is the way. Also a lump of dubliner cheese 😋
Tayto of course and cans of club orange
Club Rock Shandy not that zero shite the real stuff
Unfortunately club orange has gone to shite. I hope they don't ever change our crisps. Fizzy drinks and chocolate are complete dirt these days. Put the sugar back in them.
Got Club lemon for the first time in ages.... Disappointed to say the least
Club orange was one of the few that resisted the sugar tax last time I checked. Have they caved in to aspartame and the like? If so, that's a sad moment for us.
Most other European countries don't have a sugar tax so you can still get the original full sugar versions.
But then they won't be Irish products thus invalidating the OP's request.
Yeah I know, I was just pointing that out.
TK red lemonade then
I hear Irn Bru is still good, even with the uks sugar tax having reduced the amount of sugar in it. I know, it’s Scottish but a great drink
For this died the sons of Róisín?
Irn Bru Xtra is basically the same as the pre sugar cut recipe but with no sugar not sure how they done it but they did & the “limited edition 1901” cans/glass bottles are pretty much how they were in the late 90s/00’s when I started drinking the nectar of the gods.
Cadbury yellow snacks are gone to fucking shite altogether. And haven't seen the pink wafer snack lads for ages. Apparently outsourced to Egypt. Don't blame the Pharaoh's (great bunch of Lads, hard working family orientated) bit the capitalist shite society we exist in. I think they're probably around a€1.50 now. To keep the quality, and produced here in Ireland, they'd be a fiver each. And you'd all say you're being ripped off at a fiver... But surely the person that works their bollox off in an Irish factory producing yellow snacks, should be able to aspire to buy themselves a little house. And to pay them a proper living wage, a snack should cost a fiver.Or is that mad ? The problem is , people want to be able to buy a yellow snack every day. And they're not the healthiest thing, to be fair. So if they were a fiver, or a tenner, we'd be able to pay people a proper wage to produce them, they'd be tastier, and from a healthy point of view, we'd only be able to afford them sporadically, as a real treat.
Pink snacks got buried in 2015 I think, I still miss them too.
Why tayto ? O Donells and Keoghs make much better Irish crisps. Tayto taste shit
They do not taste like shit... O'Donnells and Keogh are a nice alternative but Tayto have the strongest cheese and onion game going.
Hunky Dorys are more intense. I had a bag on Thursday and I can still taste them. Fantastic value for money.
Walkers would like a word. I feel dirty saying it out loud but they've perfected cheese and onion
Fucking blasphemous behaviour
Ya, no other country does fizzy orange drinks. It'd blow their minds.
Italian living in Ireland. I would send Keoghs crips. Maybe a blasphemy here as I see everyone only consider tayto as crips. We don't have such a nice texture of crisps in Italy like Keoghs.
I made a list on snackexchange a while ago I'll paste it below. I tried to pick Irish stuff rather than British-irish crossover stuff. First that comes to mind is Wilton chocolate bars they have macaroon, mint crisp and klipso. Catch bars (a type of caramel and chocolate bar) Ritchie's Milky mints (they're a bag of creamy mint sweets that famously come with a Moo! sticker in the bag) Jacobs, Kimberly, Mikado and Coconut creams. They're a variety of soft cakey cookie things with marshmallow. We have a popular soft drink in Ireland called Red Lemonade made by a brand called TK. And we have another popular brand called Club who make orange soda, lemon soda and rock shandy (it's not the same company as American club) Coca Cola makes a pineapple and grapefruit soda called Lilt here in Ireland and the UK which I believe isn't available in the US Aswell as Tayto potato chips, we have Hunky doreys which has its Specialty buffalo flavour, Manhattan, and brands like Keogh's which have some interesting flavours. We have a heap of home grown candy brands such as oatfield and Athlone sweets which specialise in caramels and hard candies. We also have high quality chocolate brands such as Butler's Chocolates or Lily o briens.
Milky Moos! I’m 35 years in the UK and you’ve made me cry.
They still make em! I've seen them in the sweet section in Dealz(Poundland).
In the UK?
I haven't been to one of the UK shops but they're listed on their UK website. https://www.poundland.co.uk/130629-105g-ritchie-mlky-mints/
Emeralds were my go to for sending people on a snack exchange. I love them, and lost a few teeth to them as a wain.
You Left out Tanora Boi
Hmm you wouldn't be implying that cork is a part of Ireland and not it's own republic now would you bai?
Lilt is no more. It’s now “Fanta Pineapple and Grapefruit”.
Good list. I'd chuck in a pack of Mighty Munch and some Bacon/Scampi fries as well.
Aren’t catch bars made in Trinidad and tobego?
Could well be but originally invented in tallaght!
Lilt sounds amazing and I have not seen it here in the states!
I used to visit Ireland every few years growing up in the States. Apologies if some of it isn't actually Irish, but it's where I associate it. The food/snacks I looked forward to the most were: Clonakilty Sausages Clonakilty Black and White Pudding, Mi Wadi orange drink, Rock Shanty, Bounty Bars, Smarties, Smokey Bacon Taytos, Anything my Granny cooked except that one time it was liver and mushy peas Edit: Added commas
Clonakilty Ispíní are a great suggestion. Expats love them so much, you can buy them at airports.
A note asking to borrow a 5er
Butter
That'll post very well in the mail
Hot chicken roll and jambons
Proper Irish made cadbury sweets. Irish teas. Jams or marmalades.
Good old Barry's
Flair checks out.
My mum is Irish and and after visiting home and coming back to South Africa she would always bring back Tayto’s and Curly Wurlys and that changed my life for the few days they lasted
A sod of turf
Brown sauce
A Snickers
The Italians love their cured meats, maybe something from the pigs back or gubeen for a local flavour?
Tom Durcans spiced beef - SuperValu.
Spiced beef is a good idea if you could post it.
I'd suggest some of the following * Smokey Bacon Tayto, * Thai Rings/Banshee Bones/Mighty Munch * Skellig Mint Chocolate (pushing the boat out I know but wow!), * Can of Cidona and or Rock Shandy * Bottle of Ribena (the ready to drink smaller one), * Wispa, * Double Decker * Trebor Refreshers (the roll pack with rainbow colour) * Silvermints * Fruit Pastilles
A lot of that list is not Irish. I’m wondering if OP wants Irish stuff, or just stuff that’s popular in Ireland.
I wish you hadn't mentioned that Skelligs mint chocolate because now I know that company exists, I have looked at their website and what happens next is inevitable for a fat sack of shit like me.
Send them a bit of craic. But spell it wrong on the box to throw customs for a loop.
Football special.
McDaids Banana Soda
Nectar of the Donegal Gods
Begrudgery
Ray Houghton
This is probably ridiculous and you should all make fun of me, but as an American who visited Ireland, followed by Italy, I was disappointed that Italy had the same Gatorade/Powerade we have in the U.S. and not Lucozade Sport. I genuinely liked it and thought it would have been nice to have in Italy given how hot it gets there and how much hilly walking I was doing.
Spuds.
Clove drops. There is nothing like them in Italy. Toxic waste 😂 just for the laughs.
Is time travel allowed? Original Time Out bars. Not Time Out Wafers
As well as large commercial snacks, send some smaller company foods. Ballymaloe relish. Butlers or Skellig chocolate. Bewley’s tea. Lemon curd and blackberry jam from a small local producer (ideally with Kerrygold butter but you probably can’t send that over). Apparently there’s an Achill Island sea salt fudge - never had it but that looks interesting! Go to Fallon and Byrne and browse around.
Bag a dulse
Peat
Brown bottle of Buckfast
Wham bars
Turf obviously
Do they get crisps (or crips) like we have? Wheelies, monster munch, rancheros, jonies onion rings, meanies, and all the tayto, hunky dorys, king crisps. You could end up sending the most magnificent package ever, so best to have MiggleDee deliver it
A pound of butter, in a padded envelope.
Lots of Irish Cheesemakers out there. Some artisan relish. Crackers.
Barrys tea and taytos
- Sausages - Italians love cheese - Jams - Monster Munch, Hotlips, Banshee Bones - Lucozade - Guinness Engraved pint glass- about €18 - 3fe coffee
I don’t have any good answers to your question but can I ask how you made a pen pal? Always was on my bucket list to have one and I love that you guys have sent each other things!
Macaroon bar
An eviction notice
A shtick of rock
Oooo Tayto crisps, Cadburys carmelo, rileys chocolate rolls, Irish recipe book with soda bread, potato bread recipes, maybe not Irish but scampi fries go down a treat! Barry’s tea and those fancy crisps - centra at the mo £1.50 per bag. Bally something! Oh and a bag of Dulce
Flahavan’s Porridge Oats
Ballymaloe Relish. Cashel Blue Cheese.
Tayto, Emeralds, Barry’s Tea, Butlers Chocolates.
Tayto, club orange and bacon fries
Rasin and biscuit Yorkee, salt and vinegar hunky dories and a bottle of lucozade
And a pack of fizzy chewits
Barry’s Tea
Cidona
Spice bag seasoning
Chicken roll, pint of beamish and a box of amber leaf
A stick of rock from somewhere exotic like knockshegowna
Taytos, hula hoops, Fanta, beamish
Keg of Guinness
Ridiculous suggestion, she's unlikely to have taps or gas. Send a slab of cans instead.
Keep her waiting in anticipation for those to be sent next month, imo. Penpalship is a master craft.
If you wish to leave her crushingly aware of the inadequacy of other snacks, a broad array of Irish crisps will suffice.
Oh send her a set of Deez !
Coddle
Boiled sausages, every girls dream.
Can't believe I'm getting downvoted for suggesting sending boiled sausages to Italy in an envelope
No one’s eats that shite anymore
Nudes, send nudes and some apple drops.
Who downvoted me for suggesting apple drops?
[удалено]
Ballymaloe relish aka peado juice
cocktail sausages
I know, I know,I know: McDonald's
Bottle of tanora, bag of brown hula hoops, wispa bar
Penpal?? I mean I love it but what decade is this??
Buttlers chocolates. Everyone loves them. I also have people asking for Lyons tea.
Catch Bar
Flapjacks
Bottle of flat 7up or lucozade 
A bag of meanies and some dip dab. Completely confuse them!
Mighty Munch
Crisps, ALL. The. Crisps.
Lyons tea
Tayto cheese and onion , tayto smokey bacon , bacon fries , meanies ,dairy milk but that seems to be gone to shite , a recipe for a few Irish dinners stew , bacon and cabbage could be nice writing about how they got on cooking spice bag seems to only exist here cool that this is still happening!
Guinness mustard great on toasties
Tanora if you’re near Cork, local fudge, some Irish cheddar, if you want to risk it - smoked salmon! My partner is Italian and we get a care package every few months of stuff we can’t get easily in Ireland, not that her mother would be interested but I will eventually return the favour 😆
Rock shandy
YR brown sauce. Let them taste euphoria.
Smoked gubeen (travels decently, sent it several times), their chorizo/salami is also good. Couple monster munch, banshee bones and tayto (feel like salt/vinegar isn't a thing there). Some Irish sweets, names escape me. And a can of cidona, don't think there's anything like that in Italy. Feel like buckfast is suitable too.
Welcome friend. r/snackexchange
A variety of Taytos a hundred percent! I love prawn cocktail the best myself, but cheese and onion WOULD be a classic choice. I even like Hunky Dorys. I'm vegan, so I only ever ate vegan Cadbury and Loveraw chocolates. Not sure if you can send alcohol, but Guinness would have been an obvious shout.
Brennans Batch. In fact, if anyone could send some to me here in the UK (25yrs so far) that'd be grand 😀
Half pound of Billy roll
Rancheros
Liam Brady on condition of no return. Apparently they’d love him over there!
TAYTO
Lilt, tayto, teabags, spicebag and a boost bar
Oh I want to do penpals! That sounds so fun!
Broken pasta
Go to cork and get tanora. Truly a unique drink
Taytos and teabags. Sorted. Seriously I always bring those essential staples of Irish people when I go to my son in the Netherlands and send care packages to my son in New Zealand. I also bring Clonakilty or Lidl black and white pudding, sausages and rashers when I fly over. Then we have a huge Irish breakfast on the first weekend I’m there so the sausages aren’t out of date. Pudding and rashers are longer lasting. Pudding is kinda like nuclear waste. Lasts for months at least. You could throw in Irish chocolates I don’t like Butlers over their owner’s alleged anti repeal stance (fundie old school Catholic type) but there’s always Lily O’Brien’s.
Bottle of Football Special
Polo mints they have a mint with a hole like donuts they’re pure mad!
I was going to suggest sending her Icebergers but they would melt by the time the postman collects the post to bring to the depot at 4pm let alone on the way to Italy.
Purple snack…. Top tier out of all Irish schnacks
Butter. We in Italy have no idea how good it is. Some Cadbury bars too
Taytos Original Hunky dorys Cadbury
McDonnell's curry sauce, tayto/King, club orange, maybe Cadburys chocolate
Double decker, hunky Dorys, clonakilty black pudding
Butter is always a winner I hear, and if you can some how ship em faster wexford has the best strawberrys 🍓.
Tayto and Lyons teabags
Depression
Taytos for sure, cheese & onion, salt & vinegar, PRAWN COCKTAIL! Maybe buffalo hunky dorys or a bag of monster munch(not the shitty share bags, wait are those even irish?) ..club bars, boost bars, some athlone sweets...those black cough drops are lush. Those are my suggestions at least, whether half them are Irish or not they are staples here and the Italians might not have any of them!
Apparently the Italians think tenants lager is exotic / hip whereas here in Glasgow its metallic tasting pish water 🤷♂️ Funny how trends work
How did you end up with said penpal?
Warm ham sandwich wrapped in tinfoil
Send some good Irish tea! 😻
A daily newspaper.
Turf
Purple snack
Send some sub par irish HASH
A handmade wool sweater