Souvenirs are a token of your travels that you either get for yourself or your loved ones. For the most part, if you get them for yourself, they are a reminder to you of the fun and excitement of whatever destination you visited. If it’s something edible, the food can evoke memories of these far-away lands and literally give you a taste of what you had when you were away. Unfortunately, that “feeling” cannot really be transferred. When you buy some exotic Ecuadorian or Peruvian chocolate made from rare cacao fruit and bring it back for your friends, it will never mean as much to them because a) they didn’t go on your trip and b) they wouldn’t know the intricacies of why this item or food is so different or special. But it’s the “thought” that counts, right? Over the years, I haven’t bought as many souvenirs back for friends and family as I did when I first started traveling. I tend to move away from random objects like figurines because I cannot stand clutter, and if I buy them, I usually try to buy consumable items that are easy, like candy or chocolate. The exception to this is if I know a particular friend is really into something. When I went to Korea in 2016, I brought back specific Korean skincare for one friend and masks for another. When I visited France last November, I brought back French formulated sunscreen (that is not available in the U.S.) for my sunscreen-obsessed friend.

So when we visited Peru and Ecuador, I figured chocolate would be a good gift to bring back. I also picked up some Maras salt from the salt mines we visited in the Sacred Valley. But now that I am dividing these items up, I am not sure which friend would like what item more and why. So it ended up becoming a bit of a crap shoot or eenie-meenie-minie-moe game. It’s mostly different types of chocolate of the few items I bought, so how hard could this possibly be?

Even when I do enjoy the consumables I purchased while abroad and eat them at home, it’s never quite the same as the first time you get to enjoy them in the foreign land. But I still end up buying at least a couple things to bring home and eat because… why not?