Living abroad has many perks, but of course there’s a downside too. Quite often my students in Prague ask me what I miss most about the UK. Next time someone asks, I shall refer them to this post! Here are the top 5 products I really wish I could get in the Czech Republic, and always have waiting for me when I pop back home.
1. Brothers Toffee Apple Cider
I’m not a big cider drinker, but this one is so sweet and delicious I just love it. It may permanently be on offer in the supermarket as well, which doesn’t hurt.
2. Superdrug Coconut Conditioner
In the UK, Superdrug shops are everywhere and most (all?) of their own toiletries are labelled vegan and are reasonably-priced. I don’t know anything similar in Prague, where I’ve only found vegan toiletries in vegan grocery shops and they cost an absolute fortune – so much so that I can’t really justify buying conditioner. So it’s nice to get home and use this affordable and effective conditioner and have lovely hair again for a couple of weeks.
3. Morrisons Garlic Pizza Bread
I don’t think I ever truly appreciated how wonderful garlic pizza bread is until I went vegan and realised that they all contain butter. And then this accidentally vegan version appeared! It’s such a great accompaniment to an Italian dish – or, as we discovered during a fit of summer idleness, an accompaniment to oven chips.
4. Lazy Days Ginger Tiffin
It’s impossible to overstate how good these are. The Lazy Days range includes rocky road and millionaire’s shortbread, amongst others, but these ginger ones are my favourite.
5. Jus-rol
Regular readers will know that I am a huge fan of fancy breakfasts, and always rustle up something exciting at weekends. When I’m in the UK, these Jus-rol chocolate croissants and cinnamon swirls make that much easier for me. They are not time consuming at all, and the results are, unsurprisingly, absolutely spot on.
What vegan products do you just hate to be without?
Herbivores' Heaven 
Some great products there. I’ve tried and enjoyed all of them except the garlic pizza bread. If I left England I think I would miss the crisps the most, there is such a great variety of accidentally vegan ones.
Good point about the crisps! Fortunately I love Pom Bears, which are easily available here, and M&S have some vegan ones too.
I love a jus-rol croissant but I haven’t seen any at the supermarket for months – I’ll be gutted if they get discontinued. The thing that I miss the most when I’m travelling is soy yoghurts, it’s fine when I’m in Europe but in Asia / The US there’s nothing as tasty as Alpro!
Nooo, they’d better not get discontinued! I’ve heard before that the yoghurt situation in the USA is pretty dire – it’s hard to believe when there’s so much choice here in Europe. Hopefully you’ll be able to find some good ones on your next adventure!
I think it’s Vitalite I’d miss! And “accidentally vegan” biscuits (who doesn’t love a bourbon?).
Also you should get someone to ship you some conditioner! Your hair will thank you (or of you put a bag in the hold, slip a bottle in?)
The one time I paid for checked luggage, Superdrug were rebranding the conditioner and it completely vanished from the shelves for a week or so and I couldn’t stock up. I was devastated! I will have to set up a shipment eventually.
Fortunately we can still get bourbons here, but it’s a real challenge finding a decent vegan spread.
Possibly a day trip to somewhere in Germany would unearth a few decent vegan things?
And it’s just typical that you missed out due to the rebranding! (But yay that you can get bourbons, I didn’t expect that!)
I miss Vitalite and pom bears! I’m living in Australia and I really them both, oh and green oxo cubes!
I’d be lost without Pom Bears! I never even knew there were vegan oxo cubes, so I’ve never had a chance to miss them. Maybe I’ll wait till I’m living back in the UK to try them, I don’t want to get hooked while I’m abroad!