Thai Snacks Ranked, Including Whether They Survive the Flight
01The ranking
| Snack | Taste | Survives the flight | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crispy seaweed (grilled) | Excellent | 4.6 | Gifts. Light, flat, cheap |
| Coconut chips, plain | Excellent | 4.5 | Gifts. Sturdy and sealed |
| Dried mango | Very good | 4.7 | Gifts. Nearly indestructible |
| Dried strawberry | Very good | 4.6 | Gifts. From the northern projects |
| Tamarind candy | Good, sour-sweet | 4.4 | Small gifts. Odd and memorable |
| Corn jelly cups | Good, mild | 4.0 | Children. Packs flat |
| Prawn crackers | Very good | 3.0 | Eat in Thailand |
| Nori-flavoured crisps | Excellent | 2.6 | Eat in Thailand |
| Coconut chocolate | Excellent | 2.0 | Last day only. Melts |
| Fresh fruit | Excellent | 1.0 | Do not pack it. Customs |
02The four that are genuinely good gifts
Crispy seaweed. Thin sheets of seasoned, fried or grilled seaweed. The grilled version is less greasy. It is light, it lies flat, it costs almost nothing in a supermarket multipack, and nobody dislikes it.
Plain coconut chips. Thin slices of coconut, baked or freeze-dried. Sweet without being sugary, and they come in rigid packaging that survives a suitcase.
Dried mango. Look for a short ingredient list. The good stuff is mango and not much else. Chewy, intensely sweet, and effectively unbreakable.
Dried strawberry. The version from the royal agricultural projects in the north is the one to find. Less common, more interesting as a gift than mango.
03The ones to eat while you are there
Crisps. Thai crisp flavours are the fun part of any convenience store — seaweed, grilled prawn, spicy squid, and rotating limited editions. They are also nitrogen-filled bags that swell and split in a cargo hold.
Buy them, eat them in Thailand, and bring home one or two flat-packed if you must.
Prawn crackers. Same problem, more fragile.
04Chocolate, and why it defeats people
Coconut chocolate is the most popular Thai gift snack and the one that most often arrives ruined.
The failure does not happen on the plane. It happens between the shop and the hotel, in an afternoon of 35 degree heat, in a taxi with the air conditioning on the front seats only.
Buy it on your last day. Keep it in the hotel fridge. Move it to the middle of your case at the last moment, wrapped in clothes. That is the whole technique, and it works.
05What to buy where
| Where | Range | Price | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big C / Lotus's | Widest | 4.6 | Multipacks. This is the answer |
| Gourmet / Villa Market | Premium brands | 3.8 | For the nicer gift boxes |
| 7-Eleven | Narrow, singles | 3.2 | Convenient, never cheap |
| Markets | Local, unpackaged | 3.5 | Great to eat, awkward to pack |
| Airport | Gift boxes | 2.4 | Pretty. Expensive |
For gifts in quantity, a supermarket multipack beats everything else by a wide margin. The airport gift box is the same snack with better packaging and a much worse price.
06Allergies and labels
A real caution. Many Thai snacks contain shellfish or fish derivatives that are not obvious from the picture on the front — prawn, squid, fish sauce and dried shrimp appear in savoury snacks routinely.
Peanuts are also extremely common.
Some packaging is Thai-only. If you are buying for someone with an allergy and you cannot read the ingredients, do not buy it. That is the only safe rule.
Dried seafood and meat snacks are refused entry by many countries, and fresh fruit almost everywhere. Check your own country's biosecurity rules before you fill a case with dried squid, and declare food when you land — the fine for not declaring is usually much worse than losing the item.
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