11 Scottish Roadtrip Snacks, Ranked

One of my favourite parts of travelling is the food. Food is such an integrated part of culture and society, and it is remarkable how deeply entrenched food can be in personal cultural identity. Think about it; the food you ate growing up, food your parents made, even just the first couple of dishes you learned to make yourself. Food is a constant in our lives, shifting and changing with you.

When I’m in a different country, as much as I love searching out the traditional local dishes, reading about the food culture of the country, and discovering little hole-in-the-wall restaurants, I can’t help but be fascinated by the simple stuff; the rows of snacks at the grocery store, the different bags of chips and candies in every gas station. I think it was my trip to Iceland that made me realize just how unique and interesting this aspect of casual food can be. What can I say? I got hooked.

For this post I went to my local grocery store and picked out 11 snacks and taste tested them. Listen. I know not all of these are unique to Scotland. Don’t come after me. I tried to focus on Scottish snacks, but at the end of the day, if it looked different and I hadn’t seen it in Canada, it made the basket.

One of the first thing I noticed in the grocery store was just how many of these pre-packaged type snacks are avaliable. I’m talking four aisles full, everything in the bright reds, yellows. and blues that bring back childhood roadtrip stops at gas stations.

Bags upon bags upon bags. I wasn’t kiddng. The Scots like their snacks.

I just wanted to give a quick shoutout to the fantastic packaging throughout the Scottish grocery stores:

Hilarious.

Before I came to Glasgow, I heard about the obsession with Irn Bru; and given this was one of three such displays in the store, obsession is the exact right word for it.

At the end of the day, I ended up with(in the order below, left to right):

• Tunnock’s tea cakes
• Scottish shortbread
• haggis and cracked pepper crisps
• Abernathy biscuits
• WHAM bar
• Caramel bar
• Iron Brew Pastielles
• Prawn Marie Rose crisps
• Scottish Tablet
• Orkney oat cakes
• Irn Bru

I’ve ranked these snacks based off taste, texture, and convenience for road trips.

Number 11: WHAM

I’m sorry. This was sticky, chewy taffy. It tasted like every other taffy on the market and made a mess(so you do NOT want to take it on a road trip). The fake raspberry taste and the nightmare of getting it out of the wrapper left this a no for me. It was generally just….not pleasant.

Number 10: Oat cakes

Ok. I know what anyone from Scotland is thinking. But guys, this is just… so plain. It’s a dense, oat flavoured cracker with no particular flavour or texture. It is the food equivelent of beige.

However, I must say, it was excellent with cheese. While I wouldn’t recommend these for a road trip, a nice picnic could be improved by a package of these and some of the(insanely affordable) Scottish cheeses. Or Smoked salmon. Or both.

Number 9: Abernathy Biscuits

These were another just plain biscuit. It got a leg up from the oat cakes because it was, at least, slightly sweet. Think of a really mellow arrowroot cookie. While these are very plain, they’re the perfect accompaniment for tea(maybe not convenient on a road trip, however).

Number 8: Scottish Shortbread

Reminder: I’m talking about the easily avaliable Scottish shortbread you can find in gas stations and grocery stores. And unfortunately, they really just taste like a crumbly, blah version of their homemade siblings. While I forgot to check the ingredients, these tasted like they were made with vegetable shortening as opposed to butter, and desperately needed a little salt in the mix. Maybe I’m a snob with shortbread, but given the underwhelming nature of these and the absolute mess they made, I would not recommend them for a road trip.

Number 7: Haggis Crisps

I was so excited for these. So, so excited. Scottish? check. Convenient for a road trip? check. they must be good! When I got them home, however, I doscovered a ‘vegan-friendly’ label on the back. Huh……last time I checked Haggis REALLY wasn’t vegan-friendly……..After taste testing, these aren’t bad; but they taste like oatmeal and black pepper. Not bad if you enjoy those, but a little bit disappointing.

Number 6: Prawn Marie Rose Crisps

These were good. Not agressively shrimp flavoured, pleasently tangy, and a very enjoyable crisp. Perfect for a long car ride, but you may need a bottle of water after a handful.

Number 5: Irn Bru

Ok. Irn Bru has been nicknamed the lifeblood of Glasgow. This aggressively fizzy, ultra sweet orange soda outsells Coca Cola in Scotland, so needless to say I will not be insulting it. Personally, The feeling I had after drinking it was akin to that of a hyperactive toddler, but if you’re trying to overenergize your navigator to keep yourself entertained, this would be perfect. Also, makes a very solid cocktail(for the navigator, of course)

Number 4: Scottish Tablet

This stuff made me nostalgic for the Canadian maple sugar candies. This crumblier, more neutrally flavoured tablet is sweet and melts in your mouth. Not the best for a road trip, but great nonetheless.

Number 3: Irn Bru Pastilles

Somehow, you can taste the fizz in these pastilles. It’s a little less aggressively flavoured, and conveniently packaged for a road trip!

Number 2: Tunnock’s Tea cakes

I grew up with the dry, crumbly, slightly disappointing Ah, Caramel cakes and wagon wheels. With waxy, gross chocolate and dry marshmallow. This does everything that those fail at. light, not overly sweet, and fantastic packaging makes this one a winner.

Annnnnnddddd….. Drumroll please……….

Number 1: Tunnock’s Caramel Bar

This is the perfect candy bar. Similar to the canadian coffee crisp, there’s a great ratio of wafer:chocolate, and the very thin hint of caramel is fantastic. It’s also cleaner than its brother tea cake, and would be the perfect road trip snack.

Alright! That’s my run down! I hope you enjoyed it, but and let me know your favourite snack in the comments!