I am currently studying abroad in Freiburg, Germany, and one of the first things that I have found in my time being here difficult to navigate is the grocery store. Sure, most things in the grocery store are how you would expect to find it — soup in the soup aisle, apples in the produce section, etc. — but there are some things that I have been accustomed to in the U.S. that are just not available in the same way here.

For example, I have been trying to bake some different cookies and cakes, but one thing you will not find here is brown sugar — now do not get me wrong you can find brown cane sugar, but you will not normally find molasses and sugar mixed together and put in a bag. Another baking tip: really check that supposedly plain cake mix — I got one to make some gooey butter cake, but it ended up being a lemon bar and gooey butter mash up cake instead. (It was still good of course, but there still was shock when it turned out to be lemon and it had no markings of zitrone on it anywhere.)

This next one is for those with hazelnut allergies — over here they love hazelnut and will be trying to put it in most dishes if they can. One of the most surprising to me is that in some of the chocolate bars they will have hazelnuts in them, but they are not hazelnut chocolate bars, they are marketed as just chocolate bars, but then that same chocolate company will have another chocolate product and it will have no hazelnuts. That is one of the large things to think about here.

Now here in the Black Forest region of Germany, there are lots farmers that sell produce and in Freiburg there is a farmers market in the Munster Platz almost every day with food trucks and many choices of local produce, cheeses, floral arrangements, meats and hand crafted items. If that is not enough for you, then many of the neighborhoods in Freiburg have weekly farmers markets. Overall there are definitely ups and downs to getting groceries in Germany, but sometimes the little mistakes can bring you a new delicious treat!

---

Learn more about this blogger’s study abroad program: IES Abroad: Language and Area studies in Freiburg