Rating Classic New Zealand Snacks

One of my favorite activities whenever I go to a new country is trying local snacks. I think you can really get a feel for a place by the types and flavors they offer — Kiwis seem to have a major sweet tooth, with many of these snacks being candy (lollies) or cookies (biscuits). As a snack aficionado, I’m going to spend the rest of this post sampling and rating classic New Zealand snacks.

A quick American 🇺🇸 to Kiwi 🇳🇿 snack glossary

• Candy = lollies or sweets
• Cookies = biscuits
• Frosting = icing
• Sprinkles = hundreds & thousands
• Potato chips = crisps or chips

Cookie Time chocolate chip cookies

Cookie Time cookies are probably the most popular chocolate chip cookie in New Zealand.

Appearance: Perfectly round cookies with perfect little chocolate chips.

Taste: These are delightful. They aren’t too sweet and are right in the middle of crunchy and chewy.

Final rating: 4/5 stars. These are perfectly tasty packaged chocolate chip cookies. The taste and texture are both good, no complaints here!

Tip Top Hokey Pokey ice cream

New Zealand is big on hokey pokey flavored treats (and on ice cream — it’s a super common dessert). Hokey pokey ice cream is essentially vanilla ice cream filled with honeycomb toffee bits.

Appearance: Looks just how you’d expect — white ice cream with little yellowish bits of chewy goodness mixed in.

Taste: I don’t know why, but dairy in New Zealand tastes *very* dairy to me. There’s no mistaking the fact that this is made out of good old fashioned whole cream. Other than the richness of the ice cream itself, the mix-ins are yummy as well.

Final rating: 4/5 stars. This is a great standard Kiwi ice cream that all New Zealand visitors should try.

Pascall Pineapple Lumps

Pineapple Lumps are super popular New Zealand snacks that might baffle the rest of the world. A chewy, pineapple-flavored center is surrounded by milk chocolate.

Appearance: These look like little chocolate nuggets. The smell coming out of the bag is like chocolate mixed with fake piña colada.

Taste: Unexpectedly good! They are really chewy and almost airy on the inside. It reminds me of those old Laffy Taffy candies, but lighter and covered in chocolate.

Final rating: Honestly, 5/5. Pineapple Lumps slap. I wasn’t expecting to love these as much as I did! I’m not a big fruit and chocolate girl, so these were a pleasant surprise.

Side note: The recently-released Pineapple Lump ice cream bars are not as good.

Buy Pineapple Lumps online!

L&P soda

L&P, or Lemon & Paeroa, is a super popular soda originally made in the town of Paeroa, on the North Island. It comes in both cans and bottles and is now owned by parent company Coca-Cola.

Appearance: Nice and fizzy. Smells a bit like fake lemon, but not in a bad way? Also looks suspiciously the same color as Mountain Dew.

Taste: It’s like a slightly less sweet, less lemony version of Sprite. It tastes more like fake lemon candy than the actual fruit, which is disappointing. I don’t know whether this soda is trying to be more like a soda or more like a flavored water — it falls kind of in the middle.

Final rating: 2/5 stars. I was hoping for a stronger lemon flavor, what with having lemon in the name and everything. It’s a bit unclear why Kiwis are so obsessed with this. I definitely couldn’t drink a whole can of this, but it might be better as a mixer with gin or vodka.

Griffin’s Cookie Bear Hundreds & Thousands

Griffin’s is one of the most popular New Zealand cookie brands. These thin little vanilla cookies are covered in pink frosting and sprinkles, also known as hundreds & thousands.*

* Apparently, hundreds & thousands are specifically the round, rainbow sprinkles. The more you know!

Appearance: Vibrant. Fun. Adorable. Whoever decided to put a juggling bear on the package deserves a raise.

Taste: These taste very similar to frosted animal crackers (yesss!). They’re perfectly crunchy and not too sweet. I brought a few of these along with me when I hiked the Mueller Hut Route, and they were the perfect pick-me-up.

Final rating: 5/5 stars. Cute, delicious, and definitely addictive. I had to stop myself from eating the whole package in one sitting. I’ll be buying these again for sure! These are the epitome of tasty New Zealand snacks.

Griffin’s Cookie Bear Stripes

This is a classic vanilla biscuit with chocolate drizzle on top.

Appearance: Cookie Bear is at it again with the adorable packaging. I mean, a lassoing bear! Come on! Apart from the packaging, the cookies themselves look exactly like Keebler fudge stripe cookies from the US.

Fun fact: Did you know that Kiwis pronounce lasso like lassoo?

Taste: Delicious. Not too sweet with the perfect balance between plain biscuit and chocolate drizzle.

Final rating: 4/5 stars. This is my kinda cookie!

Griffin’s Hokey Pokey Squiggles

Another famous Griffin’s product, Squiggles combine Hokey Pokey and caramel into a chocolate-covered cookie.

Appearance: Whew! These have a strong, sweet caramel smell right when you open the package. They’re nice and chunky and covered with an artistic caramel drizzle.

Taste: Sweet, very sweet. I can definitely taste caramel, chocolate, and shortbread. It’s a nice combination, but a bit overwhelming.

Final rating: 3/5 stars. Too sweet for me, and I’m not even one to complain about sweetness that often. These cookies are okay, but had the potential to be excellent. Maybe there’s too much going on between the caramel, hokey pokey, and chocolate.

Griffin’s Chocolate Fingers

These chocolate fingers are thin, crunchy wafers covered in milk chocolate.

Appearance: What a fun shape. These are skinny and long, and I’m excited to try them.

Taste: Oh yeah, these are good. They’re also fun to eat, which makes them so much better. I could see myself eating a lot of these.

Final rating: 4/5 stars. Not only were these tasty, but I also felt like a beaver gnawing on a log or something.

Griffin’s Melting Moments

Melting Moments are shortbread sandwich cookies with vanilla cream on the inside.

Appearance: These are massive (in thickness, not in circumference). The imprinted swirl on the cookie is a nice artistic touch.

Taste: I actually really enjoy the taste of these. They’re not too sweet and the vanilla cream isn’t gritty at all.

Final rating: 3/5 stars. Why are these so thick? The cookie and the filling are both thicker than I was expecting. These are like quadruple-stuffed Oreos.

Griffin’s Choc Thins

Choc Thins are (you guessed it) thin, round biscuits dipped in milk chocolate.

Appearance: With the word delicate on the package, I’m expecting these to be pretty thin and light. They definitely hold up to that expectation.

Taste: At this point, I think I’ve realized that all of these chocolate-dipped cookies taste pretty much the same — they just have a different presentation. They’re tasty, slightly sweet, and I always want to have more than one.

Final rating: 5/5 stars. These are easy to eat and seem like the type of cookie you’d have when you don’t really want cookies. They would make the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee. These are in the top 5 New Zealand snacks for sure.

Griffin’s Mallow Puffs

These fun treats are a mix of puffy marshmallow and vanilla biscuit covered in milk chocolate.

Appearance: I don’t know why, but these are so funny looking to me. They’re kind of massive, and way rounder than I was expecting.

Taste: These taste like an unroasted s’mores. There is lots of marshmallow going on in here. The biscuit on the bottom is soft, which is a bit unexpected.

Final rating: 3/5 stars. These are really mild-flavored. I think they would be better if the marshmallow was roasted somehow (is that possible?). Not bad if you want a quick, sweet puff of air.

Graze Sweet Chilli Almonds

Graze is a wonderful brand to buy nuts from in general, so when I saw that they had a sweet chilli flavor, I had to try it. Sweet chilli is a common Kiwi chip flavor and dipping sauce.

Appearance: These guys look dangerous. There’s a visible coating of some sort of sticky syrup all over them.

Taste: WOW. I don’t know what it is, but these are incredible. They’re salty, sweet, crunchy, and spicy. The flavor is nuanced without being overpowering. All other nuts seem boring by comparison.

Final rating: 50000/5 stars. I would eat these for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I could. Hands down one of the best New Zealand snacks I’ve ever tried. *chef’s kiss*

(Dis)honorable mention: Flamin’ Hot Cheetos

These caught my eye recently at our local Four Square. Cheetos! In New Zealand! I was over the moon. Technically, these say that they were produced in Australia, and they definitely don’t count as New Zealand snacks. I’m still going to rate them here anyway because I’m excited.

Appearance: I was a bit shocked when I poured these out of the bag. They were pink, not the deep red I was expecting! To be fair, the Aussie version doesn’t include any fake food coloring like the American one does. The smell of them was also concerning. They smelled like fake cheese, but not in a good way.

Taste: Gag. The first thing that hit me was the spice (good). Once that subsided, the actual taste of these was bad. I got a vague hint of sweetness (almost fruitiness?) that put me off. The texture and crunch of these are identical to American Cheetos which I appreciated, but the weird flavor cannot be overlooked.

Final rating: 1/5 stars. Definitely do not try these if you’re used to American Cheetos. I give them one star (barely) for the spice and texture.

I hope you enjoyed this post all about New Zealand snacks! (I know that I definitely did.)

xoxo Niki