Baku - Post Report Question and Answers
What household or grocery items do you wish you had shipped to post?
We planned our consumables well so am not missing anything. You want the usual culprits like vanilla extract, PB, maple syrup, asian and latin spices and specialty sauces. - Sep 2023
Honestly you can get everything shipped in from Amazon pretty easily minus a few things, but most the times we are just ordering coffee, flushable wipes and few smaller things. - Aug 2023
The typical stuff: peanut butter, syrups, baking extracts and other ingredients for baked goods like powdered and brown sugars, Crisco, etc. Distilled white vinegar, hair products, laundry products (everything here is very heavily scented with perfumes), dryer sheets, canned beans and other canned veggies aside from corn and green peas. - Aug 2023
Mexican/Asian spices; coconut milk; almond milk; any specific dietary needs - Jun 2023
My wife likes to bring American cake mixes and frosting. I brought some IPAs, but they lose flavor quickly if you don't drink them. Honestly the availability of things here is pretty good and if you are a halfway decent cook you'll be able to do well. Making brownies from scratch takes about five minutes longer than using a pre-made mix. Being in America makes you lazy in terms of food. Buy fresh and eat more vegetables. The tomatoes here are to die for! - Jun 2021
The CLO has a list of consumables, but the big things are specialty/convenience items (chocolate chips, boxed cake mix, canned frosting, stuffing, etc.) - Jan 2019
For the consumables shipment, I would focus on hygiene products (shampoos, hand soaps, nail polish remover, lotions, make-up), cooking oils (they mainly sell sunflower, corn oil and olive oil here), typical American baking and cooking ingredients (pumpkin puree, molasses, evaporated milk, corn syrup, chocolate chips), sauces for cooking, good mayonnaise (theirs taste very different), peanut butter (especially the ones without sugar can be either difficult to find or are expensive), different bean varieties, gluten-free products. I would also ship your favorite cereals as the variety is not that great here or packed with sugar and not enriched.
Good-tasting basmati, risotto, jasmine and mixed rice varieties can be difficult to find or can be expensive. Different kinds of flours can be difficult to find or difficult to identify if you can’t read Azerbaijani or Russian (bread flour, whole wheat flour, cake flour, almond flour, flaxseed flour). I would also bring spices like pumpkin spice, cream of tartar and good meat rubs.
Typical American drinks like root beer, cream soda, or good beer can be difficult to find or are expensive. They have a good variety of cleaning products at the stores, but they are cheaper in the US. - Jul 2018
Ski equipment and clothing for winter weekends in Shahdag, although rentals are cheap. Camping and hiking gear if you like weekend outdoorsy trips. - May 2018
I answered a little bit of this in the previous question. I did run out of sunscreen over the summer. - Mar 2017
Transformers! The embassy provides 4 big ones but we need more small ones and they are not available locally. - Jul 2015
We had a consumables allowance, so we brought expensive/hard to find items. Peanut butter, coconut milk, olive oil, liquid laundry detergent, dryer sheets, chocolate chips, hygiene items, toilet paper, baking mixes, wheat (and a grinder - whole wheat flour is nonexistent), sunscreen, mac and cheese, whole wheat pasta, corn tortilla flour, cornmeal (although you can buy dried corn locally and grind it if you have a grinder). - Jan 2013
More toiletries, olive oil, baking goods, chocolate (baking), detergent/softener, perfume/cologne. - Dec 2011
Pasta sauce, cereals. It is all available here, but expensive. - Sep 2010
Camping equipment and anything liquid (laundry detergent, salsa, parm. cheese, etc..)You can ship liquids via the pouch, so choose your consumables wisely!! - Oct 2009
Baby food, cereal (VERY EXPENSIVE about US$8 a box), snack bars. Coca cola products are very inexpensive here. - Nov 2008
Hobby materials - though you can order this stuff online and it will be here in 2-3 weeks. - Sep 2008
Clothing, shoes (Baku seems to chew them and spit them out), car parts, camping/hiking gear, formal dress for the various events throughout the year. - Sep 2008
