So my mother is going to be sending some cookies to Afghanistan at Christmas for my uncle. He's stationed over there as a civilian, when the army began to draw down troops, they had to recruit civilian engineers to replace the army engineers to continue their work, and my uncle volunteered for the job. What would be the best way of packaging them to maintain their freshness, and the best way to pack them to ensure they don't get broken? Thanks.
Seal cookies in plastic bags. Put bags in tins. Put tins in shipping box, surrounded by bubble-wrap. That oughtta do it.
Funny, I've done this with beer. Just make sure there's a lot of bubble wrap and even glass bottles should get through. I actually wrapped a beer box in garments instead of bubble wrap, once. It worked fine.
also, put a slice of bread in with each bag. the bread will lose all it's moisture and become rock hard and the cookies will be super-soft.
Small world! My daughter is baking cookies to send to her boyfriend. She will be sealing them up and mailing them off in a bubble-wrapped envelope tomorrow.
The APO/FPO flat rate boxes at the Post Office are pretty cheap. I'd put them in that instead of an envelope.
I've carried foot and drink in glass containers all over the world, including beers existing the US, bottles of wine and champage from various parts of the continent and jars of food from the Middle East. I've always wrapped the glass items in plenty of cloths or old clothes and keep them seperate from each other. They have always lasted....and then includes getting chucked around by baggage handlers. Can't imagine it would be much different sending them in a secure parcel (although there is, of course, a risk that international customs officers will open the box in transit if they think it's valuable and subject to duties - this can mean your careful packing is messed up).
Actually he's not overseas, just in Connecticut in Navy submarine school (or so the gub'mint would have us believe) but the intent is the same - get the cookies there fresh and unscathed. The more I think about it, I guess any package would pass between many hands (and take some time) getting it to someone in the sandbox. I would definitely put food in a crush-proof container in that case.
