Cough, Cough

A couple of years ago when I was working for a German company, I was given a bag of Kruegerol Halsbonbons for my cough.  (Halsbonbons are throat drops).  I was skeptical.  I don't like taking cough drops because they're pretty much just candy and they give your mouth that strange, I've-been-sucking-on-hard-candy-all-day dry feeling.  But, I decided to try them, anyway.

Wow.

That's what a cough drop should be.  It's like what Halls menthol drops spend their lives dreaming of being.

The menthol was actually clearing.

It didn't taste mediciney at all.

It didn't smell like medicine at all.

It actually soothed my throat for a LONG time after I had finished it, rather than only being good for as long as it was in my mouth.

My husband and I sparingly used the little gold charms to spread them out as much as we could, but eventually, they ran out.

Ever since then, I've been looking for their equal and have been disappointed.  Then it dawned on me (wait, I know) it's the 21st century and I just might be able to find them online.

And I did.

In Germany.  Most of the apothecaries carry them and you can get them without a prescription...and they were cheap!  It was only 59 cents Euro for the bag.  In my excitement, I added 20 bags to my cart and went to checkout.

Now, I'm glad that I speak German (somewhat) and read it and that I've purchased a fair number of things online, so I'm familiar with the online purchasing forms.  As I slowly filled out each of the fields, I got more excited about the surprise for my husband.

Then I got to the Address fields, I was glad that "Country" was one of them.  As I pulled down the menu, I was utterly crushed.

Their idea of "Country" was any country in a list of Germany and Austria. :(

So, I sadly closed the window and started my search again...this time, making sure that I didn't fill out the entire form before checking the Country field options.  To my great disappointment, I could not find any of the online stores that shipped to the US.  The best I could find was a store that would ship to continental Europe and Ireland (hmm, not England, though).

I thought, "That's that".

Then, last week, I decided to look again- you never know, you might find a different store or they might have changed their minds and decided to recognize the US as a valid shipping destination.  As I sadly clicked through the online forms, it dawned on me that I might be able to just email one of these companies and get them to send it to me!

Excited, I scanned through the website I was at for a customer service email.  Finding one, I proudly wrote a nice little email asking if I could please purchase some Kruegerol and have it shipped to the US.

Then, the email bounced back to me.

Well, it had been worth a shot.

You can imagine my glee, then, when I got a reply from the shop!  And not only could I understand the email, I was overjoyed to see that they WOULD ship to the US.

Excitedly, I replied with my answer of which flavor I would like and my address and can you please tell me how much the total price will be. After waiting all day for an answer because of the difference in time zones, I woke up to an email telling me that it would be 11,80 Euro for the product (sounds good)...and 42,95 Euro for shipping.

Sob.

With the exchange rate, that makes those magical little cough drops nearly $100.

So, I ask you all to help me find a place that sells Kruegerol in the US.

(And, yes, I tried contacting Kruegerol via Facebook, but haven't heard back.  Perhaps they use Facebook as much as I do.)