The Treat Barr is a UK-based small business run by a South African, Scottish couple who want to bring the taste of the much-loved marshmallow Easter egg to expats living in the UK.
Cambuslang, United Kingdom (24 March 2022) – Ask any South African which Easter Egg is the best and most will tell you it is the delicious marshmallow one from Beacon. Last year, South Africans expats launched a website selling eggs in the UK and it was so popular, it crashed within minutes.
After publishing the story, a reader based in the UK introduced us to The Treat Barr, a small business run by a South African expat and her Scottish husband. Nicola and Andrew run the small business. Nicola moved to the UK in 2008 and never forgot the tastes of home.
If you are an expat living abroad, you can agree that nothing tastes more like home than a good bit of biltong, a juicy boerewors, a splash of Mrs Balls chutney and Beacon marshmallow eggs! Having lived overseas for a time, these things were some of the best when found on foreign soil.
You will find South African wines sold at most stores (remember when a UK supermarket tried to save our wine industry during lockdown?), but things like the above-mentioned treats and favourites like Tasty Wheat, Aromat, Black Cat peanut butter and Ouma rusks, are much harder to come by.
Biltong is also a firm favourite, in 2021 we wrote about how two SA expats started a biltong cafe in Hong Kong, and people went nuts for it! We know of a few butchers in the UK who have started making biltong to feed their local saffa communities.
Nicola and Andrew launched their small business during the UK lockdown and started by sharing photos of their homemade Melktart. People started reaching out to ask if they were selling them, so the business was born. The couple brainstormed other things to add, and Nicola immediately said it was Marshmallow eggs she missed most. They made a batch, and the photos were shared with almost every South African group on Facebook. They were flooded with orders and started making the sweet Saffa treats for all.
“When we started off we noticed if you wanted to get some SA Treats it was usually more expensive than it should have been. We wanted to offer great quality treats at a reasonable price as it was about giving people that taste of home when we were all in our first Lockdown.”
Apart from the melktart and marshmallow eggs, they also make malva pudding and bobotie pies, to name a few.
The Treat Barr started getting queries about their 2022 marshmallow eggs in early February, two and a half months before Easter Sunday. They reassured everyone that they would be selling the eggs again and shared the first batch at the end of February.
The majority of their clients are South African, but they do have a few locals who are curious about the eggs as there is nothing quite like it available.
If you have family in the UK that you want to treat, you can find out more via the Facebook page here.
Are you based overseas? What is the food you miss most from home?
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