Snacking is the secret pleasure of backpacking, but it can also feel like the biggest chore. During a day of long miles and steep climbs, calories are as important as the right shoes, the fuel that makes it all possible. But how many Clif Bars, Snickers, Haribos, and peanuts can one human stand? After 10,000 miles, I鈥檝e lost the ability to stomach those hiker standards very often. I forever crave something novel.
So in trail town grocery stores, or when thinking about before a long hike, I鈥檓 always on the hunt for a new snack, a new texture or taste that entertains me as I literally move through my day. These additions are mutable, of course, though some have stuck with me, little treats I tell fellow travelers about around the night鈥檚 cookpot or when we鈥檙e in the aisles together, trying to decide what food we鈥檙e putting in our packs for the next several hundred miles.
Below are the five best hiking snacks that I鈥檝e discovered recently, listed chronologically for how I consume them during the day. These are all small businesses to one degree or another, so don鈥檛 expect them in a trailside convenience store. You may need to order them online in advance of your hike, or, if you鈥檙e lucky enough to have someone mail you supplies from home, have them add it to your tab. Food is a joy of long-distance treks and day hikes alike; here鈥檚 what鈥檚 providing so much of it for me lately.
no normal鈥檚 Coffee Paste
Gummies, powders, gels, bars, and, of course, coffee: If there is a way to transport caffeine on trail, I鈥檝e tried it. Or at least so I thought until a friend sent me a link to coffee, a Zurich startup squeezing ultra-concentrated coffee paste and a touch of beet sugar into a big black metal tube. The strategy, founders Philippe Greinacher and Alexander H盲berlin told , stems from Switzerland鈥檚 postwar prepper strategy, where innovations with shelf-stable foods were safeguards for potential invasion.
On trail in the Swiss Alps and on the beach in Africa, the pair longed for coffee that tasted better than flakes of the acrid instant stuff and didn鈥檛 need much water. They got it right. Though the paste works well dissolved in hot or cold water, I find myself taking tiny sips straight from the tube before an arduous climb or a long haul, the stinging bitterness soon dissolving into a subtle sweetness. It works as a spread, too. , it鈥檚 pricier than Folgers Instant but cheaper than the new wave of niche instant brands. And the satisfaction of swilling coffee from a tube in front of strangers? Priceless.
Best Buckin鈥 Jerky
During my first thru-hike, I had been a vegetarian for a decade. But nearly every account of on-trail nutrition I read referenced the supremacy of jerky as a lightweight vehicle for protein and flavor. So my wife, Tina, and I bought boxes and boxes of vegan jerky, devouring it along the length of the Appalachian Trail with near-religious devotion. It tasted, I must admit now, like salty cardboard, but twice as tough. There have since been remarkable advances in meatless jerky, from to 鈥檚 textured soy protein. But I have recently been on a meat jerky tear, trying to find a brand that has the strongest flavors without filling me with preservatives or the dregs of the butcher-shop鈥檚 wastebin.
I finally found it in , the rightfully named company of San Antonio meat-curing fiend Joli Phillips. A former spa manager in Santa Fe and catering company owner in Austin, Phillips is on a few parallel missions. First, she wants to buck the notion that jerky is a manly domain. Though her husband, Adam, is a professional chef, he is only her taste-tester.
鈥淭his gal doesn鈥檛 sit side-saddle,鈥 as her website proclaims. (, too, an organization linking girls with STEM educations.) Second, using specifically chosen and especially lean cuts of beef, she aims to create thin and tender strips of jerky with piquant flavors. Inspired by Ruth鈥檚 Chris steakhouse, her Cowgirl flavor melts in your mouth like carpaccio. And loaded with bird鈥檚 eye chilis, Phillips鈥 Khaw Keirl version kicks harder than any jerky I鈥檝e yet to find in a grocery store. I鈥檒l be ordering a box before my thru-hikes this fall, and it will certainly taste better than the cardboard in which it arrives.
蝉丑腻谤鈥檚 鈥淥riginal鈥 Trail Mix
Spend long enough on trail, and the G in 鈥攖hat is, good ol鈥 raisins and peanuts鈥攕ublimates into 鈥済ross.鈥 As the name implies, that two-ingredient blend is a standby and the basis for with most anything you can imagine, from M&Ms and almonds to peanut butter cups and Beer Nuts. Browsing the grocery store鈥檚 trail mix zone, I sometimes get the sense that manufacturers suss out their surpluses and simply dump whatever鈥檚 there into bags. I do not get this sense from Peter Rushford, a former pro skier turned gear guru who has spent the past decade trying to find his perfect trail mix, one that balanced salt and sweetness, crunch and chew, nutrition and taste. The quest led to , his Austin-based company that, simply put, makes the best trail mix I鈥檝e ever eaten. And there are no peanuts or raisins.
Instead, his 鈥渙riginal鈥 nine-ingredient blend pairs four whole nuts with coconut slivers and three fruits dried just to the point of chewiness鈥攂lueberries, cranberries, and incredible . Oh, and there鈥檚 chocolate from a 160-year-old San Francisco chocolatier. Rushford was so careful in his quest to create the perfect trail mix that each ingredient sports a , and all the packaging forgoes plastic. As a small company with big ambitions, 蝉丑腻谤 isn鈥檛 cheap, but the stuff is potent; I downed a small bag midway during a recent six-summit day, and I had energy to finish the hike without more food.
Honey Mama鈥檚 Cocoa Truffle Bars
I have a possibly unhealthy ritual on long trails: Every night, whether tucked into a tent or spread out under the stars, I take a few puffs from a joint, massage my tired legs as deeply as possible, and eat an entire candy bar. The problem, of course, isn鈥檛 the puffs; it鈥檚 the fact that and are rafts of corn syrup, sugar, and palm or sunflower oil. Maybe that鈥檚 not the best for a body that鈥檚 walked 30 miles鈥攚ith plans to repeat it in the morning. I was relieved, then, to stumble upon three years ago on the Pacific Crest Trail. I began lining my food bag with enough of the paper-wrapped wonders to make it to the next town. My ritual feels a bit more reasonable now.
In a previous life, Portland, Oregon, native Christy Goldsby ran a traditional bakery with her family. While helping a friend negotiate a health struggle, though, she began searching for a dessert that didn鈥檛 skimp on the indulgence of a cake or brownie but offered up better nutrition. Her truffle bars became a Pacific Northwest hit that have since hit refrigerated shelves nationwide. Always starting with honey and coconut oil, Goldsby makes rich treats with surprising or comforting flavor profiles鈥攖ahini and tangerine, for instance, or coconut, pecan, and cocoa. My favorites? Lemon Blueberry and Peanut Butter Cup. Though cooled in the store, they stay soft and safe for several days on trail, giving you the uncanny sense that you鈥檙e somehow downing brownie batter in the tent. That鈥檚 not just the indica talking, bro.
LMNT鈥檚 Chocolate Caramel Hydration Mix, Served Hot
If I stay somewhere swanky on trail, I tend to leave with a half-dozen tea bags, pilfered from the hotel lobby or the breakfast spread. When the weather turns toward winter, I turn into the tent-bound version of the , its living room and red stocking cap swapped for my Dyneema confines and a blaze-orange beanie. You can guess the tea鈥檚 upshot: I inevitably crawl out of my cozy lair at least once per night, losing whatever warmth I鈥檇 gained. The new play, though, is a packet of LMNT鈥檚 , especially formulated to be enjoyed hot. Simply drop it in eight ounces of warm water and swirl. That鈥檚 not enough water to send me outside past hiker midnight, and it serves a crucial purpose: replacing some of the day鈥檚 electrolytes without giving me a late-night sugar buzz.
LMNT is passionate, above all, about salt. 鈥淪tay Salty,鈥 reads one company slogan. Another? 鈥淪alty AF.鈥 Cofounder Robb Wolf has even regarding sodium, writing that the link between sodium and blood pressure rests on 鈥渃onjecture.鈥 LMNT uses three ingredients鈥攕alt, potassium citrate from Aspergillus niger, and magnesium malate鈥攖o deliver electrolytes in several flavors with less than 10 calories. (If you favor their science but not LMNT鈥檚 cost, they offer , too.) The ones meant to be taken hot work as my new nightcap. Drinking salty water with a touch of cocoa powder from a titanium pot? Surprisingly delicious.