We receive numerous opportunities to try new products. We get so many that we can’t test them all and some of them just aren’t a good fit for our user group……But every once in awhile we see something unique that fills a need…and if we need it, we figure that it only makes sense that some of you, out there in Fat-bike-land, might find interesting or useful. So with that in mind, today’s product is more of a service that’s called Trailfoody. Trailfoody is a monthly service that sends out a variety of healthy pack-able snacks that are perfect for taking along on a ride, hike, bikepacking, etc. I’m always dashing out the door, to get on the bike and then remember, that I’ll need to put some food in my belly. I’ve tried all of the popular bars/waffles/gels and go through periods where I’m good at keeping snack mix or bars in the pantry, but the Trailfoody folks contacted us at a point, where the cupboard was bare. If you’ve ever stopped at the mini-mart for a Pop-Tart, on your way to the trailhead or event, you might benefit from Trailfoody.
Our Trailfoody Test Kit came in an orange stuff sack and contained 8.25 Items. Enough for 3-5 adventures. (the .25 was a packet of electrolyte drink powder that was tasty). The price of that level of snackage is $24.95 usd. I thought it would be more like thirty bucks, so I was stoked. My wife and I took our Trailfoody snacks with us on a couple of rides and enjoyed trying new treats. We like to try new foods – YMMV.
Trailfoody has a focus on healthy, organic, natural snacks. Nuts, grains, seeds and fruit, with a foodie flair. We enjoyed everything that they sent us and the bag lasted about 3 weeks of rides and hikes. We don’t always have a snack on our rides but it’s always nice to have something along to stave off ‘the bonk’, when things decide to go there. Trailfoody opened up my mind to bringing fruit-packs into my trail food mix. I’ve seen my grand daughter with these fruit and sometimes yogurt, dispensed out of a screw top pouch. The pouch that TF sent contained a berry mixture and Chia seeds. I didn’t know much about chia seeds, beyond what I saw on Chia Pet commercials. I tried the Berry Blast and it tasted like fresh berries….but whoa!…the texture was like a mouth full of tadpole eggs! Kinda weird, but good tasting and apparently good for you. So you might get something that takes you outside of your culinary comfort zone, but you can always pawn that item off on your bonking ride/hike buddies if it looks to be too far outside the box for you.
The real brilliance of Trailfoody (for me) is the bag. I know it sounds dumb, but having a designated snack bag and keeping that bag, in the truck, or on the shelves, where we store our helmets and packs, worked very well at making sure that I kept a snack in my pack on every ride. After we finished all of the test food, I decided to test out my local grocery store, to see if I could shop for trail snax of a similar style, and see what that would cost. I live out in the sticks, so I went to the fancy grocery store over in Lake Mills, to try to ensure a better chance of finding a good selection. I found a couple of the same items that came from TF, which included the Berry Blast (tadpole eggs). I chose a mango fruit pouch as well as the Berry Blast. The idea of a fruit pouch is not something that I ever thought of, before Trailfoody, but it makes a lot of sense.
So I purchased eight items. I know that the TF Bag came with 8+ the electrolite dust, so this is not an ‘apples to apples’ comparison, but it should give any ‘penny pinchers’ out there an idea of what the convenience of the Trailfoody service costs. My 8 items ran me $14.32. In the long term, I think that the better variety and attention to the purity and nutritional content that the folks at Trailfoody puts into their selections will make their service attractive to our readers that already have enough on their plates and (like me) have found themselves at a gas station deciding between a doughnut and a pop-tart. If nothing else, I hope we provided the masses with some new ideas on trail snacks that you can add to your bag of tricks.
For more information about Trailfoody visit – https://trailfoody.com/
“bag of tricks” – I see what you did there!