Summer is a time for taking your foot off the pedal, letting life slow down and pausing to enjoy everything that Mother Nature has to offer — which equates to adventures, road trips, PTO and life on the go. What does this mean for snacking? Products that will satiate an appetite stoked by activity and sun while still being portable. The sort of stuff you can throw in a cooler — think cold, frozen, light and hydrating, over rich and hearty.
One recent trend we love is how much frozen fruit has become ingrained in the snacking zeitgeist, whether that’s in its pure form, pulverized for your smoothie routine, covered in chocolate for your late night sweet tooth, covered in citric acid and sour sugar for your sour tooth or marbled into mini pearls like a fruit version of Dippin Dots — frozen fruit is definitely having a moment and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
So for the steamy months and climbing temperatures; we’re sharing a roundup of snacks and beverages that can tag along in your (ideally temperature-regulated) backpack, suitcase, 2-wheel or 4-wheel vehicle that also satisfy that craving for a pick me up, cool me down or whatever works for you when it comes to busting that summer heat fatigue.
Grape Freeze Spindrift Soda
Price: $25.99 for a 12-pack
If you’re a frequent visitor to the seltzer aisle, you’ve probably tried or noticed Spindrift at this point. What you may not know is they actually originally started making fruit sodas, and years after cancelling them in favor of seltzers, they’re back! If you’re able to find them locally, trying all the new fountain-soda inspired flavors wouldn’t be a futile endeavor (we also loved their sharp and not very sweet take on Shirley Temple), but Grape Freeze is the best of the bunch. Lacking the sugary sweetness you’d expect from a traditional grape soda, or any sodas, Spindrift’s Grape Freeze is more of a seltzer plus – there is smidgenly sweet fruit juice and citrus tartness with ideal carbonation ratio, but no cavities will form from routine consumption.
Spindrift’s Grape Freeze is a tasty beverage primed for Summer heat and fits snugly in pockets, coozies and coolers.
Sun-Maid Farmstand Reserve – Dried Mixed Berries
Price: $3.75
Back in the day, the little red Sun-Maid raisins boxes went in lunches nationwide and were pretty much the only readily available and easily accessible dried fruit treat. If your parents were health nuts, you could buy a bag of apricots, dried peaches, or prunes but you also would need to wear a diaper to school to be prepared for any collateral damage. Craisins came along later on, but Sun-Maid’s raisin cultural cachet was tough to transcend.
Today, the dried fruit market has expanded greatly and includes just about every type of fruit you can find under the sun (pun-intended). Cue Sun-Maid’s Farmstand Reserve line, a selection of premium dried fruits packaged for your snacking or lunching pleasure – the Dried Mixed Berries variety is particularly delicious, featuring not just craisins but also Bing cherries and blueberries. The dried Bing cherries and blueberries are both plumper and juicier than you expected from typical dried berries and in that same vein, feel like a special treat. And we all deserve special treats on the daily, don’t we?
Olli Salumi packs
Price: $4.99
Think of this like an elevated version of Lunchables — Olli has taken the pains of pairing and packaging 3 perfectly complementary items in one for your pleasure (examples are Pepperoni & Mozzarella, Calabrese & Asiago or Chipotle & Monterey Jack all with the same crackers) and when there are so many choices, every option is a winner.
Our personal favorite is Sopressata & Cheddar – the mild but rich cheddar pairs perfectly with the umami-forward and more aggressive Sopressata! Olli’s snack packs can save a hangry moment on a trip, be on deck for light snacking or even a mini-meal when you need a power up.
Firehook x Fly By Jing flatbreads
Price: $7.99
Firehook and chili crunch-makers Fly By Jing have teamed up for a special chili-infused snack.
The snack strikes the perfect balance with the Fly By Jing-collab Chili Crackers. The flatbread like snack doesn’t overpower the palate but help to ensure a nice spiced accent to whatever else you’re eating it with.
Firehook has injected the chili crunch flavor into the flour, creating a unique spicy flatbread that’s subtle enough to enjoy with veggies, dips and cured meats while being not so spicy that they make you reach for the Tums.
Tru Fru Chocolate Covered Frozen Raspberries
Price: $7.29
Tru Fru’s chocolate-covered raspberries are straight-up addictive, mostly due to their berry-like bite-sized shape and crunchy texture. The outer chocolate provides a sweet richness and serves as a binder for the inner berry portion.
Flock Original Chicken Crisps
Price: $3.60 a bag
What the flock is Flock? It’s chicken skin in a bag! As unappetizing as that word combination is, if your family hasn’t fought over the chicken skin anytime a roasted chicken is served is it even a real family? Flock mediates those squabbles with bags of reserves, plainly seasoned but full of protein and fatty richness. The crunch factor is on full display and the seasoning though plain, does not overpower or overwhelm the natural umami poultry flavor.
Bobo’s Peach Oat Pie bites
Price: $.99 a bite
Bobo’s Peace Oat Pie bites are one of those packaged treats you see at convenience store and instantly recoil. A dry packaged pie bite filled with some sort of potentially gross fruit filling? No thanks. Well at Uproxx, we don’t turn our noses — or tastebuds — up to new snacks. Bobo’s Peach Oat Pie bites offer a perfect bite size flavor and carb grenade. Gluten, non-GMO and vegan, Bobo’s deftly packs a ton of peach flavor, texture and actual fruit into these chewy, moist bites.
Edward Marc Thin Mint Girl Scout Balls
Anything bite size is automatically better than the original, think Butterfinger BB’s, the York Peppermint Patty or Reese’s Bites. Enter Edward Marc’s Girl Scout Thin Mint bites (officially sanctioned, thanks for asking).
These remixed Thin Mints pack the cookie crunch of the Girl Scout original with a coating of mint cream around the cookie core, mimicking the cookie in candy form with a chocolatey outer layer, and a waxy sweetness that conjures the childhood wonder of sampling thin mints and feeling that coolness of mint in the back of your mouth for the first time.
Haribo Burner
Price: $2.49
Haribo wasn’t messing around with the Burner bag — a perfect medley of classics like the sour sugar dusted cola bottles, sour color rings, sour twin cherry branches, sour grapefruit sticks, and two differently flavored sour ring-shaped gummies of unknown origins. If you’re in Frankenstein mode (the sort of snacker that likes to dissect and reassemble before consumption) then Haribo’s Burner bag is a choose your own adventure in sour Haribo gummy format.
The Burner Bag gummies offer that gummy bounce we expect from Haribo, in a mix of classic flavors. But hey Haribo — where are the sour bears at? Get them in this mix ASAP!