What's in your trail mix?

Many of us eat some kind of trail mix during the hiking day. You can buy it premade in many varieties, or you can buy exactly the ingredients you like most and make your own mix. The only limit is your imagination and what you can afford.

I just finished putting together a big batch of mix for the upcoming summer. Just for fun, I thought I'd ask what other forumites's trail mix looks like. Are you a traditionalist who only eats plain GORP (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts), or an everything and the kitchen-sink trail mixer, or an exoticist who nibbles roasted edmame with papaya bits, or a purist who must have all-organic or nothing? Reveal your preferences here!

Here's my latest mix:

2 lbs. Planter's Dry Roasted peanuts
2 lbs. Blue DIamond almonds (1 lb each: roasted & salted, smokehouse)
25 oz. M&Ms, dark chocolate variety
1 lb. Thompson's seedless raisins
1/2 lb. candied ginger bits
1/2 lb. dried cranberries

This works out to 500 calories per 100 grams of trail mix.

I'm pretty sure there's a thread on this already....but can't be bothered to find it for you. So I just have one question:

What's the deal with only 25oz of M&Ms? (And you didn't need to specific the dark chocolate ones...everybody already knows that!) grin.

Mine is simple: 1/3 D C M&Ms, 1/3 nuts ( anything from pecans to almonds to peanuts...different nuts for different days!) and 1/3 dried fruit, from raisins and craisins to pineapple etc...

Coconut and other treats to taste. But each day is a different mix, to give variety and interest!

I recalled something like this thread being launched in the past, but I turned the crank on the Search about six or seven times, with variations, and couldn't locate it. So it would probably be tough for anyone else to revisit it now.

I noticed that too aimless. Seems like anything older than 8 months is hard to find again.

One of my favorite additions is macadamia nuts. Highest calorie per weight nut I have found...just have to be flush with the green to be able to afford it.

I've never really been one for trail mix. But I do take several components, just packaged individually in ziplocs for a trip.

The bits I've been into lately:

Cashews
Cinnamon and Sugar coated Almonds
Sesame Sticks
M&Ms - plain, peanut, almond - just depends

Don't take dried fruits much anymore, but I do enjoy raisins, honey-dipped pineapple and papaya on the trail.

Should find the good stuff and start taking the pineapple again. Amazing energy boost I used to get from munching on a chunk or two while hiking!

Trail mix depends on my mood and what I have on hand. Sometimes I buy Karr's Sweet and Salty mix from a "big box" store, others I contoct something in mykitchen. "Concotions" might include pineapple bits, apple, banana, raisins, craisins or other fruits, soy nuts, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, Cheerios, M&Ms or chocolate chips, and even coffee beans for an AM jolt. How much and what really is mood-driven, but coffee beans do seem to go well with craisins and dark chocolate...

CamperMom

I just buy the Cajun Trail mix that Wal Mart sells. If I am in a Fresh Market I will pick up some wasabi peas to add to it. Just be careful as you can crack a tooth on the peas...don't ask how I know..lol

I'm not very fond of trail mix, and most for me are too salty. Even while backpacking, I end up retaining fluid if I eat a lot of salt. Also, I long ago got used to eating a diet low in salt and learned to dislike salty foods (that dates back to my childbearing days when I basically couldn't eat salt during pregnancy).

I buy nuts, mostly unsalted, in bulk in the Fred Meyer health food section, and dump a little of each kind (almonds, walnuts, cashews, peanuts, hazelnuts) in a sandwich bag and add dried fruit for each day's snack/lunch. On a long trip (more than 7 days), the fruit will be freeze-dried, to save weight.

If they only made espresso bean M&Ms!

Just chewing on a couple-few beans would be a nice trail boost.

Not sure why I haven't thought of it, but I believe I have a new item to take on the next trip!

Well, some of the "gourmet" chocolate-covered beans look a bit like M&Ms.

If Mars (?) candy company is coming out with pretzel-flilled M&Ms, why not coffee bean ones, other than the current formula is a bit sweet to me for coffee beans?

CM

Coffee beans sounds a good idea, particularly for breakfast. Only yesterday we were discussing improvements for trail food. High calorific value per ounce and convenience would be obtained by nut butter filled M&Ms. I suppose peanut butter would suffice, but the food snob in me says almond butter.

Goodness me, went to the store yesterday and they actually had peanut butter and chocolate M&Ms.

My trail mix:

Peanut M&M's
Peanut M&M's
Peanut M&M's

And then I add some........Peanut M&M's.

Works for me.

Peanut M&Ms are definitely an excellent quick acting anti-bonk device. They have worked miracles for me.

OTOH, I also recall dates being a great source of energy when you snack on 2 or 3 after lunch. And even though I was never much of a milk drinker to begin with, and especially not powdered milk, when I would lag in the afternoon (on a long trip I did many moons ago), a water bottle full of reconstituted powdered milk was like manna from heaven. You can turn up your nose if you want, but it tasted delicious, and I had energy to spare afterwards. Yes, powdered milk. Not Nido or anything special, just plain old yucky powdered milk. You'd be amazed what tastes good when your body needs it...

MNS a/k/a Dixie Moon

The first time I ever tasted powdered milk was in the Yosemite back country and it was delicious! I thought, why not use this stuff back home?

When I tried it "back home," it had changed magically to a truly horrible brew....

I LOVE THIS POST seems that sometime hunger could be the best spice.

as for trail mix what does not go in it. would be a shorter list

Well, how about Dark Chocolate 'Spresso M&Ms!

Most current version:

Dried dates, craisins, mangos, +raisins with walnuts, coctail peanuts, and a small handful of M&Ms.

The utility of peanut M&Ms over dark chocolate chips won me over a while back. Though, I thought it was wierd a couple trips ago when the dried apricots melted the candy shells of the M&M's!!

I like GORP at home (especially the Sam's Club mix), but find I don't really like it on the trail; not sure exactly why, though.

Instead, I'll usually munch on a granola bar mid-morning and mid-afternoon (the variety depends on my mood just before the trip, and usually rotates among Nature Valley, Quaker, and Kashi.)

This is the way to go...

1 cup Planter's Nut-rition cashews, almonds, and macadamia nuts
1/4 cup Snyder's mini pretzels
1/4 cup dried mixed berries (cranberries, cherries, & blueberries)
1/4 cup Reese's Pieces
1/4 cup chocolate-covered coffee beans

We eat mix all day long. Don't cook in the summer and just graze as we go.

Sweet and fruity bag:
Nutty Guys butter toffee almonds and honey roasted peanuts.
home dried fruit:
bananas, blueberries, nectarines, apples, pears, mangos, etc...

Salty bag:
home made jerky
Nutty Guy's giant corn nuts (plain and BBQ)
Snyder's pretzel nibs
dried peas (to complement the nut protein)

3-4 bars a day to add more protein and variety.