Potter: Surviving hunger (thank you, Clif Bars)

When I put snacks in my everyday-carry survival bag, it’s always Clif Bars, and I’m about to tell you why.

But first, understand that I don’t make this claim of Clif Bar’s superiority lightly and I’ve got no formal sponsorship with Clif Bar & Company (although Clif Bar & Company could certainly send me a lifetime supply of product.)

I’ve tried a lot of outdoor snacks, and judged everything fairly based on stringent criteria.

Taste

There’s a delicate balance when it comes to the taste of a survival-ish snack. It has to be yummy enough that I will like eating it, yet not so tasty that I’ll impulse eat it just because it tastes good.

It’s like when I tried having Snickers in my bag. I would eat a Snickers even when I wasn’t really hungry simply because it’s a tasty candy bar.

If my snack is gross, though, it will sit in my bag for months and months and never get used and never get rotated, which doesn’t benefit me at all. This is what happened when I tried, systematically, every other protein/energy bar surrounding the Clif Bars at the grocery store. Some of them had more calories, good fat and protein than Clif Bars, but they were all gross.

And heck, even with something great like a Clif Bar, I have my favorite flavors that I’m more inclined to eat (Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Brownie, Crunchy Peanut Butter).

Mess

When evaluating a snack, I always consider the mess factor — first does it make me or my area messy, and is it so messy that a significant portion of my snack is now wasted on the ground?

This criteria hurts a lot of my snack ratings, which is too bad, because sometime the snack fits everything else.

Trail mix, for example. My whole family loves a good trail mix (not the pre-made kind, but a concoction from the bulk bins at the store). I make a big batch, put it snack bags, and my kids promptly spill it. Or they eat all the dark chocolate-covered raisins and leave the nuts lying all over.

And when they drop the bag on a hike, it’s hard to pick each little piece.

Plus I don’t like to be messy. Dirt from the trail is fine, but melted chocolate sucks when I’m out and about.

Availability

Sure price matters, but I’m more interested in availability. I mean that this snack has to be easy to restock (Clif Bars are all over the place).

I’m amazed (and chagrined) at how often I don’t do things — it’s just a little too much effort to travel to a specific store that is the only one that carries a specific snack.

Good for you

Sometimes I think I should care more about how healthy things are for you, but honestly I just don’t.

OK. Well, that’s not completely true. I care if it’s good for you, as long as it fits all my other criteria as well (like taste).

When I think of “good for you,” though, I’m thinking more that it satisfies; that after eating it I’m not hungry anymore.

Crackers don’t do it, unless there’s cheese, but that puts it outside of “handy snack” territory. Regular granola bars fail miserably. One of my kids can burn through four of those without any noticeable lessening of their “hunger whining.”

An apple works well, though. They’re just so bulky, which brings me to the last criteria.

Portability

A snack must be easy to grab, easy to have with you at all times, so unobtrusive you forget it’s there until you or someone with you is hungry enough to want it.

So here’s the take. In this process I tried beef jerky, emergency ration bars from the Army surplus store, Sour Patch Kids, the aforementioned trail mix, Snickers, regular granola bars, nasty energy bars and a whole bunch of other stuff too.

And nothing beats Clif Bars (again, lifetime supply, Clif Bar & Company).