This article was originally published on Backpacker.
Every year the bar gets just a little higher for backpacking snacks and meals. This season’s batch brought nostalgic treats, natural, high-energy gummies, and international culinary inspirations. While we’re still wading our way through a shelf-stable cornucopia of samples for the 2024 summer gear guide, these snacks and dinners have already made lasting impressions on the backcountry kitchen test team.
Trying a new brand of dehydrated meals is daunting. My stomach, in particular, can’t handle most things that the freeze-drier sends its way, so I tend to gravitate towards meals with recognizable ingredients I can pronounce. Itacate checked that box, and as a lover of Mexican cuisine, I enthusiastically dug in to a hearty dinner of Sunset Caldo during a chilly fall hike in Washington’s Central Cascades. Caldo Tlalpeño is a traditional spicy central Mexican soup, and while it’s typically made with chicken, Itacate’s vegan version offers plenty of protein (16 grams per serving) for a soul-warming,…
