For the pack

Ultralight backpacking snacks, 2 oz a bag

Freeze-drying pulls the water out and leaves the fruit and the sour. About 60 calories per 12 strawberries and no can, no wrapper pile, no melt.

  • 2 oz a bag
  • About 60 calories per 12 strawberries
  • Nothing to melt
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A blueberries pouch of REFRESH'D clipped to the top of a black backpack on red rock

The receipt

Turn the bag over. This is all of it.

Ingredients
Fruit first, then sugar and the sour. The whole list is printed on every bag.
Weight
2 oz a bag. 57 grams net, the same on all five fruits.
Calories
About 60 per 12 strawberries, 12 grapes, 14 mangos, 16 pineapples or 30 blueberries.
Not in the bag
No syrup. No gelatin. No Red Dye #40.

Every bag, by the gram.

Fruit Net weight Calories per bag Pieces per bag
Strawberries 57 g 200 about 42
Grapes 57 g 200 about 40
Mangos 57 g 220 about 50
Pineapples 57 g 220 about 62
Blueberries 57 g 220 about 112

Why it goes in the pack

Written for the gram counters.

  1. A hiker with a backpack eating from a mango pouch at sunrise

    It weighs what the fruit weighs.

    None of the water comes along. A bag is 57 grams of fruit, acid and sugar, and the pouch is the only packaging there is.

  2. A strawberries pouch carried in one hand on a red dirt trail

    It cannot melt under a bear canister.

    A freeze-dried piece is crisp the way a cracker is crisp. Three days at the bottom of the pack and the crumbs still taste like the pieces.

  3. A hiker lying back in the grass with a strawberries pouch on his chest

    It is sour at mile nine.

    The sour runs all the way through the fruit, so the last piece in the bag tastes like the first. Nothing to unwrap, nothing to pack out but the bag.

The weight, by the bag

Every bag is 2 oz. Net 57 grams, the same on all five fruits. What changes is how many pieces that is.

The pieces are the fruit with the water gone. A fresh strawberry is about 91 percent water, so a bag of 42 began as a lot more strawberry than fits in a hip belt pocket. The pack front says about 60 calories per 12 strawberries, per 12 grapes, per 14 mangos, per 16 pineapples, per 30 blueberries.

Compare it to a gummy bag by the gram

By the gram, it is a tie. Sour freeze-dried fruit runs 3.5 to 3.9 calories a gram, 100 to 110 an ounce. USDA's generic starch jelly candy runs 3.96. Nobody is lighter per calorie here.

For scale, USDA puts raw peanuts at about 160 calories an ounce and olive oil at 250. This is not the densest thing in your pack and does not claim to be. It is the one that still tastes like something on day three.

The difference is the first word on the label. Ours is the fruit. A gummy bag's is syrup, and then gelatin, and somewhere down the list Red Dye #40. Same weight in the pack, and a different thing in your mouth at mile nine.

What survives the bottom of the pack

It cannot melt. It can break, and the crumbs are still fruit.

A freeze-dried piece is crisp the way a cracker is crisp, so a bag that rides under a bear canister for three days comes out with some pieces and some bits. The fruit is Infuz'd with sour all the way through, so the bits taste like the pieces.

How many bags per day of trail

A bag is 200 to 220 calories. Twelve to thirty pieces at the bottom of a climb is about 60. How many bags is your call.

This is the snack. Dinner is the thing you boil water for.

For the gram counters

  • 57 grams net a bag.
  • 100 to 110 calories an ounce, 3.5 to 3.9 a gram. Printed on the panel, so you can check it against your own spreadsheet.
  • None of the strawberry's water is in the bag. The acid and the sugar stayed, which is why the sour reads sharper than the fruit it was.

Resupply

The 5-bag box ships from Utah. One box, five bags.

On the trail, repackage. Five bags of fruit fit in one ziplock, and the ziplock weighs a few grams. The National Park Service says freeze-dried meals are lightweight and recommends repackaging food before a trip so there is less wrapper to pack out. Fruit is a food. Same advice.

  • A sandstone alcove in Utah with a mango pouch set on the rock
  • Two hikers passing a strawberries pouch under a blue sky
  • Five hikers under a sandstone arch, one holding a strawberries pouch
  • Three hikers sitting on the rock sharing a pouch
  • A blueberries pouch resting on top of a loaded backpack

Shot in southern Utah. The bag went everywhere the pack went.

One box, five bags

Packs light, survives the bottom of the bag.

Strawberries, grapes, mangos, pineapples and blueberries. One of each, 2 oz a bag.

Sour Freeze-Dried Fruit $29.99for five bags

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Questions people ask

Is freeze-dried fruit lighter than dried fruit?

Yes. Dried fruit stops at 15 to 25 percent water and freeze-dried fruit stops at 2 to 3, so for the same amount of fruit the freeze-dried bag carries less water and weighs less. It is also crisp instead of chewy, which is the other thing you notice at the top of a climb.

Will it crush in a hip belt pocket?

Some of it. A freeze-dried piece breaks before it bends, so a pocket that gets sat on will hold pieces and crumbs by the second day. Both are fruit.

How much does one pouch weigh?

2 oz of fruit, 57 grams net, plus the pouch.