A Family Camping Trip Was the Perfect Way to Test RIND Snacks

I grew up in an "ingredient household" where the best snacks were pork rinds and maraschino cherries. But on camping trips, we had it all. Pringles, Twizzlers, Pop-Tarts, Cheez Whiz, Snyder's Pretzel Pieces—you name it. I've tried to carry on that tradition as an adult, and this year I brought enough for everyone.

The folks at RIND Snacks were kind enough to send me nine of their mixes to try. Dried fruit and nuts are perfect for camping, so I enlisted my family's help in reviewing all of them. I set out the bags on our communal picnic table and just let everyone pick through them. Here's what we had:

1. Apple Chips
2. Cocoa Berry REMIX
3. Cherry Cashew Crunch REMIX
4. Dark Cocoa Sea Salt Coconut Crisps
5. Straw-Peary
6. Pina Colada REMIX
7. Orchard
8. Coconut Crisps
9. Tropical

The strongest opinions probably came from the Tropical mix. I was looking forward to this one most, but it was not a favorite. "Bittersweet Orange"—dried orange with the peel on—was indeed bitter and I don't think anyone liked it. The pineapple and kiwi in the same bag were better.

Cherry Cashew Crunch was another one that sounded great, but I didn't realize it was granola. After the trip, I put this in some oatmeal and greatly enjoyed it. Kinda crumbly for snacking out of the bag, but perfect as a topping.

I was surprised by how good the dried persimmon was in the Orchard mix. I've only had persimmon once before this and it's growing on me. A few other people, including my son, liked it as well. The peach and apple in this mix were good too. It might have been my favorite bag.

Straw-Peary is the first RIND product I saw in the wild, and there's probably a reason for that. Dried strawberry, apple, and pear is a crowd-pleasing mix. It's not terribly exciting, but it's good.

Speaking of strawberries, the Cocoa Berry mix was a dark horse. It has dried strawberries, dried blueberries, and dark cocoa covered almonds—heck yeah. My sister put it in some strawberry yogurt and said it was really good. Right up there with Orchard as one of my favorites.

Let's move on to a divisive ingredient: coconut. Pina Colada includes dried pineapple with coconut crisps and cashews. If you like coconut, this is a great combination. I think it's hard to go wrong with cashews and dried pineapple.

The other two coconut varieties were more basic. Dark Cocoa Sea Salt Coconut Crisps were exactly as the name implied, and my brother-in-law enjoyed them. I don't think anyone tried the plain Coconut Crisps. Both of these seem more like a topping or ingredient than a snack.

Last, but not least, was the Apple Chips. No one tried these either, and I understand why. Who hasn't had dried apples before, right? Well, these are special. They really are "chips"—super thin and crunchy. Dried apple is usually chewy, which is fine, but these are much more snackable. I could pound a bag of Apple Chips as if they were potato chips. My family missed out.

So, I'm not sure how I feel about RIND Snacks. They're really different from most of the dried fruit you find in stores. As their slogan says, they keep the peel on. For some fruit that works, but for others it doesn't. Everything is sliced really thin, too. And again, that works well for some fruit, but not others.

Pineapple and kiwi are a perfect example of this. Typically, they're sliced a bit thick, so you get this soft, chewy, almost gummy fruit snack-like texture. A few of us noted that we prefer that. In comparison, RIND's dried fruit is much more leather-y. I think that's why people liked the dried persimmon—it was closest to typical dried fruit.

Overall, though, I appreciate what RIND is trying to do by keeping the skin on and minimizing food waste. I think we generally liked most of the flavors and would eat them again. Personally, I will be on the lookout for the Orchard and Cocoa Berry mixes.

Thanks to my family for helping me with the difficult task of eating food! 😉