Toodaloo is a small batch Superfood Trail Mix with Functional Benefits

We’ve all had that basic trail mix that consists of peanuts, raisins, and chocolate. If you’re like me, you mostly avoid the raisins. We convince ourselves that bingeing this mix is healthy as if somehow the healthiness of the nuts balances out the processed chocolate.

But now I eat trail mix that is actually healthy and has more delicious, complex flavors. After digging into the brand’s origin story, I also love knowing it started as a one woman business from inside her tiny apartment.

Toodaloo is my new favorite trail mix because it’s stuffed with superfoods and is extremely flavorful.

Toodaloo has five flavors and I’ve tried four (I'll track down the fifth some day!). Each is distinct in both flavor and texture, so let's go through them one by one:

"Hot to Trot" might just be my favorite. It has a combination of spicy and sweet ingredients, such as roasted chickpeas, dried pineapple, several types of sprouted seeds, jalapeno powder, cayenne, ginger powder, turmeric, and more. Some of the ingredients are crunchy, while others are more chewy, so you never really know what you’ll get with each bite.

When one of my friends tried it, all she could say was "wow!" After she got over her initial shock of how much she liked it, she described it as lemony, and said the flavors reminded her of Indian food. This one feels like it energizes me well during hikes and while I write (like I’m doing right now).

Though I preferred the last flavor, "Slow Your Roll" seemed to be the favorite among my friends. It comes in bigger clumps, which makes it easier to eat, and it’s sweet without being overly sweet. That comes from the small amount of maple syrup, along with healthy ingredients like mulberries, chamomile tea, cashew butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, reishi, sprouted nuts, and more.

Like "Hot to Trot," "Slow Your Roll" had a combination of textures. I’ve learned not to snack this one directly from the bag as it quickly disappears. I think it tastes great as a parfait ingredient — my friends suggested it as an excellent breakfast alternative or sweet treat, maybe a mid-day pick-me-up. The flavor is reminiscent of Raisin Bran cereal.

"Turning Heads" is another sweeter flavor. The cacao gives it a chocolatey taste, but not an overpowering one. It also comes in bigger clumps that are again both chewy and crunchy, and despite not having any in it, it tastes like marshmallows! Besides the cacao, the ingredients include a variety of nuts, coconut chips & nectar, dried fruit, vanilla extract, hibiscus flower, and more. This flavor is easy to binge, so proceed with caution.

The "Smoke Show" flavor might be the most flavor-packed one. There are a lot of spices, but that doesn’t mean it’s spicy. Rather than big clumps, this one has an overall looser texture. The crunchy chickpeas are my favorite part again. In addition to the chickpeas there are several types of sprouted nuts and seeds, smoked paprika, himalayan salt, onion, garlic, chilies, chaga, cordyceps, cumin, and more.

My friend Beeshoua said it tastes kind of like Asian fried pork skin (which as a vegetarian I can neither confirm nor deny). Being a looser texture, this one might be tricky when you’re hiking. It’s a better fit for an at-home treat. Recently, I realized it makes an excellent salad topping (replacing croutons), so that’s my new favorite way to consume it.

As you can likely tell from the ingredients previously mentioned, Toodaloo is much healthier than traditional trail mixes. They use organic ingredients and avoid processed candies you find in other trail mixes. Toodaloo’s website says they use “30+ superfoods & adaptogenic herbs.” I’m not necessarily convinced by those buzzwords, so I always look directly at ingredients and nutrition facts to decide if a food is good for me.

Let’s take a second to compare Toodaloo’s Smoke Show trail mix with a store brand generic trail mix from a store near me. The generic brand’s ingredients are mainly peanuts, raisins, milk chocolate candies, almonds, and dried sweetened cherries. The milk chocolate candies contain ingredients I’ve never heard of before.

Both brand’s have a serving size of ¼ cup. The generic brand has 14 grams of sugar, with 7 grams of it being added sugars. Comparatively this Toodaloo flavor has only 1 gram of sugar and no added sugars whatsoever.

While the store brand is 180 calories per serving, Smoke Show is only 150 calories. While that might not seem like a significant difference, let’s be honest, you’re likely to eat more than one serving. The generic brand has 5 grams of protein and 4% of your daily iron needs. Meanwhile, Toodaloo’s Smoke Show has 7 grams of protein and 10% of your daily iron needs. I definitely feel healthier eating Toodaloo’s trail mixes and the nutrition facts back that feeling up.

Toodaloo is more expensive than generic trail mix brands. A variety pack with four bags of different flavors currently costs $39.99 on Amazon, but you can clip a digital coupon on the page to save an extra 15%, bringing the price to $33.99. Considering Toodaloo uses organic ingredients and a variety of costly spices, it doesn’t surprise me that it can’t compete on price with trail mixes that use cheap ingredients with less complex flavors.

To me, the higher price is worth it, but I’m sure not everyone would agree. Honestly, the biggest downside of Toodaloo to me is that I haven’t been able to taste the Deja Brew flavor yet (which contains coffee.) Hurry up and get that back in stock, Toodaloo!

As long as you aren’t fooling yourself that it’s healthy, there’s nothing wrong with having some generic trail mix as an occasional treat. However, if you’re looking for trail mix that is actually healthy and even tastier than the trail mix you’re used to, Toodaloo is right up your alley. The brand is also climate conscious. With every purchase, they regenerate 100 square feet or polluted farmland and use plastic neutral packaging.

Hannah Kowalczyk-Harper is a Wisconsin-based, full-time freelance writer. She mainly writes about personal development, business, writing, travel, and productivity. When not writing, Hannah is frequently chasing around her niece and nephew or traveling around the world. You can read more by Hannah on her Medium profile (https://medium.com/@MsHannahTweets) and get her remote writing tips at RemoteWriting.com.