It’s the afternoon and you’re scavenging through your kitchen to find food to stuff your face with like the trash panda that you are (that we all are). You’re ready to attack your hunger pains with a fork and knife—maybe a sword. If you, like me, are a toddler and need food every 2-3 hours, you understand that now is when productivity dips and your inner zombie come to life. You start walking around your house saying “grainnnssssss” and your pets and/or human loved ones back away out of fear that today will be the day you turn Hannibal Lector. (Fava beans and chianti, anyone?)
Or maybe it’s the weekend and you’ve imbibed one too many adult beverages. Your inhibitions have scattered to the four winds and your deepest darkest food desires have come to the surface. You’re ready to craft some wonderfully depraved concoctions and combinations based solely on vibes.
Enter the snack. The oh-so-glorious vessel with which wrongs can be righted and days/nights can be made. We’re not talking about the standard peanut butter and banana snack or the yogurt parfait moments. Oh no. We’re talking about the supercharged snacks. The ones with bold flavors and a personality unto themselves. The Furikake Chex Mixes, Stuffed Fried Pickles, and Puppy Chow’s of the world.
Not sure where to start? The Spruce Eats has you covered. Sweet, savory, salty, sour, and/or umami, we encourage, nay, implore you to explore this food category and fully embrace it as the unsung hero of the day.
Snacking is the perfect food-focused journey. One that is personal to who you are and where you’re only limited by your imagination and resourcefulness. It’s a great way to try a variety of new flavor combinations without having to commit to an entire meal. And, we editors love to use this opportunity to supercharge our snacks and head off on a bite-sized adventure. So come with us and let your snack freak flag fly!
—Victoria Heydt, Editorial Project Manager
All You Could Ever Want to Know About Snacks and More
- What I Learned About Snacks After Being on a Show About Snacking: Our Food Editor, Lauryn Bodden, shares her experience about being a contestant on Netflix’s Snack vs. Chef (spoiler: she won the whole thing!). It turns out, making a shelf-stable snack from scratch is way harder than it looks.
- This Is How a Snack Is Born: Have you ever wondered what it takes to create your own snack company? From food competitions to what greets you in the snack aisle at the grocery store, there’s more than what you see.
- 10 Women-Owned Snack Brands to Nosh On Right Now: In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re sharing 10 female-founded brands that continue to reinvigorate and challenge the way we snack today.
- Our Editors Confess Their Weird Drunk Snacks: What we eat when we’re drunk may be the perfect encapsulation of who we really are when nobody’s watching.
- How to Become a More Mindful Snacker, According to a Psychologist: There’s nothing wrong with being a complete trash panda when it comes to snacking, but sometimes being more mindful about why you’re snacking can be a good thing. Licensed psychologist Dr. Rachel breaks down the difference between emotional and physiological hunger, and how to navigate the two.
- The 10 Best Trader Joe’s Snacks of All Time: Trader Joe’s has one of the best snack selections around. The only problem: what should you add to your cart? We polled our editors and readers to whittle down this essential list.
