As I have mused on before, when it comes to commercial outdoors/backpacking meals, breakfast is often the same old, same old, no matter the brand.
You get a couple options: Biscuits & Gravy, Egg Scrambles and Granola/Oatmeal. Finding vegan options, and especially ones without nuts/seeds, is pretty much not happening outside of 2 or so small brands.
So I was intrigued by Peak Refuel’s Mountain Berry Granola, which is made with rice milk and has no nuts/seeds added.
Granola (whole rolled oats, dried cane syrup, high oleic sunflower oil, molasses, whole oat flour, rice flour, honey, maltodextrin, salt, natural flavor, mixed tocopherols, soy lecithin), whole grain brown rice, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries.
A pretty simple list of ingredients. Yes, it has minor soy in it, but I can live with that – and our youngest son, his soy allergy has gone away as he has aged. Soy lecithin doesn’t trigger him anymore. He’s 11 now, and when he saw the bag, he asked if it was OK to touch (since he is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts). I took a look at it, and said sure. He opened it up and was eyeing all the berries inside. He really loves freeze-dried berries.
Half the bag is berries. That was a nice site to see.
It is presented as a 2 person serving, but I would say it is really a large single serving. 570 calories will fuel you up in the morning, where as 280 calories you will burn off quickly.
I followed the directions and added in 1 cup cool water, and stirred it well. We let it sit for a few minutes and then served it up.
The granola is crunchy, the way it should be. While the rice milk is a bit sweet to my taste, it is pleasant tasting. The strawberries and raspberries were fully hydrated, although the blueberries were crunchy – but I have found freeze-dried blueberries often stay crunchy. Alistaire thoroughly enjoyed it – and had no allergy issues with the meal.
My only thought on the meal is 1 cup water seemed too much. You could cut it back honestly, unless you like drinking milk (the boys and I are not milk drinkers).
Price is $8.99, putting it in the average breakfast meal pricing. It is on Amazon as well, but at $9.99 for Prime.
~Sarah
FTC Disclaimer: We bought this product for review, all thoughts are ours.