Commercial Meal Review: Apple Oatmeal Compared I Trail Cooking

If you wander the backcountry aisle for food at stores like REI, you will note that breakfast is a tiny section—more of an afterthought. There are nearly always two options: eggs in some form and oatmeal or granola in a bag. None that excite people. It’s more of a “I need breakfast for Sunday morning” and not enough spare time to come up with a homemade meal.

So, are they worth getting? The egg ones can be. They fuel you and can be made into breakfast tacos and burritos. The oatmeal options? I am conflicted on this. Mostly because oatmeal is so incredibly easy to make from scratch (I wrote a cookbook on oats).

But to see what we thought, I bought two brands of apple oatmeal to see their version. The comparison was between Trailtopia and Firepot. Trailtopia uses freeze-dried ingredients when applicable; Firepot is a British company that only uses dehydration.

Which would be better? Which would satisfy an American’s taste buds?

Trailtopia:

Trailtopia makes eight different flavors of oatmeal, which is pretty impressive for a lineup being that size. The breakfasts are all single serving, in a low profile “MRE” style mylar bag.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Blueberry Oatmeal
Strawberry Oatmeal
Banana Oatmeal
Mango Oatmeal
Peach Oatmeal
Brown Sugar Raisin Oatmeal
Raspberry Chocolate Oatmeal

The Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal is vegan (plant-based) and gluten-free. It is also beyond shockingly low in sodium. In fact, it has no salt added. I actually had to add salt—there is 1 mg of sodium in the entire bag. At $3.50 a bag, it is also affordable. It weighs in at 2.6 ounces. The company is based in Minnesota. For a quick purchase to fill out your weekend meals, or for kids, this is an option.

Ingredients:

WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS (WITH OAT BRAN), SUGAR, FREEZE-DRIED APPLES, SPICES

Looking into the bag. Oats and tiny squares of apples. It’s a very simple recipe. The aroma is light and airy and smells pleasant.

It takes 1¼ cups of boiled water. Stir in well, getting into the corners. Seal and let sit for 10 minutes before stirring again.

The aroma is very pleasant. As I mentioned above, it will need a pinch of salt to be edible to most people. It’s not overly sweet, either. For what it is, it is good. It is a convenient item that makes a trip easier to plan. It’s nothing special, but the aroma and flavor are good. Just don’t forget the salt.

Firepot:

Firepot is a British company, and due to Brexit, it cannot ship out of the UK now. The only way it seems to get its meals is via REI. Firepot touts itself as being special because its meals are not freeze-dried. There’s nothing wrong with freeze-dried ingredients or meals—what goes in is what matters. But I get it; dehydrating seems so noble. Harking back to a more gentle time.

The Baked Apple Porridge (oatmeal to us Yanks) is a 2-person serving, at 5.8 ounces total weight. It comes in a traditional tall, very thick mylar bag. You will need a long-handled spoon for this one. In the UK they sell a compostable bag option. Not in the US, however.

It retails for $12.95.

Ingredients:

Fresh apples, organic porridge oats, raisins, demerara sugar, rye flakes, lemon juice, coconut oil, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and nutmeg.

And that was where I was scratching my head. Rye flakes? Oddly, my bag showed rye flour. Maybe there are more up-to-date ingredients? The wording seemed odd to me, and rye isn’t gluten-free, either.

After opening the bag, I saw oats and large chunks of what looked like thick fruit leather. After tapping the oats off a very sticky piece, I tried it. It seemed the apples, raisins, and spices were in the leather. This part wasn’t bad-tasting. It was mildly sweet and very chewy due to being dehydrated.

But when I went to smell the bag, the aroma wasn’t good. I don’t know if I had a bad bag, but the smell was overpowering and very stale. I checked the date on the package; it was years out. Rye is an overpowering choice for a grain. Going to guess it is a UK thing.

In my opinion, Combining dry ingredients like oats and rye flour, which are dry, with non-dry ingredients is never a good idea. This is why freeze-drying is better for long-term storage: It removes so much more moisture, particularly from fruit.

I prepped it according to the package directions: 2¼ cups water. Stirred it very well, and let it sit for 15 minutes.

I opened the package and stirred it well (it had fat on the top, separated from the oats).

The smell was even more pronounced now. I won’t apologize. If something smells off, I will notice it. I tried a tiny bit. I had to spit it out. It was that bad. It tasted stale and nearly rancid.

That isn’t good eats. Ever.

The Takeaway:

Firepot was an awful experience, and it’s not affordable, either. I threw $13 worth of food away. It was 100% inedible. It’s not often that I have nothing positive to say about a meal when reviewing it, but this is one of those times. DO NOT BUY THIS MEAL.

Trailtopia was the winner of the two choices, but even then, it wasn’t what I would call a winner. It was edible, with salt added, but it was passable.

Making oatmeal can be a great choice for breakfast, but you don’t have to buy it ready to go.