Sahale Snacks
Cherry Cocoa Almond Coconut Snack Mix
Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 10.5 oz. (297 g.) in total box of 7 bags
Calories: 240 calories in 1 bag of snack mix
Cost: $3.99 for 1 box of 7 bags
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA
Welcome to Day #10 of Chocolate and ABCD Theme Week, where I've been featuring chocolate items with flavor inclusions starting with the letters A, B, C and/or D.
Today's Cherry Cocoa Almond Coconut snack item from Sahale Snacks, Inc.* (Seattle, WA) served as an alphabetic trifecta, and provided a lead-in to Day #1 of Chocolate and Coconut Week.
In recent years, chocolate and coconut snack items have multiplied and are easy to find in California. Many of these offerings reflect current food trends (organic, less refined sugar, keto, paleo, grain free, "healthier" snacks with simplified ingredients lists, fewer/no artificial ingredients, etc.).
Sahale Snacks is known for trail mixes with "nuts, fruits and spices." Many of these, like today's mix, are glazed with a light layer of extra sweetness and flavor (e.g. cashews with a pomegranate coating, or a nut mix with a maple glaze).
Today's glossy snack clusters had a coconut candy aroma and a texture with uniform, optimal crunchiness--from the larger toasted coconut and almond pieces.
Tiny cacao nibs provided a soft chewy crunch and faint rich flavor accent (although their cocoa flavor was all but eclipsed by other elements). And dried cherry bits added tart sweet fruit sweetness with a softer chew.
The flavors were fresh-tasting, sugar-sparkled, and naturally brightened further by a faint hint of citrus and vanilla. The ingredients were relatively high-end and thoughtful. (There were no artificial ingredients and preservatives.)
However, the glaze that welded small bite-sized confection clusters together contained at least three sweeteners (cane sugar, organic invert sugar and tapioca syrup). The end result was too sweet for me, but this snack mix may appeal to those with a sweet tooth.
Ingredients: Toasted coconut, almonds, organic cane sugar, organic invert sugar, dried cherries (cherries, sugar, sunflower oil), organic tapioca syrup, cacao nibs, sea salt, cocoa, organic extra virgin coconut oil, dried orange peel, natural vanilla extract, pure ground vanilla beans.
*J.M. Smucker Company, a large food company, agreed to purchase Sahale Snacks, Inc. in 2014. The two men who founded Sahale were/(are) outdoor enthusiasts and mountain hikers/climbers who worked at NBC--and who, after an outing on Mount Rainier (a large mountain in Washington State), felt inspired to create a better trail mix.
