Trail Food Friday: We ate crickets

This week, we tried Coast’s cricket protein bars. Spoiler alert: we apparently really like eating crickets.

This week, SNEWS is introducing a new series called Trail Food Friday. Each week, we’re going to review a different trail snack. We’ll try anything that has been packaged and sold as food.

For example, crickets. For our inaugural Trail Food Friday, we ate crickets. Well, kind of. We tried Coast’s Cricket Protein Bars. We’ll admit it: We were skeptical. But the cricket bars were not only edible, they could almost masquerade for candy bars. This is bad news for bugs.

Coast is based in Vancouver, and is currently raising money on Kickstarter to expand its distribution. We tried the chocolate raisin flavor, which we thought was OK, and the peanut butter flavor, which holds its own in a competition against a Snickers bar. Edible insects are getting more and more popular, but there’s still a pretty serious ick factor for a lot of people (including some of us). Thankfully, the bars bore no hint of what was inside.

The verdict:

Climbing editor James Lucas: I’d give it like a 6 or 7 out of 10, where 10 is a steak sandwich, and 1 is like, the kind of stuff you only eat when you’re desperately hungry… like raw crickets.

SNEWS editor Kassondra Cloos: The peanut butter flavor is just like the inside of a Reese’s cup. I’d give this an 8 on a scale of trail bars where Snickers is king.

Climbing editor Kevin Corrigan: I was disappointed that there was no distinct cricket flavor, or little legs and antennae sticking out of the bar. It just tasted like a pretty good food bar. 7/10.

Have you heard of a trail snack that you’re just not sure about, or do you know of something we’ll definitely love? We’ll try it! Send us tips here.