Sensible Foods Crunch Dried Snacks

When I was little I was intrigued by astronaut food. Something about those little museum packets of dried ice cream seemed incredibly wonderful to me.

Then I saw a Reading Rainbow special (remember those, kids?) on astronauts, and they showed astronaut ice cream. I could not imagine anything so wonderful. It was ice cream! It was not refrigerated! I could carry ice cream in my pocket!

Imagine my thrill when I found it at a science museum gift shop, its little package gleaming silver. I brought it to my mom with trembling hands.

"Look, Mom!" I proclaimed. "Astronaut ice cream!" My dad wandered over and flipped over the bag. They looked at the $6 price tag (which, in 1990 dollars was like $42.50) and said, "No, not today." I was shattered. How could we not purchase this amazing feat of food engineering?! It was ice cream for astronauts, for Pete's sake! I was crushed, and I secretly stored up this bit of information with other collected bits (like the fact that they wouldn't buy me a pony or a tree house) that proved that my parents probably didn't really love me.

Then one day we went to a museum with a gift shop, and I found the ice cream again. I just had to try it. I had to. So I begged once again, rattling the package, pleading with my parents, telling them I would even (*gasp*) share it with my sisters.

They looked at one another, shrugged, and agreed. "If you want it that badly," they said. They did love me! All was immediately forgiven, even the lack of treehouse.

Clutched in my hands was the shiny silver bag. My eyes shown with excitement. Astronaut ice cream! I could finally taste it! It would be amazing! It would be the best thing ever.

I opened the package in the car, sandwiched between my two younger sisters in the backseat of our van. I reached in with a huge grin, and pulled out...

A sad looking dehydrated chunk of white, brown, and pink.

Not to be deterred, I broke off a piece and popped it into my mouth.

It tasted... terrible. Like a mildly chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry piece of dried-out marshmallow. Like a Peep from 1987. YUCK.

You know how it feels when a childhood dream gets crushed? My childhood dream of ice cream in my pocket was ended then. This wasn't ice cream. It was just... BLECH. Suddenly I felt so foolish. $6! This wasn't worth $6. It wasn't worth a quarter. I wanted those $6 back to go buy a My Little Pony at Toys R' Us!

This story brings me to today's new product. Sensible Foods crunch dried fruit. I threw it in my Basics cart on a whim but wasn't sure about trying it out. Should I or shouldn't I? The $2.09 price tag (for .75 oz!) had me thinking no. The vague memories of disgusting astronaut ice cream had me thinking no. Yet, when I made it to the cashier, this was the one product she noticed in my full cart.

"Oh, those!" she said, pointing. "Those are awesome."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah," she replied. "They are so good."

Convinced, I watched her scan them and put them into a grocery bag. I often can't help but reward retailers who write "Gluten Free" right on the front of the package. Bless them for saving me from scrutinizing ingredients in the small print. 

So how were they?

Well... small.

This is one of our tiny appetizer plates, and the contents of the package didn't even fill it up. I was also disappointed that it was very heavy on dried apples, and less so on the other fruits. There were only a couple of raspberries and a few blueberries.

And it looked, sadly, like astronaut food. Yuck.

But I took a nibble of one of the apple slices, and then a strawberry. I let them dissolve a bit on my tongue. They were... delicious. Delicious and sweet and tart and surprisingly fruity for how dried they looked.

The verdict? I'd definitely buy these again for a quick and healthy snack. They have the added bonus of containing tons of nutrients (22% vitamin C, 7% fiber, 2g protein) for only 84 calories.

I also love the tongue-in-cheek list of ingredients on the back:

Ingredients: Apples, Cherries, Blueberries, Strawberries, and Nothing Else.

Yum. If this is the new version of astronaut food, I'd consider a trip out into space myself.
*Image of astronaut ice cream borrowed from www.lolcandy.com.