10 Creative Trail Mix Ideas for Sweet and Savory Snacks
creative trail mix ideas
The best creative trail mix ideas combine a nut or seed base with dried fruit, a crunchy cereal or pretzel, and chocolate or a savory add-in. You can build a sweet, salty, crunchy, or chewy mix from a few simple ingredients. Start with nuts or mixed seeds, then adjust the salt and sweetness until the mix tastes right.
For a sweet mix, try dried cherries with dark chocolate chips, Craisins with white chocolate chips, or banana chips with dried pineapple. Craisins also work with cashews and dark chocolate chips. Dried tart cherries with salted roasted almonds and M&Ms make another easy combination.
Use wasabi peas with honey roasted peanuts when you want a salty mix with more bite. Sesame sticks and pretzel pieces add crunch, while chopped beef jerky or cured meat brings an umami flavor. Goldfish crackers and mini pretzels can give the mix a playful snack feel.
For a nut forward mix, combine roasted almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, pepitas, cashews, or peanuts. You can add Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Cheerios with dried strawberries, dried blueberries, or other dried berries. Macadamia nuts give a richer bite, while roasted cashews keep the mix more familiar.
Granola and dark chocolate coated espresso beans can give a mix an energy kick. Freeze dried fruit, dried wild blueberries, M&Ms, or peanut butter cups can push the mix toward dessert. Make several small batches in ziplock bags so you can compare combinations and find your favorite.
Creative combinations
- Dried cherries and dark chocolate Combine dried cherries with dark chocolate chips for a sweet mix.
- Craisins, cashews, and chocolate Use Craisins, cashews, and dark chocolate chips for a fruit and nut mix.
- Banana chips and pineapple Add dried pineapple to banana chips for a chewy fruit combination.
- Wasabi peas and honey roasted peanuts Pair wasabi peas with honey roasted peanuts for a salty mix with more bite.
- Sesame sticks and pretzel pieces Use sesame sticks or pretzel pieces when you want extra crunch.
- Beef jerky trail mix Chop beef jerky or cured meat into a nut and fruit mix for an umami flavor.
- Mixed roasted nuts Combine almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, pepitas, cashews, or peanuts.
- Tart cherries and salted almonds Mix dried tart cherries with salted roasted almonds and M&Ms.
- Cinnamon cereal and dried berries Combine Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Cheerios with dried strawberries or blueberries.
- Granola and espresso beans Add dark chocolate coated espresso beans to granola for an energy kick.
Trail mix can be fun — mix sweet, salty, crunchy, and chewy for big flavor.
Sweet combos
Salty / savory twists
Nut-forward mixes
Crunchy cereal / snack additions
Fun & experimental ideas
Bottom line
Try one base (nuts or mixed seeds), add a dried fruit, toss in a crunchy cereal or pretzel, then sprinkle chocolate or a savory element. Adjust salt and sweetness until it feels right, and make several small batches to find a favorite.
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Community answers 33
What others in the community said:
Pour large bag of m&m’s into a ziplock. Enjoy.
I've been jokingly talking with my roommates about creating (hypothetically) the fanciest, most expensive trail mix possible. Think of something that, if it came to be commercialized, only rich upperclass suburbanites would buy for a premium price because they would see it as superior to standard gorp.
I'm ready to spend like $50 to buy a small quantity in gross of every ingredients just for shit and giggles, and out of curiosity. Obviously, $50 isn't that much, so it has to remain in the realm of the somewhat reasonable (no berries costing $1M because they look like Jesus).
Here's what I'm thinking :
Seeds and nuts : brazil nuts, pine nuts, pistachios. What are the most expensive nuts?
Fruits and berries : expensive, exotic and trendy superfood berries like goji berries. I can't really think of many examples. The better option would probably be to buy expensive fruits and dry them, but I don't own a dryer.
Chocolate : luxury chocolate. Pretty simple. Obviously, this is where the price could go through the roof, as I'm sure there are chocolate bars for hundreds of dollars.
I'm not really a fancy food guy, so I'm open to suggestions.
IDK how expensive dried wild organic blueberries are, but dried wild blueberries are pretty darn good. "Wild" is a smaller berry that is very definitely cultivated. They do grow wild some places but improving the soil and mowing competing plants improves berry yield.
Macademia nuts are expensive. They're good but give me roasted cashews any day (also fairly expensive).
Dried cherries and dried blueberries.
I've got peanuts, m&M's and white chocolate chips and dark chocolate chips I need something else what have I forgotten
This is not necessarily cooking, but I was wondering… what’s your ideal trail mix recipe? I love trail mix as a quick, filling snack, but I’m allergic to grapes and most premade mixes contain raisins, so looking for suggestions to mix it myself
I haven’t done trail mix in a long time, but I love putting those little sesame sticks in.
Raisins, peanuts, sunflower kernels, M&Ms
Raisins, peanuts, cranberries, pistachios
Dried cherries, M&Ms, peanuts, dash of salt
Hello
As the title says how do you make a basic trail mix? I am from the UK and I can't seem to buy American trail mix so bless share your recipes!
Thank you and big love!!
There is a mix made by a local-ish company thats dried cherries, cashews, almonds, pecans, and dark chocolate chips and it’s my favorite
Put whatever you want in it! Try Craisins instead of raisins and literally anything else. I like Craisins, dark chocolate chips, and roasted almonds personally.
Banana chips and cherry craisins are my favorites
Dried tart cherries, salted roasted almonds, m&m’s
The one I used to make for my kids had Multi-Grain Cheerios, mini pretzels, M&Ms, nuts (usually cashews with either almonds or pecans), pepitas, banana chips, and either dried cranberries and blueberries or freeze-dried peaches and strawberries.
Do you ever make "Frankenstein" trail mix, combining all your favorites until its out of control? What are the best combos? Is mixing raw items in a bag cooking? We may never know, but I do know that the 'food' sub's rules are too restrictive so I'm asking here!
I have a gallon bag full of almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia, pepitas, dark chocolate chips, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, coconut chips, and dark chocolate coated espresso beans.
Yogurt covered raisins/peanuts, chip nuts or corn nuts, shreddies
Not necessarily trail mix, cause none of this is probably good to take on a trail as it's not the healthiest of all, but I love to make this and take this to work and we all snarf down on it:
Box of corn pops, box of original chex mix, box of regular cheerios, box of honey nut cheerios, 1 or 2 packs of jolly time butter blast microwave popcorn, jar of roasted salted peanuts. If I'm feeling generous, I'll add in a bag of Sargento's rye chips and a jar of sunflower seeds as well.
I like a Sweet, Salty, Crunchy, Chewy combination in my trail mix.
Normal ingredients I use is a jar of Dry Roasted Peanuts, small jar of sunflower seeds, raisins and other dried fruits, M& M's, and a breakfast cereal like Chex or Rice Krispies or small crackers or sesame sicks. At some point it ends up being whatever I have laying around as well
Dump it all into a bowl, mix up, and there you go.
Wasabi peas, craisins, honey roasted peanuts and mini M&Ms.
Goldfish and mini marshmallows
Cinnamon Toast Crunch, cashews, and dehydrated strawberries or blueberries
Banana chips or your favorite kind of dehydrated fruit
- Mixed roasted nuts: almonds, cashews, pistachios.
- Chex or Cheerios for bulk and texture.
- Granola + espresso beans for an energy kick.
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