During my quest to find a high calorie low weight food snack for backpacking trips, I found an odd reference on a hiking blog to a Datrex food bar? Never heard of these before so I began researching and was surprised by my findings.
http://www.datrex.com/
These little bars main goal were to be used in survival rafts, below are some details:
- 18 individual wrapped bars
- 3600 kcal per package.
- High energy value and ready to eat.
- Non thirst provoking.
- Small and lightweight.
- All natural ingredients.
- No preservatives.
- 5 year shelf life.
- USCG approved.
So I bought a couple packs off of amazon and gave them a try. The Datrex bar tastes pretty good, it has a coconut flavor. It is also not thirst provoking, so little water is needed to eat one of the bars.
Datrex (1 bar) 1.33 oz. $.47
200 calories
Size = 2.5" x 1.75" x .5 " = 2.19" Volume
Item Weight Weight per oz. Protein 2.8 g 2.1 Fat 8.73 g 6.56 Sugar 5 g 3.75 Carbo 24.7 g 18.6
Calories/ oz. = 150.4
Calories/ $ = 425.5
Size = 2.5" x 1.75" x .5 " = 2.19" Volume
Calories/ oz. = 150.4
Calories/ $ = 425.5Snickers (1 bar) 2.15 oz. $1.28
280 caloriesSnickers (1 bar) 2.15 oz. $1.28
280 calories
Item Weight Weight per oz. Protein 4 g 1.86 Fat 14 g 6.51 Sugar 30 g 13.95 Carbo 35 g 16.3
Size = 4" x 1.25 " x .75" = 3.75" Volume
Calories/ oz. = 130.2
Calories/ $ = .58
The clear overall winner is the Datrex food bar. The only downfall of the Datrex bar is that it is crumbles easily? Does not take much to break it apart and are fragile. I normally carry mine in a lightweight container that I use for my freeze dried meals, this helps protect them and so far has worked out very well.
Therefore, anyone out there looking for another alternate food source while out hiking, I would strongly suggest giving the Datrex food bars a try. Of course, I will still bring a couple of Snickers, need my chocolate fix!