Stowaway Gourmet Turkish Delight

Tangy freeze-dried yogurt and puffed whole grains. Intriguing, but ultimately not quite a rousing success.

So, another attempt at a backpacking breakfast. I tried this one at home, as I had serious reservations about it. 

First reservation: it's a cold breakfast. I tend to prefer hot, savory breakfasts.  And while a cold meal certainly appeals and satisfies on some days, it's an awful gamble out on the trail. But if you like a cold breakfast, here you go! Not necessarily a reservation—potentially a plus for the right person.

Second reservation: the ingredient list. Freeze-dried yogurt? Dates? I mean, I know you can freeze-dry ice cream, and the flavor is good. But the texture...  What would *yogurt* do? I'll tell you. It will taste pretty darn good. Tangy. Not too sweet—in fact, barely sweet at all. But it certainly had an odd texture. Just a little bit grainy. And no amount of stirring ameliorated that.

Then there are dates, which are not my favorite fruit. I need not have worried on that count, as the dates never came close to rehydrating and were diced so finely as to be practically unidentifiable. When I did manage to crunch into one, it provided a lovely burst of sweetness and flavor in stark contrast to the tanginess of the yogurt. By the end of breakfast I think I would have welcomed more of that.

Now let's talk about the mess. There is an interior pouch in the big pouch wherein the yogurt powder is separated from the puffed grain mix. Removing the yogurt pouch inevitably spills a bit of the grain. Not a big deal, but annoying. The real trouble comes from that yogurt pouch. Half a cup of cold water stirred into the yogurt powder—easy. Your long-handled spoon will handle this process handily. Likewise "pouring" the yogurt out of that pouch over the grains in the other pouch. That long handle is going to get messy, covered in sticky rehydrated yogurt, but these things happen.

But what do you do with those yogurt-covered pouches? If you're out in the middle of a long trip and you have to pack out your mess, imagine what that yogurt is going to smell like in a few days' time. You can wash them out of course, assuming you have access to running water (not a lake, but a stream at least, and even that is rather counter to LNT principles).

All in all, this Turkish Delight was...fine. I don't think I'll be going back for it again, especially at that price. But if you have certain dietary restrictions or strong preferences that happen to coincide with this offering—and you have a reasonably deep wallet—you might look at giving this a try.

Background

More than four decades of outdoor pursuits with the expectation of another four-plus. I need fuel!