Customer Reviews

GoPicnic Anytime Care Package, 2.06-Pound Box

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This would make such an excellent care package for a college student or teenage camper, or simply to try some new foods or an an excellent send off on a road trip. Depending on what you consider 'healthy' - this may not be for you - but for me, I am a thin woman who is more concerned with sugar than I am fat - and the only real "fat" in the gopicnic is the Old Wisconsin mini beef sausage and it only comes in at 10 g per 6 sausage (however they taste great and are gluten free). For me, this is a perfectly healthy alternative to over processed, high fructose cookies/chips.
In my gopicnic box, I received a Gluten Free (no artificial colors or flavors) gopicnic Turkey Stick + Crunch ready to eat meal containing a 0.5 ounce turkey stick (which was quite good!) and .4oz of barbeque pop chips which I LOVED - spicy yet light and the chips only contain 50 calories so I didn't feel horrible after inhaling them. Also there was a Baja Blend fruit and nut mix which contained habanera almonds, sweet and salty peanuts and mango cranberries - this was a taste sensation - with the right amount of 'heat' from the almonds blending with the sweet from the peanuts and tart cranberry and sweet mango (and only 100 calories). There was also a 1 ounce pack of dried apricots and a .43oz square of organic dark chocolate which was the perfect ending note to the 'ready to eat meal.' Each item was separately packaged and placed together in a small box and all had nutrition data printed on the packaging. The best thing about the 'ready to eat meal' - the whole meal totaled 330 calories and was absolutely delicious and satisfying.
Now - also included in the Anytime Care Package is a 4.5 ounce box of Geraldine's Cheese Straws. Oh. My. Gosh. These are so good! And paired with the 6oz mini beef sausage bites - just really fabulous. And the cheese straws come in a box that reseals so if you are strong enough to resist temptation and not eat them all at once, you can look forward to eating them later!
There is a bag of Mrs. May's Cashew Crunch (5oz). It is Vegan/Gluten Free/Dairy
Free.
Though I liked these, it was not my favorite, however, I'm not a big cashew person, but I noted on the back of the bag there are many other different flavors that, after trying and liking the cashew crunch, no doubt I'd love to try the coconut almond crunch or black sesame crunch.
There was also a nice big bag of classic Pretzel Crisps (6.0 oz). They are thin and crispy and also pair really nicely with the beef sausage!
And lastly were two 1oz packages of homefree mini chocolate chip cookies. There are 6 mini cookies in each package and they are organic whole grain. The first bite for me was a bit puzzling - a bit dry and 'healthy' - but after a few minutes on the tongue, the chocolate and the sweetness came through.
Look, I'm not a professional food critic, but I do know good, fun, food - and this is a winner. It contains enough of bit of everything to please everyone, and it's something you can feel good about giving (or eating yourself) - and even though it tastes fabulous - you don't feel guilty because it's natural/healthy yet fun food.
If you're looking for the perfect gift to say "Have fun, you'll be missed" or looking to send someone comfort or cheer, or something to take on a car ride, even looking to just try some new food yourself - this is a sure fire winner and you'll be remembered and thanked for a long time to come!

Care packages are fun to receive whether you are at camp, school, or in the military. The GOPICNIC Care Package is easy to send. It comes in a nice box that just fits everything. I checked the expiration dates on each of the items in the box I received. Mine arrived on April 25, 2011. The earliest expiration date was June 29, 2011, which was the GOPICNIC ready to eat meal. Other items had July, August and October for the expiration dates. I would assume, the items in the box will be consumed soon after receiving, so these dates won't be a problem. If you are getting this to have some emergency supplies on hand, that don't require refrigeration, the dates might be a bit soon. It is nice that the items inside do not need to be refrigerated until the individual package is opened.

If the person you are sending this to prefers healthy snacks, they might be a bit disappointed in the choices. There are baked pretzel crisps, but they were pretty broken in my package - lots of crumbs. The cashew crunch looks okay, although evaporated cane juice is listed as an ingredient. The cheddar cheese straws get 100 of the 150 calories per serving from fat. There are 2 140 calorie packages of mini chocolate chip cookies which says nut free and whole grain on the front of the package. The ready to eat meal says it is gluten free with no artificial colors or flavors. It contains a turkey snack stick, barbecue potato chips , dried apricots, a fruit and nut mix, and a square of dark chocolate. The final item is a package of Old Wisconsin beef sausage snack bites. Think Slim Jims in small pieces. They are 120 calories per serving with 90 from fat. Consider the person who will be consuming this when you are thinking about sending it to someone. A vegetarian, healthy eater, calorie conscious person would not be the target audience.

My sister is studying for mcat so I thought I'd send her a care package.
She told me she thoroughly enjoyed it and it had all her favorite snacks
I'm not sure what all the snacks are but she loved it. I'm sure it would have been cheaper if I went to walmart but this saved me time in a nice little care package

Most items in this care package are very unhealthy and don't even taste very good. The sodium level is especially high on most items and there is nothing nutritious in the whole package.

Included:

* Old Wisconsin Beef Sausage Snack Bites, a ready-to-eat, high-protein snack (6 oz)
Really good, quality pieces of beef. Bite size and yummy. I am a big fan of Beef sticks and loved how this one was low on grease and salt! I didn't feel like I needed a shower after eating them.

* Geraldine's Traditional Cheese Straws, a southern treat of all-natural baked cheese straws (4.5 oz)
So yummy. These are the only things that are left because there are lot of them.

* Mrs. May's Cashew Crunch, crunchy bite-size nuggets of cashews and organic cane juice (5 oz)
Love! Love! Love! So good! I have purchased three of these bags over the past week. My familly loves them. I had girlfriends over today and they both loved them and wrote down the name on the bags so they could buy them too! These were my favorite of the whole lot!

* Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps, thin, crunchy pretzel snacks (5 oz)
Yummy! What is not to love about Pretzels?

* Home Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, a crunchy classic chocolate chip cookies made in a dedicated bakery with organic ingredients. (2, 1 oz bags)
So good! Better than most other cookies. My daughter asked to take these to snack the day after we tried them.

* GoPicnic Turkey Stick + Crunch ready-to-eat meal, a little lunchbox to go that slips into your backpack or laptop bag, full of fun & tasty foods like Old Wisconsin Turkey Snack Stick, Barbeque Popchips, Mariani Dried Apricots, Sweet Perry Orchards Baja Blend Fruit & Nut Mix, and Terra Nostra Organic Dark Chocolate (3 oz). WOWWWWW. This was so good. I would buy these everyday for lunch! Love everything about it. My daughter and I split the Turkey Snack Stick and she asked for another one for the next 5 days. I seriously need to find a box of these. My girl doesn't eat any meat but she loved this! We loved the Barbeque Popchips so much that we purchased three more bags of them this week. My husband eat the last bag last night and said, "I usually don't like baked chips. These are so good!"

I love that all the items are ready-to-eat and need no refrigeration. Perfect for my natural catastrophe kit.

What I Can Tell You:
I received this as part of the Amazon Vine Product and was so surprised with the amount of food included and the price. My daughter (my snack lover) and I sampled everything the moment we opened the box and loved it all eating over the next five days.

Really good gift for College Students, Someone moving into a new apartment or

The product description for this item is very confusing.
What was actually in the box:
1 package cheese straws
1 package beef bites
2 small packages of cookies
1 bag of pretzel things
1 bag of cashew crunch
1 turkey stick snack box
For a total of 26.5 ounces of food in the package, bringing the cost to over $1.05 per ounce.

There was no Emergen-C fizzy energy drink mix, no Late July Organic Mini Cheddar Cheese Bite Size Sandwich crackers, no Pretzel Pete's Honey Mustard Pretzel Nuggets, no Crummy Brothers Organic Chocolate Chip Cookies, no Surf Sweets Super Sour Worms, and no GoTrek ready-to-eat meal, full of fun & tasty foods like Jack Link's Beef Steak Nuggets, Copper Cowbell Swiss cheese slice, Sheffa Zesty snack mix, Mariani dried cranberries & pineapple, Swiss Delicato chocolate with almonds, nougat & honey.

There was not seven items plus the GoPicnic meal
In total there were 5 foods plus the GoPicnic meal (granted if you counted each tiny package of cookies as a separate item, you could say that there were 6 foods plus the GoPicnic meal)

This is a work in progress, as I only tried 3 of the foods so far, but I wanted to write while my impressions were fresh.

The pretzel thins are tasty, a bit dry, but so far the best thing I have tried from the box.
The beef bites have a soft, rather greasy texture, but the flavor is ok.
The cheese straws were awful, dry, a rather funky cheese taste with some seasonings that did nothing to make the cheese taste better.
Not everyone will have the same reaction to the tastes, a friend that was over was crazy about the cheese straws, while my daughter and I were only able to eat one each and then we wanted to go scrub the taste out of our mouths. My grandson backed away from me when I offered him one of the cheese straws, but he really enjoyed the beef bites,

to be continued

This is a great package of assorted snacks and lunch foods. All the food was fresh and the cheese straws had a very interesting, crunchy taste. It would make a great gift but it would also be great for indulging oneself!

My husband and I have always loved little picnic foods like this. It's no surprise that kids love it too. We ordered this and took it on a road trip to have easy access car food or something to snack on when we stopped somewhere. It wasn't long into the trip that the kids started asking about what was in the box and dug around in there. They had a little snack here and there and when we stopped to stretch our legs, they nibbled some more. It was great because there were no coolers to deal with, the quality was above the junk you get at vending machines and it was pretty affordable for what you got.

The downside is that it's not as healthy as if I had packed fruit and veggies and lean cold cuts myself. However, at some point convenience and "fun" wins out. It was something different that we had not allowed them to have before and it was pretty darn good too.

I wouldn't hesitate to grab one of these again for our next road trip.

I brought this snack pack on a road trip from Wichita, KS to Tulsa, OK. There were four adults in the car, and we were excited to open this up and see all the goodies inside. Unfortunately, a few of the items were already expired: the beef sticks (threw them away), the GoPicnic box (still ate the nuts, chocolate and apricots - yum!, threw away the turkey stick), and the cookies (tasted them, they were ok, if a little dry. The pretzels were the biggest hit with this crowd, though several of us would have preferred to have cheese on them or a spread. Cheese sticks were a little strong, but fine. Cashew Crunch had a nice flavor but was a little dry. Overall a mixed bag, but good in a pinch.

I have to admit, when I requested this item I had every intention of using it as part of a family picnic outing. But, as the summer days have slipped by, it has become apparent that that is not going to happen this year. Plus, gradually the individual packages of the Care Package have gotten opened and sampled.

So, I can't speak to whether this would actually be a good item for a picnic. I can say it a great item to use for late-night snack food. Most of the packages are re-sealable, so you don't have to go searching for a clip to close them, or another bag to store them in. Plus, there is a nice mix of unique items here. Enough that everyone in the family will like something. I liked the Old Wisconsin beef and the cheese sticks. My wife liked the Cashew Crunch. And the pretzel thins have been packed for the kids lunch. All good stuff.

As a nice additional touch, one of the packages even has a game of Sudoku printed on it you can play while out on your "picnic".

Overall, the GoPicnic Anytime Care Package is a cool idea. Not just for picnics, but for snacking anytime. It would be great for trips! (Hmm...maybe next time...)