OMeals Smoked Cheese Bites

A trail snack that sounded much better than it tasted. Texture was also unpleasant.

Taste:
Generally speaking, I really like cheese, particularly smoked cheeses like Swiss, Gouda, and cheddar. While I would never expect a dehydrated cheese snack intended for backcountry use to taste the exactly same as a freshly smoked cheese, I do expect there to be a close resemblance. However, instead of smoked cheese, this snack tastes a bit more like burned cheese with plenty of salt. I asked a friend to try them with me, so as to get a second opinion, and his feedback was, “Had you not told me what it was, I probably would not have guessed this was cheese.”

Texture:
The texture is somewhat perplexing to me. I had assumed these would be either soft and almost gummy-like or crisp and almost Cheetos-like. The actual product is somewhere in the middle, and for me, that is not a welcome texture. If they were softer, they could more easily be added to campstove-cooked meals like pasta, rice, or chili, and if they were crunchier, they could more easily be snacked on, almost like a chip or crisp. Because they are in the middle of that texture spectrum, I found it difficult to get past the texture.

Weight and Structural Integrity:
This is a very lightweight snack at only 2 oz. (57g), so it is very easy to take along on a hike, paddle, pedal, etc. Even when squished at the bottom of a pack, the bites held their shape pretty well and didn’t crumble.

Nutritional Facts:
In addition to the Nutritional Facts (see image below), the manufacturer claims "A good source of calcium," "100% gluten-free," and "high in protein". 

Packaging:
An easy-to-open and easy-to-close, resealable package is a must for this kind of trail snack and that is exactly what Omeals delivered with the packaging of this product. I did not eat the entire package in one sitting, so I closed them up and finished them off later in the day. After finishing the cheese bites, I reused the bag for storing garbage in until getting back home, since it was easy to reseal.  

Recommendation:
Taste is very subjective, so maybe this is someone’s favorite snack of all time, but for me, the combination of unpleasant taste and odd texture means I won’t be taking another bag of these cheese bites into the backcountry anytime soon.