Motorcycle Adventure Riding Food Taste Test Comparison

When your riding takes you off the grid, feeding yourself can get tricky. Backpacking meals offer a simple solution. These nifty prepackaged foodstuffs tend to be high in protein, easy to prep, and take up minimal space in your pack. But in terms of taste—well, your mileage may vary. With that in mind, we grabbed three top-rated consumer backpacking meals (plus one combat-style MRE) and headed to the Saveur test kitchen in New York. There, we brought in a pair of experts: Jason Pfeifer, the motorcycle-riding executive chef at Danny Meyer's new restaurant, Manhatta, and Chris Cohen, a former Outside staff writer and current Saveur Senior Editor. They each grabbed a spoon, chowed down, and shared their thoughts.

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Also includes utensil, chewing gum, matches, powdered coffee, orange juice mix, crackers, cheese spread, nuts, granola, and dessert; cooks inside a self-heating bag with 2 ounces of water (no stovetop required).

Jason says: "Wow. I'm impressed. It's like a decent corned beef hash. The granola is soggy, and the crackers are stale. But everything tastes fine. Much better than I expected. I don't even mind the apple pastry. Reminds me of a panettone."
Chris says: "OK, that's actually delicious. It's crazy they can get that out of a bag. The instant coffee is awful, and the granola has a bad chemical quality, like artificial sweetener. But it's definitely the best here in terms of flavor."

Vacuum-sealed package for reduced size; cooks in eight to nine minutes by adding 1¹/₃ cups boiling water directly into the bag.

Jason says: "Not terrible. I think the trick here is letting it sit for extra time before you eat. My first bite, it seemed off. But after a few minutes, the dish got some texture. I always carry Tabasco with me on trips. That would do a lot here."
Chris says: "Looks like dog food. And you wouldn't say it tastes great. The beans are pretty rough, definitely feel dehydrated. They're creamy, which is—uh, not what you want. But the noodles aren't terrible. I'd still be excited to make camp and eat this after a long day."

Vegan, kosher, gluten-free, and packaged in sauce (non-freeze-dried); cooks in five minutes by submerging the sealed bag into boiling water.

Jason says: "Again, not terrible! It's better than the chili mac, I think. Mostly, I'm into the portability. You don't need to mess around with pouring hot water everywhere. And I'm not sure cooking it makes a difference anyway. You could eat this cold."
Chris says: "It's basically packaged leftovers, right? That's a good thing, by the way. My main gripe would be portion size. Next to the chili mac and red beans, it doesn't seem like much. The label says two servings, but I can't imagine this filling you up after a day of travel, even if you ate the entire bag."

Vegan, non-GMO, and gluten-free; cooks in 13 minutes by adding 2¹/₂ cups boiling water directly into the bag.

Jason says: "This is way underseasoned. It's got some heat to it—you can taste the oregano and chile in there—but without the salt to intensify those flavors, it doesn't really work. Letting the rice sit longer, like we did for the chili mac, didn't work either."
Chris says: "The beans are actually really nice. But it's very watery overall. And I agree about the rice. It's still a little crunchy, even after the extra time we left it standing."