By Jen Clancey DIGITAL PRODUCER
I tried Yellowstone Foods’ snacks for the first time in the Bozeman airport while I was waiting for my plane ride to Minneapolis, which would eventually leave for New York City – I was in for a long trip.
I cracked open a pack of the Bitterroot Valley Trail Cookies of the Huckleberry Vanilla Chip variety. At this point, I had a coffee in hand. The cookie, which had swirls of white chocolate and berry, paired well with my on-the-go beverage.
Yellowstone Foods uses locally sourced ingredients in Montana. Their huckleberries, which were included in the trail cookie come from northwestern Montana, while their wagyu beef used for jerky can be found close to Big Sky in Belgrade.
What struck me most about the snacks other than the flavor was the packaging that allowed me to revisit the cookie along my journey with ease– no crumbs scattered in the bottom of the backpack.
When I landed in Minneapolis, I expected to find a pile of broken cookies all over my bag. The flight was turbulent with some sudden drops, which would be the perfect scenario for a snack crushing situation.
Instead, I found the cookie intact in its package which has a reusable seal at the top. It’s quite nice to have a snack that isn’t reduced to crumbs when I have to take it to a new destination. The customer experience goes beyond the flavors offered and extends into well-thought out design– one suitable for bumpy planes or long hikes.
My journey back to Bozeman would take nearly twice as long– from car to train to plane to plane. Still, the Yellowstone Foods snacks stayed by my side and stayed fresh throughout the trip.
As a coffee-lover, I tried the Butte Miner’s Coffee Crunch Bar– Espresso Hazelnut bar. Mind you, if you heard the news about the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I was among the record-breaking 2.9 million people taking to the planes that day.
So, a snack was needed after waiting on one security line, then being relocated to another one at the basement of the John F. Kennedy Airport. The crunch bar features more Montana-sourced ingredients. This time grains used in the bars came from Three Forks and is inspired by the multipurpose foods that miners would eat to work long days, packing their pockets with bars that had caffeine and berries.
The bar is satisfying with hazelnut and light espresso flavors.
It helps that the impressive packaging is 100% compostable and that the ingredients are clearly listed, showing the natural simple ingredients. All these reasons make for a satisfying trail bite, or in my case, travel bite.
