I'm always looking for a light weight snack that can be tossed in my pack with little worry of it smashing or leaking. I mean Hersey & Snicker bars are great, but the first time one rips open in your pack on a hot summer day, you'll start giving other snack options a serious look. One snack that I've come to love is the Mountain House freeze dried Neapolitan ice cream. Now these can be a little pricey, especially if your buying online. So I decided to try to find a lower priced alternative. One thing I've learned over the years is, you can find 'anything' on Ebay, and if you're patient you're sure to find a great deal. Which is what I thought I found when I discovered Astrorox Astronaut Ice Cream drops.
Now at first glance they seem like a great deal. If you bid rather than using the Buy Now option, you can pick up a 4 pack for around $4-$6 U.S., which is what I did and I won the Neapolitan flavor for $5.50. When they arrive, you feel a little ripped off, especially if you're not used to freeze dried food. But keep in mind that is why you bought it, light weight and no mess. You can get about 4 mouthfuls out of each container, but be careful when you throw back a handful, these light weight little dots fly into your mouth and I almost inhaled a few. I would think one container per weekend hiking trip should be a sufficient snack. They taste alright,
BUT...... If you are addicted to Mountain House freeze dried ice cream like I am, these will be a
HUGE disappointment. My big problem with these is they don't melt in your mouth very well. What ever the coating is that they use on these, it keeps them from melting on your tongue the way Mountain House ice cream does. Because of that, you have to swirl them around in your mouth or chew them, and that just becomes a chalky flavored mess in your mouth.
Now I'd like to say that the low price makes up for the lack of quality and taste... unfortunately I can't. A 4 pack of these Astrorox dots have about as much ice cream as 1 Mountain House Neapolitan Ice Cream. So what looks like a great price of $5 or $6 for a 4 pack is really more than what you'd pay for 1 Mountain House Ice Cream, which in my opinion, is a much better quality and tasting product. Now as I said in the beginning, Mountain House Freeze Dried Ice Cream can be a little pricey , especially if buying online. At a local Wal-Mart or Sporting Goods Shop you can probably pick it up for about $2.99 plus tax each. And online, you're looking at shipping costs, they're light but they're bulky. So figure about $5.00 each online from Ebay or a online sporting goods shop.
Now if you're set on buying these Astrorox, keep this in mind. They're geared towards the novice outdoors person, who will be so impressed with the packaging and novelty of ice cream in a tube that they won't care about taste or quality. But even for the novice outdoors person, I wouldn't recommend these. Incidentally, I wouldn't even recommend these for your children as a treat, in my mind they're a choking hazard. It'd be like handing your kid a tube full of tiny Styrofoam balls.
