Taste Test: Little Duck Organics

Kids are like aliens to me; when I see them I can’t believe they exist. Until we get a small-human-owner to contribute, I will do my best to cover kids stuff in Greenpoint.

Little Duck Organics just moved to the neighborhood and asked Greenpointers to review their snack food product. A box in the mail, even if it’s fruit snacks – actually, “certified, organic, no-sugar added, Non-GMO Project verified 100% fruit snacks,” which are also “gluten-free,” is exciting. According to the well designed packaging that you want to read like a cereal box, there are “no zombies” in it either. But is it artisanal, people?

There were no kids in sight, just a bunch of workaholics sitting around the table, exhausted on a Friday night after a huge meal of pasta carbonara (and there may have been a funny cigarette going around, but I can’t remember.)

We made do and polished off 3 bags before I could properly perform the taste test!

On first glance, the snacks looked like itty bitty pieces of chalk. When we popped them in our mouths, they were dry, but then softened, which is probably good for small mouths with insufficient chewing abilities.

There was a moment of taste nostalgia when the snacks reminded us of freeze dried ice cream, but fruity. Each flavor tasted as it promised: Apple & Banana, Blueberry & Apple, Pineapple & Mango. I preferred the Blueberry Apple because the dried blueberries resembled real fruit. My hungry guests, while they weren’t the most reliable taste testers with their inhalation approach, voted on the Pineapple Mango.

Honestly, anything that is a “product” and comes in a bag, I try stay away from, except Cheetos. That being said, from having no experience with children, but knowing from the few people in my life who do have kids, there isn’t always time to walk to the farmer’s market and pick up local sustainable apples and cut them up into perfect pieces for your kid’s lunchbox before dropping the kids to school before commuting yourself to work. I get it.

If you are going to take short-cuts, which is inevitable, and give your kids fruit snacks as opposed to real fruit, say for instance on a long road trip to see the grandparents, then no-sugar added fruit products from responsible companies like Little Duck Organics are a good option, and at MSRP $3.99 (although I wonder what it actually sells for at Whole Foods) a well priced option, too.

And if you’re a large sized human these are perfect camping snacks, light-weight and tasty.