There is a moment, around three in the afternoon, when your bag becomes a vending machine you packed yourself.
Sometimes it delivers. Sometimes it produces a warm satsuma and half a cereal bar fused to its own wrapper.
Most advice about on-the-go snacks is a list of twenty-four things. Useful, up to a point. It never mentions the part that decides everything: whether you will want the thing when you get there.
Key Takeaways
- Build: The best on-the-go snacks travel well, give you something substantial, and are actually worth looking forward to.
- Survival: Oatcakes, dates, nuts and bananas travel well. Yoghurt, boiled eggs and anything crisp need a cool bag or a box.
- Flavour: Most portable snacks are carriers rather than meals, so the topping is what makes you look forward to them.
- Messyface: Messyface is a fruit and sesame tahini spread made from grape molasses and tahini. It’s dark, fudgy, ridiculously delicious and deeply caramel-like, needs no fridge, and turns a plain oatcake into something you’ll actually look forward to eating.
What makes a good on-the-go snack?
A good on-the-go snack does four things. It travels well. It survives being sat on. It gives you something more substantial than a lonely piece of fruit. And, most importantly, it tastes like something you chose rather than something you settled for.
The NHS suggests capping packaged snacks at two a day. The British Nutrition Foundation notes that UK adults are advised to eat 30g of fibre a day and average nearer 16 to 20g, with oatcakes, rye crackers, fruit and unsalted nuts among the snacks that close the gap.
That is the evidence, and it is sound.
It is also not what anyone is thinking about on a platform with eleven minutes to kill. The question there is smaller and more honest. Is there anything in this bag I actually want?
What are the best on-the-go snacks?
The best on-the-go snacks need no fridge, no cutlery and no apology. A banana, oatcakes or rice cakes, dates, nuts and seeds, a boiled egg, a jar of overnight oats, dark chocolate with an apple, and something baked on Sunday. Pick two. Eight is a picnic.
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A banana. Portable, unpackaged, completely defenceless. Eat it before lunch or accept what an hour under a laptop does to it.
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Oatcakes or rice cakes. Dependable little things. But nobody has ever lost control around a naked rice cake. They are carriers, waiting for something worth putting on them.
Which is where Messyface comes in. Dark, glossy, fudgy and properly caramel-like, with a nutty sesame edge that stops it going sickly. Then the ridiculous part: grape molasses and sesame tahini. Two ingredients. We have read that list out loud to people who did not believe us.
Spread it thick, right to the edge. Suddenly the humble oatcake is the thing you’ve been thinking about since lunch.
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Dates. Nature’s toffee, and the most underrated snack in Britain. Split one open, flick the stone out, push in a teaspoon of something dark and press it shut. Sticky thumb, obviously.
Soft date. Dark caramel middle. Absolutely magnificent. The caramel dates have the full version.
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Nuts and seeds. Almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds. Fat, fibre and a little protein, and they do not care what happens to them. Portion them into small bags at home.
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A boiled egg. Roughly 6g of protein, and no cooking required after Sunday. Peel it before you leave. Nobody has ever been pleased to find eggshell in a bag.
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Overnight oats in a jar. Oats and milk, left to sort themselves out. Cold, thick and spoonable by morning. Strawberry caramel overnight oats travel particularly well.
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Dark chocolate and an apple. In the same mouthful. Try it once and the apple stops being a compromise.
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Something you baked on Sunday. Oaty cookies take twenty minutes and last the week.
What can you eat on the go when you want something sweet?
When the mid-afternoon sweet craving arrives, answer it with something sweet. Dates, fruit with dark chocolate, a banana with a spread on it, or a small pot of yoghurt with something rich swirled through. Meeting a sugar craving with a carrot stick is a delaying tactic, not a plan.
Messyface, the grape molasses and tahini spread, is built for exactly this moment. Cold Greek yoghurt. One thick, dark, glossy ribbon dragged through it, deliberately not stirred in. Rich, nutty, ridiculously delicious. Finding the sticky caramel-like bit is half the point.
And because naturally sweet still means sweet, here are the numbers: a 15g serving of Messyface Original is 66 calories and 6.3g of sugars. Per 100g the sugars are 42.3g. The sweetness comes from the grapes. No refined sugar, no palm oil, no milk powder, no emulsifiers.
Two ingredients, behaving far naughtier than they have any right to.
Which on-the-go snacks survive a day in your bag?
Portability is not durability. A snack has to survive a warm rucksack and being sat on, and several of the usual recommendations do not. Here is what holds up between breakfast and the train home.
| Snack | A whole day in a bag | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Dates, nuts, seeds | Thrives | Nothing. They get better when warm |
| Oatcakes, rice cakes | Fine | Box them or you own crumbs now |
| Banana | Bruises by lunchtime | Eat it first |
| Boiled egg | Survives if kept cool | Peel at home, keep it wrapped |
| Yoghurt pot, overnight oats | Needs a fridge or a cool bag | Freeze the jar overnight in summer |
| A small pot of Messyface | Survives | No fridge needed, cool and dark is enough |
That last row is the useful one. Messyface lives in the cupboard, not the fridge, and keeps for three months once opened. A spoonful in a small pot goes anywhere, which means dark, sticky, caramel-like deliciousness can be sitting there waiting when three o’clock arrives.
How do you prep a week of on-the-go snacks?
Give it twenty minutes on a Sunday. Boil six eggs, portion nuts into bags, split a punnet of dates, make two jars of overnight oats, and fill one small pot with something ridiculously delicious.
Then leave a backup in your desk drawer, because that is the one that saves you. A packet of oatcakes and a small pot of spread outlast every good intention you have had about lunch.
One non-messy note. Messyface contains sesame, the Peanut edition contains peanuts, and both are made in a facility that also handles nuts. Worth knowing before anything goes into a shared lunchbox.
Top Tips
- Warm it for a drizzle. Spoon a little Messyface into a small bowl or onto a plate and microwave it for about 5 seconds. Never the jar, and never more than you are about to eat.
- A serving is 15g, roughly a heaped teaspoon. It goes further than you expect, which is also why the jar lasts.
- Pack two snacks, not five. Five is lunch with extra steps.
- Anything crunchy goes in a box. Everything else in your bag will thank you.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good snack on the go?
A good snack on the go travels well, gives you something substantial, and crucially is something you'll actually want to eat when three o'clock arrives. Oatcakes with a fruit and sesame spread, a banana with nuts, dates, or a small pot of yoghurt all work.
What are good portable snacks that do not need a fridge?
Dates, nuts, seeds, oatcakes, rice cakes, dried fruit, dark chocolate and fresh fruit all keep at room temperature. Messyface, a grape molasses and tahini spread, is a cupboard product too, so a spoonful in a small pot travels without a cool bag. Once opened, use it within three months.
What are some good snacks to take on a trip?
For a long journey, pack things that do not leak, melt or need cutlery. Dates, oatcakes, nuts, a banana and squares of dark chocolate cover most of it. Stuffed dates travel best of all, because they are already a sealed parcel of sticky, caramel-like sweetness.
What are the best high protein on-the-go snacks?
Boiled eggs, Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, edamame, roasted chickpeas and unsalted nuts are the strongest options. Messyface is a topping, not a protein source: a 15g serving gives 1.7g of protein. It’s not the protein. It’s the ridiculously delicious, caramel-like bit that makes the high-protein breakfast bowl worth eating.
Do on-the-go snacks for kids need to be different?
The building blocks are the same: fruit, oatcakes, yoghurt, and something to dip or spread. Keep portions smaller and check allergens, especially for shared lunchboxes. Messyface contains sesame, the Peanut edition contains peanuts, and both are made in a facility that also handles nuts.
So what should you actually pack?
The best on-the-go snacks are not the most impressive ones. They are the ones you look forward to at three in the afternoon, when the meeting has overrun and the vending machine is making eyes at you.
So pack the oatcakes. Pack the dates. And pack something dark, glossy, fudgy and ridiculously delicious to go with them, deeply caramel-like, seriously moreish, and somehow made from just grapes and sesame.
That one is Messyface.
Spread it thick. Mind the thumb. Do not check your face before the meeting.
