The Snacks Our Editors and Writers Are Buying

The best innovation to happen in packaged snack foods since the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is the extension of the Flamin’ Hot line. Of course, I still love the original (and am known to eat them with metal chopsticks, straight out of the bag, so as not to stain my fingers), but the discovery of Flamin’ Hot Funyuns and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Popcorn has really expanded my mind and my taste buds. The best Flamin’ Hot snack I’ve found to date, however, is Smartfood Flamin’ Hot White Cheddar Popcorn. It’s cheesy and spicy and makes me cry if I eat it too fast, just the way I like it. I went through two-thirds of a full-size bag last Thursday — a day after I bought it — and I was considering breaking my rule of going grocery shopping once a week, just to get some more, until I discovered you could buy it online.

I bought what felt like plenty of Girl Scouts cookies before all of this began, but my Samoas and Tagalongs are disappearing fast — so I ordered a bunch more through Girl Scouts Cookie Care, which lets you order your GS favorites online (for, I think, the first time ever).

I am a date fiend. In before-time, I’d buy them in bulk at Dimes Deli (they had the fattest, most delicious dates out there). Now I’ve just been picking up whatever I can find at my local market in Connecticut. (They’ve mostly been terrible: hard as rocks and basically flavorless.) But two friends have recommended two different date-delivery services. One is called Rancho Meladuco Date Farm (the friend who recommended these says they came quickly and are “so delicious and caramelly”); the other is called Joolies. I am making all of my bad dates into smoothies (dates, almond milk, vanilla, and cinnamon), and am waiting on my Rancho Meladuco dates to snack on plain.

Snyder’s gluten-free pretzels get all the attention, but this Quinn brand really deserves more credit. They’re thinner than Snyder’s and much crispier. They also don’t have quite as much salt, so I’m not dying for water after I eat a handful. I also like the individual bags because they prevent me from mindlessly eating too many.

These are available at my local grocery store and have become the perfect post-dinner dessert. I love cheesecake filling but don’t love the graham-cracker crust, so this is ideal for my taste buds. You can eat them as is or zhuzh them up — my partner likes to create a berry compote with cinnamon and nutmeg that she drizzles on top — and they’re from Junior’s, so you know they’re incredible.

Even in quarantine, my husband has refused to give up his self-imposed ban on eating carbs six days a week. So most of the stuff we’ve been buying to snack on, like bananas and clementines, are not really snacks. But for his Carb Day (which is usually on Saturday), we always have a fresh stock of Doritos to munch on. We buy Doritos mostly because they’re more readily available than other, fancier chips at stores near us, but also because they’re the chip we both grew up on. A third, genuinely serious reason: Now that loss of taste is a symptom of COVID-19, the deliciously artificially cheesy chips are something we can use to test our palates in a pinch. While they’re still easyish to find at stores, Doritos are harder to come by online at retailers like Amazon — but thankfully unexpected sources like Staples and Office Depot seem to still have a good supply.

You typically see Chobani pots in miniature, single-serve sizes at bodegas and company cafeterias. But being stuck at home has given me the opportunity to instead work through the larger, more environmentally friendly 32-ounce buckets. They’re a godsend for a recovering cereal addict like me who still needs a sweet, dairy kick in the morning but is looking for something with more protein and less sugar.

I’m a sucker for fancy yogurt, so when this was the only kind available at Baldor Food, I had to try it. Not only does the yogurt taste incredible — like a light crème fraîche with just a hint of lemon — it comes in these (totally unnecessary) terra-cotta jars painted periwinkle that I’ve already begun co-opting as pen holders.

The best snacks are the ones you can’t stop eating. And while there are tons of chips and crackers that fit that description, most of them make me feel sort of blah once the bag or box is done. But eating a whole can of stuffed grape leaves does not make me feel guilty. I used to eat these with salad and hummus on a plate (or bring a few to work as an add-on to my boring desk lunch). But now I eat them standing up in my kitchen, one by one, until they are all gone. Like dumplings or ravioli, each tightly wrapped tube of rice is soft, mildly salty, and slightly acidic on my tongue.