Bonnie: I’m a sucker for real food that tastes good. That’s what these Peeled Snacks are, with our favorite being the Apple-2-the-Core. The only ingredient in this product is a dried organic apple. Although the apple slices are dried, they are not hard as some others I have sampled — instead they are moist and chewy.

Did you know that people have been eating dried apples since the Stone Age? According to the company’s website, archaeologists unearthed charred apple remains dating all the way back to 6500 B.C.E., both in Swiss Stone Age lake dwellings and on a dig near Jericho in the Jordan Valley.

All Peeled Snacks are from sustainable farms. These snacks are ones you can feel good about nibbling or packing into your kids’ lunches. Peeled Snacks contain nothing but the fruit listed on the label. All fruits but one are organic, single-serving, single-flavor snacks, which includes Pine-4-pineapple, Apricot-a-lot, much-ado-about-Mango, Banan-a-peel and the only non-organic variety: Cherry-go-round.

I also liked Peeled Snacks’ partnership with American Farmland Trust, an organization that helps farmers and ranchers protect their land, produce a healthier environment and build successful communities.

Bryan: Fruit snacks…the phrase means different things to different people. To many, especially from Generation X and afterward, the term can only refer to little fruit-flavored chewy/gummy snacks, individually portioned, packaged and stuffed into their lunchboxes. Justifiably, the concept of artificial fruit still makes any good dietitian shudder, as these sugary candies have somehow been mistaken for good snacking material by so many parents for so many years.

“Fruit snacks” has always meant actual “fruit” to me, but then again, I was raised by a dietitian, and gummy treats were never part of my lunchbox. I’d be lying if I told you I was completely content with only health food; but though I would occasionally look upon my friend’s Cheetos with wanting eyes, overall I really did/do prefer real food to, well, nonfood.

An affinity for dried fruit is certainly one of the vestiges of my health-nut upbringing… and hey, who I am to deny my roots? I love dried fruit! I’ll always take some fruit to snack on, over potato chips. Give me dried apricots, plantains, prunes, banana chips, whatever. It’s all good to me. And this time, it’s ALL good from Peeled Snacks.

Peeled Snacks are just fruit –– beautifully natural, amazingly sweet and flavorful, dried fruit. I absolutely love these for snacking, just a perfect serving of healthy, filling vitamins, minerals and fiber. You might think that a product that’s only fruit is about as simple as you can get, but this product also shows its colors as a true innovation.

Peeled Snacks require specially engineered packaging in order to bring the fruit to fruition. Until recently, there were very few packaged, sugar-free, fat-free dried fruit options. Generally, additives like sugar and/or fat are needed to keep fruit moist, so Peeled Snacks had to develop new stay-fresh packaging –– Space Age, truly revolutionary, and so beautifully simple. Peeled Snacks are a wonderful addition to the snacking world.

Eric: I’m a sucker for dried apricots; ALL fruit will get my taste buds percolating, but apricots (only dried) have a special place in my heart. I imagine that most people view dried fruit as “grandma’s natural laxative” rather than a refreshing, healthy, vitamin-enriched snack — and for the most part I can understand why. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I even became comfortable with the taste of prunes (a.k.a California Dried Plums), as I had always considered them a staple for the over-60 crowd.

Although there are plenty of companies that produce and package dried fruit, Peeled Snacks has set the bar high with its new line of apple, banana, cherry, mango, pineapple and apricot. Healthy? Check. Sustainable? Check. Nutritious and Delicious? Check. Get your snack on!
Peeled Snacks are now available in the BiteoftheBest.com shop