Post 1 on this topic: Figuring Out the Proportion of Ingredients in Archer Farms Monster Trail Mix
Post 2 on this topic: Figuring Out the Proportion of Ingredients in Archer Farms Monster Trail Mix: DO-OVER!
You may wonder why, in the title, I make a point about M&M size. It is because, when I was for some now-forgotten reason reading the reviews on Target for this trail mix, I saw a LOT of comments complaining about the switch from full-size to mini M&M’s, along with a number of comments praising the change. I just want to make it clear I take NO STANCE on this obviously very controversial issue, and am currently using the regular-size M&M’s because my grocery store is not stocking the mini ones.
In case you are here for the recipe and not for the post (I have heard all the arguments FOR and AGAINST lonnnnnnnnnnnng posts before you get to the recipe, but if it’s on a blog I don’t usually follow, I generally scroll rapidly down to the actual recipe), the recipe is:
7.9 ounces unsalted roasted peanuts
4.2 ounces milk chocolate chips
7.2 ounces raisins
4.0 ounces peanut butter chips
4.9 ounces of either regular-size or mini M&M’s.
(I’ve linked to the ones I’ve been buying, except in the case of the M&M’s: they have not been available for shipping lately so I’ve been buying those at my grocery store. Also, I usually buy Party-size bag rather than Family-size, but assumed most people wouldn’t want to commit to that big of a bag of them.)
Anyway, here is how I make it. First, all set up on the counter: my kitchen scale, which I have tared to include the measuring bowl; my big mixing bowl; the empty container of trail mix we keep reusing; and the recipe.
And, on a nearby kitchen stool: the box of ingredients, boxed in the hope that it will keep the children from snorfing up all the ingredients before I can use them; also, one cat (optional) (not recommended).
Here is how it looks after I’ve weighed all the ingredients but right before I put my (freshly-washed) hands into the bowl to mix it all together:
After I mix it, I tip it all to one side of the bowl and use the container to scoop a good deal of it up. Then I pour the rest into the container, using my hands to coax the mix into a narrower pour than it would by nature be inclined.
And here it is tucked tidily into its container, ready for the children to consume the contents and leave the empty container on the counter to be refilled:
The thought may be crossing your mind that I could have the children make the recipe and refill the container themselves. It will not, I hope, surprise you to hear that that idea has already occurred to me: it’s not a difficult recipe or idea; I don’t love seeing the empty container waiting for me; and I don’t eat the trail mix, so it doesn’t make sense for me to be the one to make it. But within seconds of thinking of that idea, I thought of a serious flaw, based on remembering being a child: as a child, given this recipe to assemble, it is absolutely certain that I would have gone wayyyyyyy light on the peanuts and raisins and wayyyyyyy heavy on everything else. Also, I would have eaten many, many M&M’s and chocolate/PB chips as I worked—possibly just as many as I used in the mix. And one of the main reasons I don’t mind the children eating a trail mix full of M&M’s and chocolate/PB chips is that they are ALSO eating peanuts and raisins (unless they are discreetly dumping those into the trash, in which case I am happier not knowing about it). Therefore I am in charge of the mix. Plus, it’s relatively fun to make, once I nudge aside the resentful feelings.
Now! For the cost comparison. The container of trail mix is selling at my Target for $7.99 right now. I used to wait for it to go on sale before buying it, but that was In The Beforetimes, so $7.99 is the price we will be comparing the home-assembled mix to. Here, once again, are the ingredients I use:
7.9 ounces unsalted roasted peanuts
4.2 ounces milk chocolate chips
7.2 ounces raisins
4.0 ounces peanut butter chips
4.9 ounces of either regular-size or mini M&M’s, or what I’ve been buying, which is the Party-size bag of the regular-size M&M’s.
Using today’s prices (U.S. dollars) on Target.com (because I have not been in a Target store since March):
• The peanuts are $2.79 for 16 ounces, which is $.17/ounce. I use 7.9 ounces, which is $1.38.
• The milk chocolate chips are $1.99 for 11.5 ounces, which is $.17/ounce. I use 4.2 ounces, which is $.73.
• The raisins are $2.99 for 20 ounces, which is $.15/ounce. I use 7.2 ounces, which is $1.08.
• The peanut butter chips are $2.39 for 10 ounces, which is $.24/ounce. I use 4 ounces, which is $.96.
• The Party-size bag of regular-size M&M’s is $9.59 for 38 ounces, which is $.25/ounce; I use 4.9 ounces, which is $1.24. The Family-size bag of regular-size M&M’s is $4.99 for 19.2 ounces, which is $.26/ounce; 4.9 ounces is $1.27. The Family-size bag of mini M&M’s is $4.99 for 18 ounces, which is $.28/ounce; 4.9 ounces is $1.36.
So TODAY’S trail mix cost:
$1.38 peanuts
$0.73 chocolate chips
$1.08 raisins
$0.96 PB chips
$1.24 M&M’s
A total of $5.39.
But we can’t compare that to the $7.99, because my mixture weighs less: the Archer Farms container holds 36 ounces, and I made only 28.2 ounces. The Archer Farms mix is $.22/ounce, and mine is $.19/ounce. If I’d made the same amount as the Archer Farms container held, mine would cost $6.88 for 36 ounces, assuming all those many maths check out.
So! Mine is cheaper! Which is gratifying! But! When I used to buy it on sale, it used to be about $6.99. So mine is not enough cheaper to justify making it at home in Normal Times, UNLESS I had specific reasons for wanting to do it, like wanting to adjust proportions.
These posts are just SO SATISFYING and I don’t even like trail mix.
Yes. I am never ever going to make this trail mix and I would continue to read every single post about it.
Ditto. I love this stuff. (not the trail mix) (but I also love the other Swistle-y post, I should note. It is just perhaps more perplexing to the average bear that people who have literally no intention whatever of making or eating a batch of trail mix could enjoy a post on it!)
I’m right there with you all! Yes to the posts. No to ever making trail mix!
Favorite part: also, one cat (optional) (not recommended)
This is a very satisfying conclusion to the trail mix series.
Dunno, I kind of read that as anti-cat. Not that Swistle is, obvs, and I am allergic to cats, so when ours . . . when we reached the end of a cycle of cat-having, we did not start a new one. And yet . . .
Then again, I am not sure I would have wanted our cats’ tips on trail mix: “How about some sardines? And a tuna? And bonito flakes?”
See, cat investigations into food prep generally do not have good outcomes, and thus specifically Not Recommending a cat as a Recipe Partner makes a whole lot of sense to me.
If you don’t mind your butter pre-licked and your food in general pre-cat-haired, then kitchen counter cats would be fine! But… there’s a reason for those spritzy bottles, and that’s because we love cats but not in all places…
I thought she was Not Recommending a cat as an ingredient, not a recipe partner!
I’m the sort of devious that slowly adjusts the proportions over time towards whatever I want my kids eating. A smidge more peanuts this week, wait and see if they notice, swap 1/4 of the chocolate chips for stevia-sweetened ones, wait, repeat.
See also greens hidden in milkshakes, riced cauliflower in cake, and vitamin C in jello. For the longest time my toddler thought all chocolate was unsweetened. The indignation in her voice when she told me, “For my birthday, I want chocolate that is SWEET!” I laughed way too hard.
(I’m a little afraid someone will read this as a nudge for you/them to do so, but it is not. My family’s food needs are not yours and vice versa, also not everyone gets their kicks from convincing small children that cod liver oil is a special treat.)
I laughed a lot at this comment. I like the deviousness.
This mix needs peanut butter m&ms! I loved the cat part too
I love this series and am perhaps a little *too* invested in it and so I must ask a question: is there any difference in the taste between your version and the store-bought one? I guess you must ask your children, if you’re not wont to eat it yourself. I ask because my favorite trail mix, from Trader Joe’s and too expensive for my liking, simply cannot be mocked-up (at least not in my opinion, and at least not by me!). I tried doing so using THEIR nuts and dried cranberries and whatever else etc., but it is almost as if there is some Special Sauce that the whole batch is coated in that is impossible to replicate…
Anyway! I would like to know how you feel about the flavor comparison between the two versions, and am very happy that the price-comparison came out in your favor! Gratifying, indeed.
The children say there is almost no taste difference, except they say the mock version is a little better tasting: chocolate chips taste better and peanut-butter chips taste better, and peanuts are crunchier.
Of all the things that might have moved me to leave a first comment after all the years I’ve read this blog, I would not have guessed that it would be this, but: have you heard the good news about canning funnels (like this)? I haven’t canned a thing in years but I reach for the funnel all the time.
Ha ha! Welcome to the comments section! Now that you mention it, I believe I OWN a canning funnel. Now I wonder where we put it when we moved…
There is also a similar, smaller funnel to fit a spice jar- great if you buy spices in bulk, then curse yourself when the little funnel output is jammed full of peppercorns or thyme leaves.
Yes, as others have mentioned, I have no interest in making this but every interest in watching in detail whilst someone else does so! 🤷🏻♀️ Perhaps the only thing that I would do in addition to this method (even though I won’t be, see above) is not to use the storage jar as a self-scooping device. Unless very well washed between fills, which it doesn’t seem to be because of the intact nature of the label, one is putting the most handled part of the jar through the fresh mix. I would also usually say something like ‘it’s only family’, but at the moment etc.
There was a cookbook of sorts that came out a number of years ago by Jennifer Reese called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter and she dug into whether it was easier/cheaper/advisable to make something versus buy something. I know I have been surprised at some things that I could make myself when I was able to procure them whole (curry paste, for example). But then some things like making Thai food rather than getting take out are a fool’s errand.
As someone who had homemade butter throughout her childhood, I totally agree with this sentiment. When I rhapsodize about the foodstuffs made from the milk of our cow, I lean hard into the memories of ice cream (my mom’s coffee and vanilla ice creams were to die for), and can’t even remember the butter; I just remember the work it took to make it.
If there is a box anywhere in my kitchen it WILL be investigated by one or more of my cats so I was unsurprised to see you had a cat supervisor by the box…
Also before I even got to the end of the explanation as to why you don’t have your kids made the trail mix I was thinking “if I tried that one of two things would happen: (1) none of the ingredients other than the raisins would make it into the jar and/or (2) it would be a “mix” in name only, in fact really being just a jar of m&ms and the rest of the mix still somewhere in the pantry unused…
I have followed this saga with great interest (and satisfaction when you redid it with the labels.) haha Such a job well done! Yet I have zero desire to make trail mix ever. This is a fascinating phenomenon. :)
Just a few thoughts. For the store, you left out the costs of the container, and shipping, not to mention covering the cost of the person checking you out or the paying of the electricity of the store.
and you also didn’t factor those costs into your equation either. How much does your time cost? How much gas does it take for you to get to the store?
I’d say it’s all a wash except that you all prefer your homemade version because it tastes better.
And I am too never going to make this because of a peanut allergy, but followed along the whole thought process anyway.