Every State's Ideal Trail Mix Combo

Salty, savory, sweet, crunchy, chewy, and everything in-between, trail mix is one of our favorite snacks. Fall's fast approach gives us all the more reason to head outdoors, embrace nature, and enjoy a delicious blend of nuts, seeds, and fruit.

Whether grabbing a handful to boost your morning or eating it on a hefty hike, this delightful mixture can be a part of a healthy diet. But which tasty recipe is your state eating to stay on track with their fitness goals?

Methodology

Our team turned to Google Trends to find out which trail mix combination is best for a replenishing hiking snack. First, we sourced the most popular trail mix ingredients from websites like Scoutingwire.com, Scoutlife.com, and Greatist.com. We then compared these ingredients across the following criteria: top searched ingredient, favorite salty ingredient, favorite nut, favorite sweet ingredient, and favorite fruit.

From there, we analyzed search volumes from June 2021 to June 2022 for each of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia to see which ingredients are the most sought-after.

Every State's Ideal Trail Mix Combination

As one of America’s favorite snacks, trail mix makes the perfect fix for cravings. However, some blends are healthier than others, like Montana’s wholesome mixture of pumpkin seeds, cashews, raisins, and peanut butter candies, or Oregon’s fit fusion of hazelnut, pumpkin seeds, dried apples, and white chocolate chips. In each of these, the healthy dose of pumpkin seeds will provide your body with rich minerals like potassium, manganese, and iron, while the dried fruits deliver a dose of antioxidants and fiber.

Idaho’s exciting mix of cashews, pumpkin seeds, chocolate-covered coffee beans, and coconut chips is sure to satisfy your sugary cravings. Depending on how much you eat, espresso beans drenched in chocolate will give you a much-needed jolt of energy, while Wisconsin’s confection of peanut butter cups action, popcorn, peanuts, and dried cranberries offers another sugar-coated option.

It’s true—the best trail mix wouldn’t be trail mix without a healthy combination of nuts and seeds. But many Americans also love a good salty twist. While freshly-popped corn is familiar to us in specific settings like the movie theater or ballparks, it’s also popular in trail mix. In fact, according to our studies, popcorn is a Midwestern trail mix staple, along with Florida and Nebraska, where approximately 45% of the nation’s popcorn is grown.