In my recent visit to the Outdoors Show I stumbled upon the Grasshopper foods stand. Grasshopper foods create a range of dried soups and porridges which you just add hot water to, at the stand I tried one of their porridge’s, the plain porridge with cane sugar. If I hadn’t seen them pour boiling water into the pot I would have been convinced that the porridge was made with milk! It had a creamy texture but not too sweet.
Their range of porridges includes -
- Porridge with Cane Sugar
- Fruity Porridge with Coconut and Date
- Fruity Porridge with Cinnamon and Raisin
More recently they branched out into soups, with similar “Just add Water” instant cup soups which are 100% natural and free from artificial colours, flavourings or additives. The special ingredient in their soup is oatmeal. The oatmeal gives their soups a thicker texture which they say gives it a comforting and homemade feel.
The range of soups come in three flavours -
- Herby Soup with Tomato & Basil
- Creamy Soup with Mushroom & Chive
- Spicy Soup with Lentil & Coconut
What we were really excited by though was their hopper pots, like a grasshopper these pots hop! The Hopper Pot contains the same amount of soup or porridge as the full-sized pots but they are vacuum packed in a “Hopper Pot”, the pot reminds me of a bendy straw, when you buy it it is just 4.5cm high, but when you open the vacuum seal it hops up to 7.6cm, giving you plenty of space to add water.
The Vacuum sealed Grasshopper Porridge
I think these hopper pots would be perfect for anyone considering outdoor activities, if you’re hiking you can throw one in your rucksack alongside a lightweight stove and you won’t need your heavy pots and pans. Alternatively if like me you hate washing up or have a timeline to keep too you can just add water, eat and recycle. I remember back to when I was camping for the Tour of Pembrokeshire cycle event last year, it was a real hassle to get up and cook porridge on the stove and clean up and head off quickly to the event. I think if I had a Grasshopper pot next year I could just boil some water in my Jetboil eat and then be straight on my way!
Once opened the Grasshopper Porridge pot expands
Grasshopper Foods have a store locator on their website, it looks like most Waitrose branches stock them, or they sell them online in cases of six
Have you tried the Grasshopper Pots or want to? Let us know how you found them and where you used them, anyone up mountains or have other uses for them?
The Porridge pot at full height
And in the time it takes to boil water a tasty pot of porridge
