The Best Snack Mixes for Your Next Party (or Your Next Night on the Couch)

The best snack mix is a party essential. If you just don’t have it in you to make Chex Mix from scratch like it’s 1973, that’s totally fine. There are lots of great snack mixes at the grocery store that don’t require microwaving cereal that’s been doused in Worcestershire sauce. 

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But what makes a good snack mix? In two separate snack mix taste tests, we were looking for crunch, savory flavor, and, most importantly, variety. But variety alone isn’t enough! If there are lots of different morsels, all of them should be good and they should be pretty equally distributed, so you don’t wind up with a bag or tub filled with the one thing no one cared to eat. Some snack mixes lean way too much on pretzels. Before you throw your next party, check out our list of the best snack mix you can buy.

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Best Salty-Sweet

Beer Nuts Original Bar Mix

Instacart

I love skin-on peanuts and I like the savory-sweet mix here. It actually works. So many mixes we tasted, especially mixes from Trader Joe’s, try to blend savory and sweet and it just doesn’t work—but this is nails a subtle sweetness. It’s mostly salty-savory, but the nuts have just a light, sugar coating. Also, there are sesame sticks in the mix and we can’t resist those suckers.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Cheesy

Munchies Cheese Fix

Walmart

If you like cheesy snacks, Munchies Cheese Fix is a real best-of-the-best situation. You’ve got your Cheetos, your cheddar Sun Chips, nice thin Rold Gold pretzels coated in cheese dust, and then mini Doritos. Do mini Doritos taste better than regular Doritos because they are small and cute? Honestly, maybe! It’s a really fun mix, especially if you’re a person with decision paralysis who can’t decide between Frito Lay faves when you’re in the chip aisle. Oh, and if you like Flamin’ Hot flavor, Flamin’ Hot Munchies are good, too—it has all the same items as Cheese Fix, just with Flamin’ Hot powder instead of cheese. The cheese is more of a crowd-pleaser, though. It’s the best snack mix if you’ve ever wanted to smash the glass on vending and just go to town.

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Unique

Trader Joe’s Spicy Chakri Mix

Trader Joe’s

This is the best snack mix if you wish you could eat Indian food at every meal (and between meals, too). It’s super savory and reminds me of the flavor of a papadum. It has lots of tidbits: puffed rice balls, crunchy chickpea crunchers, little sticks like hard vermicelli, and peanuts. It tastes like curry. It’s spicy, but not so spicy that you can’t eat a lot of it. It’s so unique. And everything is teeny tiny! It’s really cute! 

Credit: Merc / Trader Joe’s

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Seasoning

Gardetto’s Original Recipe

Target

Gardetto’s snack mix lands in third place, and I know Gardetto’s army is about to come for me. Hear me out: I admit that Gardetto’s has a better seasoning than Chex Mix, but a bag of Gardetto’s has way too many pretzels. The rye chips are the best part of the mix. You know this. I know this. And we know Gardetto’s knows this, because they package them all by themselves. So why can’t they just be cool and put more of them in the bag? Gardetto’s mix is also very heavy on the breadsticks and the breadsticks kind of suck! They’re super dry and the seasoning just doesn’t stick to them. All in all, it’s still a great snack mix. But the best snack mix? I don’t think so.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best Variety

Market Pantry Savory Tavern & Bar Mix

Target

My ultimate dream is having my own bar. Not an actual establishment, but a basement bar where my friends and family can hang out, get drunk, and play darts and pinball (oh yeah, this dream also involves acquiring a pinball machine). Is that too much to ask? Anyway, if I eventually strike it rich and make that dream a reality, I’ll be filling little finger bowls with this snack mix. It has excellent variety: mini pretzel twists, sesame sticks, little spicy cheese stick things (my least favorite morsel, tbh), savory rye chips, and, most importantly, Asian rice crackers! The rice crackers really put this one over the top. It’s a slightly chaotic mix but it works in a slightly chaotic setting—like my private basement speakeasy. Sorry, you’re not invited!

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

9.5/10

Sporks

Best for Cheez-It Fans

Cheez-It Original Snack Mix

Instacart

Cheez-It Original snack mix has a few throw-away elements (ugh, snack mix pretzels are so pathetic), but we love Cheez-Its, especially when they’re coated in a savory, Worcestershire-saucy seasoning. The little white balls (they’re kind of like small, naked cheese balls) are pretty flavorless, but we like that they add some textural variety. And sure, it would be nice if the bread rounds absorbed more of the seasoning, too, but this has enough hits to keep you coming back for handful after handful.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

9.5/10

Sporks

Best Flavor Concept

Trader Joe’s Tom Yum Seasoned Snack Mix

Affiliate

The majority of Trader Joe’s snack mixes are letdowns (like, PLEASE stop putting sugary things in your rice cracker medleys), but this isn’t just one of the best snack mixes, it’s one of the best snacks at Trader Joe’s, period. You get cashews, crunchy fava beans (yum), sticky rice, and dehydrated peas, all in an extremely zesty seasoning that’s bright, zingy, and delicious. There are kefir lime leaves in here, too! It’s citrusy and lemon grassy and savory and addictive. Would probably be number one, but we recognize this bold flavor profile simply isn’t for everyone.

Credit: Liv Averett / Trader Joe’s

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Chex Mix Traditional

Target

Chex Mix is the best snack mix. Is that borning? I don’t care! It’s so savory, so crunchy, and so classic. Some of the Chex cereal bits are absolutely saturated with seasoning and it gets me all revved up just thinking about it! And if you buy Gardetto’s for the rye chips, please take it under advisement that Chex Mix has both rye chips and bagel chips (although the bagel chips aren’t quite as good). The mix is mostly Chex, and I think it succeeds because seasoned Chex rule. They’re light and crispy and the seasoning really makes its way into little crannies in the cereal. If you’ve had Chex Mix, you know what I’m talking about, but if it’s been a while since you’ve had Chex Mix, you should really revisit it.

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other snack mixes we tried

Utz Pub Mix, Flamin’ Hot Munchies, Trader Joe’s Many Things Snack Mix, Trader Joe’s Step Up to the Bar Snack Mix, Trader Joe’s Sweet & Spicy Rice Cracker Mix