I am a connoisseur of a certain genre of mostly-snack food, combining aesthetics, convenience and the idiosyncratic types of actual food that I like to eat (central examples of food whose substance I like, ignoring form, are parsley, farro, black lentils, pecans, craisins, dark chocolate, feta cheese, swedish crispbread, cream, ginger, brown or raw sugar on its own. Central non-examples are cinnabons, most cereals, cheetos, milk chocolate, cheese-flavored anything, pea protein, Coca-Cola, parmesan cheese, sweet potatos, spinach, beyond burgers.)

Here is a list of some of the best li’l pot style foods I have come across so far (not all literally in small pots). Links for illustration, not guaranteed to be value-for-money instances.

Ones regarding which my enthusiasm has extended to writing, photography, transcendent-style elation, notable ongoing quality of life improvement, or extended consideration of the ethical implications of eating all of them before anyone else knows that they exist

• Mewe snickerdoodle peanut butter packets
• Hanuta hazelnut wafers
• Serenity food squashes
• Jonny pops, especially cherries and dark chocolate, but also strawberry, chocolate mint, probably most other flavors
• Many Marks & Spencer’s prepared foods, if you are in the UK (e.g. coconut pieces, cream yogurts, wasabi peas, cheeses, raspberry jelly, flapjacks, Our Best Ever Trifle, berries, small sausages, rice crackers, cappuccino chocolate things; but mostly I like the experience of being able to construct your own bento box of foods like this for lunch)
• Ferrero Rochers - I realize these shouldn’t generally be a sustaining food, but sometimes if I lose my appetite for some reason, and yet would benefit from eating, and they are one of the few things that are still appealing

Ones I have reliably liked and eaten for some period

• Ellenos yogurt: passionfruit, lemon, marionberry
• Prepared rice, especially in pots, especially Minute brand. Also good with milk or soy milk on, and possibly cinnamon.
• Chef soraya bowls
• Any kind of squeezy apple sauce packets
• Snacking cheese of many varieties, e.g. Roth Creamy Gouda Snack Cheese
• Costco Ajinomoto yakisoba
• Chobani mixed berry yogurt drink
• Power crunch bars, especially peanut and chocolate flavors and dark choklat which are more like chocolate bars. I wrote to the company to point out that these would be excellent in hazelnut, but they were not convinced.
• Slim jims, when I used to eat meat more

Ones I like but haven’t gotten super into so far

• Once upon a farm, strawberry flavor
• 365 Whole Foods fruit strips
• Idahoan mashed potato pots
• Apple and walnut baby food pouches
• F-bombs nut butter
• Betty Crocker lemon mousse packets
• Tsubi miso soup
• Campbell’s Well Yes sipping soup
• Roasted salted seaweed snacks
• Annie Chun’s thai coconut soup
• Chocolate covered hazelnuts wrapped in tinfoil (you make these yourself by roasting hazelnuts, melting dark chocolate, mixing the two together, spreading flat, cooling, breaking apart when set, wrapping chunks in tinfoil)
• Sargento balanced breaks with tiny triscuits in
• Potato chips in a box
• That’s it fruit bars
• Brown sugar in a cup (the purest dessert—you just pour a few teaspoons of brown sugar into a cup, and then eat it with a spoon)
• Freeze dried fruit, e.g. from Trader Joe’s

Ones in a similar genre that I’m not that into but other people really like

• Worthy bowls, especially chocolate cherry
• Olives to go
• Royal Hawaiian macadamia packets
• Barebells
• Kodiak cakes cups
• Oatmeal cups

Ones that are almost or sometimes great but fall down on at least one dimension

• Potato chips and fritos: great once in mouth, but oily on hands and packet non-pleasing
• Mi goreng (or in cups): delicious and mostly convenient but opening flavor packets is hard and often causes them to spurt on hands and nearby things
• Blueberries: excellent food but ask to be washed and are then wet and dripping from the holes in package; plus often some are moldy. M&S I think does this well. Some are much more delicious than others.
• Jello cups: promising but jello is usually not substantial enough, and one time I cut my hand pretty bloodily trying to open the Jello brand ones. Pretty good from M&S, with raspberries in.
• Rice pudding: a promising type of food in a promising form, but I don’t know of an ideal instance of it for my tastes
• Cereal cups: seems maybe great if I liked cereal