Grasshopper Foods Hopper Pots
On a recent visit to the Outdoors Show we stumbled upon the Grasshopper Foods stand. Grasshopper Foods make a range of dried soups and porridges which you just add hot water to — at the stand we tried one of their porridges, the plain porridge with cane sugar. If we hadn't seen them pour boiling water into the pot we would have been convinced the porridge was made with milk! It had a creamy texture but wasn't 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, which gives the soups a thicker texture that they say gives a comforting, homemade feel.
The range of soups comes 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 the 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're vacuum packed in a "Hopper Pot" — the pot reminds us of a bendy straw: when you buy it, it's 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.
We 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 us you hate washing up or have a schedule to keep, you can just add water, eat and recycle. We remember camping for the Tour of Pembrokeshire cycle event, when it was a real hassle to get up, cook porridge on the stove, clean up and head off quickly to the event — a Grasshopper pot would have meant boiling some water in a Jetboil, eating, and being straight on our way.
Grasshopper Foods have a store locator on their website — most Waitrose branches stock them, or they sell them online in cases of six.