It has been said that the health of a business can be assessed by the offerings in the snack bar. Are the snacks free or held captive by a vending machine? Coffee or soda for the caffeine and sugar fix? Here is a look inside our snack bar. With all the buzz about web-based services becoming simpler, we’ve found the simple-is-better philosophy applicable and beneficial to our snack bar as well.
Kashi and Lara bars
There is an entire economy based on bars; protein bars, power bars, diet bars and others. While the sugar and carbs were good for the short term — power sessions at the keyboard — we found ourselves burning out early. So we switched to Kashi bars because the protein content is higher and the grains and nuts are more filling. Lara bars are good, too, because they are easy and simple, usually having only three ingredients. They taste good, too.
Assorted nuts and mixes
The nut aisle at Trader Joes is a cornucopia of snack goodness. We grab a bag or two of each; raw almonds, pistachios, trail mix. More protein to keep us going during those long coding stretches on the eve of an Intervals update.
Lemon water
We learned a cool trick from Michael, our project manager. Add five drops of lemon essential oil to a five-gallon bottle of water before you invert it onto the cooler. The result is water with a refreshing hint of lemon. It’s a lot easier to fulfill your water intake quota (approx 64 oz) when the taste is good.
Tab at our local coffee shop
In the soda vs coffee debate, we side with coffee (or for myself, Iced Tea). A coffee maker is a hassle, so we have a tab at our local coffee shop, also known as RoCo. It feels good to support the local independent, and it gets us out of the office where we can take our focus off of computer monitors.
What’s in your snack bar?