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This tasty tropical trail mix recipe is made with coconut chips, dried mango, banana and pineapple, and yogurt clusters, along with roasted cashews. The coconut and pineapple offer a tropical taste and the protein-enriched yogurt clusters offer a creamy sweet element that contrasts with the salty cashews. This popular trail mix can be tweaked if you want to use other add-ins and tropical trail mix is great for camping, hiking or to give a quick energy boost whenever you need one.
Let this delicious blend of tropical fruits, nuts and yogurt clusters bring some extra sunshine into your day. Tropical trail mix is an energizing, sweet and delicious snack.
Enjoy this homemade beef jerky too for a tasty snack or try blueberry muffins or pretzel bites. Roasted party nut mix is a keeper too!
Why You’ll Love This
Delicious: The combination of sweet, nutty, tangy, and creamy makes for a full-flavored snack. It’s all too easy to munch on this tasty trail mix and one handful is rarely enough!
Versatile: Some people enjoy trail mix when hiking or camping, while others find it a perfect treat for the kids when they get home hungry from school a couple of hours before dinner. It makes a great snack or appetizer.
Simple to prepare: You won’t have any trouble making this delicious trail mix recipe. You just have to chop whichever ingredients need to be smaller and then simply toss everything together.
Tropical Trail Mix Ingredients
A complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below
Coconut chips: Longer and wider than shredded coconut, coconut chips are oven roasted until crispy and dry. Their texture is similar to potato chips. Can’t find them? Use shredded coconut instead.
Dried fruit: Mango, banana, and pineapple add plenty of tropical flair to this trail mix recipe.
Roasted cashews: Nuts are always popular in trail mixes and here they add a contrasting savory flavor.
Yogurt clusters: These are made with yogurt, dried fruit pieces, and protein powder. They’re energizing and, depending on the brand, offer probiotics that are good for your digestion. You can find these online (my favorites here).
How to Make Tropical Trail Mix
For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card
Make everything bite sized: If you’re working with large chunks of dried fruit, you should chop them up to make smaller pieces so they blend better into the trail mix.
Mix the ingredients together: Toss the coconut chips with the dried fruit, roasted nuts, and yogurt clusters. Keep in a mason jar or other airtight container.
Check out my guide with tips for how to build a trail mix at home with whatever you have in your pantry.
Substitutions and Variations
Add some spice: Add some red pepper flakes if you want a touch of heat. Chili is actually really good with the mango flavor – try these chile mango candy shots to see what I mean!
Different fruits: Anything goes here including dried apples, dried pears, dried apricots, and mixed dried fruit.
Serving Suggestions
Snacks: Portable foods like beef jerky or savory crescent cups are good if you’re going for a long walk or camping. For something sweet, consider pumpkin s’mores cookies.
Main dishes: If you’re camping or having a BBQ, how about grilling some flank steak tacos or shrimp scampi foil packs? Finish up with campfire banana boats.
How to Store Tropical Trail Mix
Store: Keep the tropical trail mix in a mason jar or a plastic airtight container somewhere cool and dark. You can keep it in the refrigerator if you want but that’s optional. This trail mix should stay fresh for up to a month.
Freeze: This recipe doesn’t freeze or thaw well, so don’t make more than you think you can eat.
Top Tips
Spice it up: Add in some chili flakes or hot pepper flakes if you want a touch of heat to contrast with the tropical fruits.
Watch the sugar: All dried fruit contains natural fruit sugars and some contain added sugars too. If this is a concern, you should check the dried fruit packaging. Another idea is to use less fruit and more nuts and seeds in the tropical trail mix. As someone with Type 1 diabetes, I always look for dried fruit with low amounts of added sugar.
Store it in individual portions: Use these zip-top sandwich bags or handy Stasher silicone bags to make individual servings of trail mix because it’s too simple to over-eat this snack!
Tropical Trail Mix FAQs
Although ingredients like nuts and dried fruit can be a nutritious choice, you might like to keep an eye on portion size because there are some high-sugar ingredients in this one. A serving size depends whether you’re having some trail mix as a snack or you’re going to use it to boost your energy while hiking or working out. This recipe makes 3 1/2 cups of trail mix, so you might like to portion it out in zip top bags, perhaps in 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup amounts.
Anything goes, when it comes to tropical trail mix. Candies, yogurt covered raisins or chocolate covered raisins, popcorn, pretzels, roasted fava beans, coconut flakes or coconut chips, or cranberries are just some additional trail mix ingredient options. If you don’t want too much sweetness, consider more salted nuts to balance it out.
Either in health food markets or online. I love this dried tropical fruits mix from Amazon!
Tropical Trail Mix Recipe
Tropical Trail Mix
Ingredients
- ½ Cup coconut, chips
- ½ Cup dried mango
- ½ Cup banana, dried chips
- 1 Cup roasted cashews, salted or unsalted
- ½ Cup yogurt clusters
- ½ Cup dried pineapple
Instructions
- Cut any large pieces of fruit unto bite sized pieces.
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
- Store in a silicone bag, reusable container, or mason jar.
Notes
Nutrition
The combination of crispy coconut chips, soft and chewy dried mango, banana and pineapple, crunchy roasted cashews, and tangy, creamy yogurt clusters makes an incredibly good trail mix. This multi-purpose snack appeals to everyone, young and old alike, and tropical trail mix is great for hiking, camping, keeping in the car or your purse, snacking on if dinner is a couple of hours away, or if you simply want a tasty snack. The recipe is really easy too, as you just combine the ingredients and that’s about it!
Other Recipes to Try
Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
This tropical trail mix was the perfect snack on my hike! Loved the coconut chips!
Such a pretty dish that seems complicated but so easy and delicious! We enjoyed it so much!
The tropical flavors are to die for! I love this recipe.
where do you get the dried pineapple? its always my favourite part of trail mix and i dont know where to buy it separately.
You can find it in health food stores or on Amazon. Enjoy!
My go-to snack. Love the tropical flavors!!
Love it
The yogurt clusters take it to the next level! I love the touch of sourness it brings.