Top 10 Places to Find Free Snacks

Snacks: we eat them all the time… sometimes until no room remains for actual meals. But the term “snack” means different things to different people. While most of us agree that a snack is smaller and less filling than a meal, some would consider a Starbucks Frappuccino a snack, while others might opt for a pack of edamame or a half-order of buffalo wings. No matter what brings us individual snacking pleasure, there’s one other thing most people tend to agree on: snacks are even tastier when they’re free.

As a former poor college student, and a cheapskate in general, I’ve become somewhat of an expert in finding free food. Some of what I’ve found over the years has been atrocious, but I’ve found a fair amount of four-and-five star snacking destinations also. Below, I’ve compiled a list of my top ten places to find free snacks. My rankings are based on several factors including free snack variety, quality, and ubiquity of locations. May your taste buds be satisfied, and your stomach - and wallet - never empty!

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Top 10 Gas Station Snacks

Gas. Oil. Water.

Forty years ago, gas stations were called service stations, and that’s what you got. You’d sit in your car and the attendant would fill ‘er up with gas, check the oil and water, chat about the weather, you’d fork over a few bucks and then ease on down the road.

Today you can still get gas, oil and water for your car, but so much more for yourself! The possibilities are endless! Space and time are limited here, so enjoy the TOP TEN SNACKS you can find in a gas station. This list is certainly not definitive, but it’s based on my years of careful observation as a trained, professional snack critic.

In college I worked behind the counter at a gas station for half a summer, and the only person I ever saw eat pickled eggs was a homeless guy named Wig who washed them down with 40 oz. bottles of malt liquor. Maybe there’s a “Wig” in every neighborhood, ’cause someone’s eating these things. I’ve heard they’re popular in midwestern taverns, so maybe you have to be pickled yourself to properly enjoy them.

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Snack Review: McDonald’s McCafe Cappuccino

I hate leaving the big city. As soon as I am outside walking distance to a Thai restaurant, a bookstore, and a cappuccino bar, I start to feel queasy and uncomfortable.

That list might seem odd if you know I am a regular tea drinker and only have coffee when I have a particular need for something stronger. But it actually makes sense. It’s not just that coffee shops are an infallible symptom of the presence of civilized life. It’s also that I don’t like coffee enough – or maybe, am not addicted enough – to drink terrible coffee.

Unfortunately, when I want to get from one city to another, there is often non-city in between. And even I sometimes go for a weekend at the beach, although it is always a beach town with a Thai restaurant, a good bookstore, and plenty of coffee bars. (Hello, Rehoboth, DE! Love you!)

Well, there I was, on a recent late season drive, after a night of poor sleep, heading into a sort of monsoon, anxious about what a lousy and yet expensive weekend this was going to be. And man, did I need a Starbucks.

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Beverage Review: BOING! Fruit Juice

I love bunny rabbits and kangaroos and the sound they make when they hop around: BOING! BOING! (Okay, I know they don’t make that sound, but I watched a ton of cartoons when I was a kid, so play along.) I also like frogs and toads, and crickets and grasshoppers to a lesser degree. But I wouldn’t eat any of them. Not even if you paid me to write snack reviews about rabbit jerky, fried kangaroo bites, or honey baked insects.

I’m also a sucker for a well-designed, eye-popping, brightly colored logo. This appeals to my graphic artist sensibilities as well as my inner hummingbird. At the heart of all this nonsense is the juice. Ah, sweet nectar.

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Snack Recipe: Magic Banana Smoothie

This is not a recipe so much as a secret that I am going to reveal. You really just need to know one thing: frozen banana.

If you freeze a banana and then run it through the blender with some liquid, you get something that’s almost soft ice cream, without any fat or dairy. You can do this with fruit juice, but my favorite kind is banana-chocolate. I have started to make these again regularly since I was reminded of them by the Starbucks smoothies, which bear a rough similarity. (And man, is it cheaper at home!)

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