Freeze-dried food for hiking

What are sublimates?

Sometimes we hear from our tourists that they don't understand the difference between dried and freeze-dried food. It happens that we make a stop for lunch, take out freeze-dried food and hear the question - is this a touristic Mivina? And what surprises us the most is that our new travelers always wonder what these sublimates are. So let us explain: sublimates are named after the technology of their production, called sublimation or freeze-drying.

What is freeze-drying? It is a method of dehydrating food by shock freezing, followed by evaporation of moisture in a vacuum without defrosting, which allows to preserve the taste and almost all the nutrients of the food.

How freeze-dried food is made:

• Fresh or cooked food is instantly frozen and placed in a vacuum chamber.
• Up to 95% of the liquid is removed from the product by evaporating ice and the temperature is raised to 30-40°C using reduced pressure.
• The freeze-dried food is placed in a special multilayer package with an oxygen absorber and stored in such a way that moisture and oxygen do not get inside.

Just for your understanding, this technology is quite expensive and only few manufacturers can afford it. What else is interesting about freeze-dried food is the taste and the fact that you don't get bored of its taste, you can eat it for a longer time in the mountains and the pleasure of eating will not be lost.

What is also important to understand, is the price of such products, they are more expensive, for example, than drying, and there are objective reasons for this, the manufacturing technology is quite expensive and energy-intensive.

Here are some examples of freeze-dried touristic food brands:

• “Kharchy” Ukrainian brand, average price - 189 UAH
• “Adventure Food” - Dutch brand, average price - 350 UAH
• “Adventure Menu” - Czech brand, average price - 265 UAH
• “Trek'n Eat” - Swiss brand, average price - 470 UAH
• “Travel Lunch” - German brand, average price - 470 UAH

Very often, Ukrainian brands add freeze-dried ingredients to dried ingredients and call the whole dish a sublimate, but you have to understand that this is just marketing.

How sublimates differ from dried foods?

We've explained what sublimates are, now the question is, what is dried food? The main difference is the method of preparation, drying is done by dehydration or drying at temperatures of 40-80°C, the method is simple and almost anyone can do it at home.

Drying is twice as cheap as freeze-drying and it tastes much worse, some people add spices to save the taste, but it's hard to eat such food for a long time, this is just my opinion, but you get bored with it very quickly. There is little pleasure in this food and hunger returns quite quickly. Therefore, drying can be considered as an frugal option for hiking. As for brands I've personally tried, I can recommend: James Cook, Food Mission and Їdlo.

We have discount promo codes for our travelers:

• James Cook - 15% discount with promo code “jamescookgra”.
• Food Mission - 12% discount with promo code “GRAtravel”.

If it's a short hike or you want to save money on food, you can choose them, but be sure to take some supplements, because it will be hard to have a good meal just with one pouch of dried food.

In a nutshell, the biggest advantage of taking ready-to-eat meals - dried or freeze-dried - is weight of your backpack, because pouches weigh very little and you can easily provide yourself with food for a week. The second advantage is time savings, but this is a subjective criterion, because some people enjoy the process of cooking in the mountains.

Let me summarize how drying differs from sublimation:

1. Price, drying is cheaper;
2. Taste, sublimates are much more delicious;
3. Energy value and nutrients, sublimates have 2.5-3 times more nutrients and do not lose vitamins;
4. Self-sufficiency, drying requires supplements, unlike freeze-dried food, which is a complete meal.

Organization of meals during the campaign

The issue of organizing food in the mountains is always relevant, because climbing is an active leisure time, during which you want to eat delicious food. Everyone has their own recipe of happiness, so I won't tell you about all the methods of organizing a camp kitchen, just share my experience.

To avoid wasting time and smelling of smoke, I use gas cylinders, burners, and a Jetboil. It's fast and very convenient, because lighting a fire takes a lot of time and is not always possible due to the weather or lack of wood.

List of equipment:

• gas cylinders, 1 pc 450 ml for 2 people for 4-5 days;
• gas burner;
• 1 liter pot (in case you want to cook something);
• Jetboil (I use it only for boiling water);
• a bowl (silicone or plastic);
• spoon/fork;
• knife
• a flask for water;
• a cup (silicone or plastic);
• tinderbox (or matches/lighter);
• thermos.

A list of food for a 2-3 days hike:

• freeze-dried or dried food;
• energy bars;
• preserves or kabanos sausages;
• cheese in preserves or wax;
• pita bread (instead of bread);
• canned fish;
• chocolate, cookies;
• nuts/dried fruits;
• coffee/tea;
• spices/salt/sugar.

It is very important to calculate the diet correctly so that you don't carry too much and the food doesn't spoil. Of course, you can choose a menu to your own taste, you can limit it and take only sublimates or dried foods as the main dishes, but I like to eat tasty and various food to not only have a quick snack but also enjoy it.

Sublimated food from the brand “Kharchy”

I have written about sublimates, but I have not yet said which ones to choose. I proceed from a rational approach to price-quality ratio. The Ukrainian brand Kharchy fits this criterion. The average price of 1 package is 189 UAH as of 2025. The assortment is quite wide, so there is plenty to choose from.

Here are the items that I like best:

1. Pork goulash with tomato sauce;
2. Baked spaghetti Bolognese with veal and tomatoes;
3. Pasta Carbonara;
4. Tom Yam Kung soup (Thai shrimp soup);
5. Turkey in creamy mushroom sauce;
6. Ukrainian borshch with pork;
7. Mixed omelet with onions and vegetables;
8. Kharcho soup with veal, sweet and hot peppers.

They have many other dishes and items, but this is a purely subjective opinion, I liked these items, so I can recommend them.

Another advantage is that this food is stored for a long time, and if you are packing an alarm backpack, put a few packs of sublimates in it, you will not regret it. In military conditions, sublimates also taste very good, I will never forget how everyone eat Mivina, and I steamed sublimates for myself, even the most stubborn Vadik🙂 appreciated them.

Where can you buy freeze-dried food?

The main question that beginner tourists are interested in is where can they buy it? In fact, you can find freeze-dried food in any tourist shop. However, stores often compete and do not accept all manufacturers, so you can buy meals, for example, on their website or on the websites of our partners and even get a discount from us.

Promo codes for discounts:

• Highlander - 10% discount with the promo code “GRAtravel”.
• Comanchero - 10% discount is assigned to the GRA client “Taras Kin”.
• Terra Incognita - 10% discount with discount card # 55450000163870.

In these stores you can find the brand “Kharchy”