Snacks. Our pantry shelves are full of them, from chips and fruit gummies to granola bars and Pop-Tarts. We cycle through them regularly, but I’m always wondering if they’re too salty or too sugary — and looking for the next good option.
Good marketing always helps too.
So, when downtown’s The Earth Pantry featured a reel with a cute kid with the sweetest voiceover, who filled up a brown paper bag with snacks and promptly ate them with a thumbs up, I knew I had to check it out.
The Earthy Pantry is Augusta’s only refill store, offering bulk dish detergent, shampoo, lip balm, and other home and beauty products. You buy only what you need, filling one of their paper bags, donated glass or plastic jars, or buying or bringing your own container. There’s also grocery items like local bread, milk and eggs, cleaning supplies, paper towels and sundries; flour, pasta, dried mushrooms and other ingredients, toys and other specialty items. And of course, a huge wall of snacks.
Inside, the store is fresh and bright, with lots of glass and light wood, and items attractively displayed in glass jars along the walls or on little tables. There’s even a cute area with books and toys where kids can play or read while you’re shopping.
The owner, Alexia, immediately welcomed me and showed me the ropes. If you bring your own container, you can weigh it and tag it so you don’t get charged for the container weight. But I grabbed a small white cart and some paper bags and got to work.
The snack wall features a variety of trail mixes, dried fruit, and nuts. Some are lightly salted, but most are the natural product with no added sugar. Which made me feel great about filling up some bags.
My first trip, I filled up on the coconut date rolls (which the little boy in the video and Alexia described as tasting like a candy bar!), mango strips, pineapple rings, one of the trail mixes, and chocolate-covered almonds.
I had to sample them as soon as I got into my car. The almonds are described as addictive on The Earth Pantry’s Instagram — and yes, they are. You get the crunchy, nutty almond in the center, and a generous smooth coating of rich dark chocolate on the outside…a terrific match of sweet and savory. You also get a burst of energy from the sugar and caffeine in the dark chocolate!
I had to also see if the coconut date roll lived up to the hype. It’s made of smooth pureed dates, rolled in a coating of fresh coconut. It’s smooth, creamy and oh so sweet — but naturally sweet with the date’s own sugars. It’s definitely a feel-good dupe for your favorite chocolate and coconut candy bar that tricks you into believing you’re actually eating chocolate.
The dried fruit were both slightly chewy, then melted into sweet intense fruit—my daughter ate nearly a half a bag of the mango strips just on her own!
The high-energy trail mix was my choice for my husband, and I tried some with him. He liked it — it’s a riff on the trail mix you see at the store with M&Ms and raisins. But it swaps the candy for carob chips, which are naturally sweet and don’t need added sugar, and is also packed with peanuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. It was altogether less salty and more tasty than the usual variety.
I’ve been back several times since then to stock up on more snacks, detergent, even shampoo. The Earth Pantry is such a unique place for Augusta — I love their mission to reuse and reduce waste while also sharing beautifully made products that work. Plus, their prices are equivalent to what you’d buy at major grocery chains like Publix. Summer snacks, done.
Make Your Reservation
The Earth Pantry
1026 Broad St.
Snack cost: 50 cents to 1.84 per ounce
