Packing the Esky and the Snack Bag for the Drive to Christmas

By Arthur Hodgson, Hamper Packing Manager at The Gourmet Pantry.

Pack road trip snacks in two bags, not one. Everything that melts or spoils rides in the esky under ice, everything sealed and shelf stable rides in a bag on the back seat, and nothing heavy sits on top of anything you want to look at later.

I pack hampers for a living, and a boot full of food on the drive to Christmas is the same problem I solve most summer mornings: heat, jostle, and whatever sits at the bottom arriving in the shape of whatever sat on top. A car has one advantage over a courier. You can open the boot at the halfway stop and fix your mistakes.

Most of the work is already done on the shelf. Nearly everything people want on a long drive is shelf stable to begin with, and much of it comes in single serve sizes. That is the part of the snacking range that earns space in a car. The list for when you arrive is in snacks worth buying instead of making.

The packing room rule, applied to a car boot

Three lines settle almost every decision, and they are the same three that keep a hamper intact through a summer transit.

• Anything that melts rides cold. Chocolate, anything chocolate coated, soft cheese, dips, cut fruit, yoghurt.
• Anything sealed rides dry. Nuts, chips, biscuits, crackers, popcorn, hard lollies. Melt water wrecks packaging faster than heat does, and a soaked label is how good food ends up in the bin.
• Nothing heavy goes on top of anything you want to look at later. A 1.5L bottle on a tube of shortbread makes crumbs, and crumbs at the halfway stop are still crumbs on Christmas Eve.

How to pack an esky so it still works at the third stop

An esky holds cold, it does not make it. The rest is about not spending what you started with.

1. Chill it the night before. Tip in a bag of ice, shut the lid, pour the melt off in the morning. A warm esky spends its first hour cooling its own walls.
2. Freeze what you plan to drink. Frozen water and juice do the work of ice bricks and become cold drinks by lunchtime.
3. Load in layers. Frozen bottles on the bottom, then drinks, then sealed containers, then whatever you want first sitting where you can reach it.
4. Fill the gaps and seal the paper. Air is what warms an esky, so pack a folded tea towel into the empty space, and put anything in cardboard into a box first. Ice melts, and it finds the one thing you did not wrap.
5. Small esky for the car, big one for the destination. Every time you open the big one at a rest stop you spend cold you were saving for the last two hours.
6. Keep it out of the boot. A boot on a summer afternoon is the hottest part of the car, and a shaded rear footwell is the coolest.

What actually travels well

Nutworks roast and salt macadamias in the 75g size are the best behaved thing you can put in a car: $7.95, nothing melts, no bowl, no crumbs. Buy one bag each rather than one big bag to share. A shared bag lives in the console, and what goes into the console at the start of a drive is not there at the end.

Hunter's Gold Collection chips at $12.95 come in a rigid canister rather than a bag, which is the whole reason they belong on a back seat. The lid goes back on for the second half.

Sweets have an opinion about temperature. Candy Kittens very cherry, $10.95 for 140g, are gourmet gummies, and gummies in a hot car go soft and stick together. Easier to hand around if the bag rides in the esky.

The cold half, without a bag of ice

Not every trip justifies an esky. Three hours and one hungry passenger is a flask job.

The Black+Blum insulated food flask, 0.4L in stainless steel, holds one serve of something that has to stay hot or cold, out of the melt water. At $69.95 it is kit rather than shopping, and the one item here still in use every week after the drive. The 1L lunch box at $49.95 covers the sandwich half, since a sealed box sits straight on the ice. Both are Black+Blum, reusable stainless steel rather than the disposable kind.

Packing for parents, and for dietary needs

When the drive ends at your parents' place, some of what is in the car is for them rather than for the road. Portions get smaller and packaging has to open without a knife: a 75g bag, a tube, a canister with a lid. A family sized pouch that will not close again is mostly waste on a household of two. Hampers for elderly parents and aged care follows that thinking.

Dietary needs are easier to sort at the shopping stage than at the picnic table. Valley Produce Company gluten free pure butter shortbread, $8.95 for 175g, travels as the standard tube does and means one person is not watching everybody else eat. The rest of the gluten free range follows the same logic. If anyone in the car has a nut allergy the macadamias stay home, because a moving vehicle is no place to be careful about crumbs.

Before you pull out of the driveway

Road food is the easy half. If you are also arriving with the gift, order it before the drive rather than during it. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post. Australia Post carries it from there, so leave transit time in the plan and send the Christmas hampers ahead of you rather than on a hot back seat.

For the road food itself, start in the snacking range and buy by the person: one savoury, one sweet and one drink each, plus a spare bag for the stretch nobody planned for.

Common questions about road trip food

How do you pack an esky properly?

Chill it before you load it, frozen bottles on the bottom, then drinks, then sealed containers, then whatever you want first on top. Fill the empty space with a towel, keep cardboard out of the melt water, and open it as rarely as you can.

What snacks travel well on a long drive?

Anything sealed, dry and single serve: roasted nuts, chips in a canister, shortbread in a tube, crackers, popcorn and hard lollies. Sandwiches, cheese and cut fruit need the esky and a container that seals.

Will chocolate melt in the car?

In an Australian summer, yes, and sooner than most people expect. A parked car gets much hotter than the air outside and a boot is hotter again, so chocolate belongs in the esky rather than the glovebox. Chocolate that is a gift is better sent than carried.

How do I keep food cold on a long drive in summer?

Start cold, stay closed, stay shaded. Chill the food and the esky before packing, use frozen drinks in place of ice bricks, keep it out of the boot, and run a second small esky for the things you reach for.