Heading to Wanderlust this year? Check out our guide to the best drinks and food at Wanderlust Aspen and Wanderlust Squaw Valley this year.
I’ve been lucky enough to have attended Wanderlust festivals in both Hawaii and California, and I am super excited to head back to Wanderlust Squaw Valley (Tahoe, California) in July. Sure, I’m a yogi and a dancer, but I’m mostly a foodie, and one of the things I’m most excited about is the food at Wanderlust this year. There are some truly delicious edible offerings at the festival!
There are many ways to eat well: vendors offer up sampling all day, every day, various food trucks and restaurants (like Lydia’s, one of the best restaurants in the world, imho), and there are lots of special events like the Farm-to-Table dinner to allow festival goers to experience the regional foods of the festival locations.
Many Ways to Eat Well at Wanderlust
Wanderlust partners with dozens of great vendors to provide samples and tastings to all the attendees. If you wanted to, you could almost eat a full day of meals with the vendors! Last year we enjoyed free samples of drinks and snacks from dozens of awesome vegetarian and vegan food brands, and this year we’re looking forward to many more.
Here is a short list of some of the best food at Wanderlust Squaw Valley:
+ Nutiva – Nutiva makes awesome foods. The brand is passionately non-GMO, supports regenerative agriculture, fair-trade practices, and they make great products for the kitchen. They will be sampling their protein powder (which will be blended with almond milk), chocolate hazelnut spread, and buttery coconut oil (served on organic popcorn). They will also be allowing attendees to enter for a chance to win Nutiva New Product Pack
+ Go Raw – awesome low- or no-sugar seed-based snacks like sprouted seeds, cookies, flaxsnax, granola, and coconut crisps/bites
+ Kashi – Healthy granola bars, cereal, and smoothies in addition to having a drum circle! Because… granola rocks!
+ So Delicious Dairy Free – Another favorite brand of mine! They make my favorite unsweetened coconut milk and yogurt, and will be sharing coconut milk, almond milk, and cashew ice cream varieties. Last year we balanced out all the yoga with endless ice cream sandwiches.
+ Temple Turmeric Juice – Turmeric-infused juice. We tried these last year for the first time and loved them: I was actually suffering from a pretty serious bout of altitude sickness for the first two days, having arrived from sea level San Francisco to 8,000 ft Squaw Valley, which challenged my digestive system in a funky way. Temple Turmeric was the only thing that tasted good and helped my belly feel better.
+ Rhythm Superfoods – One of the best kale chip brands, serving up green goodness to the attendees via single serve kale chip bags, roasted kale, and broccoli bites.
+ Bob’s Red Mill – Bob’s Red Mill is a great brand, and they are grain and seed masters. They’ve recently released a line of vegan Nutritional Boosters, which are additions to smoothies that include Pea Protein (vegan) powder. These Boosters will be mixed with almond milk for sampling.
+ Dr. Praeger’s – kale veggie sliders? Yes, please!
+ Tofurky – I love, love, love Tofurky brand. Not only do they make great vegan meats and my favorite (national) tempeh, they are all non-GMO verified, totally organic, and just an awesome company.
+ Health-Ade Kombucha – fizzy deliciousness. See below for their special healthy happy hours
+ Bai – I’ve not yet tried these drinks, but look forward to sampling all their antioxidant infused beverages
Many ways to Drink at Wanderlust
And while there may be some argument about whether or not it’s appropriate to drink alcohol at a yoga festival, many yogis do choose to imbibe at this fun festival, so it’s great that there are lots of great beer, wine, and liquor vendors serving up boozy fun:
+ Tres Agaves Tequila – on the rocks at the Farm to Table dinners, BBQs, Uncorked and Main Stage Bars.
+ Tito’s Vodka – letting you imbibe well at the Farm to Table dinners, BBQs, Uncorked and Main Stage Bars.
+ Omission Beer – sharing gluten-removed brews at the Farm to Table dinners, BBQs, Uncorked and Main Stage Bars.
+ Natura Wine – pouring red and white at the Farm to Table dinners, BBQs, Uncorked and Main Stage Bars.
+ TY KU Sake – hosting Après Yoga classes that include a Sake 101 with sake and food pairings.
Great Dining Options at Wanderlust Squaw Valley
Wanderlust festivals offer an array of dining options, and last year there were about a half dozen awesome veg-friendly food vendors offering Indian food, Mexican food, superfood drinks, coffee, snacks and more. We spent a good portion of our time at the food vending area, sampling the array of delicious and very veggie-friendly options.
Some of the food vendors (subject to confirmation) to look forward to include Electric Blue Elephant Foodtruck, Kombucha Kulture, India Gourmet, Lydia’s Organics/Lydia’s Kind Foods (some of my favorite food on the planet), Uncommon Kitchen, and Imlak’esh Organics, so there will be something for everyone to eat and imbibe. There are also restaurants on site for a sit-down meal.
Special Kombucha Happy Hour with Health-Ade
Wanderlust partner Health-Ade will be presenting a kombucha Happy Hour at both Aspen and Squaw Valley. These happy hours will include kombucha-making demonstrations, a raffle for a kombucha making kit (see how easy it is ahead of the event with our tutorial here!), and you can learn more about the art and science of kombucha making with Health-Ade founder Daina Trout at Aspen, and with other booch masters at Squaw Valley. And of course, you can sip your way to bliss with free Health-Ade samples.
