Buc-ee’s, the Texas-sized convenience store chain, is famous for its massive selection of road trip snacks and meals. While many travelers swear by their beaver nuggets and jerky, not everything at this roadside paradise deserves a spot in your shopping basket.
Before your next pit stop at the home of the world’s cleanest bathrooms, take note of these fifteen food items you might want to skip.
1. Dried Fruit Medley
Colorful bags of dried fruit might look healthy, but they’re sugar bombs in disguise! Most varieties pack more sugar than a candy bar.
The preservation process also strips away many nutrients while concentrating the sugar content. Your body won’t thank you after consuming these deceptively unhealthy snacks.
2. Spicy Ghost Pepper Jerky
Ghost pepper anything is playing with fire—literally. This particular jerky can cause serious digestive distress and painful mouth burns for the unprepared.
Many customers report the heat level is wildly inconsistent between batches. What’s moderate spice in one bag might be tongue-numbing in another. Not worth the gastrointestinal roulette!
3. Pre-Made Tuna Salad Sandwich
Fish and road trips rarely mix well. These sandwiches sit in refrigerated cases for hours, sometimes days. The mayo-to-tuna ratio is alarmingly high.
Several customers have reported questionable freshness issues. Nobody wants to discover the hard way that their sandwich was on the wrong side of fresh while driving through rural Texas!
4. Mega-Sized Slushies
Feeling thirsty? These monster-sized frozen sugar bombs contain up to 100 grams of sugar in a single cup! That’s four times the recommended daily limit.
Factor in the inevitable brain freeze and subsequent sugar crash, and you’ve got a recipe for road trip misery. Your body and fellow passengers will appreciate you choosing water instead.
5. Bean And Cheese Burrito
Road trips and bean burritos create a dangerous combination for everyone in the vehicle! These microwaved meals sit under heat lamps for questionable periods.
The texture often resembles wet cardboard wrapped around mystery filling. Plus, they’re loaded with sodium—some containing nearly 40% of your daily recommended intake in just one burrito!
6. Fudge Variety Pack
Buc-ee’s fudge looks tempting in those neat little packages. Unfortunately, the texture often misses the mark—either too dry or mysteriously gritty.
A single serving contains roughly 300 calories and 30g of sugar! Many flavors have an artificial aftertaste that lingers uncomfortably.
7. Hot Dog Roller Items
Those glistening hot dogs spinning hypnotically on the rollers? They might have been rotating there since sunrise—or longer! The staff doesn’t always track how long they’ve been cooking.
Mystery meats become even more mysterious after hours of heat lamp exposure. The rubbery texture and questionable freshness make these a risky choice for your digestive system.
8. Breakfast Tacos Left Past Morning
Morning-made breakfast tacos often linger until afternoon. The eggs develop a peculiar rubbery texture while tortillas slowly transform into chewy leather.
By lunchtime, these sad specimens bear little resemblance to fresh breakfast fare. The congealed cheese and mysterious egg mixture might make you regret your purchase before you even reach the next exit.
9. Pickle-Flavored Popcorn
Pickle enthusiasts beware—this isn’t the dill-icious treat you’re hoping for! The artificial pickle flavoring tastes nothing like actual pickles.
Instead, expect a strange chemical aftertaste that clings to your taste buds for miles. Many customers report the overwhelming vinegar smell permeates everything in your car. Even pickle lovers often toss these after a few disappointing handfuls.
10. Cajun Boiled Peanuts
Slimy texture alert! Unless you’re already a boiled peanut enthusiast, this Southern specialty might shock your taste buds. The mushy consistency catches many first-timers off guard.
The seasoning can be wildly inconsistent—sometimes bland, sometimes salt-bomb spicy. Plus, the messy red liquid inevitably spills in your cup holder, leaving permanent stains as souvenirs.
11. BBQ Stuffed Potato
The mountain of toppings looks impressive, but these potatoes often sit in warming trays far too long. The once-fluffy potato interior transforms into a gluey, paste-like substance.
The BBQ meat topping frequently dries out under heat lamps. At around 1,000 calories per serving, this gut-bomb will have you feeling sluggish for the next hundred miles of your journey.
12. Banana Pudding Cups
Real banana pudding is delicious. These pre-packaged versions? Not so much. The artificial banana flavoring tastes nothing like the actual fruit—more like banana-scented cleaning products.
The cookies inside turn mysteriously soggy yet somehow stale simultaneously.
13. Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers
These tempting appetizers rarely deliver on their promise. The bacon often becomes flabby and undercooked or burnt to a crisp with no in-between.
Heat levels vary dramatically—one popper might be mild while another sets your mouth ablaze! The cheese filling frequently leaks out during reheating.
14. Chicken Salad Croissant
Mayo left at questionable temperatures is playing food safety roulette! These pre-made sandwiches often develop a strange smell after sitting in display cases.
The once-flaky croissants absorb moisture from the filling, creating a soggy mess. Many customers report finding mysterious crunchy bits that definitely aren’t part of the recipe.
15. Buc-ee’s Microwavable Burritos
When a burrito comes with microwave instructions at a place known for fresh food, consider it a red flag. These frozen bricks never cook evenly—cold centers with molten-hot edges await the hungry traveler.
The filling distribution is wildly inconsistent. One bite might be all beans, the next nothing but flavorless rice. Save your microwave minutes for something more worthy!