Two backpackers on a trail toward snowy peaks

Our story

It started with a bad beef stew.

Chapter one

A trip in the Rockies

We all live in Colorado. Some of us grew up here and some of us grew up in Michoacán, Mexico, but we all grew up on the same kind of food.

On a backpacking trip in the Rockies, that food was all we could talk about: breakfast eggs, family enchiladas, our abuelita's pozole. Then dinner came out of a bag, a bland, dehydrated beef stew.

The food sucked. So we started making our own, with the recipes we grew up on, light enough to carry anywhere. That's how Oso was born.

"Enjoy our abuelita's home cooked flavor, no matter where you are."

Printed on the back of every pouch

Chapter two

The meal that started it all

Pozole was our abuelita's world-famous recipe, and it was the first meal we made for the trail. Now it's made with pork, grass-fed Colorado elk, hominy and green chilies: the fresh, spicy flavor of home, packed for wherever the trail goes.

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Chapter three

Cooked the old-fashioned way

We hand-select our ingredients and cook every meal the old-fashioned way, with love and care, before freeze-drying it so it travels light and keeps fresh.

Our recipes come from a deep-rooted Latin tradition and the flavors and spices of Mexico and the American Southwest. Many have been passed down in our families for generations, and we're excited to share them with outdoor people of every background.

Freeze-dried ingredients laid out in small dishes on a steel kitchen counter during recipe testing

What Oso stands for

Black & Latino owned

Started by friends who wanted the food they grew up on to come along on every trip.

Made in Colorado

Produced in Colorado with local ingredients, including grass-fed Colorado bison and elk.

For every kind of trip

Backpackers, campers, overlanders, hunters and ski-lot crews. If you eat outside, it's for you.

Three of the Oso crew smiling behind their booth under the Oso Meals sign at an outdoor festival

Out and about

Come say hi

We bring the booth to events around Colorado. If you see the bear, stop by and say hi.

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Taste where it started.

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