Meet Dak Bar: Organic Energy Bars Made Here

For February our Bike Adirondacks Partner of the Month is Dak Bar, our area’s own home-grown energy snacks that offer a serious, whole food energy bar delivering a lighthearted, fun approach to life. CEO and chef Susie Smith invented Dak Bars after realizing that the bars she was buying just weren’t doing the job.

“The bars I was eating took the wind out of my sails. They delivered the taste of cardboard and a fake, jittery energy that left me feeling unsettled,” she remembers. “I knew I could do better.”       

After experimenting and taste testing with her friends, she arrived at just the right combination of natural, energy-packed ingredients to taste good and provide the energy she needed to finish her journeys through the mountains, forests, and fields of the Adirondacks.

Now that she had the perfect bar, she needed the brand. “When I was thinking about the logo I wanted something simple and I also wanted to include the word Adirondack somehow. Because it’s all about what inspired me to make the bars. I love the Adirondacks!”

Today, after ten years of marketing Dak Bars, Susie still personally selects the ingredients for each batch. “I hand select things, so they don’t have preservatives or any kind of additives. It’s all real, whole food and it was important to me to keep it that way.”

Susie is also dedicated to helping preserve the land she loves through the Dak Bar 1% Wild program. For each of the six different Dak Bar flavors, she donates 1% of profits to a different Adirondack conservation group.

She also likes to support other area business that love the Adirondacks, and so in 2019 she began her partnership with Bike Adirondacks.

“I think it’s all about synergy. Doug (Haney, BikeADK owner) and I both love to play in the Adirondacks and we have that joint interest in wanting to give back. I can feed his people great food to help them enjoy the Adirondacks and he can support my business and the ‘Dacks by promoting the bars and the 1% Wild program that helps to protect the wild places we love to play in."

Look for Dak Bars at BikeADK Events this coming season, and don’t forget to visit Susie and her Dak Bar friends at their website. Dak Bars are also available for purchase from the BikeADK online store along with other locally produced products.