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Contrary to my previous Raisin Bran review, I actually like Raisin Bran. It’s a product that marries cereal and fruit together for some morning goodness. Tastewise I would normally give Raisin Bran 4 bowls, but 4 years ago their special offer was the absolute suck and my review of it reflected that.

Here in the present day I have taken on the challenge of Raisin Bran Extra! with the focus more on the taste than on the deals the corporate mongers try to use to entice you to their wares. Raisin Bran Extra! adds cranberries, almond slices, and yogurty clusters to the traditional mix of bran flakes and raisins. I honestly enjoyed the addition of the cranberries and the almond slices. They added a nice additional flavor to the raisins, slightly sweetening the spoonful with some added texture.

The yogurty clusters on the other hand… overkill. Besides the fact that I don’t generally like yogurt in anything I eat, unless it’s frozen, these clusters were just the complete opposite of from the rest of the cereal… like little plastic pellets in a sea of natural ingredients. What’s worse is they over sweetened the cereal and dominated the flavor profile.

Nutrition information:

Taste: Tastes like an over sweetened bowl of yogurt with bran flakes on top
Box opening: Easy
Bag rippage: A gaping hole worse than the hole in the ozone layer
Bag slippage: Total slippage
Sog factor: It sogged quickly as expected
Allergy alert: Contains wheat, milk, soy, and almonds

All in all, I give Raisin Bran Extra! 3 bowls. One bowl for the raisins, cranberries, and almond slices. They definitely lose a bowl for the yogurty clusters turning it into a bowl of candy and they lose a bowl because, well, the corporate mongers can’t even have a suck deal to offer!!!!

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Raisin Bran Extra! visit the Kellogg’s website.

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Today is a dance-off between SnackWells Peanut Butter Bars and Annie’s Organic Peanutty Bars. Both are granola-based bars with whole peanuts. One happens to be filled with sugar while the other is purely organic. So… which one is going to win?

On taste, the SnackWells wins for me hands down. We’re comparing peanut butter products, and the SnackWells was finger-licking good. Peanut butter nirvana, if you will. Annie’s tasted like just a regular old granola bar with some peanuts thrown in. Didn’t even taste like it had a bunch of organic peanut butter mixed in. (Trust me, I’m from Vermont, I know what organic peanut butter tastes like.)

Nutrition information for the two bars is as follows:

Each contains 8 grams of whole grain per serving, and 5 whopping grams of fat. Peanut butter is a fatty yummy food, so it is what it is… but it’s good fat. But SnackWells has a bunch of fiber and a ton of protein in their bar, while Annie’s has (naturally) less of each. SnackWells adds vitamins and minerals that aren’t naturally found in the product, while Annie’s keeps it natural. Annie’s also keeps the ingredients list natural while there is a lot of processed sugar and preservatives found in the SnackWells list. Kudos to both for having whole peanuts in each bar. Pretty hard to fake a peanut.

Allergens for SnackWells: peanuts, soy, milk
Allergens for Annie’s: milk, peanuts, soy, tree nuts, and wheat.

SnackWells Peanut Butter Bowls:

Annie’s Organic Peanutty Bowls:

For more information about SnackWells Peanut Butter Bars visit Nabisco.

For more information about Annie’s Organic Peanutty Bars visit Annie’s site.

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Quaker Natural Granola Oats & Honey is delicious, plain and simple. It’s granola with almond slivers, a touch of coconut, and a kiss of honey. It’s perfect with a bit of milk (Poppy‘s preference) or a bunch of milk (NYCWD‘s preference). Either way you pour it, it’s flawless in taste.

And the ingredients list isn’t too shabby either:

Low on vitamins and minerals because it’s natural, high on fat because it’s a granola and has nuts in it (so… good fat, if you will), but wonderfully fiber filled and protein packed.

Our only complaint: Uh, the box was closed, but the bag inside was open. … … … Yes, Poppy did file an official complaint with Quaker. We’ll let you know if they ever contact her.

Taste: Delicious granola with a subtle note of coconut
Box opening: Easy
Bag rippage: The bag was already OPEN.
Bag slippage: None
Sog factor: Ew for Poppy, ok for NYCWD
Allergy alert: Contains wheat, almond, and milk ingredients

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Quaker Natural Granola Oats & Honey visit the Quaker website.

If the video embedded above is not viewable, you can see it at these other fine video sharing sites: YouTube, Viddler and Metacafe.

If I am not mistaken, a fan who watches Cereal Wednesday on YouTube has been asking for NYCWD to review Golden Grahams since before I even visited with him in the airport for our Booberry episode. That’s a long time, so I am finally making that one fan’s wish come true!

Golden Grahams is a wheat based cereal square that does taste like a plain graham cracker. I like graham crackers so I liked the taste of Golden Grahams. Nothing stellar to report, just a solid tasting cereal. But during the sog all its grahammy goodness falls into the bowl and the texture of the square goes from crunchy to gross. Oh well.

Nutrition information for Golden Grahams is hit or miss:

Fiber and protein are lacking, but the vitamins and minerals are decent. And only one allergen is listed, the main ingredient of wheat. But my Celiac-ridden friend said that sometimes corn meal itself isn’t free of wheat so even without the wheat as the main ingredient it’d be a good idea for people with Celiac Disease to be cautious when consuming this product, or for you to contact General Mills directly and demand to know if the corn meal is pure or has other grains added.

Good taste, but deductions for sog and incomplete nutrition.

Taste: Tastes like graham crackers
Box opening: Easy
Bag rippage: None
Bag slippage: Just a tiny bit of slip
Sog factor: Yucky texture during the sog and the flavor falls into the bowl
Allergy alert: Contains wheat

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Golden Grahams visit the General Mills site.

If the video embedded above is not viewable, you can see it at these other fine video sharing sites: Vimeo, Viddler and Metacafe.

Quaker Chewy Chocolatey Mint Granola Bars are new to the market. Unfortunately, aesthetically they look like “boogers on poop,” my first reaction to them when I saw the package on the shelf at the store. I almost couldn’t bring myself to buy them for that single reason. But, for you, the cereal fans, I tried the product. It’s actually quite delicious because I love mint.

Notice anything different about the photo from the website vs an actual visual of the Chocolatey Mint granola bars?

Quaker's picture-perfect version

What Poppy's bar looked like

The mint chips are evenly distributed in Quaker‘s staged photo and all chips are pointing upward and outward but in the actual bar they’re smooshed together in concentrated areas, tips down into the bar so that it just looks like a smear of light green booger. Sure is tasty, though.

Nutrition information is as follows:

I forgot to mention in the video, but this Quaker bar is chock full of allergens: wheat, soy, and milk ingredients; may contain traces of peanut and tree nuts. Be super careful in checking through that list for yourself or others you feed Chocolatey Mint granola bars to.


As promised, I’m providing links to you about high fructose corn syrup:

• Mayo Clinic answers High-fructose corn syrup: What are the concerns?
• Corn Refiners Association offers the facts about corn sugar
• BoingBoing offers Four reasons why high-fructose corn syrup is probably not the Devil
• And my personal suggestion for a documentary you can watch which shows the dietary dependency the United States has on corn and its far reaching economic and political ramifications: Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat

Right now there is a lot of debate about if there really is any difference at a molecular level or a body response level. Unfortunately for you the consumer, that means you need to decide for yourself which information to choose to believe. Quaker Chewy Chocolatey Mint granola bars happily states that there is no high fructose corn syrup included, so whether you believe HFCS is bad for you or not, you don’t even have to worry about it here. But you still do need to understand that sugar, whether from corn or cane, has calories and is a carbohydrate that in excess will contribute to obesity and other health conditions.

And today I’m asking you, CW fans, do you have links to information about the high fructose corn syrup debate that you’d like to share? Or stories. I love a good story.

Bowl deductions for the bar looking completely unappetizing and for it not being very nutritious despite its claims of how awesome it is.

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Quaker Chewy Chocolatey Mint granola bars please visit the product page.

If the video embedded above is not viewable, you can see it at Viddler or Vimeo.

Yes, I do realize that I forgot to angle the camera at my HEAD. Won’t make that mistake again, but isn’t it fun to watch my stormtrooper PEW-PEW shirt instead?!

Post Cinna-Graham Honeycomb is a new flavor of the original Honeycomb. During filming I said that Cinna-Graham Honeycomb tastes similar to Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but I realized when trying to sum up the taste in writing that it actually tastes like a Honey Maid Cinnamon graham cracker, which is an AMAZING snack, if you’ve never had it. The cinnamon on the cracker is strong and powerful, just like in this cereal. If you like the taste of CINNAMON that tastes fresh from the stick, this is going to make your tongue happy.

The shape of the cereal itself is a honeycomb so the milk gets to go through and saturate all of its sides, but magically the cereal doesn’t sog out. Gotta blame the oat and corn combination for that.

And now, your favorite part, the nutrition facts:

Anybody else notice something different from what I said in the video, which I specifically noted was interesting, but is different from the nutrition information on the Post site? SERVING SIZE! According to Post‘s website the serving size is 3/4 (three-quarters) cup for 32 grams, but as I mentioned in the video, which was NOT my mistake, the box says 32 grams is 1 1/2 (one and a half) cups! Proof is in the picture, my friends:

That’s from the side of the box I reviewed during the video. I have written to Post to let them know about the discrepancy. I did a little investigating:

…and have concluded that since Post Honeycomb‘s serving size is 1 1/2 (one and a half) cups for 32 grams that the Cinna-Graham‘s correct serving size is also 1 1/2 (one and a half) cups at 32 grams.

Nutrition isn’t stellar on this, but the box finally boasts on the one panel I didn’t check during filming that it has 16 grams of whole grains per serving. I know I read the carb count to you, but I didn’t put two and two specifically together until the box told me: FOUR!

Still a bowl deduction for lack of fiber and protein (I know, I know) as well as a bowl deduction for the cereal’s flavor completely falling into the bowl after only a few minutes.

Taste: Like a Honey Maid cinnamon graham cracker!
Box opening: Good
Bag rippage: None, although a bit hard to open
Bag slippage: None
Sog factor: Stayed crunchy, although all the cinnamon fell off the comb
Allergy alert: Manufactured on equipment that processes wheat

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For a more information about Cinna-Graham Honeycomb please visit the Post site.

Nature Valley Granola Thins are new product offered by General Mills. Two flavors are currently offered, dark chocolate and peanut butter, so I decided to pit them against each other in a battle of less than epic proportions.

In both cases the granola itself is chopped up into tiny crunchy delectably pieces, so crunchety crispy that it seems like they pan fry the granola on one side to sear it. Obviously they don’t do that, it’s not a steak, but there is a very nice crunch on the top. On the bottom is the layer of flavor: dark chocolate which was super melty and tasted way more like milk chocolate to me; and peanut butter which was creamy without being melty, super rich and delicious in its perfect balance of sweet and salty. I enjoyed every bite of the peanut butter thin. A dark chocolate thin will certain do in a pinch when I have no peanut butter thins at my disposal. Or maybe I’ll give them away to NYCWD who adores dark chocolate.

The nutrition information for both is kind of abysmal, which is truly unfortunate because I can’t give it my full thumbs up in approval, but here’s the 411:

There are lots of allergens, be super careful with BOTH flavors if you have any allergies.

Dark Chocolate Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

Peanut Butter Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Dark Chocolate Granola Thins please visit the product page.

For more information about Peanut Butter Granola Thins please visit the product page.

For more information about Nature Valley please visit the Nature Valley site.

Total Plus Omega-3s Honey Almond Flax is a new cereal from General Mills. It’s really very different in texture from Total cereal, but it smells and tastes the same. This cereal was pretty boring to eat, nothing stood out about it, and it’s more exciting in written form than it was in my mouth, so let’s get right to the written stuff:

Total Plus Omega-3s contains 10% of the Daily Value of ALA (Alpha-linolenic acid) and 100% Daily Value of 11 vitamins and minerals. High in fiber and protein, a little high on fat.

If you live to eat you probably won’t enjoy this. If you eat to live, this is a great cereal for you to add to your nutritious breakfast rotation.

Cereal companies: Please use glue to hold your bags in and also please don’t afix coupons over the visual of your product, we like to see what we’re buying!

Taste: Dull and healthy, with a hint of honey and almond
Box opening: Good
Bag rippage: None
Bag slippage: Totally into the bowl (no cereal name pun intended)
Sog factor: Soggy fluffy pillow cases
Allergy alert: Wheat and almond; may contain milk

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Total Plus Omega-3s Honey Almond Flax please visit their site.

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Kashi Cinnamon Harvest is an organic whole wheat biscuit cereal. It is high on fiber and protein, low on fat and has all natural ingredients. There is no frosted coating on the biscuit, it’s just the natural biscuit itself. It unfortunately makes this promise: “The warm, spicy scent of organic cinnamon will flood your senses when you open the box.” And then it doesn’t deliver. I’m from Vermont, I know organic cinnamon. I know how flavorful and wonderfully aromatic it is. Kashi, shame on you. This was the weakest instance of cinnamon in a product using the word cinnamon in its title that I’ve ever had in my entire life.

I appreciate Kashi‘s commitment to the organic cause (it’s USDA certified organic!), and appreciate that there isn’t even a preservative listed in the ingredients of Cinnamon Harvest (one less thing to give me cancer). However, organic products need to deliver on taste or else no one is going to buy the overpriced product.

The nutrition information, please!

Taste: Like Mini-Wheat without any frosting or flavor
Box opening: Easy
Bag rippage: A tiny bit
Bag slippage: TOTALLY
Sog factor: Sogged OUT!
Allergy alert: Contains wheat

Good nutrients above the vitamins and minerals list, organic ingredients, lack of vitamins and minerals, easy box opening, bad bag slippage, soggy biscuits, and LACK OF FLAVOR all factor into my scoring for this cereal.

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about the cereal please visit the Kashi website.

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Kellogg’s Smart Start Strong Heart Strawberry Oat Bites — that’s quite a mouthful. So, let’s just call ‘em Smart Start Strawberry Oat Bites instead. Big on oat taste, decidedly absent on strawberry flavor, but intoxicatingly strawberry scented. I don’t know what Kellogg’s was thinking on this, but they definitely got the scent to taste ratio backwards.

Just the facts, Ma’am:

Taste: Like an oat Mini-Wheat… except a Mini-Oat, sans strawberry
Box opening: Super tough
Bag rippage: None
Bag slippage: TOTALLY
Sog factor: Sogged OUT!
Allergy alert: Wheat and soy (not listed by Kellogg’s, but it’s in the ingredients)

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about the cereal please visit the Kellogg’s website.