Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A Flavorful Alternative To Fiber One, Fiber One Honey Squares Is Fun!


The Good: Nutritious, Tastes good
The Bad: Comparatively pricy by volume.
The Basics: General Mills Fiber One Honey Squares cereal is a pleasant variation on the original Fiber One formula for both healthy and flavorful breakfast dining!


As the only person I know who entirely loves Fiber One cereal (reviewed here!), I was pleasantly surprised to discover General Mills has expanded their line of Fiber One cereals. Sadly, the only way I seem to have found that out was by finding a box of it on clearance! The expanded Fiber One line cereal I have found and been enjoying is Fiber One Honey Squares! It’s a nice twist on the standard version of the cereal and one well worth trying!

At $5.50 a box (locally), Fiber One Honey Squares is a little pricier for the 11.75 oz box than some other cereals, but that might be the only serious detraction for it.

Basics

General Mills Fiber One Honey Squares cereal is a very basic cereal. The slightly curved squares are 9/16” long by 1/2” wide. They come in yellow (corn) and brown (wheat) squares and my box seemed to have more of the corn squares than the wheat (about 2/3 corn squares).

The standard box of Fiber One Honey Squares cereal is 11.75 oz. That represents approximately eleven servings and I got exactly ten ¾ cup servings out of my box. This cereal is comprised of just the cereal squares themselves, with nothing else in them.

Ease Of Preparation

Fiber One Honey Squares cereal is a breakfast cereal, so this is one of the low-impact breakfast options as far as preparation goes! Simply open the box of Fiber One Honey Squares cereal, pour out a three-quarter cup serving (I recommend actually using a measuring cup, especially if you are monitoring your intake) and add 1/2 cup of milk to it. I have discovered, as part of getting healthy, that one of the biggest challenges one might have with breakfast cereal is actually eating the serving size recommended by the manufacturer. This is not a problem with Fiber One Honey Squares, though, as the 1/2 cup serving seems to be a pretty decent amount of the cereal!

For the purposes of my reviews, and my regular consumption, I only use skim milk (fat free) milk with cereal. When milk is added to Fiber One Honey Squares, it gets nicely flavored.

Taste

Fiber One Honey Squares smell entirely like honey and corn. The scent of corn is very mild compared to the overwhelming and impressive aroma of honey.

As for taste, dry Fiber One Honey Squares cereal is exceptionally sweet. The honey flavor is strong and distinct; it overwhelms the grain and corn flavors of the cereal. In fact, this is one of the least dry tasting flavors of a healthy cereal as a result of the sweet honey coating.

When milk is added, Fiber One Honey Squares are sweet, but a little drier on their own. The grainy flavor of the corn and wheat comes out, while the milk quickly takes the sweet honey and uses it as a medium for that flavor. Oddly, there is almost no aftertaste to the grains and bite after bite, the cereal is sweet and dry, with a good combination of grain and honey to be more satisfying in some ways than traditional Fiber One cereal. It does not leave an aftertaste in the mouth when one is done consuming it.

Nutrition

General Mills Fiber One Honey Squares cereal is fairly nutritious on its own and with skim milk! Made primarily of whole grain corn, modified wheat starch, and corn bran, the Fiber One Honey Squares ingredient list is largely natural. This cereal has some preservatives in it, but it also has a separate list of vitamins and minerals, which implies that this is another cereal that has nutrients sprayed onto it. That makes it very important to drink the milk after one has consumed the actual cereal.

A single serving of General Mills Fiber One Honey Squares cereal is 30 grams, 3/4 cup. In that serving, there are 80 calories, with 5 calories coming from fat. There are no saturated or trans fats in this cereal, nor is there any cholesterol. With 140 mg of sodium and 10 grams of dietary fiber, this is not a bad dietary choice for those striving to improve heart health. With a gram of protein and 70 mg potassium, Fiber One Honey Squares is not the absolute healthiest cereal on the market, but it is a decent start to one’s day, at least on the dietary front. On its own, this cereal has significant percentages of nine vitamins and minerals!

Storage/Cleanup

Fiber One Honey Squares is a cereal, so as long as it is kept sealed in its box, it ought to remain fresh for quite some time. The box of Fiber One Honey Squares cereal I purchased in March, 2013, had an expiration date of September 13, 2013. I am quite positive it will be gone well before then. Obviously, when you are done pouring the cereal from the box, fold down the plastic inner wrap to help maintain the cereal’s freshness.

Cleaning up after Fiber One Honey Squares cereal is simple as well. Simply brush away crumbs left by it and you are done! It is that easy! This is a cereal that barely discolors the milk added to it, but because you should drink that up to get all the vitamins and minerals General Mills added to the cereal, that shouldn’t be an issue with staining.

Overall

Fiber One Honey Squares cereal is healthy and tastes wonderful, easily justifying the expense of the cereal!

For other General Mills cereals, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Cinnamon Burst Cheerios
Frosted Toast Crunch
Honey Kix

8/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the food reviews I have written!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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