The Good: Nutritious, Comparatively inexpensive, Flavorful
The Bad: Flavor is inconsistent, Could be a bit more nutritious
The Basics: General Mills Apple Cinnamon Chex cereal is a delightful addition to the Chex cereal line, even if it is inconsistent!
When it comes to cereal, it is a rare thing for me to encounter one that I like, but has a problem with maintaining my interest. Despite reviewing a lot of different things, I actually have a great deal of product loyalty. As a result, products I review that I add to my regular rotation and stock for my personal pantry are usually ones that have very minimal problems. Apple Cinnamon Chex certainly falls into that category. This cereal suffers most from inconsistency; half of the Chex are coated in the flavoring, half are pretty much bare.
Basics
General Mills Apple Cinnamon Chex cereal is a continuation of the cereal line that made its initial varieties different only by the type of grain the Chex was made up of. Now, the cereal has different coatings and flavors in addition to the different grains for the basic pieces. The Chex in the Apple Cinnamon Chex are rice Chex that are coated in cinnamon apple flavored. Each Chex is a lattice of grain that is 3/4” long by 9/16” wide by 5/16” thick.
The standard box of Apple Cinnamon Chex cereal is 13.75 oz. That represents approximately twelve servings and that seems to be accurate given my experience so far. This cereal is comprised of just the cereal blocks themselves, with nothing else in them.
Ease Of Preparation
Apple Cinnamon Chex 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 Apple Cinnamon Chex 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.
For the purposes of my reviews, and my regular consumption, I only use skim milk (fat free) milk with cereal.
Taste
Apple Cinnamon Chex smells a decent amount like cinnamon with hints of apple. The apple scent comes as more of an afterscent to the cereal. The aroma of this cereal is hardly what one would describe as potent.
As for taste, dry Apple Cinnamon Chex cereal is sweet and dry. The cereal is split between two very different flavors. About half of the rice Chex are not coated in flavor sugar. Those Chex are very dry and utterly unremarkable. They might as well be unflavored. The rest of the Apple Cinnamon Chex are coated in cinnamon sugar and they are sweet and slightly fruity. The fully-flavored pieces of Apple Cinnamon Chex are sweet and rich with the flavor of cinnamon.
Covered in milk, the Apple Cinnamon Chex explode with the sweet flavor of apples. The cereal has a more homogenous flavor and the apple flavor is prevalent throughout. The sweet, fruity cereal finishes with a flavor of cinnamon and the dryness is not so extreme as to be unpleasant.
Either way, the Apple Cinnamon Chex have a dry aftertaste that stays in the mouth for about five minutes.
Nutrition
General Mills Apple Cinnamon Chex cereal is fairly nutritious on its own and with skim milk! Made primarily of whole grain rice, rice and sugar, the Apple Cinnamon Chex ingredient list degenerates into a chemistry equation after “molasses,” but there’s not much to the ingredients list after that. This cereal has some preservatives in it and 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 Apple Cinnamon Chex cereal is 31 grams, 3/4 cup. In that serving, there are 130 calories, with 20 calories coming from fat. There are no saturated or trans fats in this cereal, nor is there any cholesterol. With 190 mg of sodium and less than a gram of dietary fiber, this is not a bad dietary choice for those striving to improve heart health, though it could certainly be better. With only a gram of protein and 40mg potassium, Apple Cinnamon Chex 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 eight vitamins and minerals, most notably 50% of the RDAs of Folic Acid and Iron.
Storage/Cleanup
Apple Cinnamon Chex is a cereal, so as long as it is kept sealed in its box, it ought to remain fresh for quite some time. 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 Apple Cinnamon Chex cereal is simple as well. Simply brush away crumbs left by it and you are done! It is that simple! 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
Apple Cinnamon Chex cereal might be a little erratic in its consistency, but it is still pretty wonderful. When in milk, it is consistent-enough to be well worth recommending; it is one I have added to my regular rotation!
For other cereals, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Fiber One Honey Clusters
Maple Brown Sugar Frosted Mini-Wheats
Multigrain Peanut Butter Cheerios
7/10
For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the food reviews I have written!
© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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