The Good: Fairly nutritious, Does not taste bad
The Bad: Not the most distinctive taste, Nothing superlative
The Basics: Quaker Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal is unimpressive, never quite presenting enough flavor to be remarkable and not as healthy as one might expect.
As I learn more about cereals more through reviewing things like Kellogg’s Fiber Plus Antioxidants Cinnamon Oat Crunch (here!) and Special K MultiGrain Oats & Honey (reviewed here!), I actually have some respect for Quaker Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal, which might not be evident the longer this review goes on. One of the hits Quaker takes from me is in the “Nutrition” category, where I was surprised the Oatmeal Squares are not the healthiest cereal I have tried this week. A large part of that comes from the fact that Quaker – at least with the Honey Nut Oatmeal Squares – does not spray on the vitamins and minerals, like many of the other cereal companies.
My wife picked up the Quaker Honey Nut Oatmeal Squares specifically for me to review when I told her I was going to branch out into breakfast cereals. She’s a real sweetie. She is, in fact, much sweeter than the Oatmeal Squares, which are a very dry cereal with flavor added as almost as an afterthought. Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal is a crunchy oat cereal where the pieces are baked into little grain squares, like a more refined version of shredded wheat. Unfortunately, like shredded wheat, there is little distinctive or remarkable about Quaker Honey Nut Oatmeal Squares.
Basics
Quaker Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal is a relatively new cereal with baked square pieces of oats and flour. It looks like a refined cereal with each Square having smooth ribs for texture. Each Oatmeal Square is approximately 3/4” by 3/4” wide and long and 3/8” thick. The light brown Oatmeal Squares are fairly uniform in their appearance.
The standard box of Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal is 14.5 oz. That represents approximately nine and a half servings and I was able to get just over nine servings with the box we picked up. This cereal is comprised of just the square cereal bits themselves, with nothing else in them.
Ease Of Preparation
Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut 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 Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal, pour out a cup (I’ve taken to using a measuring cup) 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. Given that I have been monitoring my intake for several weeks now, I am now able to enjoy only one cup of Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal in a sitting and to be fair to Quaker, this is a pretty filling serving of cereal!
For the purposes of my reviews, and my regular consumption, I only use skim milk (fat free) milk with cereal.
Taste
Opening the box, Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut has a surprisingly subtle aroma. Instead of enticing the consumer with a strong honey smell, the Honey Nut Oatmeal Squares have a faint honey smell that is warm, but not in any way forceful.
On the tongue, the Honey Nut Oatmeal Square starts very sweet, but quickly becomes dry and oat-flavored. Without milk, the sweet honey flavor rapidly evolves into the flavor of dry oatmeal, making for a flavor that pretty much begs for milk.
With milk, the flavor of brown sugar becomes more apparent immediately. With the dryness cut, the flavor of honey and brown sugar spreads well through the Honey Nut Oatmeal Squares. But, it is not enough to hold off the lingering dry and generally uninspired oat flavor. These Oatmeal Squares do not pop with flavor and the result is a cereal that tastes a lot more like oats than it does honey, nuts or anything sweet and palatable.
Nutrition
Quaker Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal is fairly nutritious on its own and with skim milk! Made primarily of whole grain oat flour, whole wheat flour and brown sugar, the Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut ingredient list degenerates into a chemistry equation at the bottom of the ingredients list. This cereal has a lot of preservatives in it.
A single serving of Quaker Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal is 43 grams, 1 cup. In that serving, there are 160 calories, with 20 calories coming from fat. There is no saturated fat in this cereal, nor is there any cholesterol. With 150 mg of sodium and 4 grams of dietary fiber, this is not a bad dietary choice for those striving to improve heart health. With five grams of protein and 150mg potassium, Honey Nut Oat Squares has some decent nutritional elements other cereals do not. On its own, this cereal has significant percentages of ten vitamins and minerals, most notably a 70% RDA of both Iron and Folic Acid!
Storage/Cleanup
Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut 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 Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal we purchased on March 5, 2012 had an expiration date of September 23, 2012. 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 Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut 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 does not even discolor the milk added to it!
Overall
Oatmeal Squares Honey Nut cereal is fairly healthy, but not impressive in any way that made me want to recommend it or even finish the box of cereal I already have. Given the fact that I actually get very excited about good cereals, not being at all enthused about the Honey Nut Oatmeal Squares made me realize pretty quickly that it was a below average cereal.
For other Quaker products, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Low-Fat Chocolate Chunk Chewy Granola Bars
Chewy Low-Fat S'Mores Granola Bars
4.5/10
For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the food reviews I have written!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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