Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Mediocre Cereal, Post Honey Bunches Of Oats Banana And Blueberry Fruit Blends (Mostly) Flops.


The Good: Fairly nutritious, Affordable
The Bad: Not the most distinctive taste, Nothing superlative, Not distinctly flavored or flavored much like the fruit it is supposed to.
The Basics: Post Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal is disappointing for anyone who likes either of those flavors.


When it comes to cereal, I have been eating healthier lately. My wife and I have a tendency to eat healthy and fruity of late, so we’ve actually had a lot of Post cereals. Lately, I’ve been trying the line of Honey Bunches Of Oats cereals. Tonight, I find myself considering Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal. This falls on the heels of my reviewing the Crispy Peach Flakes & Crunchy Raspberry Granola Fruit Blends (reviewed here!). Unfortunately, the Banana and Blueberry Fruit Blends cereal is less impressive than the prior one I tried.

Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal is a flake-based cereal with tiny, less flavorful additives than the traditional Honey Bunches Of Oats. Sadly, it does not taste like either of the fruits it is supposed to.

Basics

Post Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal is a relatively new cereal with flakes of corn. It looks like a very typical collection of flakes, most about 1/2” to 3/4” in two directions, thin and textured, with most of the small flakes being slightly curved. Honey Bunches Of Oats cereal now comes in several different varieties, designed to give dieters more variety while they lose weight.

The standard box of Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal is 14.5 oz. That represents approximately fourteen servings and I was able to get a little over twelve servings and a generous helping of crumbs and cereal dust out of the box I bought. In addition to having traditional flakes that have a light sheen from honey, Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal features a smattering of oats.

Ease Of Preparation

Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends 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 Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal, pour out 3/4 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 3/4 cup of Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal in a sitting, though it is not as filling as some other cereals I have had.

For the purposes of my reviews, and my regular consumption, I only use skim milk (fat free) milk with cereal.

Taste

The Fruit Blends cereal smells strongly of blueberries. This is a cereal that is very fruity in its aroma and it is distinctly blueberry scented.

On their own, the flakes taste entirely like corn. Despite the cereal’s promise that these are banana flavored, they bear none of that flavor while dry. The granola clusters are sweet and vaguely fruity, but neither blueberry, nor banana flavored. It does not help that they are so small in comparison to the flakes so the flakes completely overwhelm the flavor of the granola.

With milk, this Fruit Blends cereal is sweet and the banana flavor comes to the forefront of the palate. The alleged blueberry flavor is entirely absent outside the scent, but the cereal comes to taste like banana and corn flakes within seconds. The milk becomes banana flavored as well and it is almost surprising how flavorful this cereal is given that bananas are not the most flavorful fruit in the world!

This cereal has a nutty aftertaste, but not a particularly dry or enduring one.

Nutrition

Post Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal is pretty nutritious on its own and with skim milk. Made primarily of corn, whole grain wheat, and whole grain rolled oats, there is nothing unpronounceable in Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal. Given that there is a separate listing of vitamins and minerals, I suspect that Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal is one of those cereals where the nutrients are then sprayed onto the cereal, making it important to drink the milk with this cereal in order to get all of the nutritional benefits out of it.

A single serving of Post Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal is 30 grams, 3/4 cup. In that serving, there are 120 calories, with 15 calories coming from fat. There is no saturated fat in this cereal, nor is there any cholesterol. With only 135 mg of sodium and a gram of dietary fiber, this is a good dietary choice for those striving to improve heart health. With two grams of protein and 55mg potassium, Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends is healthy enough. On its own, this cereal has significant percentages of seven vitamins and minerals.

Storage/Cleanup

Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends 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 Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal we purchased on April 15, 2013 had an expiration date of June 10, 2013, so it is not the most enduring cereal on the market. 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 Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends 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

Honey Bunches Of Oats Crispy Banana Flakes & Crunchy Blueberry Granola Fruit Blends cereal is not at all fruity in its flavor, which is disappointing given that it is a key selling point of this cereal.

For other breakfast cereals, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Fiber One Honey Squares
Kellogg's Krave Double Chocolate
Cap'N Crunch's Limited Edition Christmas Crunch

3.5/10

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

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