Friday, May 8, 2015

Leave Them Alone! Thomas' Cinnamon Vanilla Limited Edition English Muffins Are Best As The Bakery Prepared Them!


The Good: Wonderful flavor, Not bad on the nutrition front
The Bad: EXPENSIVE! Short shelf life!
The Basics: The Limited Edition Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins are one of the better surprises to come out of Thomas' bakeries lately . . . which is why they shouldn't be toasted or garnished!


Every now and then, my wife likes to shake up the whole "expectations game" around the house. Instead of taking issue with the amount of time I am devoting to reviewing, she will sometimes go out of her way to find something she thinks I ought to review and then pick it up and present it to me. Yesterday, that came in the form of her finding Limited Edition Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins while were out shopping at a store we get to incredibly infrequently.

Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins are surprisingly good - even enough that the semi-dieting version of me isn't complaining about the nutritional aspects of them - and the fact that Thomas' managed to make such a flavorful and true-to-flavor english muffin is pretty impressive. Added to that is the fact that toasting or adding virtually anything to the Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins actually diminishes the incredible flavor baked into the "raw" muffin and we have a treat that Thomas' got right on its own!

Basics

Kellogg’s Thomas' English Muffins are English Muffins, which is essentially the culinary midpoint between bread and bagels. Each English Muffin is approximately 3 3/4" in diameter and 1" thick. They come in a cardboard-lined plastic bag, six to a bag.

Ease Of Preparation

Thomas' English Muffins are one of the easiest foods in the world to prepare. Simply open the bag of English Muffins and pull one out to eat it. It is truly that simple. Beyond that, they may be split in half (so one ends up with two thinner discs) and toasted up. I discovered that with Thomas' Limited Edition Cinnamon Vanilla English Muffins, toasting them up actually lessens their innate tastiness and reduces the value of them, but for those who like things less flavorful, toasting them like traditional english muffins is an option!

Taste

Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins are incredibly aromatic, especially as room temperature becomes a bit warmer this spring! Sitting next to a sealed bag of Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins led my wife to remark, "I think I'd like to move next door to a Thomas' bread factory . . . unless it caught on fire." The scent is dominated by cinnamon, but it pops because it has a surprisingly strong component that is easily identified as vanilla in its bouquet. In fact, these English Muffins smell like cinnamon and vanilla extract from up to ten feet away!

On their own, at room temperature, the Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins are sweet and bready in a somewhat indistinct way. The Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins manage to bring out the flavor of vanilla in the bread more than that of cinnamon and this is an exceptional example of vanilla bread for those who are fans of anything bready and vanilla (cakes and cookies are all that comes instantly to mind that would fit this criteria. Interestingly, the bottom half of these English Muffins is a little drier, presumably because of the flour granules that are loosely attached to the bottom of each muffin. That robs the bottom half of some of the flavor, but not much. They are just a drier version of the sweet top. On their own, especially with the top half of the muffing, this flavor of English Muffin needs no garnish; it is a sweet, delicious treat on its own!

Served warm and lightly toasted, the Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins are dries, but manage to maintain their sweetness. The cinnamon pops more in the palate when they are heated, though - ironically - there is almost no aroma to the toasted Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins! The Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins manage not to be bland when toasted, though they do lose more of the pronounced vanilla flavor the darker they get (they become generically sweet as opposed to truly vanilla).

What potentially surprised me most on the flavor front was how easily the sweet Cinnamon Vanilla flavor was overwhelmed through the use of a simple additive. My wife and I use a simple, virtually flavorless vegetable oil butter substitute; putting that on a freshly toasted, piping hot Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffin virtually obliterated (or at least obscured) the sweet flavor innate to the Muffin.

Nutrition

Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins might be considered “part” of a balanced breakfast, but they very much out-balanced by most breakfast cereals (which, to be fair, are only healthy these days because they have vitamins and minerals sprayed on them). A single muffin is considered a serving, which makes perfect sense. One Cinnamon Vanilla English Muffin has 150 calories, 15 of which are from fat! With 1.5 grams fat, one Cinnamon Vanilla English Muffin gives you 2% of your RDA of fat and 8% of your RDA of sodium. The 30 grams of carbohydrates provide 10% of your daily recommended intake! On the plus side, this flavor of English Muffin does have 10% of your RDA of Thiamin and Folic Acid and a smattering 4-8% RDA of four other vitamins and minerals, on top of the 5 grams of protein!

The Cinnamon Vanilla English Muffins have very good ingredients, led by unbleached enriched wheat flour, water, sugar and yeast. These English Muffins have very few preservatives and most of the ingredients can be readily identified; the ingredients list reads like a recipe, not a chemistry equation!

There are notations that the Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins contain wheat, milk, and gluten ingredients. They are not marked as Kosher.

Storage/Clean-Up

Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins are very easy to clean up. Simply throw away the plastic bag they come in in an appropriate place, brush up the crumbs (which to be fair, tend to be considerable) and you are done! The Cinnamon Vanilla Thomas' English Muffins will remain fresh for a very short window; the ones we bought yesterday have an expiration date of May 11, 2015.

Overall

Cinnamon Vanilla Limited Edition Thomas' English Muffins are surprisingly expensive ($4.19 for a half-dozen), though they are worth it for the quality of the flavor of this breakfast treat. They are a rare example of a food at its flavor potential when purchased and consumed; altering it only reduces how impressive this limited edition flavor tastes!

For other foods for breakfast, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Kellogg's Chocolate Frosted Flakes Cereal
Dora3 Croissant With Strawberry Filling
Amora Intenso Blend Coffee

7/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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