Cereal Gets Surreal Test
Given all the competition in the supermarket cereal aisle, the crispy breakfast concoctions are constantly reinventing themselves.
Some get healthier, like Kellogg’s Special K Plus, which adds fruits, nuts and a hearty dose of calcium to the previously plain flakes.
Some get more mainstream, like Post’s Grape-Nuts O’s, a sweetened, puffed version of the standard wheat and barley nuggets.
And some stake out their own territory, like General Mills’ Sunrise Organic, an attempt to ride the accelerating organic-food bandwagon.
We served all three to The Spokesman-Review’s reader food panel to see if they could separate the Wheaties from the chaff.
The Grape-Nuts O’s were the slim favorite, with most panelists praising their crispiness in milk but some complaining they were too sweet. (For those of you keeping score at home, compared to regular Grape Nuts, the sugar increases from 4 grams per ounce to 12 grams, while the fiber content drops from 3 grams to less than 1 gram.)
Special K Plus came in close behind, but split the panel even more, with some enjoying the complex granola-like textures and flavors and others calling it overdone.
One potential danger on a bleary-eyed morning: Since Special K Plus comes in a milk carton to remind you of its calcium content, you could end up pouring it in your coffee if you’re not careful.
The Chex-style Sunrise, made with certified organic corn, whole wheat, oats, barley and sugar, found less favor with tasters because it lacked flavor and got soggy so fast. (Hey, it’s not the first time we’ve paid organic prices and gotten soaked.)
To wash it all down, we offered panelists the latest version of an orange juice that keeps reinventing itself: Minute Maid’s new calcium-fortified Orange Passion with passionfruit and guava juices.
For comparison purposes, we also poured the original Hawaiian POG passion-orange-guava drink, and a canned guava-passion-orange concentrate from Hawaii’s Own.
Panelists generally deemed the Minute Maid juice (which several guessed was grapefruit-flavored) decent but not distinctive. They were less kind to the other two - both sweetened drinks with only about 10 percent actual fruit juice - with one taster comparing POG’s flavor to Salon Selectives hair-care products and another likening the Hawaii’s Own to “St. Joseph’s baby aspirin smooshed up in water.”
Hawaii’s Own, by the way, has reinvented itself with a new line of all-juice frozen concentrates in four flavors: Mango Peach, Guava Berry, Mango Pineapple and Guava Cranberry.
Just don’t be looking for MangoGuava-Aspirin anytime soon.
Post Grape-Nuts O’s
Price: $3.19 for 12 ounces, or 11 (1-cup) servings.
Nutrition: 120 calories (no fat); 150 milligrams sodium per serving.
Taste: ****
Value: ***
Comments: “Same nutty flavor as regular Grape Nuts, only sweeter and not as hard on your teeth.” - Angela Roth
“As a Grape Nuts purist, this is no substitute for the real thing. It’s more like Cheerios on steroids.” - Tina Johnson
Kellogg’s Special K Plus
Price: $3.99 for 15 ounces, or 8 (1-cup) servings.
Nutrition: 210 calories (10 percent fat calories); 250 milligrams sodium per serving.
Taste: ****
Value: ***
Comments: “Big variety of textures, tastes. Reminded me of granola, but not as sweet.” - Ella Gordon-Stowe
“I think they made this up by mixing together the last two inches of every box of known cereal. Too much action for these taste buds.” - Lisa Arsenault
Sunrise Organic
Price: $3.59 for 12.5 ounces, or 12 (3/4-cup) servings.
Nutrition: 110 calories (5 percent fat calories); 190 milligrams sodium per serving.
Taste: ***
Value: **
Comments: “Somewhat bland breakfast cereal, a spin off the old Chex theme. Probably a fair price to pay for the word `organic.”’ - Rob Jasperson
“No flavor except sweet, and it gets soggy very quickly. It looks like it should be a snack cracker instead of a breakfast cereal.” - Jeannie Coffey
Minute Maid Premium Orange Passion With Calcium
Price: $2.79 for 64 ounces.
Nutrition: 130 calories (no fat); 25 milligrams sodium per 8-ounce serving.
Taste: ***
Value: **
Comments: “Kind of tasty, but very hard to distinguish the flavor. It has a tropical smell but doesn’t taste all that exotic.” - Catherine Lunt Greer
“Unusual (that’s not to say good) taste. Smells like grapefruit and pineapple. Looks like pineapple and orange. Tastes like something you don’t want to drink.” - Jeannie Coffey
Hawaii’s Own Guava Passion Orange
Price: $1.99 for 12 ounces concentrate (makes 48 ounces).
Nutrition: 110 calories (no fat); no sodium per 8-ounce serving.
Taste: **
Value: ***
Comments: “Pink water - no texture, no flavor, no nothing.” - Ann Finke
“Fizzies gone Hawaiian.” - Tina Johnson
POG Passion-Orange-Guava
Price: $2.29 for 64 ounces.
Nutrition: 100 calories (no fat); 30 milligrams sodium per 8-ounce serving.
Taste: **
Value: **
Comments: “This juice left a very nice guava aftertaste. Unfortunately, the aftertaste had to be arrived at by actually drinking the juice.” - Skip Hubbard
“Overall, a very bland mix of juices. I’m wondering if this `Hawaiian’ drink didn’t spoil on the boat over.” - Mike Connelly