Yes, I fell off of the Paleo wagon. It’s been a year in November that I’ve note eaten any grains, legumes, or refined sugars, within reason. Each of those items are in so many food products that finding “Paleo-approved” items is difficult.
Larabars were one of them and were kind enough to provide samples for review. I’ve done reviews on several flavors, and still have several more to go. The parent company for Larabar is Small Planet Foods. Another subsidiary of Small Planet Foods is Cascadian Farm. Having already established a relationship with their sister company, Cascadian Farm were kind enough to offer me some more free samples to try out, this time their Granola bars and their Berry Cobbler Granola cereal. Granola is one of the things I truly miss. I love oats, oatmeal, steel cut oats, oatmeal cookies….the lists goes on and on. But being Paleo, I’ve given them up. I almost said “no” to their offer, but the chance to taste test their products was too much of an incentive to fall off the wagon…in the name of blogging.
So I accepted their offer, and received a box of granola cereal, a box of granola bars, and a nifty Cascadian Farm spiral notebook that my wife promptly confiscated, as well as some literature on their products. It is interesting to note that these granola products are actually not available until January 2013.
The ingredients. The list is short, unlike most other cereals. Whole grain oats, sugar, rice, tapioca syrup, maltodextrin, sunflower oil, cranberry juice concentrate, cranberries, blueberries, molasses, sea salt, malted barley extract, natural flavor. Vitamin E is added to preserve freshness. And other than sea salt and “natural flavor”, everything is labelled as organic. Pretty impressive.
The texture. I ate mine with whole milk, nothing else in the bowl. I didn’t let it sit for very long, so it offered the great granola crunch I’ve been missing. We did a soggy cereal test, and it took over 30 minutes before it started to loose its crunchiness.
The flavor. I may be a bit jaded, since I no longer eat as much sugar as I used to, but this seemed perfectly sweet, without being too much like candy. The berry flavor was mighty fine, and my first bowl of grain cereal in over a year simply disappeared WAY too fast. This is the kind of product that makes me regret choosing to follow a Paleo lifestyle. This stuff really tastes good.
Overall, I have to say that this stuff is a home run. NO high fructose corn syrup. About as close to organic as you’ll ever find in a box. And a texture and flavor that makes you want to eat more. If you like granola, you should do yourself a favor and try this, I believe you’ll find it to be an overall great product.
I may have to keep a box or two around for breakfast treats for myself when I chose to fall of the wagon again.
Peace,
db
Product Reviews/Disclaimer
Although I’m doin the paleo thing right now, I try not to eat any packaged grains like this because the grains have not been properly soaked. Humans do not have the enzymes to properly break this stuff down.
But yeah..like you I could eat that whole box of cereal in one sitting….LOVE the stuff.
Good post.