This weekend I finally broke out of the bubble and headed home for my mum's big five zero. It was a gastronomical few days, moving from one eatery to another with only a few hours rest in between each. Nonetheless, I did my best to pull through and avoid the dreaded food coma. Thankfully, cereal is always a simple, reliable choice for any time of the day and I have now fully recovered in time for this week's review.
I have previously reviewed Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, the original, which fared well in the ratings so I thought it was about time I diversified and have moved on to Crunchy Nut Clusters. These are completely different to the original Crunchy Nuts. They have added chocolate curls and are also in cluster form. This makes them extremely crunchy, as their title would suggest, which can be a good thing, but some of these clusters are very large, a bit of a challenge in the morning when you have not yet fully woken up. They are also a tad salty, which I guess is counter-balanced by the chocolate curls, but it does feel a little odd eating actual chocolate in the morning. Their one redeeming factor is that they don't go too soggy having been sat in a bowl of milk over a prolonged period of time.
So what do I prefer Crunchy Nut Clusters or the original cornflakes? Both have their positives and negatives, one goes soggy quickly, the other is perhaps too crunchy. I personally feel that the clusters are better eaten for dinner, lunch or a snack due to the difficulty of getting you mouth round them in the morning. Will I be having more bowls of Crunchy Nut Clusters? Perhaps when I'm feeling a little peckish during the day or can't be bothered to cook dinner, but I will reach for something else in the morning.
Here are my ratings for Crunchy Nut Clusters:
Crunch Factor: 3.5/5
Flavour: 2/5
Aesthetics: 3/5
Filling: 3.5/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
This is the week from hell with three essay deadlines piling up and my dear mother's birthday on Thursday, for which I haven't even bought a present yet (sorry mum). Therefore I decided to reach for "fuel to start my day in a tasty way" and have chosen Weetabix Chocolate Minis to add some form of excitement to my life.
This is a very versatile cereal that, just like standard Weetabix, can be eaten in all sorts of ways: hot, cold, with sugar, syrup, yoghurt or even dry. However with the bitter east Fife weather taking a nose dive, this morning I decided to have them with hot milk for, in the words of George Hailstone "a bowl of warm wheaty goodness". This makes the chocolate chips melt and leaves the cereal crispy on top but soggy on the bottom. But I feel that Weetabix is one of the only cereals that is bearable when soggy, as my granddad would say, you could suck it through your teeth. Yet, if you have Weetabix Minis with cold milk it's a completely different story; they stay crispy for a good 5 minutes, perhaps even more. The only down side is that the chocolate doesn't melt. I think that Weetabix Minis are great due to their versatility and are a great start to the day, especially on cold winter mornings.
Here are my ratings for Weetabix Chocolate Minis:
Crunch Factor: 2.5/5
Flavour: 4/5
Aesthetics: 2.5/5
Filling: 4/5
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
"At Jordan's we don't do soggy" - when Ed Fry pointed me in the direction of this advert the only logical step was to take this claim as a challenge and therefore, I went out and bought myself a box of Jordan's Country Crisp to either prove or shun this very bold statement once and for all.
Naturally I went for the strawberry variety in a desperate attempt to remind myself of long summer days gone by. Even though on the front of the box they claim to be 'sun-ripe' strawberries, they are but freeze dried strawberries that probably haven't seen the sun in over a year. Nonetheless, they do add a little bit of a sweet and tart extra to the cereal, and at the end you get the added bonus of the milk turning pale pink. As for the crunch claim, I must admit that the cereal stayed relatively crunchy. Perhaps not as crunchy as at the start, but that would be very hard considering it's mingling with the milk for a good 10 minutes, but when compared to other cereal the crunch remains strong at the end. And finally the flavour is just right too. The clusters are sweet and the strawberries tart giving the cereal a balanced flavour which, yet again, stays to the end. What's not to like?
Jordan's make a bold claim but I feel it is a justified one as this cereal truly is rather brilliant. I will definitely be starting my day with a fair few more bowls of Country Crisp in the future.
Here are my ratings for Jordan's Country Crisp:
Crunch Factor: 4.5/5
Flavour: 4/5
Aesthetics: 4/5
Filling: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
The bemusing annual festivities that are referred to as Raisin weekend have passed us by and I'm sure many, just like myself, were feeling the consequences. Thankfully I am through to the other side and am finally feeling like a normal human being again. Part of my recovery has been down to a fair few bowls of frosted Shreddies.
Over the years Shreddies have diversified from the plain, original type, incorporating different flavours such as chocolate and frosted (a term for sugary). Yet apart from adding a few more flavourings, Shreddies remain rather similar in their form; a square-shaped cereal created by fusing together many strands of wheat in a cage-like formation. This intriguing shape has lead to the strapline "Knitted by nanas" which is rather odd. Firstly it would imply that they are forcing elderly women into slave labour, much like they used to in the work houses of Dickens' day. And secondly, I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that my cereal has been touched by multiple human hands. Perhaps Nestle should have a rethink about their advertising campaigns. Nonetheless, I must move on from this and talk about the cereal per-se.
Du to their aforementioned shape, Shreddies are a very dense cereal. They absorb rather a lot of milk and thus go soggy and sink to the bottom of the bowl quickly. This makes it difficult to know how many you have eaten and can lead to confusion in the morning. It also means that if you have the frosted or chocolate variety, they loose their flavour very quickly. Their one redeeming point is that they make the milk taste either chocolatey or sugary, so you do at least benefit from the flavour in some way. From this review it is easy to tell that Shreddies are not my favourite cereal choice, but they are a fairly good cure for a hangover due to their density.
Here are my ratings for frosted Shreddies:
Crunch Factor: 2/5
Flavour: 2/5
Aesthetics: 3.5/5
Filling: 4/5
Overall Rating: 2.5/5
