Living in a Cereal World

Somehow I missed the clusters in the name. In case you hadn't heard, Kashi dropped the "Lean" from their GoLean cereals and added new verbs to each variety. This one says GOSpark, because nothing sparks your day like maple and brown sugar? Or maybe the flakes, the first in the GO line. I'd been avoiding these cereals due to the various soy iterations in the ingredients, but this one just has a multigrain flake and oat clusters. They both have a pleasing maple flavor but I wasn't crazy about the flakes. They're a bit on the dry side. There was one nice surprise, though. As I was finishing up I noticed something small and green floating in my milk. Is that...a pepita? Yep, there's actually pumpkin seeds in the oat clusters. I've been layering this with Raisin Bran just to give both an added dimension. Not bad. bonus mini-review: (new?) Fruity Lucky Charms If you're a regular reader of this blog then you know this isn't something I

Okay, so it was new two months ago when I bought it to hold to for my brother. Now that he's back, he's wrecking it. I figured I'd better get a taste before he polished off the box. Why not just buy my own? Well... Let's just review: first, the sniff test. Whoa. That is robust . Seriously. There's no doubt what that flavor's supposed to be. I feel like the blueberry scent neutralized my taste buds--that's how overpowering it was to me. And the weirdest thing is, I love blueberries! I just made these  Blueberry Pie Bars for the Fourth and I'm about to make this  Blueberry Bread this weekend. But this Blueberry Cheerios was just too much for me. I prefer the flavor variety of Very Berry Cheerios. I know; I surprised myself.😕

You can't go wrong with almonds...except when you don't have enough. As soon as I tore open the bag I was struck by "vanilla." It made its presence known. I also picked up notes of cinnamon which made the vanilla more complex and appealing. The taste was vanilla in everything. Not a complaint. Like I said above my main issue was the lack of almonds. Maybe they're further down in the bag, but not so much that first morning. Now prepare to have your mind blown (I assume you're reading this sitting down). There's no actual vanilla in this cereal. WHAT. I went to the website to make sure I had the name correct and the presence of cinnamon (yep--score one for my taste buds) but as I read the ingredients list--wheat, sugar, molasses, yeah yeah yeah--no vanilla. Oh, wait. "Natural Flavor." That has to be it. There's no way you could make a cereal this intensely vanilla without some vanilla bean or extract or something. Phew. I'm not cr