I have written previously of the gloriously delicious and
banana-y Banana Nut Cheerios, when I declared it Best Cereal EVER! I have since enjoyed it periodically, for as
I stated in that post, I am not much of a cereal person in general. However, for some time, these wonderful Cheerios
seemed to have vanished. So you can
imagine my delight when they suddenly re-appeared on a supermarket shelf and
shortly thereafter in my home. But my
delight ended before my tummy received the cheery o's. The Banana Nut Cheerios were little o-shaped
imposters.
They did not taste strongly of banana; rather, they tasted mildly
of it for the first bite, followed by increasing…something else. 'Twas a flavor I could not put my finger
on. Sugary? Sort of.
Maple-y? Maybe. Brown-sugar-y? Um, I don't know. Of course, despite my disappointment, I
continued to eat them, trying to re-attain the banana-y flavor I so yearned for.
In my previous post regarding these Cheerios, I explained
that milk, especially real milk, brings out more of the delicious flavors. Therefore, I must assure you, I did indeed
have real milk with my not-so-Banana Nut Cheerios. If you must know, it was a fancy organic and
even grass-fed milk. 'Twas my first time
having such a fancy milk. I was
surprised to find I did not moo as a result of imbibing it. I did not moo at all.
I was uncertain if the lost banana flavor was General Mill's
fault or mine own. Perhaps I had a taste
in my mouth that altered the cereal, or perhaps my taste buds were on the
fritz.
So I conducted thorough research into whether the Banana Nut
Cheerio recipe had changed. Of course,
by "thorough research," I mean I quickly Googled. In so researching, I learned that the
mysterious absence of Banana Nut Cheerios was due to an evil and cruel
discontinuation of said cereal two flippin' years ago! Didn't they know I love them? Why would they do such a treacherous thing? Anyhoo, they made what could have been a
triumphant albeit limited-time return recently.
I then compared the old ingredients to the new ingredients, and it most
certainly has changed.
Ironically, the changes in ingredients suggest an
improvement in quality and healthiness. There
are no longer any chemical-sounding words in the ingredients list, and almonds
have been replaced with pecans and cinnamon (I mean, "natural
flavors" of these things). There
are 10 more calories per the same sized serving of 3/4 cup, and 1 gram less
sugar. Instead of a combination of whole
grain corn and oats, it's now just whole grain oats. None of this should be bad, except maybe the
10 more calories, though that's only a problem if you have many servings at
once (as some people do).
I realized the problem was probably that the pecan and cinnamon
flavors are stealing the spotlight from the banana, and those were probably the
flavors I couldn't put my finger on.
Almonds (or "natural almond flavor" as it were) are probably
more mild, and certainly a lack of cinnamon would keep the spotlight on the
banana. The old recipe got one important
thing right: it knew that bananas were the star of the show.
With my new understanding of what the new Banana Nut
Cheerios are, I decided to give them another chance. This time, I had the cereal with Lactaid,
another (less) fancy milk whose lactose is removed or something. I don't think the type of real milk made a difference
in this case because the cereal tasted the same as it did before. However, my expectations and understandings
were different, as I no longer expected anything all that banana-y, and I did
expect cinnamon and pecan flavors. And
so it was. Because I was no longer
distracted by my disappoint in lack of banana flavor, I was able to experience
the cinnamon pecan flavor as the initial banana faded. While it is no longer the best cereal ever,
and it is not a yummy banana-y cereal, it is a yummy cereal with an initial
hint of banana. I can still recommend
it, but not as whole-heartedly as I once could.
