What Ever Happened to the Best Cereal EVER?

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.