Enjoy Life Very Berry Crunch Granola Cereal- gluten free/ dairy free/ wehat free/ nut free/ egg free/ soy free/ all natural
OK, I have had enough bread for a few days, and wanted to share this breakfast cereal with you. I purchased it to share with my sister before her wedding at Christmas. We were staying with my parents and needed a gluten free breakfast cereal option in my parents’ pantry for a satisfying breakfast in a short amount of time. Getting ready for a wedding is serious business, and not a second is wasted! (Well, almost, right Kristina?) . I purchased this 12.8 ounce box of gluten free cereal for $5.29 at a nearby grocery store.
I admit the picture on the box looked really good- the clusters of granola amongst plump juicy berries- yum,! Oh boy was I in for a surprise. I opened the box to discover that it was only half full. Nope, the contents just hadn’t “settled”, but the inner sealed bag was only as large as half the box. Very deceptive!
Then I poured some granola into my bowl. My first thought was. “Where are the berries?!” I saw large one to two inch chunks of granola cereal with a bits of color, but I had to look really hard. I started to get that sinking feeling that I had wasted my money. However, wanting to give it a fair shot, I poured some milk and dug in.
Thankfully, I was surprised- it wasn’t as bad as I expected. Even though the freeze dried berries were hard to see, this gluten free granola cereal had a pleasant strawberry and raspberry flavor that blended well with the granola. This cereal wasn’t too sweet, but lacked a traditional “granola” flavor since it does not contain nuts or oats. The texture is also hard to describe, since it consisted mostly of brown rice flakes and rice bran. I also noticed a strange aftertaste, but couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was from.
This cereal did not get soggy and remained crisp and crunchy in my milk. However, it was almost too gard to eat and enjoy. I found this cereal to be quite filling thanks to the 5 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein per serving half cup serving.
Overall, I found this cereal to be quite unexpected. I enjoyed the berry flavor but found the rest of the “granola” a little strange. I feel this is a good option for those that cannot have nuts or oats. However, for myself I think I will stick to a more traditional variety of granola cereal.
PROS: nice berry flavor, allergen-free
CONS: deceptive packaging, very large chunks, aftertaste, hard to chew, appearance is less than appetizing
Rating: 2 stars
Want to try it? Click the picture and link below:
Enjoy Life Foods Very Berry Granola Gluten-Free Cereal- glutenfreemall.com
Read more Enjoy Life gluten free product reviews:
Enjoy Life Soft Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies
Enjoy Life Soft Baked Snickerdoodle Cookies
February 18th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
[...] Enjoy Life Very Berry Granola [...]
February 21st, 2008 at 12:40 am
I’ve eyed this one in the store a number of times and wondered if it would be worth trying for my daughter. Your comments on the texture answered my questions - I think it would be to crunchy for her to eat well. Thanks for reviewing this!
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
It’s funny that you said it was so crunchy. We had the opposite experience. Ours was almost chewy. I was wondering if we just got a bad batch.
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:30 am
Hmmmm, if you still have the box, maybe check the expiration date? Either yours was a bad batch, or mine was! Thanks for the feedback- it is always good to read another experience. What did you think of the flavor?
February 26th, 2008 at 3:50 am
I have seen this but have been reluctant to try it. There is a granola by Cascadian Farm that we like a lot (I’m not sure if it is oat free but I will check it out next time I buy) and then I’ll also give you more specifics.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
That would be great Neena! I can’t wait to hear more about it.
March 27th, 2008 at 3:11 am
I’m a big cereal person, and gluten free (ish) for about 4 months.
I’ve tried this cereal and I hated it. I can deal with the texture but just can’t get “used” to the taste. I still have the mostly full box sitting in my pantry, thinking that one day I’ll be able to smash it into smaller pieces and incorporate it into a granola bar or something…
As far as cereals go, there are way too many out there to choke this stuff down. But that’s just my opinion :o)
March 27th, 2008 at 3:32 am
Thanks for the comment! It’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one not crazy about this cereal. Have you found a gluten free cereal you really like yet? I’d love to hear about it!