Product: Envirokidz Leapin’ Lemurs Cereal – $4.99+
I’ve been pretty impressed, although not always blown away, by the Envirokidz line of gluten-free snacks and cereals that I’ve purchased.
This cereal was given to me by my boss. And just looking at the box made me incredibly stupid-happy (technical term) because it combined two of my most favorite things in the world: chocolate and peanut butter. Oh, if I didn’t already have an open box of cereal in my pantry, this would have been opened and consumed long before now. But the moment for this ultimate cereal-gasm finally arrived this morning, when I opened up the box and dished out a serving of Envirokidz Organic Leapin’ Lemurs cereal. All I added was a splash of unsweetened almond milk and settled in on the couch to feast before heading out for my morning run.
I had anticipated this first bite since being given the cereal and the moment had finally arrived. My spoon went into the swimming cereal, lifted up a bite, and my moment of longing was over.
I don’t know where to start…with the good or the bad. Hmmm…
The good:
Well, on the positive side of things, this cereal had a lot of crunch to it. If you are an avid viewer of morning television (I am not), do not pour a bowl of this cereal if you wish to hear what the morning news is all about. It is one loud bite after another. I like this though, because the cereal doesn’t get mushy in the milk bath it sits in. So often, I’m futzing with a blanket or booting up my computer, or something that it takes a moment after I add my milk to actually enjoy my cereal. By then, most of it is mush. Not this cereal. Lots of crunch and it stays that way.
Also, as mentioned on all previous posts about Envirokidz products, a 1% donation from your purchase of the product is donated to habitat and species conservation or education programs for kids. Who doesn’t love that.
Oh…and the ingredients are organic. The box specifically lists all ingredients with the word ‘organic’ in front of it where, applicable. For example, some of the ingredients include organic corn meal, organic whole grain corn meal, organic evaporated cane juice, organic peanut butter, organic molasses, organic cocoa, organic soy oil, etc. And, the ingredients are all words that I recognize and can point to and say, “Ah, I know what that is!” That is a comfort given the use of high fructose corn syrup, chemicals that act as preservatives, etc. in today’s products.
The bad:
It really, really, really has no flavor. When you get something that is peanut butter and chocolate flavored, you expect these flavors to pop. Well, these fizzle. Eventually, as you eat more and more, the flavor begins to show up, but it takes awhile and it isn’t immediate. When I have a cereal that is made of organic peanut butter and organic cocoa, by God, I want this cereal to taste like peanut butter and cocoa, not just corn puffs flavored (I guess) with these ingredients. I love peanut butter. I love chocolate. I wanted to love this cereal.
But I didn’t. It is okay. And, of course, I’ll polish off the box. But, if given the choice, I don’t think I’d purchase this on my own. There are too many cereals out there with fantastic flavor to waste on a bland breakfast.
I love what Envirokidz is doing for gluten-free cereal and for the environment. And, for the most part, their products have been awesome. This one just didn’t have me leaping for joy and wanting to screw the serving size and down a little more.
The Celiathlete 