Review: Steve's PaleoGoods Cinnamon Paleokrunch Cereal

So, the charity of Steve (as opposed to The Tao of Steve) continues again today as I embark on another Steve's PaleoGoods review that came out of my wonderful sampler pack that they so graciously delivered to my front door.  Today's review is of something I have a real problem with:  granola.  It's not a problem because I don't like it or I'm allergic to it or whatever.  It's a problem because I'm ADDICTED to granola.  I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.  My favorite thing about staying in hotels is the free breakfast in the morning so that I can go down there and DESTROY their granola.  And if you don't think I've used enough all capital letter words yet, I will tell you that when I'm at a hotel that doesn't have granola, I am really, really SAD.  Anyway, today's addiction (or review) is of this 7.5 ounce bag of Steve's PaleoGoods Cinnamon Paleokrunch Cereal that was sent along to me.  It's got five servings in the bag and simple math tells this math wizard that is 1.5 ounces per serving.  Each serving also has 209 calories and seven grams of protein and to top that all off, it's gluten free and paleo.  Yahoo Mountain Dew (does anyone else actually say that or have you at least heard it?)!

One of the words I had never really heard in my life until I started watching (Gordon) Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America was the word "rustic."  In my backwoods (or maybe just the suburbs) upbringing in Indiana, everyone just said "old fashioned" or "distressed" or something of the like.  Being that the British have enlightened me, I think the best way to describe this cereal is that it looks rustic in its composition.  It's all laid out there for the world to see and there's nothing pretty about it.  It's a boatload of ingredients that are loosely dumped into the bag or compacted into clumps like you see above.  Within those clumps are Raw Almonds, Shredded Coconut, Raw Pumpkin Seeds, Raw Walnuts, Raw Pecans, Sunflower Seeds, Coconut Oil, Honey and Cinnamon.  Just about everything in that list is clearly visible too, so that is kind of fun in a simple pleasures, simple minds kind of way.  The whole batch smells overwhelmingly of cinnamon too and considering that's the namesake of the product, it's probably a good thing.  One more note is that this cereal was quite sticky to the touch due to the honey.

Biting into these clusters, I had a mild surprise.  Typically granola is pretty crunchy.  This was actually kind of soft.  Not a bad thing, just unexpected.  This was also quite grainy due to the plethora of seeds and coconut shreds that were spread throughout.  That said, there was also some very good crunch in this due to the fact that there were also a plethora of almonds and walnuts.  All of these provided great texture, but outside of the walnuts, all of them kind of meshed together in flavor due to the fact that the named cinnamon was so overwhelming.  What's interesting about that is that cinnamon is the last ingredient in the ingredient list on the packaging, implying that it is the ingredient that is in the package the least.  The fact that the cinnamon spice was so strong and overpowered everything, in addition to lingering after each bite, just goes to show how strong cinnamon is itself.  I like cinnamon, so I'm okay with that, but it could be a bit much.  What also lingered after each bite were the cinnamon shreds as they kept getting stuck in my teeth.  Granted, I was frantically eating this dry as opposed to in milk and that probably played a factor in that, but I do feel it's worth pointing out.

Buy It or Fly By It?  Despite the fact that this granola eating experience was different than what I expected, that is no reason to give this a negative rating because it was quite delicious.  Therefore, a BUY IT rating is easily earned here.  Like I said, the cinnamon may be a bit much for some, but it was fine and very enjoyable for me and just one more thing that I can add to my addiction list.  Fantastic.

BUY IT!!