I don’t tend to do full blog reviews of national brands very often, but Nature’s Path is a brand whose cereal I eat almost every day. I’ve recommended it to numerous people over the past couple of years and having recently been sent some samples from their range I thought a review was long overdue. The company was born as far back as 1985 in Canada, and have been selling their free from organic products in the UK for a relatively short period of time.
The samples I received were Maple Sunrise, Mesa Sunrise, O’s and a packet of Nice and Nobbly Granola. All of these were of course gluten free, though I do see that Nature’s Path make some products that are not so always check. Let me first start with the Maple Sunrise as I absolutely love this cereal and it is the one I have daily. This cereal is packed with gluten free grains including corn, rice, flax, quinoa, and amaranth which gives it a really great texture. The brand’s Canadian roots come through with the delicious maple flavour that really makes this the perfect cereal for me. Some will no doubt find this one too sweet and I must admit I do usually mix it 50/50 with Dove’s Farm fibre flakes which is a great combination in my opinion.
The next cereal I tried were the gluten free O’s. These of course look like the Cheerios that we all remember from our pre-coeliac gluten eating days. Made from corn and wholegrain rice, again these had great texture and a nice crunch. The O’s were a lot less sweet than the Maple Sunrise, and I did miss the sweetness a little at first but after eating them for a couple days I’d soon forgotten this and started enjoying them a lot more.
Probably my least favourite of the four was the Mesa Sunrise. These are made from corn, rice, aramanth and quinoa and I just found them a little bland compared to everything else that I’d tried. However, they did work really well when mixed with the Maple Sunrise. I think it seems to be a feature of these cereals that you can really mix them together to create the perfect cereal for you!
Finally I tried the strawberry, blueberry and raspberry Nice and Nobbly Granola. This also contained yoghurt chunks and is predominately oat based so is not suitable for those with dairy and oat issues. I absolutely loved this stuff, it was so good!! The texture and flavour of the gluten free oats was perfectly complimented by all the fruit and yoghurt chunks. I’ve yet to find this one in Plymouth but when I do I will definitely be stocking up. Again, some people may find this a bit sweet for their palette and may want to mix in some Mesa Sunrise to take the edge off.
I was subsequently sent some Nice and Nobbly Granola bars to sample, which again contain oats. These were a big hit with both myself and my wife and we were really impressed. They reminded me of the Tracker bars I used to eat when I was younger, nice and chewy. The bars were just the right level of sweet and come in two varieties; Dark Choc Chip and Trail Mix. Naturally I headed straight for the choc chip ones first and they are delicious. What surprised me was that I actually liked the Trail Mix bars just as much, if not more. The Trail Mix is packed full of seeds but there is a lovely cranberry flavour which I really enjoyed. These make the perfect on the go snack to put in your wife’s handbag (sits back and waits for the inevitable smack from said wife!).
Are you a fan of the Nature’s Path products? Please comment below and let me know what you think.
Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea
Gluten Free By The Sea 