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November 22, 2014

Review & giveaway #33 – Spoon cereals

Giveaways 244 Replies

Annie, of Spoon Cereals, came to the food industry in her second year of working in advertising. “I struggled to find a tasty, healthy, high quality bowl of cereal on my way to work each morning, which is why I decided to start up my own breakfast cereal company, Spoon Cereals, with mentor and business partner Jonny Shimmin.”

The compnay was only launched a year ago and already they’ve been on Dragons’ Den where they secured investment from Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden. They supply granola and muesli to Harvey Nichols, nationwide as well as local high-end delis in London. They sent me four of their cereals to try. Well cereal is the wrong word – they sent me muesli, granola and a museli-granola hybrid. Here’s what I thought:

Apple & peanut granola – this was my favourite. I loved it. Now I am not usually an apple person unless they’re crisp and fresh and raw. I don’t really go in for apple crumble, apple cake… you get the idea. But these dried pieces of apple (of which there were lots) really did it for me. They were ultra chewy and sweet; so to get the sugar you really had to work for it. This seemed right and fitting. The peanuts were as delicious as peanuts always are. A great combination that felt ever so slightly American for some reason. I admit to eating two bowls back to back upon first tasting. I sent the rest of the packet to work with my husband to stop me gobbling it all up as snack style trail mix.

Cinnamon granola – Gosh, I don’t want to sound like an old misery but again, I am not big on cinnamon baked goods. They always taste artificially sweet to me. I don’t know why. I really did like this granola though. The toasted hazelnuts were crunchy and abundant (none of that hunt the nut business here), the cinnamon coating was subtle and added a lovely crispness to the outside of the granola pieces AND it had coconut flakes. I am a coconut nut. I ate a small bowl with milk and then two tumblers-full as snacks. I have asked for this granola to be removed to husband’s work for fear of eating the whole lot in one sitting. (FYI: This variety has won a Great Taste Award).

Granola-muesli mix – I have issues with the naming of this. I reckon the makers of Spoon can be a bit more creative. One of them used to work in advertising for goodness sake (as a fellow ex ad girl I know it matters not which department she worked in; all ad folks are frustrated copywriters and art directors, even the copywriters and art directors). Anyway, onto the taste test; I ate a bowl with milk and I give it a tick. Enough dried fruit (ie/ a lot) to remain sweet , lots of brazil nuts, hazelnuts and almonds plus oats and rye flakes and spelt flakes galore. Yes it was very nice indeed but I couldn’t help think of the granola’s I’d sent into exhile (see above). Sorry, but my heart belongs to apple and peanut granola.

Fruit and nut museli – Come on guys, there’s a better name for this surely? Okay, so this is a breakfast for those folks who like to eat clean. There is no sugar, I repeat there is no sugar present in this muesli. And it tastes like it has no sugar. (Not even maple syrup which everyone knows isn’t really sugar, it’s healthy sweet syrup, right?) It was full of the good stuff; oat flakes, rye flakes, spelt flakes, hazelnuts that had been toasted to perfection, almonds, brazil nuts and loads of apricots, dates and sultanas. Even some pumpkin seeds. But honestly? This was too worthy for me. No thanks. I will leave it to the Eat Clean brigade and their perfect skin and jutting hip bones.

This is possibly the longest review in history but still I have more. I did have a small issue with the packaging. I LOVED their Harvey Nics (and surely Waitrose soon?) friendly outer white paper bags but the inside cellophane type bag was a bit too easy to rip in my opinion. The cereal doesn’t seem to be suffering from this as the white bags have a nifty fold over thingy that seals rather well. Still… this is a review so I’m going to mention it.

I have 1 x Spoon Cereal gift pack RRP £20 giveaway. There are lots of ways to enter – see the Rafflecopter form below. The first way is just to leave a comment on this post. Easy peasy. Closing date 20th February 2015. How to enter:

  • Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
  • This giveaway will close on 20th February 2015.
  • Please read the rules below.
  • Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after the prize has been claimed by the winner.
  • First timers: Please watch how Rafflecopter works (video)! It is 46 seconds long. It explains everything.
  • If no form is showing, hit refresh and it should appear.
  • Complete the form – or your beloved entries will not go into the draw. And that would be such a waste of time.
  • Mandatory entries need to be completed first – so leave a blog comment before you try and complete any of the other methods of entry.
  • Want more chances to win? Come back daily after tweeting about the giveaway and fill the form in again.
  • If you are viewing this by email you will need to click through to enter.

Rules and things:

  • Open to anyone over the age of 18, UK only. Sorry to anyone younger or further afield.
  • There are 1 x Spoon Cereal gift pack worth RRP £20 as per the photo to giveaway to 1 person. There’s no cash alternative to the prize and the prize is not transferable. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
  • Instructions form part of the terms and conditions. Entries using any software or automated process to make bulk entries will obviously be disqualified. The winner will be picked at random using software and then contacted by email. If you win and then don’t respond to this email within 7 days then another winner will be picked so check your emails and your spam! The goodies will be delivered to the winner as soon as possible after you have sent me your delivery address.
  • I am running this giveaway on behalf of Spoon Cereals who will be responsible for sending the prize to you by post should you win. Their decision is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into.
  • This is where I get all stern – please don’t say you have liked the post and followed me on Twitter and Tweeted away like a Tweety thing if you haven’t as guess what? If you win I will check you did do the things you said you did. It’s only fair after all. And I do like fairness.

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244 comments

  30. I’ve just become.e a bit of a Jordan’s granola addict having spent years in some sort of cereal excile, I just didn’t like any cereal but now I’ve started I’m like a crazy munching machine. Not great for the pre wedding weight loss. Maybe this prize would help

  39. Cereal is my favourite breakfast and I’m always looking out for new ones, the cinnamon granola looks fab

  172. I’ve said this before about Spoon, but their packaging is just gorgeous <3 So sleek; I'm a sucker for fab packaging, haha.

  202. I saw these on Dragon’s Den and thought what a great idea it seemed. They look delicious.

  214. I tend to make my own granola, so it would be an absolute joy to have a ready-made batch as good as this for a treat!

  232. Completely right about the cinnamon granola…if a bag is left near me I would absolutely demolish it! Definitely worthy of the award! Haven’t tried the apple and peanut one but maybe I should after reading this!

  237. Yum! We all love granola and muesli here ( even if it was just spell checked to granola and mussels!)

  241. I make my own muesli without sugar, only adding coconut and ground almonds for sweetness, so will be interesting to compare the two :)

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Holly Bell
I’m a mum of 3 boys, a cookbook writer and also a finalist on the 2011 Great British Bake Off. I’ve decided to record the recipes I use, partly to save them somewhere and partly in case someone else might like to use them... [Read more]

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