Like buying a gift for the person who has everything, or picking toppings for the bagel that is Everything, it’s tough saying much about a cereal line like Cheerios Oat Crunch, whose simple concept and already much-lauded lineage seems to speak for itself.
It’s got oats, and it’s got a whole lot of crunch. What’s not to love? Already released in both Cinnamon and Oats & Honey, Cheerios Oat Crunch has earned nothing but high marks and brimming enthusiasm from me. Oats & Honey in particular was named the #1 cereal of 2019—and it was probably the best cereal of the 2010s as a whole, too.
[banned in tournament play] pic.twitter.com/RgM5KegHVl
— Cerealously 🥛🥣 (@cerealouslynet) May 15, 2021
With that said, new Almond Cheerios Oat Crunch simultaneously has big, ring-shaped shoes to fill as well as a very low bar to clear. Because if it’s anything at all like its predecessors, it’ll easily be a bombastic breakfast. But the only way to find out is to dig in, eh?
Aaaaand, yup: surprise surprise, it’s fantastic!
In fact, Almond Cheerios Oat Crunch tastes extremely similar to Oats & Honey Cheerios Oat Crunch—so much so that I was surprised to see how, despite its strong golden-sweet sheen, there’s no mention of “honey” at all in Almond’s ingredient list. However, I believe the reason these two are taste-alikes is their binding association with Honey Nut Cheerios. See, the “Nut” flavor in Honey Nut Cheerios comes from almond extract, whose unique browned buttery nuttiness is turned up to 11 in Almond Oat Crunch.
Granted, there are plenty of almond slivers, too, whose snap contrasts nicely with the crispy loose oats, but it’s this almond extract that far and away dominates Almond Cheerios Oat Crunch’s flavor profile. Combine this mouthwatering glaze with the darkly roasty-toasty oats, and you’ve got yourself a rootin-tootin bowl of wholly grainy goodness. Much like the other Oat Crunch varieties, the appeal here seems almost universally palatable—anyone without a nut allergy is sure to at least get some joy out of this stuff.
Milk is also a major must, as the variously textured elements of Almond Cheerios Oat Crunch gob together real nicely into what is essentially a crunchier bowl of overnight oats. The loose oats especially can take on a lot of liquid, acting as heroic sog bulwarks that protect the main Cheerios rings from getting too mushy.
In the end, Almond Cheerios Oat Crunch is amazing, even if it doesn’t really bring anything new to the table—after all, that’s kind of what the Oat Crunch line is all about: refining classic cereal tastes to a point of artisanal near mastery. Seriously: these are the types of cereals medieval grain farmers would kill to have their young knaves apprentice under.
I will say that, of the three Oat Crunches, Almond is probably my technical least favorite, only because its siblings seem to own their respective flavor lanes a bit more distinctly. Regardless, I hope this doesn’t spell the end of the Oat Crunch family. From strawberry or raisins to chocolate or maple, there are still countless cereal frontiers I’d love to see this triumphant cereal brand conquer.
The Bowl:Â Almond Cheerios Oat Crunch
The Breakdown: Like an amped-up Honey Nut Cheerios (with hypothetical honey and literal nuts), this latest Oat Crunch delight nevertheless feels like it’s coasting when it could be revolutionizing.
The Bottom Line:Â 8.5 bowls of meniscus-free bee’s knees out of 10
I’ve eaten Cheerios in many of its different iterations over the years and always enjoyed the cereal a lot. However, when I tried Almond Oat Crunch today I was totally put off. My first reaction was that it had a bad aftertaste that didn’t wait for the “after”; there was a peripheral taste which ruined the cereal. I took two spoonfuls with milk and then literally flushed the remainder down the toilet. Come on, you can do better than this.
I love almonds but there is some sort of overpowering synthetic almond flavoring not listed in the ingredients. I mean it could be almond extract, but again not listed. Wtf is up with that? It’s really pretty gross. Also the 2nd ingredient is sugar. Why these companies feed us trash? lol. They really don’t care about us at all.
The crazy thing is the over use of almond extract/ or other ingredients not listed. What else can have the taste of almonds in the ingredients that may explain this.
I will definitely be looking for the almond Cheerios Oat Crunch.
I wanted to love it but the almond extract flavor was too strong! No other natural flavor came through
Jewel Food Store at Homer Glen. IL was giving away sample boxes. I open it up and ate some. Looks like the picture on the box. The taste was what you’d expect except (did you know that expect is an anagram of except) ALMOND EXTRACT.
I don’t like almond extract so I found it tasted a little bit too much like almond extract. I would have preferred cardamom. I won’t buy it again because of the almond extract but I am sure someone will buy it because of it.