What’s your number?
No, I’m not asking for your phone digits, height & weight, or preferred prophetic angel number. Rather, what’s the most you’d be willing to pay for a new cereal? Depending on where you live, your typical breakfast boxful probably costs around $3-$4, or a little more for a family-sized brick of the stuff. Tipping the scales on the other end are indie/healthy cereals like Three Wishes and luxury products like Morning Summit, which seems to use its premium price point solely to earn PR—not unlike that silly I Am Rich app from the early iOS days.
Falling somewhere between average and exorbitant are premium cereals like LaraBar Cereal, KIND Bar Cereal, and now, yes, even CLIF Bar Cereals. I’m sure it’s only coincidence that trying all these bar-inspired cereals will cost you a veritable gold bar, but regardless, since they each cost about $7 a box, this is a morning investment worth researching first.
Thankfully, CLIF was kind enough to send me each of their four new cereal flavors, so I can tell you whether the steep price point is worth the sojourn. In other words, does the view justify the climb? Allow me to stake in my spoon and find out.
Chocolate & Peanut Butter CLIF Cereal Review
Embarrassingly, there aren’t any of those iconic jumbles in this photo, because I think I literally picked them all out before thinking to take a photo. Those suckers are good, as you’ll see in the photos to come.
Of the four CLIF Cereal flavors, two use peanut butter, while the other two are based around almond butter. As both a registered pea-nuthead (uh, don’t quote me on that) and a firm believer that Chocolate Rules Everything Around Me, I had to start with the classic Choco-PB duo here.
First things first: I really dig the flakes (a point that will remain true through all four cereals reviewed today). A lot of these healthy–wholesome branded cereals really, well, flake when it comes to establishing a solid base grain for their cereals, and their flakes end up being painfully crunchy and too bland. But CLIF Cereal strikes a happy camper’s medium. These wheat/quinoa/sorghum/buckwheat flakes have the respectable-but-not-excessive density that you’d get out of the bran flakes in Raisin Bran Crunch. but CLIF’s taste far more earthen, woodsy, and “seedy” (in the “freshly planted” sense, not the “back-alley clown museum” sense). Sure, they’re not quite sweet enough to carry the cereal on their own, but these flakes make for pleasant bowlfellows that their respective cereals’ accoutrements can charmingly complement.
In the case of Chocolate & Peanut Butter CLIF Cereal, the flakes are flanked by chocolate granola clusters, actual peanuts, plus “crispy rice, nut, and pumpkin seed jumbles.” These last bits are crucial, because a) a two-clustered cereal is a bold rarity, b) “jumbles” is a cute euphemism to avoid saying “clusters” twice, and c) they’re coated in creamy peanut butter and absolutely delicious.
See, the actual peanuts are alright and not too obtrusive, contributing a nice saltiness that broadens CLIF Cereal’s overall palate, while the deliberately unsweetened chocolate granola clusters add only a pretty subtle bittersweetness, too. It’s the jumbles that provide the vast majority of this cereal’s sweetness, so try your best to get at least one jumbled into every spoonful. The rice, nut, and pumpkin seed aspects of the jumbles are merely texture, too: it’s the sweet, creamy, borderline milky peanut butter binding that bursts with butteriness and makes the whole cereal a rich delight.
Speaking of milkiness, adding milk to Chocolate & Peanut Butter CLIF Cereal is a good choice in my opinion, but not essential, as it doesn’t affect the balance of tastes much. Overall, this is a peanut-forward cereal that could use a little more potent chocolate—I still prefer the decadence of Nature’s Path’s similar choco-PB Love Crunch, but if you’ve ever wondered what a deconstructed, organically farm-plucked Reese’s Cup might taste like, Chocolate & Peanut Butter CLIF Cereal’s not a bad way to find out.
The Bottom Line: 8 junior jumbles that are way harder than crossword clusters out of 10
Honey & Peanut Butter CLIF Cereal Review
Ugh, I can’t even tell if there are any jumbles in this! They look just like the granola clusters. I think I see one just northwest of center, but the more I stare, the more the whole thing starts to look like a hypnotic topography of Tatooine.
Since I’ve already gotten into the nutty-gritty of what’s consistent between CLIF Cereals, I can get right to the point for each individual flavor. In the case of Honey & Peanut Butter, that point is: this is the best CLIF Cereal flavor!
It’s really not even that different from Chocolate & Peanut Butter, but the main difference is that the honey comes through a lot more strongly than the chocolate. Honey and peanut butter is a rare cereal aisle combo—I’ve only really seen it done with oatmeal, which is sad, because the two flavors’ golden brown sweetnesses play so nicely together. Between the jumbles and the peanuts strewn throughout, those familiar salty–sweet ribbons of joyous PB intertwine with lightly floral honey to knit together an overall flavor profile that’s as cozy as a grandmother-made sandwich, albeit one with the crusts still on, given the flakes’ earthy foundation.
Beyond that, there’s not much more to say about Honey & Peanut Butter CLIF Cereal. Both of its namesake flavors are present and deeply pleasant, so unless you have a peanut allergy or a deep-seated vendetta against honey—lookin’ at you, Ken from Bee Movie—this flavor is a clear frontrunner.
The Bottom Line: 9 finely toothsome honeycombs out of 10
Blueberry & Almond Butter CLIF Cereal Review
Ohh, yeah, that’s the stuff. Look at those jumbles (right?).
The appeal of CLIF’s two peanut butter-based cereals is pretty universal, but I must say, the almond butter-focused two certainly serve a narrower niche. This is for two reasons: 1) to me, at least, peanuts and peanut butter have pretty distinct tastes, while almonds and almond butter are both similarly, well, almond-y. So unless you adore the taste of almonds themselves, you might have more trouble with Blueberry and Apple Cinnamon CLIF Bar Cereals.
Oh, and reason 2): these cereals use whole almonds. This is something I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered before, as most almond cereals either just use almond extract for flavoring, or they include meager almond slivers. In CLIF Cereals, on the other hand, these big ol’ nut hunks are unsplintered and extremely chewy. I felt a bit like a jaw-fatigued beaver while trying to break down each spoonful, and as a result, this almond-heaviness came at the expense of any real blueberry enjoyment.
Sure, there are blueberry bits baked into the granola clusters here, but as with Chocolate & Peanut Butter CLIF Cereal, it kinda gets lost in the proverbial oat sauce. That means your only hope of getting a blueberry burst in each spoonful is to hunt down the scant few dried blueberries scattered throughout the box. They’re nicely tart and flavorful, but there simply aren’t enough of them to make Blueberry & Almond Butter CLIF Cereal a consistently fruitful experience.
In the end, this was the most disappointing of all four CLIF Cereals. I don’t like playing a forager’s game of “find the blueberry in the grain stack,” and with those rare blueberries still lacking any real sweetness, the whole thing feels a bit bland and relies too much on the jumbles to hold this bumbling bowlful together. It’s not bad, per se, but if you’re going to plunk down $7 for a CLIF Cereal, the others are all superior.
The Bottom Line: 6.5 blueberry fields forgotten out of 10
Apple Cinnamon & Almond Butter CLIF Cereal Review
Your best jumbling yet, Clifford.
Finishing strong, I’m happy to report that Apple Cinnamon & Almond Butter CLIF Cereal overcomes all those aforementioned almond challenged with gusto and gumption. This is a great cereal that rivals Honey & Peanut Butter as the best of the bunch, and the reason why isn’t exactly surprising:
The jumbles here are jumbo–large and bursting with cinnamon-apple-buttery goodness.
I know, it’s unfair to say the jumbles were the only good part of Blueberry, and the best part of Apple Cinnamon, but it’s true. See, there are a lot more dried apple bits in here, compared to the seemingly endangered blueberries, so the apple cinnamon jumbles can contrast that dried fruit tartness in every spoonful, instead of just some. The big, dense almonds still feel like an unnecessary masticatory exercise, but it’s harder to notice them when you’re too busy savoring the sublime pie-filling-esque jumbles.
The Bottom Line: 8.5 Jumblin’ Jack Flashes out of 10
I could probably say more, but my fingers are so tired you’d think they’ve been chewing almonds. I’ll close with this: CLIF Cereals are still a bit expensive to recommend outright. I think they’re much more worth your while than KIND and LaraBar Cereals. Those two seem to take the “minimalistic ingredient lists = healthy” approach to cereals, so you end up feeling like you paid more for less cereal. CLIF Cereals, on the other hand, have a lot going on, preferring to justify their premium price with higher-quality, organic and sustainably sourced ingredients.
Frankly, CLIF Cereals present a welcome alternative to buying from the same four corporate cereal megaliths. So if you can swing a luxury cereal purchase, I’d say go for Honey & Peanut Butter or Apple Cinnamon & Almond Butter. Otherwise, something like a Love Crunch will give you the indulgence you seek for a few dollars less.
Just don’t expect any CLIF Cereal to help boost you up a mountain, because you won’t be able to take your face out of the box long enough to leave base camp.
$3.50 a box at Wa6
The price point of these bar-inspired cereals makes a person want to hurl themselves off a CLIF, am I right? But hopefully they’ll be on sale soon enough, and the chocolate and peanut butter does look like the safest bet.
that looks …interesting where can i find it