I’ve been working through my annual Christmas Food Haul, although this year is the smallest yet (trying to be less extravagant and more careful), and thought I should share the cereal reviews! Sainsburys began selling the UK’s first set of seasonal cereals back in 2020, when they released their first festive range, and this year is no different! It’s also been exciting as Aldi have joined in, and released a festive-ish cereal of their own!
(For context: as part of food being one of my special interests, and my food collecting hobby, on top of collecting 12 different foods, I also do an annual Christmas Food and Easter Food haul. These hauls involve me buying a range of different seasonal foods, trying to cover and depth and breadth of traditional treats, and then writing reviews. My Christmas haul is the larger one, and focuses on mince pies, stollen, Christmas cake and pudding, lebkuchen, panettone, cereals/porridge, and then sometimes other bits and bobs also released, such as festive-themed cake and biscuits.)
Anyway, without further ado, let’s begin!
Sainsburys Free From Snowballs and Stars – 6/10
These have actually been released every single year of Sainsburys festive cereal-ing! They’re gluten free puffed rice stars coated with cocoa powder, and puffed rice snowballs coated with honey. They’re light, crunchy, and to be honest, lack much flavour. The honey isn’t noticeable, at all, and despite being a ‘sweet cereal’, they aren’t particularly sweet either. Sadly, they’re a pretty average crunchy cereal. Fun simply because of their shapes, but that’s where the excitement and creativity end.
Despite that, I didn’t mind them too much, because they weren’t oversweet, and when combined with Weetabix, they added some interesting texture to my mush. They also absorbed some milk, so did soften a little.
Sainsburys Black Forest Gateaux Porridge – 6/10
I was pleased to see this porridge, because it felt very different to any other Christmas porridges (there’s been a gingerbread and a winter spice)! Black Forest, while not traditional at Christmas, is associated with the winter, and celebrations, so is very suitable, and I quite like cherry flavour. I also always appreciate a really out-there porridge flavour, because if I’m going to not have normal oats, I feel like it should be something really exciting, in replacement!
This porridge did thicken up considerably, and had a good chocolate flavour, as well as a strong taste of cherries. I was disappointed a bit by the lack of actual cherries, which would’ve really improved the texture, and while the oats weren’t…bad, they definitely were not the same quality of oats as branded porridge sachets like Quaker. I have previously tried Quaker sachets, which involve bigger oats that have more chew and ‘bite’ to them; this gives a better mouth experience.
A definite improvement Sainsburys, but still, work to be done! Would definitely recommend to someone who likes a sweet breakfast and wants a treat – my score does reflect the fact I prefer a plainer porridge!
Sainsburys Caramelised Biscuit Pillows – 2/10
I was NOT looking forward to trying these – described as ‘crispy cereal pillows with a caramelised biscuit flavour and milk chocolate flavour filling’, they are similar to the branded cereal Krave, and are extremely crunchy and non-absorbent. This means that, when heated, they collapse and form a goo, rather than absorbing milk, inflating, and becoming a soft mush upon microwaving. My concerns were confirmed upon tasting, though I did enjoy them somewhat as a crunchy biscuit.
I found that the caramelised biscuit flavour was objectively, very nice though, and came through strongly in the actual biscuit. The filling was milk chocolate, and was slightly distracting, however they did go okay together, and the whole experience did feel like a treat.
I would say these are a great Christmas cereal…if you’re the kind of person who likes Krave! Unfortunately, I am not, and even more upsettingly, I feel very concerned that this cereal is replacing the usual ‘Mince Pie Wheats’ that Sainsburys release. Normally the supermarket produce 4 different Christmas cereals, so if they continue in this pattern, my fears will be confirmed. The only thing I would say is that I again commend Sainsburys for pushing the boat out with their Christmas flavour choices. Rather than doing classics like mincemeat and gingerbread, or stereotypical flavours like chocolate orange, they’re incorporating some of the more overlooked Christmas flavours, such as caramelised biscuit/speculoos.
Sainsburys Elf Crunch Mix – 0/10
Now this was the worst yet! I cannot stand any kind of mix, due to the lack of consistency in the ratio that you pour into your bowl, and even worse, this selection had not one enjoyable ‘piece’ within it!
The ‘Elf Crunch Mix’ involved a mixture of wheat and rice rings with natural strawberry flavouring; rice pops with cocoa powder; whole grain wheat stars with natural vanilla flavouring and cornflakes. The rings were sweet and lacked the promised strawberry taste; the ‘pops’ flavour was not lost amongst the others, and did not contribute anything to the selection; the stars were, well, decidedly average; and worst of all, the ‘cornflakes’ were tiny hard pieces of corn that had no texture and just slipped into your mouth and down your throat without you even getting any kind of textural experience, which is a huge element of cereal enjoyment! They might as well not have been there!
I mean – HOW on earth can one ruin cornflakes? Somehow they managed it!
Aldi Caramelised Biscuit Balls – 3/10
I was slightly amused when I saw Aldi release a Christmas/winter cereal that seemed in direct competition with the Sainsburys selection (being of the same flavour!). These balls were crunchy but did absorb and soften a little, and had an actual kind of dusting on them! They were very very sweet, and the flavour was much stronger than any of the Sainsburys cereals. If you like sweet cereals, I’d truly say these were excellent! I quite liked them as a snack, but for a cereal, I have to give them a low score, mainly just for being overly sweet, and also for lacking a mush factor. With Weetabix they were okay, but tried too hard to overpower the wheat biscuits.