REVIEW: Kashi Heart to Heart Warm Cinnamon Oat Cereal

Today's review is for Kashi's Heart to Heart Warm Cinnamon Oat Cereal. For all you health nuts, it's organic and has three antioxidants sown into it's cereal DNA (I mean, it's even made with green tea extract!!! Weeeeeeird). One box will cost you around 3 to 4 dollars. So all you skeptics who say organic foods are more expensive than non, here is one example of an exception to that way of thought.

Sorry for the grainy definition of this picture (pun intended). If you can't read the blurry nutrition facts- here you go: A 33g serving of this cereal has 120 calories, 15 of those being from fat, 1.5g of total fat, 0g of saturated fat, 0g of trans fat, 0.5g of polyunsaturated fat, 0.5g of monounsaturated fat, 0mg of cholesterol, 80mg of sodium, 100mg of potassium, 25g of carbohydrates, 5g of dietary fiber, 1g of soluble fiber, 4g of insoluble fiber, 5g of sugar, and 4g of protein. I usually don't list the vitamin content of foods, but I have to give this cereal a hand for having 100% of the daily value for Vitamin E, Folic Acid, and two B Vitamins.

Isn't this cereal adorable? It's not the Cheerios-esque rings that appeal to me, but the little cinnamon-specked hearts make me squeal! (Inner girly-girl, ha.) The hearts, it seems to me, are a darker shade of tan than the rings. All pieces of cereal are flecked with cinnamon.



This cereal isn't all that impressive dry. It has a hearty, oatty taste (probably from the addition of oat flour), and a hard, crunchy texture. They're denser than Cheerios- not puffy, doesn't really melt away in the mouth. It isn't a sweet cinnamon taste- well, I mean, it's somewhat sweet, but NOTHING compared to my lovable Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It tastes more like cinnamon gum. Y'know? Sharp. Not really... sweet. Sweet enough, I guess... but... Well, it DOES evoke a "warm" flavor, at least.
Anyway, this cereal didn't taste ANYTHING like green tea, so... that's good...

This cereal is better in milk. The milk adds that bit of sweetness that this cinnamon-y cereal needs. And the great thing about this cereal is that, since the pieces are so dense, they maintained a good crunch the whole time I ate them with the milk. They didn't get soggy or anything, like many sugarier cereals are prone to do. So, gotta give it that! Plus, the after-cereal milk was full of sweet, cinnamon goodness.
I liked this Heart to Heart stuff, but not a lot. It was much better in milk, but still.... I would add a sweetener packet or two, regardless. I mean, this cereal is good, just not great. Not mindblowing. For a healthy cereal, yeah, this is really quite nutritious stuff! Not only is it organic, it has a good amount of fiber and protein, and keeps the sugar content low. There are also a few antioxidants in here. But from a "just taste" standpoint, this cereal just isn't all that special. I can't imagine giving it anything higher than a 6.5/10.
If you're looking for a healthy Cheerios replacement, I would consider buying this cereal, but if you're just looking for something tasty, I advise looking somewhere else. Unless you like that sharp cinnamon taste.

UPDATE: You know, I was a bit hard on this cereal. I tried it again and actually thought it was preferably sweet. And the grainy texture gave it a cinnamon-crunch vibe. I enjoyed it enough that I think I'll actually give this Heart to Heart cereal a 7/10.

Have you tried this Heart to Heart flavor yet? What did YOU think?

Till' then, this has been RiRi ri-porting!