"Total Cranberry Crunch"

I enjoy finding good deals on groceries, so when I had a $1.00 off coupon for 3 boxes of General Mills cereals, I waited for a sale to sweeten the deal. When Hy-Vee had a sale on General Mills cereals where you could buy 3 for $1.88 each and get a free gallon of milk, I took the bait! For one of the boxes, we decided to try "Total Cranberry Crunch". The peachy-beige 15-ounce box with the broad red stripe bearing the Total logo, above a red bowl of "Total Cranberry Crunch", looked pretty inviting.

"Total Cranberry Crunch" was very good. The flakes alone were good, but different than the fluffy little corn flakes we've become used to. These flakes are denser and a bit grainy. (Slightly reminiscent of the bran flakes I ate as a kid when it was the only cereal left in the house. Good, but not "more, please" good.) What makes this cereal even better are the little additions of some soft, plump dehydrated cranberries (what I have seen called "craisins") and "crunchy oat clusters". These, and a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon, make "Total Cranberry Crunch" taste quite a bit like granola. Nutty and sweet, with a nice blend of flavors and textures.

Like many breakfast cereals "Total Cranberry Crunch" is low in fat (2%) and high in nutrition! "Total Cranberry Crunch" does not contain vitamin C, but in each 1 ¼ cup serving you get a good dose of many other things. You get 10 percent of your daily recommendation of vitamin A, Phosphorus, and Magnesium and 25 percent of your daily recommendation of Vitamin D. And true to it's box-front claim of "100% nutrition" you get 100% percent of your daily recommendation of Calcium, Iron, Vitamin E, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12, Pantothenic Acid, and Zinc.

"Total Cranberry Crunch" was a good value when on sale. We paid a little over a dollar and a half for 7 servings. And though "Total Cranberry Crunch" has nearly twice the calories of some other cereals, at 190 per serving, it's still not astronomical, and well worth it for the nutritional boost. However, I was disappointed to see that there are a whopping 16 grams of sugar per serving. This is far more than what I am used to seeing in a cereal marketed for adults, and more than many kid's cereals. (Cocoa Puffs only has 12!). It's not surprising though, when the ingredients list contains sugar, corn syrup, brown sugar, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, brown sugar syrup, and honey!

That being said, this is a very tasty cereal, though probably not one for everyday consumption. So, if you like cranberries, or a hint of granola, you might want to give "Total Cranberry Crunch" a try!

Enjoy!