Review- Quaker Oats NEW Warm & Crunchy Oat Clusters: Golden Crunch and Cranberry & Apple

You can't beat a bowl of steaming porridge, come a chilly Winter morning. That is why it makes perfect sense for Quaker Oats to release their NEW Warm & Crunchy Oat Clusters, straight bang in the middle of Summer - Clearly, a well thought out decision on their behalf. I picked up 2 different flavours in Asda thinking they were on offer.. Turns out, they were £2.99 each. 

I went for the Golden Crunch and Cranberry & Apple flavours. Each box contained 8, 48g sachets which were made of 100% whole grains to help lower cholesterol as well as being naturally high in fibre. 

Golden Crunch 

As instructed, I emptied the contents of the sachet into a microwavable bowl, measured out 60ml of milk by filling up to the line, poured it into the bowl and microwaved on full power for 30 seconds. 

This is what I was presented with! No, that is not a giant size bowl - You really do get that little of a portion! It had a very strange texture, being a lot like a very sloppy Ready Brek with hard, nobbly clusters swimming in it. It was like the milk had been absorbed by only some of the cereal to produce some sort of mushy yet crunchy mixture. It had a very creamy flavour even though, I only used skimmed milk when preparing. The oaty taste was very nice and went perfectly with a fairly subtle, golden syrup taste - I am glad it wasn't overly sweet or had that horrible metallic flavour! 

Cranberry & Apple

Once again, I followed the instructions as written above. I found 30 seconds in the microwave to be the perfect length of time to produce a warm, but by no means hot, brekkie. 

I looked at this in a state of bewilderment.. Where had the milk gone? Why wasn't it sloppy? Things got even stranger when after one mouthful, it became very apparent that this flavour was no where near as crunchy as the Golden Syrup, yet was lacking the milk to make it soft! Taste wise, it was essentially Christmas in a bowl! Although neither the cranberries or apple were particularly plentiful to the eye, it certainly packed a punch in terms of flavouring. There was a nice tartness from both elements whilst still having the sweet, creamy oaty taste. The few dried apples pieces that I did notice, had a pleasant, almost foamy chew to them - A nice change in texture!

Snack Warrior does Science

I was so confused by the stark contrast in textures that I decided to look at the remaining sachets in their boxes. At first, I thought maybe I had just been a twit and prepped them incorrectly but then I noticed this.. 

The milk line on each of the packets are in completely different places! Look at the wavey line! LOOK AT IT! Thats some good manufacturing right there.. 

I disregarded the information on the box and proceeded to weigh each packet with its full contents. I wanted to check one didn't contain more than the other and in turn, would warrant more milk. 

The Golden Crunch weighed in at 53g. 

The Cranberry & Apple weighed slightly less at 51g. 

So far, so good..

My next move was to fill each emptied sachet, up to the milk line, as suggested both on the box and the sachet itself. I tipped each, one at a time, into a tumbler that had been zeroed on my scales.. My results were as followed: 

The line on the Golden Crunch holds 78ml of milk.

The line on the Cranberry & Apple holds 42ml of milk. 

Thats a 36ml difference, Folks! I am not a twit, after all! 

To get a true representation of what this cereal is actually meant to be like, I precisely measured out 60ml and added it to another bowl of Oat Clusters. This time, as expected, it had a texture somewhere between my 2 original breakfasts - Not overly sloppy, not overly crunchy. 

There are so many issues with these Quaker Oats, I don't know where to begin. They've been released in the wrong season, the sachets are a faff to open, the milk lines aren't consistent, the textures are totally different, the serving size is only ever going to sustain a 4 year old.. I could go on. Taste wise they are alright and probably would be very enjoyable come the Autumn - That is along as you have 2 packets and can be bothered to measure out 60ml (or 120ml for 2 servings!) of milk every morning whilst still in half of a slumber. I am not going to mark them separately out of 5 given the forementioned discrepancies but I shall just say 2.5 and be done with it. Sort yourself out, Quaker Oats!