Is it breakfast or is it dessert? (Kellogg's Rice Krispies Cereal & Milk Bars)

Member Name: marymoose

Product:	Kellogg's Rice Krispies Cereal & Milk Bars
Date:	07/11/09 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice (albeit sweet) taste, low in calories

Disadvantages: Not very 'breakfasty'

---Intro---
It's been a while since I've written a cereal bar review, but then it's been a while since I tried a new cereal bar. Although it's not actually the first time I've had the Rice Crispies cereal bars it's only recently that they've been added to my repertoire of low calorie breakfasts to eat at work along with my piece of fruit.

--Buying them---
I picked up the box of 6 (20g bars) in Tesco for £1.50, but they're usually £1.69 (at this point in time), so it isn't hard to work out that that's 25p per bar which sounded pretty reasonable to me. What initially attracted me to them is that each one has just 82 calories in it which is slightly more than Alpen Lights, but less than the majority of cereal bars.

---The packaging---
You can't miss the packets of these, bright blue with the much-loved (or hated) Snap Crackle and Pop characters, and inside each is wrapped in a shiny blue wrapper. Don't think I need to say more!

---The ingredients & nutritional info---
There's a massive list of ingredients which can be found here -
www.kelloggs.co.uk/products/ricekrispies/ bar/ rice_krispies_cereal___milk_bars.aspx (you'll have to take the gaps out in the link)

Essentially it's Rice Crispies and condensed milk (so not suitable for those with dairy allergies and intolerance). They also contain soy and barley ingredients. However, they are suitable for vegetarians and are Halal certified.

As stated before just 82 calories (4% of GDA), and the other GDA info is as follows - 7g sugar (8%), 2.5g fat (3%) Saturates 2g (9%), Salt 0.1g (2%). Not particularly scary, but on the other hand a fair bit of saturated fat and sugar for the number of calories in it.

---The Eating Experience---
So it's now well passed my breakfast time having written the review thus far. On opening the packet it is slightly smaller than anticipated, and a sweet sugar smell is coming from it. It looks like a traditional non-chocolate Rice Crispie cake (I used to love making these as a kid with a recipe from my Postman Pat annual) with a layer of milky coating on the bottom.

First bite, and it's so lovely and sweet. The Crispies are stuck together well and do not fall off, but it's also not too sticky. However, it is very very sweet, and this might be offputting for some. I felt that the four bites it took me to eat my bar was just about right, any more and it would have been too much. Bear in mind, this is breakfast!

I enjoyed my cereal bar, but perhaps think that it should be marketed as a cake as it's not really very 'breakfasty'! If you want breakfast then you might do better having a bowl of Rice Crispies, although admittedly that defeats the point of a cereal bar, and I don't drink milk anyway (although I really like the milk stuff on these bars) so wouldn't be doing that!


---Final Thoughts---
I will definitely be buying these again, and they're a good thing to have in the house for if you want a cake but don't want an enormous amount of calories. They're not particularly substantial as a breakfast (but then they were never going to be), although they do contain quite a few vitamins and stuff which is good. However, perhaps too sweet as a cereal bar. I'm sure kids would love them though!

Summary: Nice if you like Rice Crispie Cakes!