Recently I had the opportunity to try a sample of my very own custom cereal fr
om Custom Choice Cereal. The company has a simple premise - through their very user friendly online platform, celiacs and other consumers can customize their own cereal mixes from a variety of entirely gluten free ingredients. All it takes is four simple steps - select your base, add dried fruit, add nuts & seeds, name your mix - and just like that you've got your very own 12 oz bag of cereal!
Perhaps one of the coolest things about Custom Choice is the great lengths they go through to ensure the end product is gluten free. While all of their ingredients are naturally gluten free, they still test each incoming ingredient for gluten contamination with the EZ Gluten test (which is sensitive to within 10 ppm). To top it off, all cereal is mixed in a dedicated gluten free facility.
"Maniacal Morning" Custom Blend
When you create your mix, you start by choosing from three different bases - Cinnamon Granola, Corn Flakes or Good Morning Flakes. Each base weighs 12 oz and varies in price from $4.49 to $4.99. Once you select your base, you can add extras such as dried fruit, nuts and seeds. For each serving of dried fruit or nuts you add, the same amount of base mix is removed from your mix, so you always end up with 12oz of cereal. With the dried fruit, there are many options to choose from - apples, apricots, banana chips, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, pears, pineapple, raisins and strawberries. They range in price from $0.39 to $1.49 per ounce. You then have the options to add your choice of nuts and seeds, such as almonds, coconut, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and walnuts. You'll pay an additional $0.39 to $1.39 per ounce for these.
Back panel
Another very cool feature on their website is the Nutrition Facts panel on the right hand side of the screen that constantly updates itself as you add ingredients to your mix. Think the pecans you just selected added too much fat? Change them out for pistachios and you'll cut the fat content almost in half. Having the nutrition panel right there, updating in real time, makes it ridiculously easy to mix-and-match ingredients until you've got not only a great tasting product, but one that truly is tuned to your specific dietary needs.
Now, as far as the taste goes, I thought it was excellent. The picture of the cereal in the bowl above was taken by me, and you'll notice that the ingredients look just like the pictures you'll find on the Custom Choice website. You can rest assured that their website isn't like some out there that show you amazing pictures, only to deliver disappointment when you finally get your product and it doesn't live up to your expectations (think of all those food ads on tv). For me, the best part of the cereal is the dried fruit. For example, these guys don't use freeze dried, crunchy strawberries like you find in some breakfast cereals. No, no, they use what I call "slightly dried" strawberries that are actually still somewhat plump and soft and actually taste like a strawberry! My only complaint was with the flakes themselves (I used the Good Morning Flakes) as they got soggy fairly quick. Of course I found an easy remedy to that - eat it faster. And with this great tasting cereal, that was very easy to do.
For more info: Custom Choice Cereal is located at 4220 Apex Highway, Suite 160, Durham, NC. They can be reached via email at info@customchoicecereal.com or by phone at (919)-484-9757.
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