Honey Monster Banana Puffs

...says:
'Mums beware – Honey Monster is introducing his most a-peel-ing cereal yet - Banana Puffs! Based on the much loved Sugar Puffs the new banana flavoured cereal is part of the big furry fella’s mission to put fun and excitement back into breakfast time.'

- Seriously, how exciting are sugar puffs? They are just bits of sugar coated wheat puffs. Ok, so they've added some natural banana flavouring. Not exactly 'exciting' but ...
...- 'Wheat, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Sugar, Honey (2.6%), Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavouring, Molasses, Niacin, Iron, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1).

They are low in fat and calories per 30g serving (which is a lot seeing as the cereal is so light) with only 0.7g of fat and 114kcal but the sugar is 10g. If you want to give kids 'Wholegrain goodness' feed them Weetabix!

Anyway, moving onto the product. When I opened the inside ... more

Banana Puffs are a new and limited edition of 'Sugar Puffs'. I actually don't like sugar puffs because I prefer crunchy cereals but seeing as this was on special offer at £1 for 320g box at Asda, I thought it would be worth a try.

The box is very appealing to children with the bright yellow box and floaty blue writing saying 'Banana Puffs.' The familiar face of the 'Honey Monster' is featured on the front, holding a banana to his mouth so that he appears to be smiling down on a bowl fulla CG 'Banana puffs.'
I think 'Honey Monster Foods' are trying to promote this as a healthy product as the box exclaims - 'No artifical anything' and 'Fortified with vitamins and minerals'. However, just reading the product description is enough to tell me these aren't going to be a healthy choice - 'Natural Wheat puffs glazed in a banana syrup'. Also, the website says:
'Mums beware – Honey Monster is introducing his most a-peel-ing cereal yet - Banana Puffs! Based on the much loved Sugar Puffs the new banana flavoured cereal is part of the big furry fella’s mission to put fun and excitement back into breakfast time.'

- Seriously, how exciting are sugar puffs? They are just bits of sugar coated wheat puffs. Ok, so they've added some natural banana flavouring. Not exactly 'exciting' but I suppose it's different.
Looking at the ingredients confirms my suspicions. They may have changed the name from 'Sugar' so 'Banana' puffs but they certainly aren't skimping on the sugar based ingredients - 'Wheat, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Sugar, Honey (2.6%), Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavouring, Molasses, Niacin, Iron, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1).

They are low in fat and calories per 30g serving (which is a lot seeing as the cereal is so light) with only 0.7g of fat and 114kcal but the sugar is 10g. If you want to give kids 'Wholegrain goodness' feed them Weetabix!

Anyway, moving onto the product. When I opened the inside bag I could instantly smell a sweet banana aroma, like that of Banana foamy fruit sweets. It smelt fairly appealing but not exactly tempting. The puffs are the same size and texture as 'sugar puffs' although they look more like brown dalmatian dogs because they were light brown with dark spots, I suppose, I like over ripe banana.

I sampled a few dry in my hand. I got an initial crispness as I popped them in my mouth before they dissolved to a mush in my mouth. The banana flavour was prominent and sweet. I thought it was ok at first until I got a horrid nagging overly artificial tasting banana sweetness left lingering on my taste buds.

As I sloshed in the milk, I could immediately hear the puffs absorbing and dissolving in the milk so I quickly spooned some into my mouth. I was just able to get a slight crispness but after that is was a soggy heap in my mouth. I suppose this makes it a good choice for kids as it's very easy eating. However, I don't like mushy textured cereals so I guess I'm quite biased. The banana flavour was horrible. I really tasted artificial was was sickly overly sweet. Worst of all, it left a perfume aftertaste in my mouth. On the second spoonful the wheat was just a slush and I couldn't bring myself to take another spoon full. The best part about the cereal was the banana flavoured milk at the end.

Overall, if you like sugar puffs and banana's you'll probably like this cereal. It's easy for kids to eat and low in fat and calories but I personally despised the taste. I love banana's but this didn't taste natural at all. I would only recommend this product because it's limited edition and you may be one of those people that will sit there and wonder for the rest of your life what 'Banana puffs' were like. I can tell you now that you wouldn't be missing out on much!This product is amounst the 'wave' of new products deriving from the Honey monster, such as:

• Honey monster Waffles cereal
• Honey meltz (porridge)
• Reduced sugar sugar puffs
• Monster Rocks cereal

For more info, check out the website - http://www.honeymonster.co.uk/ 

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