Frosted Flakes Gold

[davidn]

If in the unlikely event that through reading this journal you've begun to care about me or my life, you may know that one of the things that I struggle with in America is the lack of Crunchy Nut, the breakfast cereal of choice that is totally unavailable without having to actually arrange imports of it from my parents' house ourselves. Every attempt to find something similar when I started living here failed. However, a couple of weeks ago Kelloggs brought out Frosted Flakes Gold, which sounded tantalizingly close - after a trip to the supermarket I've just come into possession of a packet and will try it out, in as live an experience as Livejournal allows.

As you'd expect, the box is coloured shiny gold, and it's also one of the toughest cereal boxes I have ever encountered. It's marketed as a healthier alternative to the original Frosted Flakes, and I'm sure I've worked off at least a few calories trying to prize it open.

Initial impressions are... surprising, to be honest - as soon as I opened it a strong sweet smell hit me, like the smell of Scotch tablet when it's in the molten proto-tablet stage. The look of it is also quite odd - the flakes are pale and much greyer than normal, looking perhaps like Special K. On putting one in your mouth you're hit by a sort of honey explosion that gradually subsides, but they remain stuck to your teeth like all decent breakfast cereals should. Time to dive in and actually pour in milk to taste them properly.

I've got to admit that these are almost entirely unlike Crunchy Nut. The honey is much more obvious and gives them an honestly rather medicinal taste. However, it's important that - almost uniquely among whole-grain corn cereals - they're not utterly revolting, and probably something I would choose to have for breakfast.

So I'm still going to have to put another phone order in with my parents, but they're not going to be relegated to the back of the cupboard until they turn to dust either. Probably the most successful in the search so far even though they're nothing like what I expected them to be.

Comments

[yemminie.livejournal.com]

Ludicrously tasty?

[davidn]

These one are more like tastily ludicrous - I tried them again this morning and it was like being hit in the face with a jar of honey.

[kjorteo]

I must be incredibly boring, since I just stick to Honey-Nut Cheerios and all.

[davidn]

Strange you should mention that, because that's one of my two staple breakfasts in this country (the other one being normal old Frosties), fulfilling both the honey and nut requirements. I've tried several other brands and types that sound reasonably close from the description, but so far nothing's come anywhere near.

The only thing that would make us both incredibly boring is if this turns into a ten-deep multithreaded discussion about cereal.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

Discussion about cereal is boring? The question to ask about the new cereal is "is it morish?" not sure if that is how you spell it. I know when ever I had crunchy nut cornflakes, I always want a second bowl.

I am more of a muesli or porridge fan though. Have you made Tablet over there yet? I made it in China and they complained it was too sugary. I made it in England and they complained it was too sugary. Is there no country other than scotland that appreciates a sweet that starts rotting your teeth when you just hear the name?

I find that I miss Scottish bread (proper bread)and Lorne sausage as can't seem to get it in Liverpool. Is there anything else you miss?

[davidn]

I handed out some tablet at work after I'd come back from Scotland over Christmas, and it was generally agreed that it was "like swallowing a bag of sugar". Although even I had problems with the type that I'd brought back - I can't remember the brand, and it might have been because I'd been away from it for a while, but it was definitely more tooth-endangering than anything I'd yet tried. I did bring sticky toffee pudding to a get-together at Whitney's college, and that was pretty successful.

However, in general I find a lot of American... candy... sickeningly sweet - I'm thinking of things like Jolly Ranchers and those marzipan-like things that are meant to look like corn kernels. I had thought that the Americans overloaded on as much sugar as we usually overload on butter, grease and general fat.

I miss Scottish bread too, as you can't really get white bread here that isn't 90% preservatives (it gives it a strange taste and causes the base to be soggy after about a couple of days even though it'll keep for months). I'm fortunate in that there's an Irish import store down the road from where I work, so supplies of Cadbury chocolate are not a problem, and there's even a place across the street that serves pretty genuine fish and chips.

But top of my list for what I miss from Scotland is korma. All Indian food here is from a different region of India than the Scottish variety, and korma becomes a volcanic tomato-based sauce. Ironic that one of the things I most miss about Scotland comes from halfway round the world.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

You should make some and then pass it to your local indian and they may know it and if you make it your local they might be able to make it up for you.

Chip shops are a bit crap down in Liverpool, I think it is only the fish they batter. No black pudding, white pudding or deep fried pizza. I think it is the decent white pudding that I miss the most as they only have one that resembles sausagemeat here. I just think that England does not know how to give arteries a good cloggin in one meal.