Gluten-Free Cocoa Crispy Rice Cereal Review

I found this New Morning brand Gluten-Free Cocoa Crispy Rice this weekend at Trader Joe's here in the Cleveland, Ohio area. It was featured as a "new item" in the store, and I had no prior first hand experience with it. As is my normal behavior when venturing into the unknown with a new gluten-free product, I just purchased a single box package.

I am please to report, I really liked these crunchy, and lightly sweetened, cocoa rice crispy bits. They held up nice in milk, and were both good for snacking on plain or eating for a breakfast cereal. They seem to be less sweet than many others I have tried, and I like it this way. There are only 120 calories per 3/4-cup serving, and 10grams of sugar per serving (compare that to 14grams, or 40% more per sugar, per the same 3/4 cup serving size in Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies - which are also not gluten-free from what I can tell, since they have malt flavoring for starters). The fact that the New Morning brand (unlike many others) are made from organic brown rice and have no artificial flavors and preservatives either is a nice selling point too for me. But, first and foremost, this New Morning Cocoa Crispy Rice had a nice pleasing cocoa / chocolate flavor and a nice crunch.

I guess it shouldn't be too surprising that these were a quality product, and clearly labeled gluten-free, since as I discovered later when searching the web for that link to the cereal I provided earlier, that the New Morning brand is owned by a company called U.S. Mills, which also owns the Erewhon brand (I prefer their crispy brown rice - gluten-free variety - for marshmallow crispy treats). I actually plan to try these cocoa ones in a marshmallow treat of some sorts, though being pre-sweetened, that may be overkill. Now, perhaps with peanut-butter? hmmm.... maybe :)

I'm putting this gluten-free product on my list of ones to definitely buy again. And, you don't have to be a Celiac (Coeliac) or on a gluten-free diet to enjoy this cereal.