Quipu

Cinnamon Mini Buns

Overall Rating: 79

This product seemingly has everything going for it. So why don’t we want to buy any more of it?

Image from the Institute collection

Appearance

A clever idea. Kellogg’s has picked an easy-to-duplicate shape and done it well. Each piece of cereal is composed of a strand of dough wrapped into a spiral to resemble a tiny, sweet sticky-bun. The colour’s not quite right, though. Something with the word cinnamon in its name should at least look as if it contains some of that spice. These are so pale in colour they almost look albino.

Texture and Taste, Dry

Good, firm resistance. Mouthfeel is crunchy without any sharp edges leading to risk of mandible laceration. This product is the right size and shape for serious snacking, and its corn-oat flour makeup is calculated not to cloy. You could eat a fair amount of this without your teeth sticking together. But would you want to? Something is missing from this concoction, and that something is cinnamon.

Texture and Taste, With Milk

The light but firm crunch holds up well in milk. The corn flour is in perfect balance with the oat so this stuff is not too heavy. But the flavour balance is off. “Cinnamon” is the very last listing on the ingredients list, and while it’s true a little cinnamon goes a long way, it could have gone a little further in this case. This stuff hardly tastes of cinnamon at all, and the sweetness completely overwhelms what spiciness there is. Sugar is all well and fine in its place, but let’s remember this product’s name; if they’d called it something like “Sugar-Loaded Spirals” Sucrophile wouldn’t be complaining. As much.

Conclusion

It’s a perfect adequate bowlful, but in the absence of any flavour to really set it apart, Cinnamon Mini Buns is no different than the rest of the pack. It’s like a Russian figure-skater: it gets top marks for technical expertise, but there’s absolutely no artistic merit in its presentation. If you like cinnamon, stick with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. This rates only two points lower than CTC, but there’s a lot in those two points. [November 1992]