By now you know I’m a sucker for some good granola. Especially the kind that doesn’t have oats, which is pretty much every granola out there. I already found a really great granola, Paleonola, but browsing instagram one day I came across another contender in the Paleo granola market – Wildway. Which is great because the more companies, means the more competition to make great Paleo granola – and more flavors.
Not only did I find some cool new Paleo granola, Wildway, I saw that they made a new product that I haven’t seen done before – basically a replacement for instant oatmeal! They call it instant hot cereal. It’s basically a ground up nut/seed mixture with dried dates and all you do is add hot water (hence the correlation to instant oatmeal) and voila – breakfast!
So once I saw both of these products on their site I reached out to them to see if I could get my hands on their beautifully packaged products and they were more than happy to send me some samples of their granola and instant hot cereal.
As always with our product reviews, we will review the: Nutritional Profile, Affordability and Taste. Let’s get to it!
Nutritional Profile
Let’s take a look at their granola and instant hot cereal. First up their granola.
Wildway Apple Cinnamon
Total Fat: 10g
Total Carbohydrate: 12g (Dietary Fiber 3g, Sugars 8g)
Protein: 4g
Ingredients: Organic dates, apples, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dry roasted cashews (cashews, sea salt), pecans, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla bean.
Paleonola Apple Pie
Total Fat: 15g
Total Carbohydrate: 7g (Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 4g)
Protein: 4g
Ingredients: Almonds, Pecans, Pepitas, Honey, Walnuts, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Seeds, Flax Seeds, Dried Apple, Dried Coconut, Spices, Vanilla Extract. *Denotes Organic Ingredient
Nature’s Path Hemp Plus Granola
Total Fat: 3g
Total Carbohydrate: 10g (Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 4g)
Protein: 2g
Ingredients: Rolled oats, evaporated cane juice, soy oil, brown rice flour, flax seeds, hemp seeds, oat syrup solids* (oat syrup solids, tocopherols), sea salt, molasses. *Organic.
These two granolas, Paleonola and Wildway, are two different approaches to granola. Paleonola seems to roast their granola with coconut oil and such therefore giving way to a little more fat per serving than Wildway. There are slightly more carbs in Wildway’s granola than Paleonola, but that’s most likely due to the dates. Dates are pretty high in sugar. Both granolas though are much better options than the low fat high carb granolas like Nature’s path. Wildway fills you up and leaves you satisfied, while I could see myself downing a whole box of Nature’s Path and then feeling hungry in an hour.
I do like that Wildway and Paleonola take different approaches to sweetening their granolas. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other, just different. Some people may not do well with honey or dates so it’s a good thing we have options.
Now these hot cereals are something I’ve never seen so I had to google paleo instant oatmeal and I found this on Amazon. So here’s how the competition breaks down:
Wildway Cinnamon Roll Instant Hot Cereal
Total Fat: 19g
Total Carbohydrate: 15g (Dietary Fiber 7g, Sugars 4g)
Protein: 7g
Ingredients: Walnuts, ground flaxseed, cashews, coconut flour, pecans, cinnamon, dried dates, vanilla bean.
Pure Traditions Instant Hot Cereal
Total Fat: 26g
Total Carbohydrate: 14g (Dietary Fiber 6g, Sugars 6g)
Protein: 14g
Ingredients: Hulled Hemp Seed, Almond, Organic Coconut, Organic Chia Seed, Organic Coconut Sugar, Konjac Root, Organic Cinnamon, Himalayan Pink Salt.
Quaker Apple & Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal
Total Fat: 2g
Total Carbohydrate: 33g (Dietary Fiber 4g, Sugars 12g)
Protein: 4g
Ingredients: Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Sugar, Dehydrated Apples (Treated With Sodium Sulfite To Promote Color Retention), Natural And Artificial Flavor, Salt, Cinnamon, Calcium Carbonate, Citric Acid, Guar Gum, Malic Acid, Niacinamide, Reduced Iron, Vitamin A Palmitate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Thiamin Mononitrate, Folic Acid*, Caramel Color
As you can see Quaker is obviously insane on carbs and offered little sustenance with only 2g of fat. I would feel sluggish and hungry after eating this instant oatmeal. So the real contender is between Wildway’s instant hot cereal and this one I had to look up from Pure Traditions (the serving size is a little larger for Pure Traditions, so the numbers are slightly inflated). Both take different approaches to sweetening and fat, which again is nice to have both options. One uses dates for the sweetener, and the other coconut sugar for the sweetener. One uses walnuts and cashews and the other uses hemp seeds and almonds. Both are still pretty high in fat, low on sugar and will offer a quick breakfast on the go. The Pure Traditions instant hot cereal does have double the protein which is pretty impressive, but this is probably attributed to the hemp seeds. You could do the same by throwing some hemp seeds on top of the Wildway instant hot cereal – which I normally keep on hand anyway for salads.
I never knew such a thing existed but it’s really a great replacement nutritionally to instant oatmeal packets, especially since their aren’t 10 different ingredients that I can’t pronounce, and the carbs are relatively low. These Wildway instant breakfast packets are definitely something I’m gonna need to have on hand in the office.
Affordability
Wildway Apple Cinnamon
10oz $7.99
Paleonola Apple Pie
10oz $8.99
Nature’s Path Hemp Plus Granola
11.5oz $3.69
Wildway and Paleonola both are drastically more expensive than the Nature’s Path, but that’s something I already addressed here. But in short it’s because nuts are expensive and oats are not. You’ll have to pay a little more for quality and for something that will sustain you and not leave you hungry in an hour.
Wildway Cinnamon Roll Instant Hot Cereal
Price per packet: $1.50
Price per 4 pack (7oz): $5.99
Pure Traditions Instant Hot Cereal
Price per 8oz: $9.00
Quaker Apple & Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal
Price per packet: $0.25
Price per 4 pack: $2.50
It’s insane how cheap instant oatmeal packets are. Once again – oats are cheap – but just cause they’re cheap doesn’t mean you should be eating them. The Wildway packets break down to a pretty reasonable price for a quick breakfast on the go. They’re great options. The Pure traditions instant hot cereal is a little more and it doesn’t come in individual packets which I think is a huge downfall. I loved that I could grab the packets with my lunch – pour it in a paper cup at work and go to the hot water machine and boom – breakfast is served.
Someone could argue that the alternative is that I purchase all the ingredients used in Wildway’s instant hot cereal and grind it down myself, but let’s face it – no one has time for that, and I’m not sure if that would even be cheaper. I will choose for convenience and I will be coming back to Wildway for more instant host cereal packets.
Taste
The overall arching theme of Wildway’s granola and instant hot cereals, for me, was that they were not overly sweet, which I loved because it was like they didn’t force you to eat the carbs via sugar if you didn’t want to. You could always go back and add some honey or maple syrup if you wanted.
Now I took my time testing all these flavors because I really wanted to get a grasp of if I really liked them and if I would be coming back for more. Let’s see how they turned out:
Wildway Grain-free Granola: Apple Cinnamon
Super cinnamon tasting. More chewy than the other granola. Dates are more evenly chopped and dispersed than the other granolas as well. The chopped up apples are a nice texture as well.
Wildway Grain-free Granola: Banana Nut
Soft and chewy. Very much tastes like banana bread. Pretty strong cinnamon flavor too. Nice texture from the dried bananas. Just the right amount of sweet.
Wildway Grain-free Granola: Coconut Cashew
Nice coconut flavor. Soft and chewy, not sticky or crunchy. The dates are in big chunks and not chopped up. Would be nice if they were smaller so the sweetness was more even throughout.
Wildway Grain-free Granola: Vanilla Bean Espresso
Very strong coffee flavor! Soft and chewy. Not sweet by itself but tastes amazing with yogurt. Unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before. This was by far my favorite!
Wildway Grain-free Instant Hot Cereal: Blueberry Flax
I really like this one. Nice texture and blueberry flavor. Though it has no added sweetener it doesn’t really need it like some of the others. I would literally eat this all the time for breakfast at work.
Wildway Grain-free Instant Hot Cereal: Cinnamon Roll
Very cinnamon tasting. Not really sweet but I don’t think it needs more sweetness. Nice texture. Just the right amount of sweetness. If you like cinnamon tasting things you’ll love this one. Very oatmeal like and reminds me of the packets I used to eat pre-Primal.
Wildway Grain-free Instant Hot Cereal: Java Chip
Very coffee flavored. Not sweet at all, could use a little more sweetness. Very filling. Nice cocoa flavor and crunch from the coffee and cocoa nibs.
Wildway Grain-free Instant Hot Cereal: Original
Real good normal instant oatmeal replacement. Just the right amount of sweetness actually. Nice texture, smooth. Would be nice to add berries on top. No need to add sweetener. Noticeably pleasant vanilla flavor.
Wildway Grain-free Instant Hot Cereal: Toasted Coconut
Not very sweet, could use some more. Very filling. I would use less water with this one. It has a very oatmeal-like texture. It takes some getting used to since most instant oatmeal is super sweet.
So will I be coming back for more? Yes. Overall my favorite of both were the Vanilla Bean Espresso Granola and the Blueberry Flax Instant Hot Cereal. All the different flavors would appear to different people so it’s nice to see the variety Wildway has to offer.
Conclusion
Again, thank you Wildway for sending me your products to review. Y’all were more than generous. For all the readers I suggest you check out some of their granola and instant hot cereal because both are definitely nice to have on hand for when you don’t have time to cook up some bacon and eggs or if you’re looking for an after dinner snack. Thanks for reading!
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