1 week Ago By [email protected] (Sam Zwick)
The cereal aisle is colorful, vast, and brimming with possibilities. Sometimes too many possibilities, leaving you overwhelmed about which cereal to purchase. Do you go with one that's lower in sugar and healthier, or throw caution to the wind and pick something fun? The decision becomes even more challenging when you pit brand names against store brands.
Some store brands can go toe-to-toe with the big brands, while others are merely cheap imposters. Like most grocery chains, Aldi carries a wide selection of cereals. To save you from getting stuck in the cereal aisle on your next trip, I tried 25 of the store's Millville cereals to see which are worth buying and which should be left on the shelf .
Read on for my ranking to find out which cereal stands above the rest. 25. Crispy Oats I'll be upfront and say that this list leans in the direction of sugar.
It's a myth that all cereals are full of added sugar , but even so, most are hardly in the health food category. I'm ranking Millville cereals based on taste, and generally speaking, sweet things taste good, which is why Crispy Oats land at No. 25.
A single 11⁄2-cup serving contains 160 calories and zero sugar. This is noticeable when you try a spoonful. They taste like someone made a bowl of oatmeal, left it on the counter to dry out for a few days, and then pressed it into little O shapes.
This cereal may be healthy for your body, but there's no way it's good for your soul. If you're going to start your day in a tasteless, joyless way, grab a cup of burnt black coffee, but don't turn to Crispy Oats; that's a step too far. 24.
Crispy Rice Cereal brands love to lean into adjectives as part of their name. "Crispy" and "crunchy" show up often. Just once, I want someone to be honest and call their cereal "Soon-to-be-Soggy Puffs.
" We all know it's true. Crispy Rice has an identity crisis. The cereal itself is just fine, if not extremely boring and rather flavorless.
A 11⁄2 cup serving has 160 calories and 4 grams of sugar, but that doesn't matter because I don't know anyone who eats this as cereal. This is a dessert ingredient masquerading as a breakfast food. Cover it in melted marshmallows ( with a little condensed milk ) because, on the breakfast table, Crispy Rice is just plain dull.
23. Rice Squares I know, I know, I'm being mean to the non-sugary cereals. But maybe don't eat Rice Squares for breakfast.
Once again, this is an ingredient, not a stand-alone meal. The back of this box has a rather delicious-looking recipe for Bacon Ranch Trail Mix. Adding bacon, cheese crackers, nuts, and half a dozen other ingredients is really the only way to make this bland cereal tasty.
At 150 calories and 3 grams of sugar in a 11⁄2-cup serving, Rice Squares are simply uninspiring and lack any discernible flavor. 22. Frosted Flakes This is a weird swing-and-miss by Millville.
I love Kellogg's Frosted Flakes but these are not those; something about this cereal is just off. It doesn't taste as sweet as Kellogg's, which is surprising because both have nearly identical sugar contents , with Millville's being just a fraction higher per serving. At 15 grams of sugar and 160 calories in a 11⁄4-cup serving, this is a cereal that should taste good but simply does not.
21. Corn Flakes You know the Frosted Flakes are bad when the version without a sugar coating is higher on the list. Corn Flakes are, once again, a cereal that knows its place in the world.
Corn Flakes taste like the unsweetened base of your favorite cereal. Yes, they have a pleasant, crispy texture, but simply put, they taste like bland, processed corn. It's a perfectly suitable breakfast if you're not looking for anything special , and with just 4 grams of sugar and 140 calories in a 11⁄4-cup serving, there are far worse ways to start a day.
20. Honey Nut Crispy Oats I was pretty hard on the unsweetened Crispy Oats, but the honey nut version is only slightly better. This cereal wants so badly to be Honey Nut Cheerios, but it falls short.
For one thing, Honey Crispy Oats have less sugar, with 12 grams in a 11⁄4-cup serving versus 12 grams in a 1-cup serving for the General Mills product, which makes them a bit dull, tasting more akin to cardboard . It's not a major difference on paper, but the difference in taste is evident as Crispy Oats lack the sweetness needed to elevate an otherwise subpar cereal. The appearance is slightly off, too, with Honey Crispy Oats lacking the shiny, glazed finish of its brand-name counterpart.
I'm all for a bargain, but if you're craving Cheerios, Honey Nut Crispy Oats will let you down. 19. Raisin Bran Raisin Bran is a polarizing cereal in my house.
My wife doesn't like raisins, and I do, so getting to eat Raisin Bran is a treat for me, even if it is a silly one. While it's not a "sugary cereal" as you'd typically think of them, Raisin Bran does contain 20 grams of sugar and 190 calories in a 11⁄4-cup serving, making it one of the most sugary cereals on this list. Of course, that's largely due to the raisins, which are full of natural sugars.
Bran cereal needs something sweet or it'll be a big bowl of sadness, so the raisins are key to making this a tasty and relatively healthy breakfast option. The mix of sweet, chewy raisins to balance out the bland flavor of bran is enough to crack the top 20 but needs something extra to move up a few spots. 18.
Strawberry Frosted Shredded Wheat The cereal aisle has a lot in common with your favorite superhero franchise. Both are bright and colorful, marketed heavily to kids, and contain variants. While Marvel's variants are characters from a parallel universe, cereal variants are different spins on the same cereal, like Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes, which contain the same base but wear a different mask.
Strawberry Frosted Shredded Wheat is one such variant. The blueberry and classic versions will appear higher up the list, but someone had to be last, and strawberry drew the short straw. It doesn't taste bad by any means, but the strawberry flavor tastes artificial.
I wouldn't feel bad if Strawberry Frosted Shredded Wheat showed up to save my city, but I'd feel a lot better if it was one of the other Shredded Wheat variants instead. 17. Corn Squares While technically a breakfast cereal, Corn Squares serve best as the main ingredient for Muddy Buddies .
Or is it Puppy Chow? Regardless of what you call the sweet treat made with Corn Squares, the truth remains that it's not the world's most exciting breakfast cereal. With 150 calories and 4 grams of sugar in a 11⁄4-cup serving, you could do worse for breakfast. The small amount of sugar and the fact that these squares are made from corn, which is naturally sweeter than rice, makes them more flavorful than Rice Squares, but not by much.
Let's be honest, though; you probably want to cover them in powdered sugar, and we understand. 16. Honey Grahams Each bite of Honey Grahams offers a rich honey taste that is unmistakably similar to that of your favorite graham cracker.
The pieces are covered in a dusting of sugar, as opposed to the glossy finish of similar cereals, making them a bit less convenient as finger food but no less tasty. With 14 grams of sugar and 170 calories in a 1-cup serving, Honey Grahams are plenty sweet. Definitely consider this cereal if you like a good crunch to start your morning.
15. Fruit Rounds We all know artificial dyes aren't healthy for you and few cereals pour on the color like Fruit Rounds. It's a rainbow in a bowl, and a delicious one at that.
Kellogg's Froot Loops are all the same flavor , and Millville's Fruit Rounds are much the same, but the brightness is turned down a few shades. The result is a muted bowl of sugary loops that taste like artificial fruit flavor but in a good way. No one will confuse a bowl of this cereal for an actual piece of fruit because it's impossible to nail down any single berry, melon, or citrus that's responsible for the taste.
Think of it as a bowl of processed, highly sugared fruit salad. That may not sound like the greatest sales pitch, but this is a good cereal and worth a spot in your shopping cart if you're looking for something sweet. 14.
Blueberry Frosted Shredded Wheat I quite enjoyed the second of three Shredded Wheat varieties offered at Aldi. The blueberry has a more authentic taste than the strawberry's artificial notes . In terms of a fruit-flavored cereal with at least some nutritional value, you could do far worse than Blueberry Frosted Shredded Wheat.
With 12 grams of sugar per serving, the shredded wheat cereals are plenty sweet. At the very least, you can hang your hat on the amount of fiber being offered up here. 13.
Frosted Shredded Wheat Sometimes, it's hard to beat the original flavor, as nice as the fruit versions are. If you like Frosted Mini-Wheats, though, the Millville version is nearly a carbon copy. The biscuits are crispy and hold up especially well in milk compared to some of the puffs and crisps on this list.
Still, shredded wheat on its own is hardly exciting so the frosting does the heavy lifting, adding sweetness to each bite as well as the bowl of milk. I was pleasantly surprised at the even and rather thick coating of frosting on each piece, which helped vault this into the top half of my ranking. 12.
Cinnamon Crunch Squares I happened to have some Cinnamon Toast Crunch in my pantry when I started this assignment, so I was able to make a direct comparison between the General Mills and Millville versions. The results were pretty clear: Cinnamon Toast Crunch is better, but Cinnamon Crunch Squares are a perfectly acceptable substitute. Visually, Cinnamon Toast Crunch is covered in more cinnamon sugar, but shockingly, the Crunch Squares actually contain more sugar per serving, at 14 grams in one cup.
Side-by-side, the sweetness is nearly identical. Each bit of this cereal provides a rich cinnamon flavor along with the sugar to balance out that spice. The Aldi cereal is slightly thinner and crispier, too, compared to the more puffed-up and airy General Mills original.
Still, I enjoyed both and would purchase the Cinnamon Crunch Squares again. 11. Chocolate Puffs Chocolate Puffs look like the rejects from the Cocoa Puffs factory, but that's not a bad thing.
They're not quite round, and most are missing some of the smooth, even exterior that a Cocoa Puff offers, but they taste great! Every spoonful is packed with a rich cocoa flavor that stands alone on this list in terms of pure chocolatey goodness. As long as I'm still getting a bowl full of chocolate milk at the end, my chocolate cereal has done its job. With 12 grams of sugar and 140 calories in a 1-cup serving, Chocolate Puffs are pretty well in line with the other sugary cereals on this list nutritionally.
They offer excellent taste at a solid value to match. 10. Honey Wheat Puffs I love cereal as much as the next guy, but 25 boxes is a lot for one household, so when my wife suggested we see if any family or friends wanted a box, I happily agreed.
Until she tried to give away the Honey Wheat Puffs. The name just doesn't do justice to the crispy, crunchy, airy, sugary goodness of this cereal. A single cup contains 21 grams of sugar, the runaway sweetest cereal on the list, and it tastes like it.
Honey-flavored cereals are common and you'll find them up and down this list, but Honey Wheat Puffs are the only ones that taste like you're eating raw honey. They're super sweet, which may not be everyone's taste, but I'm a fan. 9.
Kookies This is a dessert, and I will not be told otherwise. That said, Kookies are pretty great, even if they don't really taste like chocolate chip cookies. They're clearly puffed corn infused with a brown sugar sweetness reminiscent of the real thing.
With 14 grams of sugar per serving, Kookies is right in line with Frosted Flakes, Cinnamon Crunch Squares, and Honey Rounds as far as sugar goes. Parents shouldn't be afraid to cave now and then. Buy a box of Kookies and then eat half when your kids aren't looking.
You'll be happier for it. 8. Marshmallows and Stars Marshmallows and Stars does not hide its inspiration, but the wizard on the box looks a lot less trustworthy than Lucky the Leprechaun.
The marshmallow shapes are odd. The crystal ball is cool, and from there, the marshmallows get progressively stranger, including a purple M, a yellow star in a blue circle, a boomerang-like yellow moon, and something resembling a candy corn. They end up plain lazy, with colored shapes like a pink circle and a green triangle.
Appearances aside, Marshmallows and Stars is a good cereal. It's maybe a touch less sweet than Lucky Charms — I don't think the star-shaped cereal pieces are quite as tasty — but it's still packing 14 grams of sugar in a 1-cup serving. If I'm eating straight from the box, I'm going with Lucky Charms, but in milk, it's a toss-up.
7. Cocoa Peanut Butter Puffs Aldi's cereal names tend to be pretty on-the-nose and Cocoa Peanut Butter Puffs are no exception. The mix of chocolate and peanut butter flavors is perfect.
At this point, 12 grams of sugar in a serving feels pretty standard, so while this cereal is undoubtedly sweet, it's nothing excessive. I would happily sub Cocoa Peanut Butter Puffs for another cereal like Reese's Puffs . 6.
Crunchy Granola Raisin Bran Remember when I said the Raisin Bran was good, but needed a little something extra to vault it higher on the list? Enter Crunchy Granola Raisin Bran. Turns out the "something extra" was crunchy granola clusters, which help add some much-needed texture that bran cereal just can't bring once milk is introduced. It's a healthy cereal that tastes good! Believe it or not, this theme will continue as we head into the top five.
5. Cinnamon Balance Multigrain Cereal Balance Multigrain Cereal is Aldi's answer to Life (the cereal, at least). With just 10 grams of sugar in a 1-cup serving, Cinnamon Balance Multigrain Cereal is a tasty and healthy way to start the day.
The cinnamon flavor is strong, which held this cereal back from being higher on the list. From a texture standpoint, Balance is in its own category. The shape is similar to rice and corn squares, but Balance pieces are less airy, leaving you with a more substantial bite each time.
I appreciate a cereal that doesn't force me into multiple bowls just to get full on a busy morning. 4. Original Balance Multigrain Cereal Once again, the original edges out a variant on my list.
While I enjoyed the cinnamon flavor, the original feels more, well, balanced. In my head, I know this is a pretty healthy cereal, but unlike the blandness of Corn Flakes or bran cereal, Original Balance offers flavor and a unique texture that's somewhere between shredded wheat and Corn Squares. For 2 grams less sugar and the same 160 calories per serving, you might as well go with the Original.
It's just as tasty. 3. Berry Kid's Krunch Some things in the food world just go together, like mashed potatoes and gravy, or peanut butter and jelly.
For some reason, cereal and nautically-themed mascots are also on that list. While the brand-name Quaker Oats-produced cereal has its famous mascot, Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch , Millville opted instead for a ship to represent their Berry Kid's Crunch, which feels like a real creative shortcut. Masscot aside, Berry Kid's Crunch offers everything you want in a sugar-forward breakfast cereal.
It's sweet — 16 grams of sugar per cup — and will destroy the roof of your mouth, but that's part of the experience I wouldn't trade for anything. Like Fruit Rounds, this cereal is vaguely fruity tasting, but not in a single-fruit kind of way . Each piece is supposedly "berry flavored," but what berry is anyone's guess.
At the very least, the multicolored pieces are distinct from the yellow brick pieces, which taste like hyper-sweetened corn puffs. 2. Honey Crunch 'n Oats That's right.
To wrap things up, I went healthy. Honey Bunches of Oats is my favorite non-sugary cereal, and Aldi's Honey Crunch 'n Oats is a dead-ringer. The flakes are crispy, the clusters crunchy, and the flavor sweet without being too sugary , thanks to the 7 grams per 1-cup serving.
It's the best of Aldi's cereals, only to be outdone by ...
1. Honey Crunch 'n Oats with Almonds Take everything positive I said about the original and add almonds. That's it.
That's the pitch and it's perfect. The sugar content is the same and the calories are only 10 higher — 160 vs. 150.
But the additional flavor, texture, and small amount of protein the nuts bring is enough to push Honey Crunch 'n Oats with Almonds to the top of my ranking. How we chose the best Millville brand cereal from Aldi That's it: 25 of Aldi's Millville brand cereals ranked according to taste and texture. For me, the best cereals tend to rely on sweetness, but that doesn't have to mean a bowl full of candy.
I prefer cereals with a balanced sweetness that won't leave me feeling sick after a single bowl. The texture is important too, since no one likes a soggy bowl of cereal. Anything that offers multiple textures — think granola clusters — shoots up my list.
Cereals that retain their structural integrity in milk are also favorites..
