This being my second straight review involving a fiber-heavy product, a lot of you probably expect me to lay down a bunch of infantile poo jokes. Well, shame on you for making assumptions, because they make an ass out of you and me. I promise that will occur only insofar as ALL of my reviews eventually devolve into poo jokes. But rest assured, I’m not going to go out of my way to drop nuggets of fecal hilarity on you. That would seem forced, and I’d rather just relax and let things flow naturally. Okay?


So what we have here is a product aiming to quench my unslakable appetite for cereal, keep me healthy, and keep me, er, regular. All without making me want to carve out my taste buds with an apple corer. No small task, but this is an entirely different fiber-based product line from the last one, so it would be unprofessional to just assume it’s going to be bad, and that’s not what we do here at The Impulsive Buy.Â
What we DO do is give unbiased reviews, and that starts with visual appraisal. So I should note that out of the box, FiberPlus Antioxidants Caramel Pecan Crunch appears kind of… meh. It basically looks like a bowl of Total with some random lumps of randomness mixed in. The lumps don’t look like anything in particular, just little pellets of, presumably, flavor country. I don’t know if I expected them to look like those little squares of caramel, but they absolutely do not. If it is theoretically possible to look like the exact literal opposite of a caramel square, that’s what they look like. Examination of the box indicates they are, in fact, the pecans, but you probably wouldn’t guess that just by looking at them.
Still, as your fourth grade teacher took pains to impress upon you, we judge others not by what they look like, but by how they taste. And that’s where the Caramel Pecan Crunch both surprises and, if not delights, at least generally pleases, because the flavor is far more palatable and caramel-…y than expected. Rather than a hint, they seem to have included a smattering, dare I say a dollop of caramel in each flake, and it results in a pretty flavorful cereal. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not going to overwhelm you with the richness of the caramel, and you’re unlikely to trick yourself into thinking you’re eating pecan pie. But since I was expecting maybe one step above cardboard if I was lucky, a fiber cereal that has a fair amount of sweetness and actually does taste like what it says on the box is a welcome relief.

There’s no question that any pecan flavor takes a definite backseat to the caramel. Where the pecans really contribute is in terms of consistency, as even a caramel-flavored cereal runs the risk of getting boring if it’s just flakes. The pecan lumps both break up the monotony and provide the “crunch” promised in the name. Admit it, “Caramel Flakes” just doesn’t sound as appealing, does it? That said, I’d still prefer that they have a more discernible taste presence. And be warned, Kellogg’s turned down Cap’n Crunch’s generous “protection” offer, so these do get soggy in milk pretty quickly.

I’ll concede it may be benefiting from lowered expectations, but as far as I’m concerned, FiberPlus Antioxidants Caramel Pecan Crunch does all I could ask of it: it’s fairly healthy (by breakfast cereal standards), it helps with that thing we’re all thinking of but I’ve run out of jokes for, and it’s fairly tasty. That’s a win in my book, so if you’re a caramel fan, you should definitely buy a box and see what you think.
Â
(Nutrition Facts – 3/4 cup – 170 calories, 10 calories from fat, 1.5 grams of total fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 110 milligrams of potassium, 43 grams of total carbohydrates, 9 grams of dietary fiber, 12 grams of sugars, 22 grams of other carbohydrates, and 3 grams of protein.)
Item: Kellogg’s FiberPlus Antioxidants Caramel Pecan Crunch
Price: $3.49
Size: 15.5 ounces
Purchased at: Acme
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Healthy cereals that don’t taste like crap. Real caramel taste. Decent aroma. Mysterious “crunch” element helps balance out the flakes. Flavor country. Beats other fiber-based products like they stole something.
Cons: Total + unidentified lumps = not appealing. Understated pecans. Predictable poop jokes. Become soggy quickly. Looking like the opposite of caramel squares.