Tidbits: Kellogg’s Origins, Chex Clusters

Origins of Kellogg

Several new cereal products from Kellogg’s share the name Kellogg’s Origins. There are two cold breakfast cereals, two kinds of granola and two kinds of muesli.

For at least one of the cereals, Ancient Grains Blend, the name Origins seems like a natural fit. The box front describes it as “crunchy flakes of wheat, brown rice & barley with crispy puffed pieces of Kamut Brand Khorasan wheat, spelt & quinoa.”

Less obviously connected to “origins” (at least as Mr. Tidbit imagines the meaning of “origins”) is Origins Fruit & Nut Blend Cereal (cranberry walnut flavor; maybe others are coming). It seems to be a contemporary cereal mixture, although it’s a bit difficult to establish what that mixture is.

The box front describes it as “a delightful cereal mixture of crunchy toasted oats, a blend of bran and corn flakes, nuts and wholesome dried fruits.” Kellogg’s website calls it “a wholesome blend of toasted oats, puffed wheat, bran flakes, and wheat, corn and rice flakes.” The first entry in the ingredients list (the most plentiful ingredient) is whole-grain wheat — which isn’t even mentioned on the box front.

There are also two kinds of Origins Granola: raisin apple and cranberry almond with pumpkin seeds. Both contain toasted oats, wheat, barley, spelt and rye. And there are two kinds of Origins Muesli: apricot cashew coconut with raisins, and raisin apricot cranberry with pumpkin seeds. Both of those feature rolled oats, wheat, rye, spelt and barley.

Mr. Tidbit is sad to report that not a single Origins product is “original flavor.”

Chex mate

Not to be outdone, General Mills offers new Chex Clusters (Fruit & Oats flavor — natural berry flavor with other natural flavors; maybe others are coming). The box and the Chex website both describe it as “keeping everything you love about Chex and simply adding a few more wholesome ingredients. With real fruit pieces, rice crisps and rolled oats clustered together.”

Like all the Chex cereals except Wheat Chex, Chex Clusters is gluten-free. (As with Chex Oatmeal, the oats are sourced to be free of contamination with wheat, barley or rye.)

There’s new gluten-free Chex granola, too: honey nut or mixed berry. Both feature whole-grain oats and whole-grain rice.