I am a Cookie Fiend. If Sesame Street didn’t already have one, I’d be a Cookie Monster. So when I was offered a box of Quaker’s new Breakfast Cookies in exchange for my honest review, I figured, “How can I lose, it’s cookies!” Well, as usual, I wasn’t quite, precisely, 100% correct. Not completely incorrect, either. Sort of in the middle.

The cookies come individually wrapped in a box of six. The flavor I received was Oatmeal Raisin. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am not entirely in favor of the raisin as a food product. They don’t make me ill, but they are not a favorite. So, one strike before the package is even open, but not really the fault of the cookie.

Will it make me grow up strong and healthy?

So let’s take a look at these babies from a nutritional standpoint, shall we? I’m a devoted cereal eater, and my cereal of choice happens to be another Quaker product, Quaker Toasted Oatmeal Honey Nut. Serving vs. Serving, the cereal is the clear winner. With only 10 more calories (190 to the cookie’s 180) it packs in significantly more of virtually every nutrient known to man, or so it would seem from reading the labels – you can find them here:

Cereal:

http://www.smartspot.com/about/prod_detail.php?grp=102&id=2140000061

Cookies:

http://www.quakersnackbars.com/CHW_Products/BreakfastCookies/OR_OatmealRaisin.cfm

Of particular interest, the cereal is fortified with folic acid to 100% of the RDA, while the cookie is not, and doesn’t even list it as a nutrient. Only calcium and vitamin A are higher in the cookie – at 30% compared to 15% and 15% compared to 10%, respectively. In both cases, the difference is made up with the addition of milk to the cereal, making it a wash. Where the cookie does come out ahead nutritionally is in fiber content. At 5 grams compared to 3, it’s got the edge for those looking to add some bulk to their diet.

Add to the nutritional mix that the cookie has 4.5 grams of fat to the cereal’s 2 grams and 3 grams of protein to the cereal’s 4 grams. Looking at the label also reveals the dreaded High Fructose Corn Syrup as the second ingredient in the cookie. While the cereal contains plenty of sugar of its own, it doesn’t kick in until the third ingredient and the words High Fructose are conspicuously, delightfully absent.

So nutritionally, it looks like you’re better off with the cereal, if of course you like my cereal. In general, it would appear that the Breakfast Cookie is not as highly fortified as the Breakfast Cereal.

I really don’t care about any of that, how does it taste?

Here I am of three opinions. Mine and those of my two children. I will give them to you separately, with a little background on each taster:

Me – raisin avoider, cookie connoisseur, established Quaker product eater

My reaction is……..meh. They’re okay. The taste is sweet and mildly pleasant – even with the raisins. The texture is a little on the over-moist side, to the point that you just know there’s something with a long, unpronounceable chemical-sounding name that keeps those suckers soft while they sit in that box. They’re also moist enough that I needed to wash my sticky hands when I was done. That does reduce the portability, unless I want to carry a wet-one with me. Which I don’t. Will I replace my cereal with these? No. They don’t taste good enough and they don’t have enough nutrition. Would I eat one if I was in a hurry on the occasional morning? Sure, if nothing else was handy and I had a spare wet-one.

Youngest Child – suspected hobbit that eats constantly throughout the day, has a mild aversion to healthy food, inherited mother’s cookie gene

This young taster’s reaction was that she really liked the little individual red foil packet containing the cookie. She sort of liked the cookie, too. She said she does not want one every day, but, and I quote, “If you’re on the go and don’t have time for a bowl of cereal, have a Breakfast Cookie!” She also indicated her aversion to the concept of the raisin, but said these did not offend her. She did not care about a little stickiness, since she felt free to wipe her hands on her conveniently located pants. Another lukewarm reception, but this one has potential as a future VP of Marketing Slogans.

Eldest Child – adolescent, likes nothing, has spent entire life living off of bread, milk and the occasional apple, usually relatively tactful

This taster did not like his Breakfast Cookie. He did not finish his Breakfast Cookie. He will never eat another Breakfast Cookie. He found it soggy (a finding I don’t disagree with), and that it had, “a weird gingerbread taste, but like really old gingerbread.” He also shared this sentiment, “It has a funny aftertaste – a little spicy in the back of your throat that makes your spit all stringy,” indicating not only his displeasure with the product, but also the improbability of his sharing an office with his sister in the Marketing Department. His lack of tact would indicate that he really, really didn’t like this cookie.

No one ever said adolescence was fun.

Summary and Verdict

Overall, the Quaker Breakfast Cookie (oatmeal raisin) got a tepid reception from this group of tasters. It has some texture issues and really doesn’t pack a lot of flavor. Nutritionally not as stacked as our usual cereal, it does have an on-the-go convenience factor that a bowl filled with sloshing milk does not. In that sense, it’s far better than a doughnut, but without all the really good taste and texture that comes with deep fried fat. So the Quaker Breakfast Cookie gets a very lukewarm recommendation, based almost entirely on its nutritional superiority over dough fried in lard. Not the highest of compliments in the world, but if my little hobbit was on the verge of missing the bus, I would give her one of these to go in good conscience, knowing that she would eat it and that was at least moderately good for her. I would also be willing to grab one in a pinch (but would probably eat a real cookie later). The adolescent would rather starve than ever touch one again. Two out of three isn’t so bad……..

Two and a half stars, rounded down to two, but mildly recommended. Rounding down satisfies the adolescent, the recommendation satisfies the hobbit and everyone’s happy.





I received these Breakfast Cookies from Fleishman-Hillard in exchange for my unbiased review.


Recommended: Yes