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After having consumed all Puffin flavors of the Barbar’s Bakery PUFFIN line (yes, on my own dime), I have come to a conclusion that: All puffins are not made equal! (Though all puffins ARE created wheat-free!)

If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s worth it to try all 5 flavors of puffins, these reviews should be perfect for you!

Did you know that Barbara’s Bakery was actually a real bakery started by a 17-year old Barbara back in 1971?? Today, the famous company continues to carry on Barbara’s commitment to create the best-tasting organic and natural products free and clear of artificial preservatives, artificial ingredients, hydrogenated oils, or refined white sugar.

My personal order of favorite flavors:

#1) Multi-grain (I love!)

#2) Peanut Butter

#3) Cinnamon

#4) Original & Honey Rice (Tied for last place! You have better choices dude.)

Let the Reviews Begin.

Multi-grain Puffins – 100% natural whole oats, brown rice and corn.

Ingredients: Corn Flour, Dehydrated Cane Juice, Brown Rice Flour, Whole Oat Flour, Fructan (NutraFlora® Natural Dietary Fiber), Oat Hull Fiber, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Flavor, Baking Soda, Natural Caramel Color, Sea Salt, Ascorbic Acid, Iron, Annatto, Vitamin D, Vitamin E (Mixed Tocopherols [Soy]).

Tastiness: 9/10. Tear open the box and you are greeted with 4 different colored and sizes of puffins. They each have their unique flavor, but delicious in its own way. I love that these don’t get as large as the peanut butter puffins, but aren’t dry and bland like the original. They are a little powdery on the outside, crunchy, and hold up perfectly in whatever milk you want to soak them in. This is an addictive blend of puffins and doesn’t require any additional mix-ins! (Yes I’m talking to you cereal mixers out there like me!)

Peanut butter Puffins

Ingredients: Corn Meal, Dehydrated Cane Juice, Natural Peanut Butter (Ground Peanuts, Salt), Oat Flour, Rice Flour, Sea Salt, Vitamin E (Mixed Tocopherols [Soy] Added to Maintain Freshness), Baking Soda.

Tastiness: 8.5/10. My second favorite Puffin flavor, these PB puffins can pass as a dry snack (without milk) thanks to the sweet, rich, ultra peanutty flavor baked into every piece of cereal. (PB lovers heaven!) They’re very powdery and the outsides are coated with a film of what appears to be dried but smooth peanut butter. The cereal itself is ultra crunchy because of the cornmeal “walls”, while the inside is hollow. The cereal itself is rather large and bulky, sadly, the calories add up too quickly with these guys.  They have a hard time soaking into the milk on its own, so I like to mash ‘em up a little and eat them with milk so they’re not as dry. Overall, ultra flavorful, crunchy, but yes a tad too big and on the dry-side.

Original Puffins

Ingredients: Yellow Corn Flour, Corn Bran Flour, Unsulphured Molasses, Oat Flour, Expeller Pressed High Oleic Oil (Canola and/or Sunflower), Salt, Baking Soda, Natural Vitamn E (Mixed Tocopherols [Soy] Added To Maintain Freshness), Vitamin C.

Tastiness: 6.5/10. Sorry original lovers, but despite how light and crispy these Puffins are, I can’t get over the bitter aftertaste. The original puffins are the smallest in size and have ultra thin, crisp “walls” and a hollow interior. While the cereal is lightly sweetened, it doesn’t make your milk sweet, and it has an unfortunate bitter aftertaste. If you can ignore that, this is a great healthy, light-flavored cereal with a great crunch to it. I just wish it had more flavor.

Cinnamon Puffins

Tastiness: 7.5/10. These cinnamon puffins didn’t quite meet my expectation. They are built very much like the original puffins – so, not powdery in texture, more dry, and smaller in size – and hence have the same light crunch. The cinnamon coating addition is what elevates the flavor of the cereal, which will successfully flavor your milk (though not as excessively as I would like)! They are sweet, but not overly so, and definitely a tastier, more flavorful choice over the original flavor to me!

Honey Rice Puffins

Ingredients: Wholegrain Brown Rice Flour, Dehydrated Cane Juice, Rice Bran, Honey, Expeller Pressed High Oleic Oil (Canola and/or Sunflower), Sea Salt, Natural Flavor, Natural Vitamin E (Mixed Tocopherols [Soy] Added To Maintain Freshness).

Tastiness: 6.5/10. I thought I would fall in love with this flavor, but unfortunately its slightly bitter aftertaste makes this one cereal not to be devoured dry. These puffins are medium in size and very powdery. They soak up milk better than the PB flavor and I did learn to enjoy it when I ate it with sweetened hazelnut milk. The honey flavor was extremely faint, but what I found to be the dominant taste was actually an almond extract-like flavor…and of course ends with some bitterness. I wouldn’t buy this cereal again if I could get any of the other sweet ones!

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If you’d like more information on puffins, click here to go to the Barbara’s Bakery Website.

P.s. As a hint, I always buy my puffins from Trader Joe’s because they stock the larger boxes of puffins for a lower price than the smaller boxes at Whole Foods or other grocery stores. The catch is that they don’t have ALL flavors! (BOO)

Updated to add: Check out this cool giveaway at Bake it After All!!

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March 15, 2010

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