Classic Review: Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Cereal

Kellogg's Raisin Bran Cereal Review Box

If keeping up-to-date on new cereals is this website’s main mission, then its side quest is to review every kind of raisin bran available on shelves. To everyone out there who hates raisin bran: I’m sorry, but I have to do this for me. As a self-appointed man of the bran, I want my legacy to be “mild-mannered dude with a bizarre passion for pairing dried, wrinkly fruit with grains and milk.”

That phrase better be in my eulogy, or else I swear I’m haunting all of you.

I’ve made good progress on my raisin bran review journey: from the world’s first raisin to undoubtedly the world’s best (so far), I’ve populated Cerealously with enough synonyms for “juicy raisins” to make a thesaurus go extinct. Of course, there are some notable absences—Raisin Nut Bran’s life-changing nut-covered raisins come to mind—and some that slipped into discontinuation before I could photograph them—rest in lame, flavorless pieces, Total Raisin Bran—but the biggest name missing from my raisin bran library has always been Kellogg’s plain ol’, original Raisin Bran.

I think it’s time we put this case to rest—and put the 98% of my readers who don’t care about raisin bran to sleep.

There are two types of people: those who prefer Raisin Bran, and those who prefer Raisin Bran Crunch. I fall squarely in the latter camp, simply because I crave a good crunch. Seriously, nothing beats gnashing through a flake that explodes into bran-flavored shrapnel with enough ferocity to sink a pirate’s schooner.

Kellogg's Raisin Bran Cereal Review

Since I have this love affair with gnarly noshes, Kellogg’s Raisin Bran’s flakes just make me spiritually sad. They’re redundantly chewy alongside the already chewy raisins, they’re flatly flavored compared to Crunch’s honey and brown sugar-kissed puppies, and they’re so fragile that a mistimed exhale will make them shatter into shards like a legendary RPG weapon you have to spend the rest of the game collecting pieces of.

Except at the end of this quest, you don’t even get to slay a malevolent demon with a buster sword. You just get more busted flakes.

So why do I keep eating plain Kellogg’s Raisin Bran? Easy: because its raisins are unbeatable. These plump, juicy powder kegs explode with sweet, aged grape goodness, while they’re coated with enough sparkling sugar to make them look like freezer-burned purple popsicles and make me sing like a crooning California Raisin. Compared to Raisin Bran’s titular nuggets, Raisin Bran Crunch’s dense mix-ins taste like mummified fruit snacks.

Kellogg's Raisin Bran Cereal Review with Milk

Adding milk to Raisin Bran can be hit or miss. Milk can rejuvenate the nearly wooden bran flakes with its naturally fatty sweetness, but if your flakes are post-break, dairy creaminess will just turn your crumbles into unsweetened oatmeal. At this point, the only way to resuscitate your unpalatable patient is to add a cinnamon dusting and/or maple syrup drizzle.

Or just toss out the flakes and toss in some Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Waffle Crisp. Those raisins deserve a fresher beau anyway.

So overall, I can’t really recommend Raisin Bran to my fellow bran-thusiasts because of its lame flakes and dismal sog-proneness. Sure, this cereal has become a breakfast mainstay for a reason, but I wish Kellogg’s would just merge Raisin Bran’s raisins with Raisin Bran Crunch’s flakes and clusters into a single new cereal called “Raisin Bran XL” or “X-Treme Raisin Bran” or something.

Okay fine: I just really want to go back to the early 2000s, when every adjective started with an X.


 

The Bowl: Kellogg’s Raisin Bran

The Breakdown: Sublimely saccharine raisins can’t redeem the fragile wood chips that make up the bulk of this cereal. Trick it out with syrup or spices or smooth nut butter—or just switch it out for a better raisin bran.

The Bottom Line: 5.5 dried fruit bucket lists out of 10

7 responses »

  1. Dear Kellogg, or whomever it may concern.,

    I’m not a typical consumer regularly of Raisin Bran. I use to be, but now with 3 kids.. well let’s just say the sweet stuff comes first. However I am a big enough of Raisin Bran Crunch. The one that rules the roost now of the 2. I say that to say that my wife (god love her) today bought home a box of the good ol” stuff. I looked forward to the bowl. But when i ate a few out of the box they tasted off:stall even. No big deal maybe it was my pallet. When i pour the bowl all i could wonder next was how the raisins were lacking. Two steps ahead no more. But two steps behind. I remixed the bowl and box as my daughter came in. Excited to have a bowl as well. She is the oldest haha. As we sat down to eat the experience that started rocky, ended up at full blown turbulence. Oh no i thought, but continued silently. 3 more bits…I drop the spoon into the bowl. And exclaimed wholeheartedly that this sucked. My daughter called it old man cereal and I couldn’t argue back. She was right. But would they enjoy this even? All in all I write you to say the box wasn’t out of date. And I know what texture is. I’m terribly disappointed.I feel like the Sun logo should down be the dark side of the moon.

    Fix it please.

  2. My wife and I love Raisin Bran but something has changed ounce they put the hart healthy on the box the flavor changed and we no longer care for it
    Maybe they can come out with classic raisin brand Kellogg’s is the only brand we like

  3. Okay fine: I just really want to go back to the early 2000s, when every adjective started with an X.
    xD

    Since “Mini Wheats Grape” or Kelloggs All Bran Fruits and Flakes are the closest i can get to “Raisin Bran” (and i’m not talking about the huge amount of muesli with raisins in it you can get here):
    Did you try mixing your favorite raisins with your favorite flakes yet? (I know it should be hard to come by some sugar coated raisins, but still raisins and Waffle Crisps sounds like a really good pair and maybe solves the problem with the flakes. :D)

    • I definitely want to try it, but I haven’t. I’m still too lazy to separate out the raisins ;P
      But perhaps I will soon—and make a special post about it!

      • I’m looking forward to it. (as always ;))
        But: are the raisins in Raisin bran (most likely because of the sugar coating) really that special and not buyable?
        If so: What a shame… missed opportunity or THE opportunity for another business idea that will never be executed 😉

  4. Personally I’ve never been able to handle cloyingly sweet cereals. I go for Raisin Bran occasionally because although the raisins carry a pungent sweetness (and the Kelloggs variety gets extra brownie points for covering theirs in sugar) I can always rely on the wood-chippy chewy bran flakes to have a balancing effect. I acknowledge your appreciation for sweets but I find the thought of mixing cinnamon toast crunch with Kelloggs’ R.B. raisins about as blasphemous as putting raisins in shortbread cookies. Now if you’ll excuse me I think I’m going to go pour myself a bowl of wheaties while my blood sugar goes down…

Leave a Reply to xdestitutex Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *