The Backstory:
A few weeks ago, I stumbled across this video by home cooking YouTuber Adam Ragusea discussing butcher’s cuts for steak and how to prepare them. The video contained a sponsorship for a particular brand of keto-friendly low-sugar cereal known as Magic Spoon.
I, being young, 19, and impressionable, ordered four boxes of cocoa, which they only sold in a bulk of four, which added nicely to around $39 USD, averaging about $9.75 USD a box.
As it only supported continental US shipping, I had to use a third party and pay an extra $30 USD to ship it to Canada, which came roughly one month later from when I ordered it. This all seems besides the point, but it’s somewhat worthwhile to build up the kind of expectations I have for this cereal. Not only was it nearly $88 CAD to order for me, it took weeks to arrive at my doorstep. So, take my review with a grain of salt.
Distance makes the heart grow fonder, after all.
The Numbers:
The numbers are where Magic Spoon boasts the most and somewhat justifies the heavy price tag.
Each box of Magic Spoon cereal comes in at whopping 198g, and is slightly smaller than the average cereal box that most of the Western world has come acquainted to.
For a serving size of 28g:
Calories: 110
Sodium: 120mg
Sugars: 0g
Cholesterol: 5mg
Total Fat: 4.5g
Protein: 11g
Taking a closer look at the ingredients list, you’ll note that it’s made with whey protein concentrate and milk protein isolates, which will most likely explain the taste later on.
On paper, it sounds pretty good. American breakfast has this reputation of being sugary and much like desert, with sugar-ridden cereal and syrup drenched pancakes leading the vanguard of obesity rates around the world as American hegemony takes hold. Ignoring the idea that cereal breakfasts were largely a cultural staple due to marketing breakfast to be the “most important meal of the day,” there are a couple more reasons to be weary of what Magic Spoon has to offer the average somewhat health conscious individual.
“Magic Spoon is a cereal that lets you enjoy all the classic junk food cereal flavours of your fast-metabolism childhood but in a form less injurious to your slow metabolism adulthood.” -Adam Ragusea
The Taste:
I had my first taste without the presence of milk just to see what the taste of the cocoa cereal on its own was like.
The taste of cocoa immediately hits you and the aroma is quite nice; it tastes somewhat authentic and tastes more around the bitter side like dark chocolate, which leads me to believe the cocoa content is actually somewhat substantial.
However, a frankly bland taste that can only remind me of cardboard quickly takes over, and it just leaves a somewhat dull taste in my mouth. Overall, the taste itself is somewhat passable; nothing like the Nesquik cereal of your childhood Magic Spoon says it recreates, or the fruity tang of Fruit Loops. The lack of sugar is quickly evident and the whole thing loses flavour in your mouth as time passes.
The texture is solid but quickly collapses under any pressure once in contact with liquid, which includes saliva and milk. With milk, it becomes somewhat passable but quickly loses any structural integrity it had. Even without milk, a few seconds after chewing I would notice the cereal became stuck in my gums and on my teeth. With cereal, it would go grainy in the worst way possible upon first contact, making it a bit of a slog to eat.
The cause for this textural failure is probably because since grain is most likely being replaced with some form of whey protein, whey breaks down super fast in any and all liquids; it’s significantly easier to break down whey than other forms of protein, that’s why it’s used it so many protein shakes.
Unfortunately, at the bottom of the bowl where the last few bits of cereal remained and a pool of cocoa-infused milk lay, it reminded me of the bottom of a poorly-mixed protein shake.
And it sure tasted like it.
Conclusion:
There’s no understating the health benefits of eating Magic Spoon, that’s why it labels itself as “high-protein, keto friendly, gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, wheat-free, naturally flavored, totally delicious…” on the side of its box.
And the taste is somewhat average, reminding the consumer of the hint of the childhood cereal they had and branding around the image of nostalgia to sell boxes to impressionable 19-year-olds that definitely aren’t me. However, that is all it is; without the sugar that made those iconic flavours in the first place, it is only a hint of the nostalgic flavour before the facade renders into a pool of mushy protein chunks that stick in your mouth.
That’s not to mention the outrageous price tag for $9.75 USD a box (though you have to buy in bulk), which is awful compared to even its protein-rich competitors. Vector Cereal’s jumbo box at 850g is just over $7 CAD compared to Magic Cereal at 198g for $12.46 CAD.
The price alone should have been the red flag but I held onto some lingering hope, like there was some Philosopher’s Cereal that could turn protein whey into grain and create sugar out of thin air.
A man can only dream.
Just get Vector cereal.
