Puffins Cereal – Peanut Butter (Vegan)

I’ve read so many raves about this cereal that I just had to taste what all of the hype was about. Puffins come in several varieties, but the peanut butter variety is the one that intrigued me most. So when I spotted the Peanut Butter Puffins on sale for an impossible-to-pass-up price, I decided that some sampling was in order.

These are BIG corn puff that just hint at peanut butter. This isn’t an in-your-face peanut butter product, and considering the medium, that’s probably a good thing. The puffs are lightly sweetened, but sweet enough that I discovered my husband (aka The Sugar Fiend) watching TV and snacking on them – he devoured roughly half the box. I wasn’t as smitten as my husband by these light and corny squares. But after a few bites, I warmed up to them.

Would I purchase them again? Maybe, but probably not. Though I did like that they had just 6 grams of sugar per serving (not bad for a cereal that my husband deems sweet enough to snack on), we both agreed that they weren’t hearty enough to keep us fueled. We still prefer those whole grain shredded varieties when we do splurge on convenient cereal. Nonetheless, I could definitely see the draw to Puffins for corn-based cereal fans.

Puffins also come in Original, Multigrain, Cinnamon, Peanut Butter & Chocolate, Crunchy Cocoa, Fruit Medley, and Honey Rice flavors, but the following ingredients and nutrition facts are for the Peanut Butter flavor that I sampled:

Ingredients: corn meal, dehydrated cane juice, natural peanut butter (ground peanuts, salt), whole oat flour, rice flour, sea salt, natural vitamin e (mixed tocopherols to maintain freshness), baking soda. contains soy (in corn) and peanut butter.

Nutrition Facts per 3/4 Cup: 110 calories, 2g Fat, 23g carbs (2g fiber, 6g sugar), 3g protein

To note, though all of the Puffins flavors are dairy-free, only two are gluten-free: the Multigrain Puffins and the Honey Rice Puffins (at last check). The Peanut Butter ones are wheat-free (along with the remaining Puffins varieties), but they do contain oat flour, and apparently not the certified gluten-free one.

For more information on this product, visit www.barbarasbakery.com.

This is a third party review by Alisa Fleming, founder of GoDairyFree.org and author of Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook for Milk Allergies, Lactose Intolerance, and Casein-Free Living. Alisa is also a freelance writer for several publications, with an emphasis on creating recipes for various types of special diets.