I have two energetic boys. Since they were old enough to eat solids I have always given them porridge for breakfast. I feel porridge gives them the energy needed to get them through to lunch, its lovely during the winter months with a splodge of honey too.
Luckily the children still love it. As they have got older I have looked at the selection of cereals available in the supermarket and I am still horrified about how bad they are, full of sugar/salt, no energy giving properties and don't get me started on chocolate flavoured cereals!
I struggled to find alternatives to porridge, tried the 100% wheat squares, but the kids didn't like them. They do like plain shreddies though, which I now alternate with shreddies to give them a little bit of variety.
There just isn't a lot of choice out their for parents who want to give their children a healthy breakfast and healthy start to the day. We are left scratching our heads sometimes!
So, when I was offered a chance to review the 'Bear' breakfast (as my kids now affectionately call it!), I said yes. I knew the Bear range was an all natural company, which have a range of natural snacks and now the Alphabites multigrain and Alphabites Cocoa cereal.
We opened the Alphabites multigrain first, mainly because I am a little hesitant about giving chocolate things to children first thing in the morning.
The boys really loved the breakfast. Not only, because it was different to the normal variety. It actually put the fun back into breakfast for them. They were making up their names with the Alphabites. Joshua can spell so he was making up all sorts. Zain, being the younger one, knows his letters, so was getting super excited when he spotted the letter Z in his bowl.
When I first opened the Multigrain, I was surprised at the strong sweet smell. It was quite a sweet smell, but I knew that it was all natural sweetness and a fresh sweet smell, not the artificial smell from other brands. The Alphabites were very crunchy and kept their shape and bite, even with lashings of milk over them.
They were good. I even had some and thought they were tasty. I'm not a huge milk fan, so I was mainly eating them with a sprinkling of milk, but they weren't sweet at all, just the right level of sugariness!.
The next day, the kids were overjoyed when I said they could try the cocoa Alphabites breakfast.
They did like them, but to be honest, they preferred the multigrain variety. Maybe it's because they have never had any chocolate cereal before. Don't get me wrong, the bowl was still emptied very quickly by them, they just both said they preferred the multigrain.
I thought, the next day I would try a mixture of the two cereals for them, just to dilute the taste a bit. They both found this fun and preferred the chocolate version this way.
Overall, both the children loved the cereal. It's fun and flavoursome. It's guilt free, which is great for all parents. One less thing to worry about!.
I personally prefer the multigrain. Although, the cocoa isn't a chocolate flavour, it is proper cocoa, so more natural, I personally don't like giving chocolate anything in the morning. Kind of sends the wrong message. But, my husband thinks I need to relax a little!
The cereals are delicious, crunchy and tasty. The alphabites encourage conversation in the morning and brings a bit of fun to the table each day.
The cereals are reasonably priced, for a wholesome breakfast, and a packet, 375g, will easily last two young children a couple of weeks. Make sure their sneaky little hands don't get into the box on their own otherwise the box may only last a day!
The packaging was fun and engaging. The facts on the box were interesting too. Although maybe they need to be changed every month to keep us engaged.
Well done!