Guest Article by “Ole Blue” June 12, 2022.

Hi All Ole-Blue here, How about another Sunday Food Comparison Challenge.

The idea is to compare Store-Bought Foods in different Brands and compare them for Price and Taste/Quality.

I know a LOT of folks out there purchase a certain Brand of Foods for many different reasons But let’s be honest, is the Super Brand Name any ‘better’ that the others?
Let’s check it out.
BTW, the Old-Man is a good Ginny Pig HAHAHAHA

“Popular brands of Raisin Bran”

Well, the Old-Man was yacking at a buddy that is finally starting to eat a little better after Dad scolding him almost nightly, the guy is 73 years old and has had a very rough last 3 years, medically and other losses.
The friend was eating/drinking 3 cups of coffee and a Blueberry Muffin and ‘Maybe’ a little snack in the evening. Really, dude, I eat more than that just for the breakfast the Old-Man fixes for me.
So anyway, the dude is finally eating a little cereal in the morning and a ‘decent’ dinner.
Well, the conversation hit a low point when he said he could not “afford” that high-priced Raisin Bran that he will eat, and only got 3 bowls out of each box ……

Guess what? That hit a “Comparison Challenge” note for me to do.
So I talked the Old-Man into getting 3 small boxes of cereal at Safeway, here’s the cost breakdown.

Kellogg’s Raisin Bran was $4.49 for a 16.6 Oz box, 27¢ per Oz.
Post Raisin Bran was $3.79 for a 16.6 Oz, box 23¢ per Oz.
And the Signature Brand (Safeway Brand) was 3.49 for an 18.7 Oz box, 19¢ per Oz.
PLUS the Signature Brand was 99¢ off so $2.50 per box, 13.3¢ per Oz.
That’s One Half the cost of the Rich Persons Brand.
I did ask one of the Manager’s in the store if the Post or Kellogg’s ever go “on-sale” He just laughed at me ….. HAHAHA My fault I guess LOLOL

“A look See”

From Left to Right
Post, Kellogg’s, and Signature Brands.

‘Post’ looks a little lighter than the rest, maybe not toasted quite as much? Maybe a few different ingredients; who knows.

Both the Post and Kellogg’s seemed to have quite a bit fewer “Raisins” in the mix, I was NOT going to separate out all the Raisins out and count/weigh them, but from the looks of them…..
Again the Post and the Kellogg’s seemed to have a lot more “fines” at the bottom of the Bag, probably from the “Careful” handling, shipping, and stocking of the product.
Of the “Flakes” they all seemed to be about the same, plus the close-up visual they all seemed about the same, as far as “stuff” in them (See Photo Below).

Well after the Photo, I put about 1/2 of each Bowl back into their boxes (Dad said that was wayyyyyy to much Raisin Bran to eat at one time…. I have no idea why but Ohhhhh K.

So, how did the taste test go?
Post was actually a little “Bland” not really a lot of flavor; the Raisins were good, but not really “sweet” as one would think. The Old-Man commented that he thought the flavor could have been a little more “Nutty” or toasted he thought.

Kellogg’s was very good, about what he remembered what he had as a kid, (4000 years ago HAHAHA). It seemed as if the “stuff” was not ground quite as fine, and a little chunkier when chewed. Raisins were also a little “small” as the Post, but of good flavor, a little sweeter that the Post.

The Signature was, in his words, very good, a combination of the Nutty and Toasted flavors and about the same ‘consistency’ as the Kellogg’s. A lot more Raisins (Maybe just what was poured from the box???) and were obviously larger and slighter sweeter. The entire Cereal was also “sweeter” but not to the point of “Yuck that’s Sweet” sort of thing.

So to wrap this up, cause we need to get some stuff done around the Homestead (well the Old-Man needs to get stuff done, I’m going for a Nap and watch him work).

I would recommend, obviously, the Store Brand ‘Signature’.
He considered the Flavor slightly better that the Post and about the same as Kellogg’s (Maybe just a little sweeter) PLUS factor in the cost.
Dad was actually surprised the Signature was that much better, and cost-effective.
To finish off the remaining leftovers we are just going to dump all 3 into one larger bag and consume them at will, maybe once a week, we ALL know what too much Raisin Bran will do…… Right?

Thank you all for reading my “experiments”, hope they help out some.
Life is good being a Dog here on Lighting Point, time for a short hike than a Nap, or maybe just a Nap HAHAHAHA