Perkin' up your Breakfast with Perk!er Flakes
When a couple of packets of Perk!er Flakes landed on my desk I was very excited to see this inspiring company's latest offerings; having discovered their deliciously Fruity Berry Porridge earlier this year.
On offer today is a box of Perk!er Red Berry Flakes and Perk!er Fruity Flakes. Both are free-from gluten, wheat and milk - and with an average 340kcal per 100g they are not exactly breaking the daily calorie counting bank.
As the flakes are so light you get a lot more for the weight in an average serving - and for those that like a bigger breakfast, 100g of Perk!er Flakes fills a generously sized breakfast bowl.
On flavour? Well, wholegrain flakes are never going to win many taste awards but these are pretty good. Not overly sweet, nor desperately bland, they work well with the berries and fruit and, more importantly, they filled us up through to lunch. No craving a mid-morning snack and no going back for a second bowl - although that was tempting just on taste rather than hunger.
Many cereals today are sugar-laden and starting the day on an unhealthy dose of processed sugars doesn't supply the steady release of energy needed to get through until lunch, so we were keen to see that the Red Berry Flakes came in at 8.5g of sugar, with 6.3g of fibre.
With the added use of the wholegrain flakes we would consider this a good balance for a breakfast cereal and the fact that it tastes great is an added bonus. Usually many 'healthier' or free-from breakfast options don't make the grade on taste but Perk!er have certainly achieved with this packet.
The Perk!er Fruity Flakes don't fair as well in the sugar stakes, with a hefty 21.7g per 100g - nearly a quarter of the weight being made up from sugars.
This is three times more than we would like and while we understand the addition of the raisins and dried fruits is probably the source of the extra sugar, in any form it is still a little too high for us. Having said that, taste-wise the Fruity Flakes were our favourite so we compromised by mixing half and half from each packet to create our perfect start to the day.
Priced at around £3.50 for a 350g box the price doesn't sting as much as we expected and is on par with many other cereals available, so we are giving these Perk!er Flakes the thumbs up and adding them to our breakfast list.
For more information visit www.perkier.co.uk