Category Archives: Reviews

YOU Make Our Gluten-Free Day!!

Posted on by
Reply

Sit back in your chairs, relax and enjoy the show! Here comes a blog post that you will hopefully enjoy as much as we at Custom Choice Cereal did.

“Okay, first I was impressed that there was a site specifically for Gluten Free cereal. Then I was impressed because you could mix your own AND name them! THEN I was impressed by the ease of ordering, and the personal customer service as evidenced by the nice email I got after placing my order.

Well, now I’m a devoted and extremely satisfied customer and here’s why: I received my cereal today (two days after ordering – FAST!), and was so excited that I decided to make myself a bowl of one of my custom mixes as soon as I got home tonight. When I opened the box there were my two special mixes, cool labels included, neatly packed (and without a lot of unnecessary extras, I might add). Then I noticed in the box was a pamphlet about the business, and a business card – yours – with a PERSONAL NOTE!

Who does this anymore in this day of automation and “press one for English”?! I was beyond thrilled with that little piece of kindness.

Then I ate some cereal, my “Banaconut” (mix ID 22f1ca), a multi-grain flake with coconut and banana chips. OH MY GOODNESS! It was fantastic!! Having sampled some really tasteless or downright icky GF cereals since beginning this GF journey, I admit some concern about how my new cereals would taste. I am so HAPPY!! Actually, I did a little happy dance after my first bite!

I am absolutely thrilled that I found your company and that I placed my order. You WILL be hearing back from me in the future!

Thanks SO SO SO much!”

We have to thank YOU! You might not believe it, but when we received your email, we did a little happy dance, too :-D

Snack Girl Reviews Our Gluten-Free Cereal

Posted on by
Reply

Happy Monday to you all! If you haven’t heard of Lisa Cain aka Snack Girl you should definitely check out her website. Lisa started Snack Girl to educate people “about the foods they eat every day”. We at Custom Choice Cereal couldn’t agree more, especially since cereal truly is an everyday food!
Snack Girl
That’s why we are very excited that Snack Girl reviews our custom gluten-free cereal on her website. She is especially intrigued by our concept because as so many of us, she “wastes a lot of time in the cereal aisle. It takes FOREVER to look at all the labels to try to understand what I am truly buying”. Now that she found Custom Choice Cereal, Lisa can “choose the ingredients that go into that cereal so I could make my cereal perfect”.

After sending us a very encouraging email (“I REALLY liked it!”), Lisa writes that she “designed my own cereal on his site and was pleasantly surprised by the results. I was supposed to share this cereal with my family, but I forgot”. Now that’s a great sign that we are doing something right here and the best encouragement we can get! But she doesn’t stop there and continues by saying that “the ingredients were high quality and were really not comparable to buying a box of cereal at the supermarket. It is like an entirely different animal”.

We also love how she points out that “kids will love designing their own cereal – so if you are trying to get Jimmy off of Cocoa Puffs – this is a great option”. Wow. Seriously, Snack Girl has been reviewing snacks for years and knows what she’s saying, so her “stamp of approval” is a great honor for Custom Choice Cereal!

Check out the Snack Girl website, it has great pictures of many snacks as well as an easy navigation menu with the categories Healthy Snack Recipes, Healthy Packaged Snacks and the Worst Snacks she has tried.  You are certain to learn a thing or two!

Delectable. Wonderful. Gluten-free Cereal.

Posted on by
Reply

Time has flown by during the past two days! I have been working from Bull City Forward, a local organization dedicated to support social enterprises in Durham, NC. The spirit of many passionate entrepreneurs working in the same office is awesome and super motivating!

Gluten-free CerealBesides this, there has been some other pretty good stuff happening at Custom Choice Cereal this week. Obviously I am still stoked about our partnership with gourmet retailer Dean & DeLuca, bringing gluten-free cereal to their stores in New York City. But what always excites me most is the awesome feedback we get about our cereal, so I had to share another one with you.

Rita designed her own cereal and reviewed it on her blog One 2 Try and starts out by saying that “I wanted to create even more cereal, it was so much fun”. When her concoction arrived conveniently at her doorstep she thought that it “looked delectable. There are big cherries and lots of coconut flakes. It smells wonderful. I could not wait to taste my creation. The corn flakes are delicately crunchy while the cherries and blueberries add a nice chewiness to the cereal. The coconut adds even more crunch. The berries add the sweetness. This is really good. I am enjoying munching right from the bag. I had some with milk too and it was my perfect cereal taste sensation.”

You know what I thought when I read this review? Even if I tried I couldn’t come up with better feedback. So what are you waiting for? Design your perfect gluten-free breakfast and experience what Rita describes as “The fun comes in the creating exactly what you want in your cereal. It is your Custom Choice Cereal. Munch Munch Munch… it is so good!”

Gluten-free Valentine's Extravaganza

Posted on by
Reply

We at Custom Choice Cereal learn again and again that those who designed their own cereal give better feedback than we ever could! That’s why we’d like to start with a quote from from Maureen about the custom cereal that she reviewed on her blog Simply Stacy:

“It was delicious and my kids just loved it. I enjoyed it with almond milk as a cereal and also as a topping to my yogurt with both being equally ‘yummy’. I especially appreciated that it includes a nutritional label specifically for my mix so I can portion this correctly for my lifestyle.”

Goji BerriesMaureen also makes another great comment in her review because she starts out by saying that even though she does not follow a gluten-free diet she “still found the concept of creating my own cereal intriguing and I would highly recommend this for everyone”. That’s exactly the point! We never fully understood why so many foods that are naturally gluten-free (duh, they’re called corn flakes) have gluten added to them during processing. But that’s just something you learn as one of the first things when going gluten-free – that stuff is literally everywhere!

We especially appreciate that Maureen also highlighted the fact that you can get really creative in naming your cereal and couldn’t have said in any better:

“Once your mix has been created it is hand packaged to ensure freshness and arrives with your own personalized label which was a really neat feature that my five year old son thought was brilliant.”

Maureen really is brilliant because she immediately discovered the potential, saying that “this would make a fantastic gift idea for Valentine’s Day”. So true! And the naming option is perfect for a personal message that your Valentine will see bright and early. Add some cranberries or goji berries to the cereal to give it the appropriate color and it’s a surprise that can’t go wrong! By the way, if you order by tomorrow, February 11th, you’ll receive 10% off with the coupon code “valentine”!

"Awesome Cereal Just The Way I Like It"

Posted on by
Reply

Snack Bar ReviewsThis is a quote from Priscilla who designed and reviewed her personal gluten-free cereal on her blog Snack Bar Reviews. I am excited to hear those kind of comments because it’s always rewarding and motivating to hear this kind of feedback!

Priscilla also makes another great point: “Since the New Year, I am sure there’s a lot of “Get Healthy” resolutions out there.” She’s so right because in addition to reading at least one book a month and going for a run twice a week, I am watching my diet more carefully. And as Priscilla points out, “I was once told it started with your choice of breakfast. I have noticed if I eat a good breakfast, I do tend to make the healthier choice come lunch time. Custom Choice Cereal allows you to have a choice!”

Besides the quote in the heading, Priscilla sums up what she thinks about her custom gluten-free cereal with these words: “I have always wanted to have my raisins, chocolate chips, and almonds all in the same cereal! With every bite I had something new going on, some granola mix with raisin, some with chocolate and almond, etc. I love this cereal and the uniqueness of it! I also love the naming part!”

And we have something else you will love: comment on Priscilla’s review for a chance to win your gluten-free breakfast mix!

Custom gluten-free cereal in the Indy

Posted on by
Reply

The cold and rainy weather here in good ol’ North Carolina combined with maybe not the smartest behavior during New Year’s put quite a few of us down with a cold these days. Besides letting you enjoy a great variety of tasty gluten-free breakfast cereal there is one thing that always gets me fired up: your feedback!
Indy Weekly
Joyce Clark Hicks, who recently designed a cereal for her daughter, just happens to be a food reporter for a local paper called the Independent Weekly. The Indy focuses on Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, so writing about Custom Choice Cereal as a local food start-up with a focus on the gluten-free niche market made perfect sense.

Joyce liked the great variety besides dried fruits, nuts and seeds (“chocolate chips, anyone?”), the simple ordering process, and that her mix “arrived within two days of ordering”. She also points out that as a local you “can pick up your order and save on shipping”. Read the entire article about our custom gluten-free cereal start enjoying a tasty gluten-free life!

By the way, Joyce’s son is allergic to nuts and her daughter can’t have wheat, dairy, casein, whey, eggs or nuts. She sharing her experience of feeding her children through a wonderful monthly column called Feed With Care. Look for it in the first Indy of each month!

Perfect solution for gluten-free breakfast or snacks

Posted on by
Reply

Custom Choicce Cereal Gluten-free GranolaWhile I agree with this title and absolutely love to hear this kind of feedback about our customizable gluten-free cereal, it is not something I would say myself. It’s true though :-)

I actually borrowed this title from Jen from Gluten-Free Life with Jen – it’s what she concludes about her cerealizations. She continues by saying that“Custom Choice Cereal is an incredible company that has taken gluten free cereal and granola making to a new level”. Finally, Jen quite accurately describes the pain point that many of you are so familiar with and that inspired me to start Custom Choice Cereal for a gluten-intolerant friend:

“How many times do you buy a gluten-free cereal or bag of granola and it just isn’t quite right? The texture is wrong, they used a nut or fruit you don’t like or you just wanted one more extra treat in it to make it perfect. Now you are in control – you can create your own certified gluten free cereal and granola.”

Jen really enjoyed her Gluten-free Fall Flakes (mix ID d39d18) and says that it “is quite yummy”. She even suggests different ways to enjoy your mixes, stating that “granola is so good that you can either eat it on it’s own or add it to your favorite yogurt product”.

Because it is my goal to make gluten-free breakfast an enjoyable and fun experience, I really appreciate any feedback about Custom Choice Cereal. Above all, it helps me learn and improve. This being said, it definitely feels great to read that Jen writes that “Not only is the cereal and granola high quality – but Hajo offers flawless customer service”. Thanks Jen, we’re working on it every day, and reviews such as yours are the greatest possible motivator to continue what we’re doing!

Tina Turbin reviews our gluten-free cereal

Posted on by
Reply

Now that’s a way to start the new week! Well, technically the review was published on Saturday but that’s still close enough to the new work week, especially since it was Thanksgiving.

Tina TurbinTina Turbin’s website GlutenFreeHelp.info is an outstanding resource for the gluten-free community. The website was just selected as the second best .info website globally, so I am honored to have Custom Choice Cereal featured there!

Tina is someone who has seen it all, and we are absolutely thrilled about her stellar feedback: “I’ve now tasted my three personal cereals with my testers, and we have all concluded that this company and the concept is a hit, and beyond delicious.” She also mentions that celiac expert Dr. Wangen answers your questions right here on every first Wednesday of the month. The next date is only two days away, so don’t miss out!

I especially want to thank Tina for the last sentence of her post: “This is a company we want to see thrive, expand, and continue to service the celiac community.”Similar to all the encouraging feedback we receive every day from you it is tough to find the words that can adequately describe how much this means to me and everyone here at Custom Choice Cereal. So in the spirit of last week I’d like to give Thanks to all of you! You rock and make our job awesome!

We are a NFCA gluten-free Hot Product!

Posted on by
Reply

I started today with a delicious bowl full of gluten-free organic corn flakes, organic chocolate chips, and macadamia nuts. I am so glad we added the chocolate chips that I absolutely had to throw them into my own gluten-free cereal mix! It completely made me forget the nasty rainy Fall day here in Durham, NC :-)

National Foundation for Celiac AwarenessBut who would have thought that the day would get even better? The great people at the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) published their November newsletter with tons of useful information on celiac disease and living gluten-free. If you haven’t heard about this outstanding organization you definitely need to check out their website!

Besides all the news and information they provide, I always especially enjoy their section on “Hot Products” in the gluten-free market. The November newsletter features our build-your-own perfect gluten-free breakfast cereal or granola! Tom and I are so thrilled about what they wrote about us that we have to quote parts of what the NFCA wrote about us here:

“Custom Choice Cereal lets you create your own cereal (you even get to name it), with three gluten-free options for the base and up to 11 ingredients for mix-ins. For example, the sample Launch Day pack included banana chips and shaved coconut for a tropical twist. The cereal comes in a resealable pouch and is shipped to your door. All you have to do is open the pack, pour in your hand and munch away.”

So true! Which brings me to the biggest question now (but I guess we will find out soon): what ingredients do you add to create your perfect gluten-free cereal?

What The Celiac Diva loves about us

Posted on by
Reply

We at Custom Choice Cereal are pretty excited about a wonderful video review of our cereal. The highly energetic Lauren Lucille Vasser aka The Celiac Diva designed her personal gluten-free cereal and loves it beyond its great taste because

  • we are very transparent and have a great FAQ
  • we maintain a dedicated gluten-free facility & are a very safe company
  • the nutrition facts update as you design your own cereal
  • Carl tried her cerealization and gave it 4.5 out of 5.0 tosses: “Send more!”
  • it’s such a cool idea
  • we are awesome advocates in the gluten-free community
  • our many organic options are fabulous

Thanks, Lauren, great feedback like yours always makes our day!