MixMyGranola: Custom Granola at the Click of a Mouse

Do you like granola? We do. We always think about making it ourselves, but never seem to get around to it, sadly. So we jumped at the chance to try out a new online product: MixMyGranola, which lets you mix up custom batches of granola that are shipped to you overnight. What would this be, we wondered? Gimmick? Great granola?

A little of both, it turned out, in the end.

MixMyGranola's website walks you through choosing a base granola (we chose an organic granola) and then you get to customize it with all sorts of good things. Dried strawberries, blueberries, raisins, Goji berries, banana chips... the list of fruit goes on and on.

Then you get to the nuts and seeds: almonds, walnuts, pepitas — over a dozen choices! Then there were the potential mix-ins: protein enhancers, coconut shreds, yogurt pretzels, even M&Ms.

In the end, we plunked quite a few things into our granola: dried berries and bananas, flax seeds, almonds, pepitas, and more. The final tally came to quite a bill, too; including shipping this would cost about $18.

The granola-mixing process is a lot of fun, and very easy. But of course the shipping is a little discomfiting; all those airmiles, for granola? And for that price?

But we needed to taste it before passing judgment. The granola showed up the next day in a sleek tube. It was printed with the name we had assigned our granola, plus custom nutrition facts and labeling. The whole look of the product was sleek and impressive.

But how was it? All that is sort of beside the point if it isn't good granola, right? It was very good granola, with plenty of crunch and fresh taste. It lacked, however, the big crunchy chunks we really like in our granola. It had a finer texture, but it was still very oaty and delicious. There were also plenty of the mix-ins; they weren't skimped at all.

Overall, the verdict on this granola is that it does inspire us to make our own more often, since realistically we probably wouldn't pay this much money for a pound of granola. But it also did make us realize that buying this variety and quantity mix-ins might actually push our own homemade granola up to a similar price.

In the end, we think this could be a fantastic gift for a friend or sibling at school — perhaps someone you needs a gentle nudge to eat healthier or to eat breakfast more often. The service is fun, fast, and the granola was definitely delicious. It just isn't an everyday thing for us.

• Try it yourself: MixMyGranola

(Images: Faith Durand)

Comments (8)

insane! wouldn't homemade granola be an even better gift? it's so cheap , fast and tasty.

WOWZA, that is very expensive! There's a store out here in Phoenix (and other parts of the west, I understand) called Sprouts. Their granola is usually about $3.99 a pound (for the granola cereal)...when it's on sale, it's about $1.99/pound which is a steal!

Get some dried fruit, fresh fruit...make your own mixin's...HAS to be a lot cheaper than "mix my granola!!"

I'll be making my own, thank you v. much.

i agree--making your own takes the cake. i made some yesterday in 5 minutes flat... (ok, i'm not including the 30 minutes in the oven and the 3 hours it sat on the counter cooling!)... and it's so yummy that now friends are requesting it. cost-effective, organic, and local, too, with bulk oats and nuts and honey... the best.

http://sustainablediet.blogspot.com/2009/05/now-officially-granola-eating-hippie.html

My friend tried a similar one, but for cereal instead of granola. (probably called "mixmycereal")

She said that while it was fun to custom-make a cereal with gummy bears and stuff, when she tasted it, it was like eating cardboard.

Honest to God - it takes just as much time to actually make your own as it does to order it. Here's what you do:
throw stuff in a bowl - rolled oats, nuts, seeds
add a combination of oil and sweet stuff
mix
stick in oven and stir every 15 minutes until golden (about, oh, 45 minutes to an hour)
take out and throw most stuff in the bowl - dried fruits, chocolate chips, etc

That's it. And it tastes so friggen delicious. And (depending upon the add-ins) it's not all that expensive to make.

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I just ordered some of this. I couldn't help myself. I have triplets, and therefore I literally have no time to do things like make granola for myself when I could be cooking food for them. (Which I rarely have time to do anyway.)

Plus, I made my own granola last year and it just didn't turn out right. I was disappointed. So let's just see how this stuff comes out. It was just a splurge for myself.

I was never happy with my homemade granola until I started using this recipe I found at Design*Sponge. It takes all of five minutes to mix the ingredients, less than 20 minutes to bake, and about half an hour to cool. Easy-peasy.

The only variation I make to this recipe is the addition of a handful of unsweetened coconut and a small handful of sesame seeds. I also only bake it for 17 minutes, instead of the prescribed 20, taking it out to stir once at the halfway point. That, plus leaving it to cool without stirring it again, give it the nice big chewy chunks I like.