An instant breakfast blend built on buckwheat with raw cacao, flax and chia. Add water or plant milk, stir, wait a couple of minutes. Organic, gluten-free, 360 g.
Buckwheat is not wheat — and that is the point
Despite the name, buckwheat is not a cereal and is not related to wheat at all. It is a pseudocereal, in the same family as rhubarb and sorrel, and it contains no gluten. That is what makes this blend suitable for coeliacs, and it is why buckwheat has always been the porridge grain of places too cold or too poor for wheat — Russian kasha, Breton galettes, Japanese soba.
It is also, unusually for a plant food, a genuinely complete protein: buckwheat contains all nine essential amino acids, including the lysine that most cereals are short of.
One honest caution: buckwheat allergy is real and, while uncommon in Europe, it can be severe. If you have never eaten it, start with a small bowl.
The chia warning — please read this one
Chia seeds absorb many times their own weight in liquid and form a gel. That is what thickens this porridge, and it is genuinely useful. It is also why dry chia must always be properly hydrated before you swallow it.
There is a documented case in the medical literature of a man who swallowed a spoonful of dry chia and then drank water, and the seeds expanded in his oesophagus and obstructed it — requiring endoscopic removal. It is rare, and it is entirely avoidable.
So: always let this blend stand for a few minutes until it has thickened before eating it. Never eat the dry powder by the spoonful. This matters particularly for children, for anyone with swallowing difficulties, and for anyone with a history of oesophageal narrowing.
What a breakfast blend may and may not claim
Blends like this are usually sold on the promise that they "nourish body and mind", are "a conscious, nature-powered choice for everyday well-being", and "support balance and vitality". None of that appears here. None of those phrases means anything definable, and where they do imply an effect, no such health claim is authorised in the EU. A good breakfast does not need to be sold as a spiritual practice.
What is honestly true: it is a fast, filling, whole-food breakfast with real fibre and real protein and no added sugar, which is a genuinely difficult thing to find in an instant format.
About the cacao
Raw cacao is unroasted, so it keeps more of the compounds that roasting drives off and tastes noticeably more bitter and fruity than cocoa powder. Two things worth knowing: cacao contains caffeine and theobromine, so a large bowl late at night is not a neutral choice for everyone — and theobromine is toxic to dogs, so the packet does not go on a low shelf.
How to make it well
- Roughly 40 to 50 g of powder to 150 ml of liquid — adjust to how you like it. Check the pack for the maker's serving.
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Stir immediately and thoroughly, then leave it 3 to 5 minutes. The chia and flax need that time; skipping it gives you a thin bowl and dry pockets.
- Cold works as well as hot — make it in a jar the night before with plant milk and eat it straight from the fridge.
- Good with banana, berries, nut butter or a spoonful of yoghurt.
Store airtight, cool and dark. Ground flax and chia are high in polyunsaturated fat and go rancid: once opened, keep the bag sealed and use it within a couple of months, and throw it out if it smells sharp or like old paint.
Smart Organic
Iswari
Iswari
Iswari
