An instant breakfast blend with a buckwheat base, açaí, banana and strawberry. Add water or plant milk, stir, and leave it a few minutes. Organic, 360 g.
What a breakfast blend may and may not claim
Blends like this are usually sold on "a high nutritional profile" and "a true awakening of body, mind and spirit", "supporting energy, focus, and overall wellness". None of those phrases appears here. None has a definable meaning, and where they imply an effect on the body, no such health claim is authorised in the EU. A breakfast should not have to be sold as an awakening.
What is honestly true, and better: it is a quick, filling, whole-food breakfast with real fibre and no added sugar. In an aisle of instant breakfasts, that is rare and it is the reason to buy it.
What is actually in it
Buckwheat is the base. Despite the name it is not wheat and not a cereal at all — it is a pseudocereal related to rhubarb and sorrel, it contains no gluten, and it is unusually complete in protein for a plant, including the lysine most grains lack. Buckwheat allergy is uncommon in Europe but can be severe; if you have never eaten it, start with a small bowl.
Açaí is the fruit of an Amazonian palm, Euterpe oleracea. Two honest things about it. Its dark colour is anthocyanin, and it genuinely is rich in them — but no health claim for açaí is authorised in the EU, and the weight-loss claims attached to it online are wholly unsupported. And it is not sweet: fresh açaí tastes earthy and faintly of chocolate, which is why in Brazil it is almost always served sweetened. The banana and strawberry in this blend are doing that job.
Check the pack for the full ingredient list — if it contains chia or flax, as most blends of this type do, see the note below.
If it contains chia — an important practical point
Chia absorbs many times its weight in liquid and forms a gel, which is what thickens a blend like this. It also means dry chia must be fully hydrated before you swallow it. There is a documented medical case of dry chia swallowed and followed by water expanding in the oesophagus and obstructing it. It is rare and completely avoidable: always let the bowl stand until it thickens, and never eat the dry powder by the spoonful. This matters most for children and for anyone with swallowing difficulty.
How to make it well
- Roughly 40 to 50 g of powder to 150 ml of liquid — check the pack for the maker's serving and adjust to taste.
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Stir straight away and thoroughly, then leave it 3 to 5 minutes. Skipping the wait gives a thin bowl with dry lumps in it.
- Cold is as good as hot. Make it in a jar with plant milk the night before and eat it from the fridge.
- Good with fresh berries, banana, a spoonful of yoghurt or nut butter.
Store airtight, cool and dark. If the blend contains ground flax or chia, it is high in polyunsaturated fat and will go rancid — keep it sealed after opening, use it within a couple of months, and discard it if it smells sharp or like old paint.