The Aldi Cereal You Should Probably Leave On The Shelves

Aldi's lack of brand name products is by design, as it's a stocking choice meant to cut costs and increase savings for shoppers. The bargain grocer's schtick is simple: buy generic, save money. While many of Aldi's private-label goods stack up favorably with their name-brand counterparts, others are a massive fail — see our picks for the best and worst products to buy at Aldi. In that latter camp, you'll find Millville Crispy Oats, a Cheerios knockoff so egregiously terrible that social media users at Reddit can't seem to stop hating on it. Over at Foodie's sister site, The Daily Meal, a feature writer compiled the ultimate ranking of Aldi's Millville brand cereals and named Crispy Oats dead last for taste and quality, noting that its "heart healthy" claim came along with dry texture and an utter lack of flavor. "If you're going to start your day in a tasteless, joyless way, grab a cup of burnt black coffee, but don't turn to Crispy Oats; that's a step too far," he snarked.

When we ranked Cheerios flavors from worst to best, we focused on novelty and flavor. Millville's Crispy Oats, however, exist at a dubious crossroads of being completely unoriginal and reminiscent of sawdust in terms of consistency and taste. And, just in case we thought that maybe we tried a bad box, we have the internet to back us up when it comes to loathing this derivative, inferior cereal.

"The Millville Crispy Oats (obviously similar to Cheerios) are awful, I will never buy them again," stated a Redditor on the topic of disappointing Aldi products. Another Reddit denizen broke the matter down systematically. "Millville's Crispy Oats is a terrible cereal and you should not buy it," they began, while proceeding to rattle off a screed about a foul, "off" taste to the cereal and a soggy textural transformation that happened virtually the second a splash of milk hit the bowl. Perhaps the problem is greater than merely the Crispy Oats? "Every Aldi cereal is foul so I have to make a special shop just for Cheerios," a third post was titled. Nor was Reddit alone in loathing this cereal, with other reviewers comparing the cereal to nothing less than cardboard. 

The good news is that you need not completely write Aldi off for breakfast. Other options, like its heat-and-serve sausage links, get favorable reviews, and the store's dairy offerings, including eggs, milk, cream cheese, and yogurt, are also widely considered to be winners. In short, it's easy to build a balanced family meal at Aldi. Maybe just shy away from the breakfast cereal? Or, at the very least, pick a different box. For example, the Daily Meal reviewer really loved both varieties of Aldi's Honey Crunch 'n Oats.

Static Media owns and operates Foodie and Daily Meal