Trader Joe's Tart Cherry, Chia, and Pumpkin Seed Oatmeal

The pros:  Trader Joe's Tart Cherry, Chia, and Pumpkin Seed Oatmeal is a healthy, hearty, quick meal. This has more of a nutty taste to it between the pumpkin seeds, chia seeds and the rolled oats.

The cons:  Other than the tart cherries, there isn't much sweetness here to speak of.

The verdict:  For $1.29, this was nice to try, but not my favorite flavor. That's not to say it was bad in anyway or inedible, but it sort of reminded me of eating a mushy granola bar. When I got bites of the tart cherry it truly enhanced the nutty and not sweet nature of this flavor. When I didn't get bites of the tart cherry I was left with just oats and pumpkin seeds. The pumpkin seeds added a nice texture. The chia seeds eventually made the oatmeal thicken up a bit more as it cooled from the microwave.

I found a minute was no where near enough when cooking this. Some brown sugar would absolutely help in this as the only sugar here is found in the tart cherry. It's portion controlled and I made mine with milk. I can't speak to how this would taste if you added water. I think this is worth a try if you like oatmeal that is on the nuttier side and that doesn't have much sweetness.

The container of Trader Joe's Tart Cherry Chia and Pumpkin Seed Oatmeal:

The nutritional information and the ingredients:

How to prepare:

Out of the package you get:

Adding milk and after being in the microwave for just about 2 minutes:

Would I buy this again? I thought this was good, but I preferred Trader Joe’s Strawberry Raspberry Oatmeal over this because I prefer things to be sweeter. That's not to say that you wouldn't feel the same way. It's just a different flavor of the the same product. In both cases the oatmeal comes out vastly superior to most oatmeals I've eaten that are instant. This isn't mush. There is a good texture here and given time it becomes risotto like when it cools to room temperature. Both this and the Strawberry Raspberry are worth a try and I found them in the new product section of the store.

Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.

Did you try it? Let me know what you think in the comments section.