According to the Cheerios website, Chocolate Cheerios is “a perfect balance of whole grain goodness and a delicious touch of chocolate taste in every bite.” 

I am a fan of whole grain goodness, but I am even more a fan of chocolate! 

Chocolate cheerios is delicious.  I prefer it in milk as the chocolate flavor is more pronounced, but a handful of the dry cereal makes a great snack at the office.  In addition to the chocolaty flavor, there are only 9 grams of sugar per serving. 

The cheerios are coated in cocoa processed with alkali.  What does that mean? 

Cocoa powder is made when chocolate liquor (made from ground up cocoa beans) is pressed to remove most of the cocoa butter.  The cocoa solids that remain are processed to make a fine unsweetened powder.   There are two types of cocoa powder:  natural and processed with alkali, also called Dutched cocoa.

Dutch-Processed or Alkalized Processed Cocoa Powder is treated with an alkali to neutralize its acids.  The result of this process turns the cocoa powder a deeper, darker color and provides a more well- rounded, less bitter chocolate flavor.

Dutched cocoa has many applications.  And, now with Chocolate Cheerios, there’s another.