Pili & Pino Banana and Cacao Granola (Review)

With the terrible traffic in Metro Manila, I always get hungry on the way home. On the road, I'd go for McDonald's drive-thru. When I get home, I go straight for junk food. I can't make good choices when I'm starving.

This time, I'm trying out the Pili & Pino Banana Cacao Granola (Php 195 for 150 grams). I ordered mine from the Human Nature website. It comes in a resealable foil-paper bag, which is good because I plan to keep it in my bag for small snacking during traffic.

Aside from as a snack, it can be eaten with milk for breakfast or as yogurt toppings. I think it's a little too expensive to be eaten as breakfast, if you're switching over from regular cereal. With just 150 grams, it will only last you 2 days.

Back of the package

Pili & Pino makes premium products using Filipino products. Pili & Pino is, of course, a word play of Pilipino (Filipino) read story here. Their products are all sweetened with coconut nectar, which is low-glycemic (won't cause a sugar crash).

So what's in their granola? According to the website, it has rolled oats, cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds, squash seeds, banana chips, cacao nibs, wheat germ, coconut nectar syrup. Here's a close up shot. The cashews are not in the picture, but they're in the bottom of the bag. Just needed to shake it around to find them.

The granola up close

Overall, it's not too sweet. It's mostly crunchy with a hint of banana and nutty flavor. Since it's not too sweet, I sometimes don't realize that I've already had too much. Perhaps to a non-Pinoy, it would taste exotic because of the banana chips and the coco nectar.

The cacao nibs are crunchy and slightly bitter, zero sweetness. They didn't have any chocolatey taste. I'm slightly disappointed for the no chocolate bits, but then again, this is supposed to be a healthy snack. Even though cacao nibs didn't have any chocolatey taste, I'm happy to find out that it's a superfood! It's high in anti-oxidants, magnesium, potassium, and fiber. Read more here:

Next time, I'll be trying the Mango & Pineapple Granola. I prefer my granola to be a mix of crunchy and chewy. Pili & Pino has a lot more granola variants on their website, but the Human Nature website only carries the Banana Cacao and Mango Pineapple variant.

Pili & Pino
Website: www.piliandpino.com/
Order Page: humanheartnature.com/buy/index.php/food/pili-and-pino-granola.html
Facebook: www.facebook.com/piliandpino
Instagram: www.instagram.com/piliandpino