One of my pre-New Year resolutions has been to eat breakfast more often. I used to love eating breakfast. Until I stopped becoming such a morning person, and decided as much as I love breakfast, I love sleep more. Instead of making an egg-white omelet stacked with bacon and cheese in the morning, now I grab a pack of Instant Oatmeal and hit the road. The only problem is, now the flavors are starting to taste somewhat basic. I was thrilled to come into the office one day last week and learn about Umpqua Oats. They recently launched their new flavor, Vanilla Almond Crunch. The first-of-its-kind, warm oatmeal cup included a satisfying mixture of custom-milled rolled oats, oven-roasted almonds, rich Bourbon vanilla, sweet honey and crunchy vanilla almond granola.
The conveniently-packaged breakfast filled the office kitchen with a delicious vanilla aroma that I haven't experienced in a long time and the flavor combination isn't overwhelming, in fact it's fairly discrete. It's also completely satisfying. It had a little bit of a different texture than the oatmeal I'm used to, it was thicker and creamier than you would expect. It's definitely innovative—a concept the company is no stranger to.
In the development of Vanilla Almond Crunch, the company conducted multiple focus groups and invited people to provide their opinions on several oatmeal flavor profiles. After an overwhelming response to Vanilla Almond, the company moved forward in the Umpqua Oats way—by adding a unique twist on traditional oatmeal with granola that stays crunchy even when hot water is added.
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