The 10 Best Granolas in New Zealand: A Journey of Taste and Substance

Breakfast can transform the morning experience into a holiday for your taste buds, or groundhog day. It's one or the other and rarely anything in between. New Zealand offers a vast array of cereal makers, but for this, we are focusing on the world of granola. Here, we highlight the ten best granolas in New Zealand, focusing on their price, taste, quality, and size. 

What makes a granola expert you may be asking? Well! Aside from being a chef, we have over 40 years experience tasting granola from the home of granola-- California. We've tasted A LOT of granolas in that time. Most average, with a few notable so we thought we'd go through our own list of what makes a great granola remarkable and worthy of eating. 

What makes a good granola? It's the matrix of taste, texture (clusters), ingredient quality, and value.

1. Yum Granola (tested flavor was the Maple Tahini)

At the top of our list is Yum, a Nelson-based brand that specializes in freshly made, beautiful craft granolas. Yum is chef-owned and you can tell from the moment you taste it. Yum reflects genuine quality, with the most natural, delicious granolas and one-of-a-kind flavors highlighting carefully curated ingredients.

Yum has led the way with their granolas, and raising the bar for all around them, reflecting granola as it should be-- perfect clusters of crunch and flavor. Not too sweet, but light and moreish that can be eaten straight out of the bag.

With flavors like Mighty Fig Granola, Oatmeal Raisin w/Almond Butter, Cacao & Goji Berry, Coffee Crunch w/Local Hazelnuts, Maple Tahini Crunch, as well as seasonal limited editions, it is no wander why they made the top of our list.

Yum doesn't use any ingredients with numbers, meaning there are no preservatives, which we equate to freshness and quality. This is unique in the granola space where sulfites are often used with most dried fruits and preservatives to keep them 'fresh'.

Yum creates its recipes by prioritizing using local sourced and organic ingredients, nutrient density and macronutrient profile is a top priority as well as using minimal sugars of any kind. 

Yum granolas taste special. From the moment you open the bag, they smell fresh and that's because not only is the finished product fresh and batch made, the ingredients are fresh. Many other brands have a stale or rancid taste that prevails because the oils are rancid or the seeds have oxidized and have a flavor that dominates and often needs to be balanced with excessive sweetness. Seed oils such as rice bran oils go rancid quicker, dominating the taste and potentially ruining every bite of that $15 granola you just bought.

From $11.99 for 350g 

 

2. Little Bird Organics Bountiful Berry & Macadamia

Little Bird Organics makes granolas with good clusters and unique by activating their ingredients. This includes sprouting and dehydrating the granola to ensure it maintains maximum nutrients. The resulting flavor is unique and fresh. Little Bird is synonymous with organics and focuses on plant-based recipes with high nutrient density. Offering variety, Little Bird is one of the priciest options at $19.90 for a 350g bag however the quality is one of the best. 

From $19.90 for 350g

3. The Oatery Spiced Granola

The Oatery is a niche oat/porridge shop in Wellington offers a one-and-only Spiced Granola that has simple, clean ingredients. Oat-based, it has fresh crunch reflecting the fact it is made weekly and available in a limited number of stockists (their shop and Moore Wilsons in Wellington). The warmly Spiced Granola flavor combines nuts, seeds, buckwheat, coconut, raisins, oats and a fusion of warming spices, it is refined sugar free, vegan, plant based, and dairy free. 

$16 for 400g

 

4. Vogels Delightful Granola- Macadamia & Manuka Honey

When we tested Vogels Macadamia & Manuka Honey Granola we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of this mainstream supermarket cereal brand. It had good taste, good crunch, with whole almonds and macadamias that we loved. It was known there were nuts in the granola, which is not always the case. The granola was a bit too sweet for our taste however the overall flavor was good.

$10.90 for 360g

5. Blue Frog Triple Nut and Cinnamon Crunch

Blue Frog offers a number of granolas on the market, mostly oat-based and keto varieties. Known for their variety of products and lower price point, Blue Frog has creative ingredients to their products including probiotics, collagen and peanut butter. What we longed for with Blue Frog was a depth of flavor and it lacked clusters of the higher ranked granolas. 

From $10.50 for 350g

  

6. Brookfarm Cacao Coconut Granola

Brookfarm flavors reflect the macadamia farm where they are made in Australia. They focus on organic ingredients without preservatives, and unique macronutrient profiles such as keto, Paleo and gluten free. Brookfarm incorporates their own macadamia oil into the process, resulting in great crunch. 

The product we sampled was a 350g bag of their Cacao Coconut Granola, which came in with the highest price tag of $22.80. Their keto granolas are priced exclusively around $26 for a 300g which they say is 10 x 30g servings. 

From $23 for 350g

7. Chantal

Chantal Organics is one of the longest going organic companies in New Zealand and has its own offering of granolas. Ranging from oat based to keto, they exclusively use organic ingredients which generally speaking taste fresher and more full of flavor than traditional ingredients. Their flavors are unique and we tried their Keto Cacao Coconut Granola. "Rich cacao and coconut are paired with crunchy nuts and seeds for a lower carb, decadently delicious granola that gives a punch of plant-based protein and fiber.

From $16 for 400g 

8. Ceres Organics Apricot Nut Crunch

Ceres Organics has a great reputation in New Zealand for being one of the largest and longest going, organic importers and distributors. Using all organic ingredients in their range of mueslis, we included them in our list of granolas because their clusters or as substantial as other brands who call their toasted mueslis 'granolas'. The one thing you can count on from Ceres is the quality of their ingredients and thoughtfulness around looking after the planet.

From $14.30 for 400g 

 

9. Pure Delish Black Doris Plum Gut Health Grain-ola

A popular brand that has been around for over two decades in New Zealand, Pure Delish, offers a variety of breakfast options including their no-grainolas, breakfast mixes, porridges, muesli, and grain-olas. 

Pure Delish flavors are unique however the taste falls flat. While the clusters were hearty, the actual texture of each cluster was dry. They are one of the most expensive brands on the market which should equate to high quality however the ingredients reflect preservatives and fillers often found in cheaper products.

From $16.50 for 350g

10. Something to Crow About

Something to Crow About makes a variety of products, some of them including a range of self-declared "gourmet granolas". Now, when someone makes this statement, we naturally expect great things...great clusters for one, great ingredients for two however Something to Crow About granolas were more 'muesli' and less 'granola'. If you look close at the ingredients (which you should always do by the way), you will see rice bran oil, which is a cheaper oil that often tastes rancid, and dried fruit full of sulfites and preservatives. That said, their products offer a good option in the mainstream cereal aisle.

From $14 for 400g

Summary

Each of these brands brings something unique to breakfast. From the natural clusters and bright, fresh flavors of Yum's chef-crafted granolas, to the value of Blue Frog. When it comes to choosing a granola, consider what matters most to you: Is it the taste? The nutritional profile and how it makes you feel? The price point? The sustenance and if it lasts you until lunch (it should by the way if it has any real substance to it). No matter your preference, there is a granola for you with New Zealand’s abundant granola options. We hope this helped you decide for yourself which granola will please you the most!