Types of muesli – bircher, muesli, granola

Bircher, Muesli, and Granola – The Naked Truth.
In any breakfast-related discussion worth its salt (excuse the pun) the conversation inevitably returns to the humble breakfast cereal. What’s in it? What’s not? Who makes it and what are their commercial interests? And of course the age-old question; what can I feed the kids that is packed full of nutrients and tastes good?!

The first cold breakfast cereal was introduced in – yep, you guessed it – the USA way back in 1863. Made from processed cereal grains such as wheat, corn, and oats, it quickly became a popular choice despite lacking any real nutrients. Over time manufacturers began adding other ingredients to cover up for the lack of nutrients – sugar, vitamins, minerals, preservatives, artificial flavours and colours, and more. By 2014, breakfast cereal accounted for US$11 billion in household spending in the States and cereal manufacturers were adding nearly 400 million kilos of sugar to breakfast cereals every year. That’s a lot of Cheerios.

Around 1900, while Kellogg’s was working out how to puff a grain of rice into oblivion in the US, Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner developed his revolutionary “apple diet dish” for hospital patients. Consisting of oat flakes, grated apple, nuts, condensed milk and lemon juice, the dish, which (importantly) formed part of a whole-food diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables and was an essential part of his patients’ recovery, became known as “muesli’. And a star was born.

Bircher – the naked muesli

Bircher muesli became synonymous with its Swiss creator, Bircher-Benner. What came to be known as overnight oats, Bircher is still commonly characterised by its original ingredients – a blend of raw oats, nutritionally boosted by a variety of nuts, seeds, grated or chopped apple, and left to soak overnight in milk or fruit juice.

Moozly – muesli meets granola

It’s a sugar thing. The first mass-produced muesli hit supermarket shelves across Europe and the US in 1959 and was marketed as a health food. By 1970, to satisfy the sugar-high US palate, manufacturers were adding sugar and toasting the muesli in oil to make it crunchy. Enter granola.

At XO Foods we were determined to redefine consumers’ relationships with muesli. We do things differently and we like it that way. How’s that, you ask?

Our range is very gently toasted. Our goal is to source ingredients to arrive to you as close as possible to their natural state. But by toasting them very gently, we have been able to deliver a fabulous crunch without compromising on freshness.
XO Foods’ Moozly range has nowhere near the amount of sugar as traditional granolas. We sourced the lowest glycemic index (GI) rated sweetener we could, then added just a pinch of good salts. Sweet and salty eaten together tricks your brain into thinking you are eating something much sweeter than you actually are.
Our bodies require sugars to convert them to carbs to provide us with the fuel we need to get through our days. So we will never look to be completely sugar free, because our bodies need it. By being smart with the types of sugars we are adding to our foods, it means our body will convert them and use them correctly. And let’s face it, sweet things just taste so good.
What’s on XO’s breakfast table?

One of the best things about Moozly is its versatility. Eat it cold, topped with fresh fruit, with dairy or plant-based mylk, or yoghurt, or eat it hot like porridge. Stir through banana or pear for a heart-warming hug on a Winter’s day, or sprinkle it over a bowl of mango in the heat of the Summer.

If you love to bake, it can be used that way also. Mix it into cookies or biscuits, pancakes or muffins. Use it as a crumble atop some stewed apples and pop it in the oven for a delish apple crumble desert.

Best ever 30-second Bircher muesli recipe!

Our all-time favourite? Bircher. XO’s Bircher range developed into a cheeky Nude, because, well, it’s completely naked, and just waiting to be dressed-up however you like.

Sweet enough to please the kids, and quickly and easily tailored at the table to meet the varied and competing individual tastes of an entire family, Bircher is the truly authentic muesli experience.

Stir 200ml cloudy apple juice through 1 cup XO Foods Nude Moozly or GF Nude Moozly (Moozly should be entirely covered) and leave overnight. In the morning, top with extra nuts or seeds for some crunch and an added protein hit, and your favourite fresh fruit (we love grated apple, chopped pear, or mango, depending on what’s in season).

Enjoy!