It is well known that each type of grain brings with it a mojo that cannot be approximated by having more of any one grain. This principle is demonstrated in seven grain bread, for example. Multi-bean soups — I’ve seen fifteen — call upon a similar principle. The multi-grain frontier for cereals has been advanced by Bob’s Red Mill 8 Grain Hot Cereal. So as not to frighten the mojo, Bob assures that the cereal is “freshly ground on cool and slow-turning, century-old stone-buhr millstones.” One can only imagine the consequences of using a new stone buhr. The eight grain breakthrough ups the ante over four-grain and seven-grain products.

The grains are oats with bran, brown rice, corn, soybeans, millet, barley, sunflower seeds and flaxseed. They are proud of it being wheat-free; I am guessing that is because some people are allergic to the gluten in wheat. That means Wheaties are … well, we won’t talk about it.

Alright, so how does it taste? I liked it. Boiled grain is never going to be dynamite, but morning meals needn’t be dynamite. The engine can be started without stomping on the accelerator. The flavor has a nutty character that reminds one of those fields of grain. As promised, it tastes unprocessed. It must be the hundred-year-old stone-buhr that does it.

The cereal is boiled for ten minutes, with one cup of cereal to three cups of water.

It benefits from being served up with honey. I added milk to this batch, but it usually comes out with a smoother consistency. I must have shortchanged the water a little.

Bob is pressing the envelope with a 10 grain cereal, adding wheat and triticale, whatever that is. The ten grains still exclude rye, buckwheat, amaranth, kamut, quinoa, and spelt. (Check under grain in the linkstofood main index.) It would be too risky to leap directly to a 16 grain cereal, but with care we may get there over the years.

Bob’s Red Mill has a web site offering 400 products for sale over the internet. The theme is grain.