I originally wrote this post in 2012 and only noticed that it was sitting in my draft folder. I was sure it was published but maybe that was on the old website platform. Anyway, today I will post it again since it is still relevant – Holy Crap is “Holy Crap” Over Priced! It is an example of how much we can save (money and resources) when we use the bulk bins and our own packaging to make our own fibre rich topping.
Some time ago, like in early 2011, customers were asking me to bring in a product called “Holy Crap”. I did some research and contacted the company to see if I could bring it into the store. I was advised the price of a case and realized it was a very high priced item. They weren’t able to supply me at that time because they were so busy fulfilling orders following their pitch on “Dragon’s Den”.
Then some people started to come into the store to buy the ingredients that were in “Holy Crap” – chia seeds (black), hemp hearts (hulled hemp seeds), hulled buckwheat, cranberries (they don’t say on the package whether the cranberries are sweetened or not), raisins, little cubes of dried apples, and cinnamon. Seems simple enough so they just bought the ingredients and mixed them up.
I will also give Holy Crap for highlighting the value of adding more fibre to our diet. This is something that is sorely lacking in most of our diets. (I use the term diet as in ‘what we eat’ not a regime to loose weight).
People started to develop their own recipes and I do give Holy Crap full credit for igniting the creativity of these people to try some other products from breakfast rather than the highly processed regular fare. Some people added goji berries, raw cacao powder, mulberries, and whatever takes their fantasy. They have become ‘breakfast adventurers’!
I am angry that this is such an overpriced product. It gives the industry a very bad image – overpriced ‘organic’ food. I became so angry that a few weeks ago I went over to Planet Organic and bought a packaged of Holy Crap for $12.49 took it home and started to disassemble it (reverse engineered it) with tweezers – it took over 15 hours to do this over a couple of weeks.
Note: all prices listed on this page were as of 2012 and will have changed since then.
As listed the product contained 96 grams (1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon) of chia seeds, 60 grams (1/3 cup less 1 teaspoon) of buckwheat, 40 grams (1/4 cup) of hemp hearts (the inside of the hemp seed), (1/4 cup less 1 tablespoon) 28 grams of raisins, 4 grams (1 tablespoon) of apple pieces, and 18 grams (1/8 cup) of cranberries.
This added up to more than the package said it weighs (227 grams) so either I had a little extra in the package or I didn’t weigh the ingredients correctly (I left them in the ziplock bags but deducted the weight of the bag).
These would be “approximately accurate” proportions for this mixture. Also, this would not be the exact recipe for “Holy Crap” since I am not able to figure out how much cinnamon they would have added to their package.
If you purchased the ingredients from our bulk bins you would be able to make up the same amount for $3.74. This is a substantial difference. If you add in say 1 gram of cinnamon this would cost you an extra 2 cents.
So if you want to save money, save packaging and become more adventurous in your breakfast meals, go out to your local organic bulk food supplier and start creating your own special breakfast cereal.