I Tried 15 Supermarket Granolas – Ocado’s £4 Choice Was As Good As My Homemade

I am a big fan of granola and tend to make my own at home, so I was intrigued by how the supermarket options would measure up. The core ingredients are inexpensive: oats, some kind of sugar and fat for sweetness and to bind the ingredients, and your choice of additions such as nuts, seeds and fruit.

There are countless varieties, from simple oats, butter and sugar to blends of olive and coconut oil along with peanut butter, tahini and maple syrup. You might use sunflower, sesame and chia seeds or pecans, coconut and cherries. My favourites are almond and apricot or pistachio and cherry, though I typically use whatever’s left in the cupboard.

The recipe I make most often comes from a very fancy New York restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, but it’s made in the same easy way as any granola, which is to mix all the ingredients together and bake it. This one is a blend of pistachios, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, brown sugar, olive oil, maple syrup and cherries, but what really makes it sing is the generous tablespoon of salt, which I now always add.

People criticise granola for being an unhealthy breakfast and high in sugar and fat. Dominique Ludwig, author of No Nonsense Nutrition (Bluebird), says it depends on the granola and how it’s made. “Some are better than others in terms of sugar, salt and overall quality. Granola has had a bad rap, but it is often how we eat it that is the problem,” she says. “It is generally lower in fibre and protein and higher in simple, readily available carbohydrates, which can unbalance our breakfast, disrupt blood sugar levels and leave us hungry again a couple of hours later.”

Ludwig recommends eating it with other foods that contain protein, fibre and healthy fats. “We can do this by adding Greek yoghurt for extra protein, berries and seeds for fibre, and a drizzle of nut butter or tahini for healthy fats. This way, we create a breakfast that works with our biology and provides slower-release energy to keep us energised and focused throughout the morning.”

I ask her about granola with freeze-dried berries, which as you’ll see in the taste test, aren’t my cup of tea. She says they are not the same as eating fresh fruit, but they still contain some nutrients and can be a good source of polyphenols and recommends adding fresh berries, as freeze-dried fruits are usually eaten in small amounts and therefore do not contribute significantly to overall nutrient intake.

I’m also not a fan of the protein crispies and flakes added to high protein products but Ludwig is more positive: “These ingredients can help to boost the protein levels of cereals, which can also help to stabilise our blood sugars,” she says. “They are more processed than other soy-based foods such as tempeh, edamame or tofu but that doesn’t mean they are bad for us.”

Sainsbury’s Yeo Valley Organic Toasted nuts and seeds tray baked granola

£4.50/360g (£2.50 with Nectar) (£12.50/kg)

I like this one. It’s possibly on the more ascetic side of granola culture as there’s no fruit, but a lovely variety of nuts and seeds, including brazils, almonds, cashews, five kinds of seed and sweetness from dates and coconut sugar. The oats are 100 per cent British and there are plenty of lovely clusters in the packet. With 7.7g of fibre per 100g, this Yeo Valley granola is officially high in fibre, as the NHS says that high fibre foods should have more than 6g per 100g, but if you eat 25-30g, you’ll only eat about a tenth of the recommended amount 30g per day.

4/5

Ocado Rollagranola Coconut, cashew and raisin organic granola

£4/400g (£10/kg)

I haven’t heard of Rollagranola before, an independent father-and-son business, but I’ll definitely be back to try more. It’s on the healthy side and includes only unrefined sugar (coconut) and small amounts of sunflower oil, and is vegan and gluten-free. It tastes great because it is packed with so many almonds, cashews, brazil nuts and plump sultanas. If someone served it to me in my own kitchen, I’d think I’d made it myself.

4.5/5

Waitrose Simply granola

£3/kg

As the label says, this is a plain granola with very few ingredients, just wholegrain oats, sugar, rapeseed oil, honey, sunflower seeds and an undisclosed flavouring. But what’s included tastes good – sweet and crunchy – and it’s great value at £3 for a kilo. Would suit a family with different tastes who can add their own fruit, nuts and seeds to a plain base.

3/5

ASDA Lizi’s high protein nuts and seeds granola

£4/350g (£11.43/kg)

As a rule, I don’t buy products with the now-ubiquitous and eternally annoying high protein labelling, but I have had to give in for this taste test as the shelves are heaving with them. This “nuts and seeds” product from popular brand Lizi’s feels and tastes like a diet product. Small wholegrain oat flakes and soya protein flakes are bulked out with something called soya protein crispies, at which point I cease desiring to know what’s in each mouthful (there’s also a bit of apple juice, pumpkin seeds, rapeseed oil, almonds, walnuts, treacle and chicory fibre). I thought granola had moved past its rabbit food reputation, but this one drags us back there.

1/5

Ocado Gail’s Toasted coconut, maple and rye granola

£4.40/350g (£12.57/kg)

I really like this and would believe it was homemade if I hadn’t opened the packet myself. Gail’s is often criticised for being expensive (among other ills) and this is one of the most priciest I try. Still, it manages to walk an interesting line between health and flavour by including a variety of grains and flakes (rather than just oats) along with welcome sweetness. There are rye flakes, millet and coconut flakes, held together in tasty clusters by maple syrup and vanilla.

4/5

M&S Salty peanut and sweet honey granola

£4/400g (£10/kg)

For 2026, mixing sweet and salty has been dubbed swalty – a terrible word for a wonderful combination. In this case, salty peanuts with honey, oats, linseed and olive oil. They’re calling it snacking granola with “I’m an all day snack” on the packet, but it might not last the day if you keep it on your desk. The clusters are really good – large and crunchy – and the flavour is more peanut than honey. See my recommendation in the intro to make your own swalty granola.

3.5/5

Dorset Cereals fruit and nut granola

£3.25/450g (£7.22/kg) from Morrison’s

This feels like the real deal – a chunky granola that looks and tastes as the packet suggests. It’s made from oat and barley flakes, vegetable oil, golden syrup, huge raisins, honey, pecans, almonds, pumpkins seeds, hazelnuts and desiccated coconut, which is a very similar list of ingredients to the one you’d find in a recipe for homemade granola. A good balance of sweetness and crunchiness.

4/5

Waitrose High Protein Nuts and Seeds Granola Breakfast Cereal

£2.50/400g (£6.5/kg)

This is a very similar product to the Lizi’s high protein granola, and you guessed it, I’m not a fan. Each to their own – I know there’s a growing group of people who are obsessively tracking how much protein they eat (recommended intake is 0.75g a day per kilo of body weight). The National Diet and Nutrition survey found that the average UK intake for men and women is around 50 percent more than this recommendation. On this basis, I would skip the high protein granolas – most of us don’t need the protein, and they taste rubbish.

1/5

Tesco Finest chocolate and berry granola

£3.10/500g (£6.20/kg)

If you enjoy freeze-dried fruit in granola, maybe this is for you, but as with the very similar Asda product tested, I found this too full of sweet and sharp berries, which is a shame given the oats are okay. The dark chocolate shards so redeem it somewhat, taking the sugary edge off the fruit and melting nicely into the clusters of oats and seeds.

2/5

Ocado Spoon x Manilife peanut butter granola

£4.50/400g (£11.25/kg)

I often use peanut butter in homemade granola so am happy to see this collaboration from Spoon Cereals and Manilife peanut butter, whose signature deep roast peanut flavour is delicious blended with oats and raisins. The texture isn’t as impressive however, as it’s kind of soft rather than crunchy.

3.5/5

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference pecan and apple granola

£3/500g (£6/kg)

There are a few really good aspects to this Taste the Difference granola, such as the crunchiness, chunkiness and really tasty pecan and apple. It tastes quite sweet but you’d expect that from this flavour combo. I have to admit I didn’t notice the little chunks of white chocolate when I picked it up, as they’re not mentioned in the product name (though clearly visible on the packet) and I don’t think they add anything tastewise.

3/5

Asda Exceptional mixed berry granola

£2.88/500g (£5.76/kg)

Unbearably sweet. The freeze-dried blackcurrants, strawberries, blueberries and cranberries, which are plentiful, shatter like sugar cubes in the mouth. The berry granolas are much better with milk compared to yoghurt as you need enough moisture to make the freeze-dried berries bearable. The clusters of oats and seeds are fine, though quite sweet, too.

1/5

Tesco Gut sense grains & seeds granola

£2.50/ 500g (£5/kg)

This product claims on the packet to “support digestion with chicory root fibre”. The second ingredient listed is something called oligofructose, and after that chicory fibre (9 per cent). I ask Ludwig what this means: “Chicory fibre is a rich source of inulin, a type of soluble fibre that acts like a prebiotic in the gut and can feed and support some of our gut microbes,” she explains. “It can actually be a good thing, especially as most of us are not eating enough fibre.” Taste-wise, there are some pleasing crunchy chunks of oats, but overall it tastes bland, with hints of something sweet and rather strange – I’m guessing the chicory – which leaves a chemical-esque aftertaste.

1/5

Ocado nibs etc. Rye, hazelnut and cacao granola

£7.50/360g (£20.83/kg)

I was really excited about this one as I love all the ingredients and it looks delicious despite the price: deep brown from the cacao and rich in plump clusters of the rye flakes, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts and upcycled apple pulp. The company works hard to make use of waste products, hence the apple pulp, and create low sugar, plant-based products. Great packaging, too. Unfortunately this didn’t deliver for me taste-wise; I didn’t get much from either the apple or the cacao, so the overall result was great texture but little flavour.

2/5

Ocado Bio&Me low sugar granola

£2.95/360g (£10.97/kg)

As a “gut health” product, this granola shouts about its 15 plant-based ingredients that offer great diversity. Fair enough if aiming for the 30 plants mantra is your goal, but I’m not sure I ever need miniscule squares of dried carrot in my breakfast. The texture is okay, given there are so many moving parts, from oats, seeds and nuts to dates, puffed rice and quinoa, but it’s low on flavour and tastes like a diet product. Plenty of fibre at 9g per 50g serving, 1.8g of fat and 2g sugar.

2/5