I think, if you’re clocking my relationships with things, few go farther back with me than Quaker Oatmeal.

Apples and Cinnamon, to be specific. (Though there have been stretches that have included the red-packaged ‘original’ flavor.)

I ate it when I was a little kid, I still eat it today.

That’s a long time.

Quaker Apples and Cinnamon is my preferred oatmeal, and depending on where I buy it there are fluctuations in price.

If it’s on sale I’ll stock up because I know I’m going to eat it. Like, four or five boxes at a time, all Apples and Cinnamon.

But recently this one caught my eye - Peaches & Cream flavored oatmeal.

I am a sucker for anything peach-flavored, so I figured I should give it a try. (So I got three boxes of Apples and Cinnamon and one Peaches and Cream because they were on sale.)

First of all, I am very proud of that picture I took - I thought it was really artistic, and when I took it the smoke was rising off of the oatmeal - it was perfect. You can still see a trace of the wisp of smoke, but it does not show up so well on the picture. If you saw the ‘live photo’ on my phone you’d know what I was talking about. But you can see there’s a little white that changes the orange to the left of the words ‘Peaches & Cream’ on the box - that’s the smoke in the still photo. (Chef’s kiss.)

Anyway, the oatmeal.

This dish that I took the picture of was actually my favorite of the servings I had. The perfect water-to-oats ratio.

These packets are a little thinner than the apples and cinnamon ones, so my proportions were kind of off. And for some reason, whereas I add a touch of milk to my apples and cinnamon, this one was fine with just the hot water. Maybe because it’s sweeter? I don’t know. But it’s definitely sweeter.

It was a nice change of pace, but it’s not going to make the regular rotation.

Quaker Apples and Cinnamon Oatmeal: champ for 46 years and still going strong.