Cereal Archives - Page 3 of 63

REVIEW: Limited Edition Gingerbread Toast Crunch Cereal

October 26, 2023October 26, 2023 Sean 1 Comment

The 2021 holiday season began with a bang when the Toast Crunch gang dropped a Thanksgiving-leaning limited edition Apple Pie version of its beloved cinnamon cereal that instantly became a fan favorite. It’s back for a third year, but a new potential holiday hero has emerged — the twinkling blue-boxed Gingerbread Toast Crunch.

Let me get my personal bias out of the way: Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the greatest cereal ever. Whew, I said it. Growing up, it was all about Reese’s Puffs, and I still champion them, but for the last decade or so, no sweet cereal has delivered the way that CTC has. Even the Toast Crunch releases from the previous four years have been solid, especially CinnaGraham Toast Crunch, which, dare I say, might be even better than the original?

Now that you know where I’m coming from, this new cereal is something I’ve been dreaming about for years. In my head, it was always Pumpkin Spice Toast Crunch, but gingerbread is a slightly less crowded space, and I appreciate the nuance it has over its more in-demand pumpkin cohort. The texture of the squares is the same delightful little airy but gently crunchy one you know from the original — it’s perfect.

I’m more of a dry cereal snacker or enjoy putting it on top of bowls of yogurt or ice cream, so that’s how I tend to judge my CTC varieties, but it usually performs very well in milk, too. The flavor of these squares is delicious but a bit less spicy than I imagined. Specifically, they’re not very gingery. When I think gingerbread or ginger cookies, I expect a little bit of a tingle, and while these boast a nice undercurrent of molasses with some spice, I’m mainly getting cinnamon, and there isn’t much of a tingle. That doesn’t stop me from having handful after handful of crunchy, buttery, mildly spicy delight, but I expected a more potent flavor punch like 2021’s Apple Pie.

Milk doesn’t bring any spice to the table, but it does bring some creaminess that I suppose you could stretch your imagination to say emulates the cookie’s frosting. Either way, a decent amount of the Cinnadust comes off into the milk and creates some of the best cereal milk in the game (you know the vibes), which has a bit more of a special Christmas-y aura than the usual CTC milk.

For some, the mild ginger punch will be a welcome surprise, and for others, like me, it could leave you wanting a bit more. I think General Mills played it safe with this one, and for a sugar-laden cereal aimed at children, I’m totally okay with that because there’s still enough warm, molasses-y holiday magic to get me feeling festive.

Purchased Price: $6.49 (man this inflation is a DRAG)
Size: 18.8 ounces
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup, 41g) 170 calories, 4 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 230 milligrams of sodium, 33 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Snoop Cereal (Fruity Hoopz, Cinnamon Toasteez, and Frosted Drizzlerz)

July 27, 2023July 26, 2023 Jenna 8 Comments

Are you a fan of rap music and/or the classic recipe book “From Crook to Cook”? Do you want your breakfast cereal to serve a charitable mission? Or are you just tired of seeing toucans and wacky anthropomorphic amalgamations of various food products have all the mascot fun? If you’ve answered yes to any of those questions, you might want to check out the three new flavors of Snoop Cereal (and if you’ve answered yes to all of them, wow, you have really specific tastes).

As the name suggests, these cereals and the colorful animal characters that tout them were indeed created by Snoop Dogg (and Master P, in a collaboration between their Broadus Foods brand and Post), and they even have lyrics on the boxes to match. But what’s more interesting is that proceeds from each purchase are donated to charities that help homeless families and fight food insecurity.

How are they, though? Well… let’s just say that if you’ve ever consumed a sugary cereal before, my findings probably won’t surprise you…

Fruity Hoopz with Marshmallows

At first glance, this “sweetened multigrain cereal” looks just like Froot Loops. On second and third and fourth glance, it does too… so, okay, you’ll probably be familiar with what you’re getting into. I thought maybe the loops looked a bit thicker than I expected, but that didn’t impact the eating experience much. You’ll smell them before you taste them, a fruity, cloying perfume that perfectly foreshadows the sugar-glazed, slightly floral burst of crunchy sweetness to come.

The most “unique” element here (if it can even be called that) would be the marbits, of which I was lucky to find about one per generous spoonful, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, they are also not super revolutionary. Again, they seemed to me a bit larger than what other cereals like Lucky Charms provide, but they have that same eminently chompable texture, soft yet with an audible crack after you bite down and before they melt pleasantly and cotton-candy-ishly in your mouth. I prefer my cereal with milk and found that these left the milk with a delightful syrupy sweet flavor, but after intending to eat just a few dry pieces, I (perhaps predictably) had a lot of trouble stopping, so you can’t go wrong either way.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 1/3 cup) 150 calories, 1 gram of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 160 milligrams of sodium, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 19 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein

Cinnamon Toasteez

This may be obvious just from the box, but I couldn’t find a huge difference between this “sweetened crispy wheat and rice cereal” and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, both appearance-wise and flavor-wise. A few of the pieces I had were extra cinnamon-studded, with stripes closer to black than brown and a slightly more potent taste, but these are mostly just sweet with a vague air of cinnamon-y-ness. I think the OG Cinnamon Toast Crunch tastes a bit more of actual cinnamon and therefore is a bit better, but unless you’re particularly picky, this should definitely make a more-than-serviceable substitute.

It’s also neat that, ranging as they do from lightly wavy to practically bent in two, the pieces aren’t perfectly square, giving them extra texture and dimension, and some are studded with air bubbles that contrast the general brittleness well. Their flat shape also allows a cool crispiness when sampled straight from the box, though I found these just as appealing when they were soggy with milk. But strangely, while the cinnamon dust became very visible in the milk that collected at the bottom of my bowl, it didn’t seem to affect its flavor whatsoever, so that was a bit of a bummer.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup) 180 calories, 5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 210 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 14 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

Frosted Drizzlers

This “sweetened, crunchy, frosted whole grain wheat cereal” seemed the most novel to me, but that’s probably just because I don’t eat a ton of its doppelganger, Frosted Mini Wheats. (And probably also because, I’ll confess, when I purchased them, my brain only really registered the word “Frosted,” so I expected something… flakier.) Like the Hoopz, these pieces seemed unusually but not unpleasantly jumbo-sized; I couldn’t tell if they were longer than your typical pillow of shredded wheat cereal, but they certainly seemed thicker.

This is the cereal where I felt milk made the biggest difference for the better. Despite a generous dusting of sugar, the strong wheat flavor and bristly texture pretty thoroughly outweighed any hints of sweetness when eaten dry, but they tasted noticeably nicer when soaked in milk. This flavor was decent, but something about eating an easily countable number of ginormous pieces instead of the seemingly infinite number of tiny pieces that other cereals tend to offer just feels less fun. Plus, I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that I was chewing on a bunch of tiny wicker baskets. Oh, and these produced an even more flavorless milk than the Cinnamon Toasteez.

Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (21 biscuits) 210 calories, 1 gram of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 5 milligrams of sodium, 50 grams of carbohydrates, 12 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein.

These cereals are tasty, if unlikely to be anything you haven’t seen or snacked on before. You won’t miss much if you don’t try them, but hey, knowing that your sugar rush comes with a side of helping those in need is pretty sweet.

Purchased Price: $3.29
Size: 12 oz box (Fruity Hoopz and Cinnamon Toasteez), 18 oz box (Frosted Drizzlerz)
Purchased at: Target

REVIEW: Carmella Creeper Monster Cereal

July 20, 2023July 19, 2023 Marvo 7 Comments

I love the green color of the whole grain corn pieces in the Carmella Creeper Monster Cereal. It screams zombies as loud as someone screaming because zombies are eating them. The newest Monster Cereal is caramel apple flavored, and like all other Monster Cereals, it comes with marshmallows.

After sticking my snout into the pouch, I noticed a sweet artificial caramel aroma, but my sniffer detected no apple. I don’t know if I’m tired of smelling the other Monster varieties, but I found the scent to be more inviting than the others.

While I didn’t notice any apple with its aroma, it does make an appearance when I eat the spooky cereal. The pleasant caramel green apple flavor isn’t bold, but it’s enough to perk up my taste buds, and the marshmallows enhance the sweetness of every spoonful. However, that’s when it’s eaten dry. When I consumed it the way the Breakfast Gods intended it to be eaten, with milk, the sweet and fruity flavors were less noticeable. Also, the milk at the bottom of the bowl had a very faint apple caramel taste.

I’m a bit disappointed that the flavors didn’t stand out as much as they do with this recent General Mills cinnamon apple cereal, but, overall, I like this and it’s now my second favorite Monster Cereal, right behind Count Chocula. Although full disclosure, I’ve always thought Boo Berry and Franken Berry were mediocre, and Fruit Brute was okay (waiting to be pelted by hard stale cereal marshmallows over the internet).

Now, after virtually throwing marshmallows at me, you might be wondering who Carmella Creeper is. Well, the cereal box explains most of it. She’s a DJ, the first female Monster to have a cereal, and Franken Berry’s long lost zombie cousin. Now you might be thinking, “How is she related to Franken Berry if he’s not a zombie?”

Well, I sat down and thought about it more than any normal human being should and wasted many minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Here’s my theory. Let’s say Franken Berry is the son of two Franken monsters, and as we all know, Franken monsters are made using various body parts. So I think one of Franken Berry’s parents has a Franken sibling with a body part from someone related to Carmella. So that equals to being cousins in the monster world. I think.

Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, and it’s something simple like a Franken monster and zombie marriage happened. But what’s not a stretch is that Carmella Creeper Cereal is a tasty addition to the Monster Cereals line.

DISCLOSURE: I received a free product sample from General Mills. Doing so did not influence my review.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 9.3 oz box
Purchased at: Received from General Mills
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 1/3 cup w/o milk) 160 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 190 milligrams of sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar (including 11 grams of added sugar), and 2 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Kellogg’s Little Debbie Swiss Rolls Cereal

July 6, 2023July 5, 2023 Mike 3 Comments

Little Debbie and Kellogg’s have once again joined forces to miniaturize and breakfast-ify a popular snack cake so you can eat them for breakfast without feeling too much guilt. The new Little Debbie Swiss Roll Cereal follows Oatmeal Creme Pie, Cosmic Brownies, and Nutty Buddy Cereals. Will they be able to beat shoving a whole Swiss Roll in your mouth and washing it down with a glass of milk in the morning (a.k.a. the breakfast of champions)?

When I pour the chocolate spirals into my bowl, I see a light dusting of a white sugary coating. The chocolate cereal tastes like chocolate cereals I’ve tasted before. The frosted coating adds some vanilla flavor and tastes like the frosted coating I’ve tasted before. It’s good but could be inspired by any number of chocolate and vanilla treats instead of Swiss Rolls.

These remind me of the childhood favorite, Cookie Crisp. Everyone is a bit disappointed when they learn that they’re actually not eating tiny baked chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. But it’s still exciting to think of the possibility.

It’s always difficult to know what to say about these cross-branded products. Is this cereal actually like miniaturized Swiss Rolls? Of course not. It’s a standard frosted cocoa cereal in an admittedly neat spiral design. It’s fine but has nothing to do with its namesake snack cake. Do you really want to think of what eating a crunchy Swiss Roll would be like? It does make me wonder what other vaguely disconcerting cross-brand opportunities are out there. Krispy Kreme Go-Gurt? Anything that those freaks at Lay’s try to turn into a chip flavor?

I’m up for all of it, but sometimes I wish products like these were more than simply branding and did something exciting. Maybe I would enjoy these more if they were filled, like Krave cereal. Or perhaps I’m just experiencing breakfast ennui and asking too much from my cereal bowl.

And despite it not being a standout breakfast option, I’ve been munching it by the handful while writing this review. So perhaps that’s how it’s best enjoyed. So, while Kellogg’s Little Debbie Swiss Roll Cereal is more of a branding exercise than an innovative breakfast option, it’s still a tasty one.

Purchased Price: $3.59
Size: 8.4 oz box
Rating: 7 out of 10
?Nutrition Facts (56 grams): 160 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 mg milligrams of cholesterol, 160 milligrams of sodium, 33 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 15 grams of sugar (including 15 grams added sugar), and 2 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem Cowabunga Cinnamon Apple Cereal

June 26, 2023June 25, 2023 Marvo 2 Comments

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem Cowabunga Cinnamon Apple Cereal Box

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem Cowabunga Cinnamon Apple Cereal from General Mills looks like it might have the longest name in breakfast cereal history. It also appears the Cookie Crisp-making and Lucky Charms marshmallow-making machines were used to create it.

While the sweetened corn cereal pieces’ shape could be turtle shells, there’s no questioning what the marshmallow pieces are. They feature the faces of all four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael – with their eyes closed.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem Cowabunga Cinnamon Apple Cereal Marshmallows

When it comes to cereals that have movie tie-ins, most of them have had marshmallows, and almost all of them have been forgettable. Although none have come to mind that have been memorable, so I guess they all have been forgettable. But after trying the cereal with possibly the longest name in breakfast cereal history, I can say that I’ve tasted a movie tie-in cereal that I probably won’t forget. Although, my first taste of it didn’t impress me.

When I ate one, the flavor was almost none. When I ate two, to get any flavor, it was still too few. When I ate three, the taste screamed slightly softer than a banshee. When I ate four, the flavor really began to soar. Apple cinnamon oatmeal comes to mind when I eat this, and when eating spoonfuls with milk, the fruit and warm spices come through a bit more.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem Cowabunga Cinnamon Apple Cereal Closeup

I was surprised by how much flavor these had, maybe because of my past experiences with bland movie tie-in cereals. The marshmallows add pops of sweetness that enhance the cereal, and a second look at them makes me think of bow ties and bikini tops. As for the milk at the bottom of my bowl, unfortunately, I didn’t taste the cinnamon apple goodness in it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem Cowabunga Cinnamon Apple Cereal is surprisingly good. If there’s a sequel to the TMNT movie, I’d be fine with reusing this cereal flavor for it.