What is it?

Froot-flavored loops and froot-flavored staars that mostly don’t look like regular Froot Loops. There are red pieces, which I assume represent strawberries, purple pieces, which may stand for blackberries, teal pieces for blue raspberries, and green pieces that don’t symbolize any berry and are there just to throw us for a Froot Loop.

How is it?

As expected, it doesn’t have a generic amalgamation of a wide spectrum of fruity flavors like original Froot Loops. Instead, it’s like a generic amalgamation of a wide spectrum of berry flavors.

It’s not bad. Sometimes it reminds me of berry smoothies I’ve made for myself and other times it tastes like snack bars with dried berries. Can I pinpoint particular berries by eating individual pieces? No, but who, besides birds and infants, eat cereal pieces one by one. Okay, maybe a few of you, but not spoon-wielding me.

Is there anything else I need to know?

Froot Loops’ mascot, Toucan Sam, has said to follow your nose to the fruity taste of the cereal he represents. But if I did that with his new Wild Berry Froot Loops, I’m sure my nose would lead me away from it because it smells weird. Inside the bag or right after pouring it into a bowl, my beak noticed a plasticky and berry smell. It reminds me of those scented play dolls my sister had in the 80s whose eyes would follow me around the room. The aroma subsides once I pour the milk, but it’s odd and a little unappetizing.

Conclusion:

Kellogg’s Wild Berry Froot Loops Cereal is a decent cereal, but I have to say it doesn’t compete with the original. It’s different and a nice change of pace, but I’m not wild about it.

DISCLOSURE: I received a free sample from Kellogg’s, but this didn’t influence my review in any way.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 10 oz. box
Purchased at: Received from Kellogg’s
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup) 110 calories, 5 calories from fat, 0.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 10 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

What is it?

You’re not gonna believe this, but it’s Raisin Bran with bananas added in! No false advertising here.

How is it?

It’s everything you expect it to be. Do you like Raisin Bran? If so, this improves on the original. I mean, think about it, how could you possibly go wrong adding in banana flavor?

I’ve actually been on record about not really being a big “fruit in cereal” guy. While I’ll eat banana in just about anything, I always found adding banana slices in milk a little too slimy for my liking. This cereal takes care of that.

The banana chips are great. Actual banana is too wet and mushy. The standard banana chips you buy in bags are too hard and caramelized. These are a perfect width, flavor, and texture. They really knocked it out the park. The banana pieces have a nice little crisp and a perfect banana flavor without it tasting too sugary and artificial.

Sometimes raisins can be overwhelming but mixed with the early crunch of the bran flakes (they sog up super quick) and the crisp of the banana chips, this cereal really blends textures nicely.

Also – and don’t hold me to this – I think the flakes had a tad of banana flavor added to them. It tasted that way to me at least.

Is there anything else I need to know?

Don’t expect a banana in every bite. If Raisin Bran gives you two scoops of raisins per box, you’re probably looking at about a half scoop of bananas. Sure, I’d prefer a few more, but I didn’t think the ratio was too bad. The banana flavor is constant.

Conclusion:

There’s something about Raisin Bran that just feels like a fulfilling start to the day. Adding bananas to the mix was a brilliant move, and this cereal is a big flavor and textural win in my book.

Purchased Price: $3.00
Size: 14.5 oz. box
Purchased at: Acme
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup) 200 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 105 milligrams of sodium, 45 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 17 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

Released last December, finding Kellogg’s newfangled Super Mario Cereal hasn’t been easy. Long story short, each package has some sort of QR-Code type thingy on it, and if you scan it with your Nintendo controller it unlocks some kind of new in-game content. Naturally, this has led to collectors/hoarders snatching up the product in droves, with online merchants reselling the cereal on eBay at triple, quintuple, and even 100 times the MRSP.

While strolling through the aisles of Walmart on a recent mechanical pencil and instant coffee run, I stumbled across a freshly stocked pyramid of the ultra-rare breakfast foodstuff. And while I was tempted to buy about 20 of them, hold on to them for 25 years and resell them at $200 a pop, I decided to be a good little consumer and only scoop up one. Hopefully, the karma will lead to the re-release of Dunkaroos, or mayhap even the resurrection of the Bell Beefer, in due time.

Aesthetically, the packaging is pretty pleasing. There are a lot of Easter eggs and in-jokes on the front box, so hardcore Nintendo fans will get a kick out of that. The activity panel on the back, though, is way too rudimentary. Even for a children’s breakfast item, the trivia questions on this one are far too easy. And of course, you have that little QR-Code scanny thing. I’m not sure what it does, precisely, but I’m sure your eight-year-old nephew can fill you in on the details.

As for the cereal itself, well, it’s pretty mundane. It’s marketed as having a berry flavor, but it doesn’t explicitly tell you what kind of berry. So as soon as you crack open the box, you’re greeted by this weird, artificially fruity scent that’s one part strawberry, one part blueberry, and one part scented unicorn sticker.

The puffy rice stars are decent looking, but the taste is quite bland – they absorb all of that pseudo-berry chemical flavoring and wind up tasting like Franken Berry and Boo Berry’s illegitimate love child. And maybe it’s just me, but I SWORE there was a mild (yet strangely convincing) bacon-ish undercurrent to each piece. Please, somebody out there back me up on this, for my own sanity.

The marshmallows, though, are the most disappointing thing about the cereal. Not only do they taste alike (which are like the regular cereal bits, except slightly chewier), they don’t even remotely resemble the classical Super Mario insignia they’re supposed to represent. The 1-up mushrooms are kinda decent, but the mystery blocks and Super Mario hats are just abominations.

Outside of the Mario branding, this is a really generic cereal that reminded me a lot of the Avengers: Age of Ultron cereal Kellogg’s released three years ago. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the exact same formula, albeit with slightly tweaked marshmallow shapes.

Sorry, Mario. You might still be super, but your tie-in cereal here is merely average.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 cup – 120 calories, 10 calories from fat, 1 gram of total fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 grams of cholesterol, 170 milligrams of sodium, 55 milligrams of potassium, 27 grams of total carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 10 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: 8.4 oz. box
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 5 out of 10
Pros: The packaging has a lot of neat nods and winks to the video games. The 1-up mushrooms are pretty nice. The cereal itself may or may not be secretly bacon-flavored.
Cons: The artificial berry flavoring is ho-hum. The puffed rice pieces are uninspired. A disappointing lack of marshmallow pieces shaped like Tanooki suits, King Boos, or Thwomps

Pink Panther. Pink Floyd. Pink Shirt. Pinky and the Brain.

What do these things have in common?

Nothing, really. Which is kind of the same relationship Kellogg’s new Donut Shop Pink Donut cereal has with the flavor pink, which, in case you weren’t exactly sure, is not a flavor.

This kind of linguistic oddity would usually bother me to no end. However, in the case of Kellogg’s newest cereal brand, I’m willing to sacrifice reason for excellent taste.

Both the Pink Donut and Chocolate Donut flavors of Donut Shop Cereal work off the same template: roughly Froot Loops-shaped rings with a smooth, slightly glazed coating. Aside from packaging that looks like it came from the Easy Bake Oven section of Toys “R” Us, the first thing I noticed about each flavor was their intense, sweet aroma.

Another blogger has compared the Pink Donut rings to frosted animal crackers, and, for as original as I’d like to be, there’s really no other comparison that captures the taste so accurately. Yet, instead of a somewhat bland wheat biscuit-like base behind it, each ring has a sweet vanilla flavor and that characteristic corn flour and oat aftertaste that makes Cap’n Crunch so iconic.

This is where things get interesting. A slight fruity flavor on the backend is even more pronounced in milk, creating a strawberryish-flavored end milk that is one of the best I’ve ever tasted. Combined with the glazed vanilla coating, the crunchy Pink Donut tastes distinct from any cereal I’ve ever had, borrowing notes from Sprinkled Donut Cap’n Crunch, Froot Loops, and Vanilla Chex. My only complaint is the sweetness level contrasts sharply with the more savory corn flour and oat base, creating a feeling of snacking lethargy after more than a couple servings.

Chocolate Donut is a bit more conventional in what it’s trying to match, but no less enjoyable. I hesitate to say it tasted exactly like a chocolate cake donut, but it comes pretty close, right on down to the hyper-sweet, cocoa-glazed mouthfeel. Here, the corn and oat aftertaste is a little more at home. While the chocolate flavor isn’t as distinct as Cocoa Puffs or Double Chocolate Krave, the donut glaze on each ring makes it a more enjoyable cereal to snack on.

It’s rare for cereal to even remotely taste like the baked goods that inspire them. And while I’ve yet to encounter a true pink donut (as opposed to a donut with just pink icing), Kellogg’s new Donut Shop Cereals capture the essence of donuts thanks to their unique glazed coating. It’s too bad Kellogg’s couldn’t come up with a Bavarian cream filling to stick inside the rings.

(Nutrition Facts – Pink Donut – 32 grams – 140 calories, 3 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 160 milligrams of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 11 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein. Chocolate Donut – 32 grams – 130 calories, 3 grams of fat, 0.5 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 1 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: $3.98 each
Size: 16 oz. box
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Pink Donut)
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Chocolate Donut)
Pros: Excellent representation of donut glaze on cereal form. Pink donut flavor tastes like frosted animal crackers without the crappy cracker part. Really great end milk. Not a bad flavor to get stuck in the roof of your mouth.
Cons: Sweetness can get overwhelming when eaten dry. Chocolate flavor lacks really deep cocoa flavor. Does not include Bavarian Kreme filling.