What is it?
The Elf on the Shelf line of cereals* has a new Walmart-exclusive flavor that “magically cools your mouth as you eat.”
*I can’t believe Elf on the Shelf is now a line of cereals, plural.
How is it?
Let’s start with the promise of cooling. When I eat a piece dry, I do notice a sensation in my mouth, one that I don’t get from other cereals. Is it cooling? I don’t know; you might be able to convince me it’s a warming sensation.
But in milk, the feeling is diluted. I do get some kind of cooling phenomenon when I drink the leftover milk, but that might just be the literal temperature.
I compared the ingredients with the Elf on the Shelf Sugar Cookie Cereal, and it appears that the magic ingredient is calcium carbonate. Any geologist worth their halite* can tell you that’s limestone.
*salt
As for the flavor, I have no idea what “North Pole Snow Creme” is. But the waffle cone on the box suggests that it’s supposed to be vanilla. It does taste like vanilla, which is hard to mess up. But really, this just tastes like any other generically sweet corn cereal.
The marshmallows are so rare that Kellogg’s needn’t have bothered.
Anything else you need to know?
I compared this new cereal with the Sugar Cookie variety, and the Snow Creme version is better. So if you’re at Walmart, there’s no need to pick up that red and green variety.
The wintry color scheme of this cereal is my favorite part.
Conclusion:
The Elf on the Shelf branding means this cereal is an opportunistic cash grab, not a worthwhile cereal on its own. The “cooling” sensation is too subtle to be, well, cool.
Purchased Price: $4.48
Size: 12.2 oz. box
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 1/3 cup, 39 grams) 140 calories, 1 gram of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 0 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of dietary fiber, 13 grams of sugar (including 13 grams of added sugar), and 2 grams of protein.