Tag: Cereal

REVIEW: Kellogg’s Krave Cereal Cinnamon Crunch and Strawberry Crunch

Adam 10 Comments

Kellogg s Cinnamon Crunch Krave Cereal

I give Kellogg’s a lot of credit with Krave. In an era when new cereal concepts barely last a year, the British import has stuck around with surprising popularity, much like The Office except without the musical exploits of Creed Bratton.

I credit this to a few things, one of which is the decision to add “more chocolate” to Krave. I’m old enough to remember when you’d bite into a cereal biscuit only to get—more biscuit. Today’s original and Double Chocolate Krave avoid the dreaded hollow biscuit, a trend that continues in the two newest additions to the Krave family -— Cinnamon Crunch and Strawberry Crunch.

Why the “Crunch” in their titles? I couldn’t tell you. The Krave Biscuits share the sub-optimal snacking qualities of their forbearers, each with a delicate, crumbly texture that sogs and saturates in milk.

Kellogg s Cinnamon Crunch Krave Cereal 3

When I was younger and less at risk for a whole host of health problems associated with excessive empty carbohydrate intake, I thought it was taboo to combine assertive flavors like cinnamon and chocolate in cereal. Turns out, the two are hardly fish and cheese, and Cinnamon Crunch Krave turns out the very best in the seemingly symbiotic relationship of cocoa and cassia.

Kellogg s Cinnamon Crunch Krave Cereal 4

A strong churros flavor coats each square, with a lickable, stick-to-your-beard sugary coating blooming into an admirable chocolate taste. In milk, this only gets better. What ensues is a flavor similar to Chocolate Toast Crunch but the chocolate is more concentrated. It is, unexpectedly, one of the better chocolate cereals I’ve had in recent memory.

Kellogg s Strawberry Crunch Krave Cereal

Strawberry Crunch Krave didn’t score as high. The strawberry powder tastes… interesting, which is about as cliché and proverbial as it gets but is nevertheless the most apt description. Overall, it has a kind of toasted sugar taste that doesn’t quite match the succulent and slightly tart sweetness of actual strawberries. It’s also noticeably artificial, much like the sticky granules that covered the short-lived Strawberry Tiny Toast cereal of a few years ago.

Kellogg s Strawberry Crunch Krave Cereal 4

Those hoping for some Neapolitan synergy sans vanilla will be disappointed; even in chilled Vitamin D fortified whole milk, the richness that makes strawberry and chocolate an actual thing is MIA. The chocolate competes with the strawberry powder, combining for two disjointed tastes that never come together in the classic Valentine’s Day combination. The cereal isn’t bad, but it’s a relative letdown.

As seems to be the case with many cereals released in pairs, Kellogg’s has at least one winner among its new Krave varieties. And, while Strawberry Crunch will probably win a few niche fans who were deprived actual fresh fruit as children, my gut feeling is that Cinnamon Crunch will take its rightful place on the shelves next to the other varieties. And, like an offbeat British sitcom, it might just stick around for more than a few years.

Purchased Price: $3.64 (each)
Size: 17.3 oz. box
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Cinnamon Crunch)
Rating: 5 out of 10 (Strawberry Crunch)
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup w/o milk) 180 calories, 6 grams of fat, 1 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 160 milligrams of sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 14 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

REVIEW: General Mills Mermaid Cereal

Marvo 5 Comments

General Mills Mermaid Cereal

Last year, Kellogg’s trotted out a limited edition Unicorn Cereal. With unicorn off the board, the Big G didn’t want to be left out of the mythical creature cereal category, so here we are with Mermaid Cereal.

There’s no universal consensus to what unicorn products should taste like, but the same can’t be said about mermaid products. All brands that have come out with mermaid food products seem to agree that they should not taste fishy. According to the box, this cereal is naturally fruit flavored sweetened corn puffs with other natural flavors.

Two different pieces swim in the box — pink-colored stars and green-colored mermaid tails. I don’t know if I’ve watched The Little Mermaid, Splash, or the 18th episode of season two of Snorks, “The Littlest Mermaid,” too many times, but it’s a little unnerving to me to be eating mermaid tails. I can almost hear the underwater screams in my head with every chew.

General Mills Mermaid Cereal Closeup

The sizes of the pieces are a lot smaller than I thought they’d be. I know the image on the front of the box is enlarged to show detail, but it skewed my perception of how big they would be. They’re less puffier than most corn puff cereals that I’ve eaten before. I also thought, at first glance, the green pieces were marshmallows. As someone who loves cereal marshmallows, I’m a bit disappointed they’re not.

The flavor of the brightly colored pieces remind me of Trix, but more like Trix Lite, if that existed. So if you want to trick the Trix Rabbit, blindfold him, tell him you’re feeding him Trix, but feed him this. It’s fruity flavored, so he won’t know.

And if you’re super evil, when he takes off his blindfold, laugh like Kawhi Leonard in his face, show him it’s Mermaid Cereal, then say, “Silly rabbit! Trix are for kids!,” and then hand him a carrot.

Mermaid Cereal is an average fruity cereal. It tastes fine and stays crunchy in milk for a decent amount of time, but doesn’t leave behind a fruity milk. There’s nothing mythical, mysterious, or magical about it.

DISCLOSURE: I received a free sample of the product. Doing so did not influence my review in any way.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 11.4 oz. box
Purchased at: Received from General Mills
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup w/o milk) 150 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 170 milligrams of sodium, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Peanut Butter Chex Cereal

Marvo 4 Comments

Peanut Butter Chex Cereal

Almost all of my Chex Cereal consumption involves it being in a Chex mix, whether it’s homemade, prepackaged by the folks at General Mills, or purchased at a bake sale to support a school, club, church, or a club at a school that’s affiliated with a church.

Also, since I’m being honest about my Chex eating habits, I’m that guy who picks out the Chex cereal in mixes, leaving behind pretzel, nuts, bagel chips, and a mystery of who the hell ate all the Chex pieces.

It’s rare that I find myself buying a box of Chex to eat in a bowl with milk using a spoon. But here we are with my blood moon buy, Peanut Butter Chex Cereal, a flavor variety I thought General Mills already checked off, I mean, Chex-ed off.

Peanut Butter Chex Cereal Closeup

Its flavor isn’t close to being as bold as last year’s Nutter Butter Cereal, but it does smell like a peanut butter cookie. When eaten dry, it has a surprisingly striking peanut butter taste with a little saltiness, which is probably thanks to the fact there’s real peanut butter in it. But let me set your expectations by saying to think of it as a diet Nutter Butter Cereal. Also, some of the flavor is lost when eaten with milk, but not enough to make my taste buds do a double take and think they’re eating plain Corn Chex.

Like with most Chex cereal, it shouldn’t wade in milk for too long or else the soggies will get to it. But even if you do, don’t assume the milk will turn all peanut buttery. It doesn’t.

Post rocked my world with its Nutter Butter Cereal. I wrote in my review, “it’s the best peanut butter cereal I’ve ever had.” I also have an equally bold statement to say about Peanut Butter Chex — it’s the only Chex Cereal flavor I could see myself eating in a bowl with milk on a regular basis.

Mic drop.

DISCLOSURE: General Mills sent me a free sample to review (Thanks, Big G!). But I didn’t know Big G was sending one to me, so I bought a box before getting said sample. Getting a free box did not influence my review in any way.

Purchased Price: $3.89
Size: 12.2 oz. box
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup w/o milk) 170 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 270 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 9 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Post Mega Stuf Oreo O’s Cereal

Marvo

Post Mega Stuf Oreo O s Cereal

Post Mega Stuf Oreo O’s Cereal contains the same Oreo O’s you know and nodded your head to when it appeared on a BuzzFeed list called something like “49 Discontinued Cereals That We NEED In Our Bowls NOW To Make Milk Taste Better” that you scrolled through many years ago. But, it also has white marbits that symbolize the “Mega Stuf” part of the cereal.

Basically, it’s Oreo O’s with marshmallows. While it’s a Walmart-exclusive for its debut, it’ll end up at other retailers later.

Oreo O’s is already a great cereal, but does the addition marshmallows make it better?

I think so, but they don’t create a vast difference that’ll make you shun regular Oreo O’s and shake your head if you come upon it in a BuzzFeed list called something like “35 Discontinued Cereals You’d Taste Again If You Had A Time Machine.”

Post Mega Stuf Oreo O s Cereal Bowl

The marshmallows add a stronger creme element and a texture that’s different from the crunchy, chocolatey loops that taste slightly reminiscent of Oreo wafers. There are enough of the 1950s medication-looking marbits to ensure there is at least one with every spoonful.

But even with all those white marshmallows, the chocolate-to-creme flavor ratio doesn’t lean more toward the creme as it does with an actual Mega Stuf Oreo Cookie, which can make it a little cloying. Instead, it’s more like Oreo Thins, which I love.

While this is a wonderful cereal, it doesn’t make the milk chocolatey, which is a little disappointing because the same company that makes Cocoa Pebbles Cereal, which could be considered an instant chocolate milk mix, makes this.

Post Mega Stuf Oreo O s Cereal Closeup

If you have a Wikipedia’s worth of cereal knowledge, like these folks, you’d know that Mega Stuf Oreo O’s is similar to Extreme Creme Taste Oreo O’s from 2002 and the cereal sold in Korea that we reviewed several years ago.

Mega Stuf Oreo O’s should be THE Oreo O’s Cereal. With the addition of marshmallows, there’s a better flavor balance between the creme and chocolate that’s more similar to an actual Oreo cookie than the original cereal.

DISCLOSURE: I received a free sample of the product. Doing so did not influence my review in any way.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 16.5 oz. box
Purchased at: Received from representatives for Walmart
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 1/4 cup) 160 calories, 2 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 190 milligrams of sodium, 35 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 19 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.

REVIEW: Cap’n Crunch’s Cotton Candy Crunch Cereal

Marvo 2 Comments

Cap n Crunch s Cotton Candy Crunch Cereal

Cap’n Crunch’s Cotton Candy Crunch Cereal is a mystery to me, and a tongue twister.

After peeling open the box, my nostrils got a whiff of cotton candy that made me curse the bag in my way I had to open to get to that sweet cotton candy flavor in cereal form. But when I opened the bag and tried to Hoover a stronger scent up my nose, all I got was a dull sweet smell that doesn’t make me think of carnivals, fairs, and birthday parties for kids whose parents were richer than mine.

What’s even more disappointing is, when I eat it dry or wet, cotton candy flavor isn’t something I get. Instead, I taste something I’d consider to be Diet Crunchberries, which is a very light berry-like flavor that doesn’t make me think of Ferris wheels, games designed to be almost impossible to win, or rides that aren’t as scary as the natural disasters they’re named after, like Typhoon, Hurricane, and Tornado.

Cap n Crunch s Cotton Candy Crunch Cereal Closeup

It’s not entirely devoid of anything that tastes like those sugary clouds. There are moments, after finishing a bowl, that my taste buds will register something they consider to be “cotton candy.” But it’s fleeting and several minutes past when the flavor should’ve been there.

I expected it to be as if someone bigger and stronger than me used my body as a cotton candy stick and twirled me around the cotton candy maker, wrapping the sugar treat around my head. And when I’m pulled out, I look like a troll doll eating its hair. Sure, it’s a lofty ideal, but I’ve eaten half the box and I’ve experienced nothing that’s even a fraction of that.

Cap’n Crunch’s Cotton Candy Crunch Cereal confuses me. It also taunts me. Every time I pass by the box sitting on my kitchen counter, I can smell that familiar aroma of spun sugar. It’s as if the smell is the cereal’s way of saying to me, “I promise I’ll taste like cotton candy this time.”

But when I give in by opening the bag, it’s a different smell, and when I give in some more by crunching my way through another bowl, I don’t get any cotton candy flavor. Am I imagining the aroma? Am I going crazy? Am I in the Twilight Zone?

Purchased Price: $3.00 (on sale)
Size: 11.4 oz. box
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 1/4 cup – cereal only) 150 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 170 milligrams of sodium, 33 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 17 grams of sugar, 1 gram of sugar alcohol, and 2 grams of protein.