Cereal – Page 38 – The Impulsive Buy

REVIEW: Lucky Charms Frosted Flakes Cereal

Marvo / January 16, 2018 / Reviews / 10 Comments

If you think Lucky Charms Frosted Flakes Cereal is some kind of epic Marvel/DC-like crossover between General Mills and Kellogg’s, hold your horseshoes, hearts, stars, clovers, blue moons, rainbows, and balloons.

With its blue box, “FROSTED FLAKES” in all caps lettering, and Lucky the Leprechaun sliding down a rainbow, it appears as if the two companies put down their spoons and bowls to come together. But that’s not the case and I imagine pigs will fly, hell will freeze over, and all cockroaches on Earth will die before that ever happens.

Instead, Lucky Charms Frosted Flakes Cereal looks as if Lucky Charms’ marshmallows have been paired with some generic version of Frosted Flakes with a name like Frosty Flakes, Frosting Flakes, Flakes with Frosting, Frosting Coated Flakes, Flakes Frosted, Frosted Corn Flakes, Corn Flakes with Frosting, Frosting Coated Corn Flakes, Corn Flakes Frosted, and I Can’t Believe It’s Corn Flakes with Frosting.

The flakes in this cereal have a different shape, are smaller, less frosted, and less sweet, making them not as good as Kellogg’s version. But the generic-looking frosted corn flakes are sweeter, crunchier, and all-around better tasting than the oat cereal pieces in regular Lucky Charms.

Now, I’ve said on numerous occasions that Lucky Charms is a favorite. But Lucky Charms Frosted Flakes has made me question that. The new cereal is crunchier, more sweet tooth-satisfying, and it’s helped me realize the magic in Lucky Charms is the ability to make us eat mediocre lightly sweetened oat cereal we would never eat without marshmallows.

Let me put it this way, after experiencing Lucky Charms Frosted Flakes, I wouldn’t buy a box of only Lucky Charms’ oat cereal unless I desperately needed horse feed. But I would buy a box of these generic frosted flakes. They improve the classic cereal and seem to stay crunchy longer in milk than the oat pieces.

But, even though I feel this cereal is better, it’s also kind of a letdown. If there was no such thing as Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, which, again, is superior, this might’ve been gr-r-reater than gr-r-reat. But since Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes does exist because we aren’t living in Cereal Earth Dimension Y, I know this could’ve been even better.

Some of you might be saying, “Well then, there’s Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes with Marshmallows.” That’s true, but, unfortunately, that suffers from being the opposite of this cereal. Frosted Flakes are great, but the marshmallows are mediocre. Some may say sugar is sugar, but Lucky Charms’ marbits are better for whatever reason. #magic?

Overall, if General Mills decided to do something drastic and make Lucky Charms Frosted Flakes Cereal THE regular Lucky Charms, I’d be all for it.

(Nutrition Facts – 3/4 cup without milk – 120 calories, 5 calories from fat, 0.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 170 milligrams of sodium, 55 milligrams of potassium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 10 grams of sugar, 15 grams of other carbohydrates, and 1 gram of protein.)

Purchased Price: $4.57
Size: 20.9 oz. box
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Better tasting, sweeter, and crunchier than regular Lucky Charms. Corn flakes seem to maintain their crunchiness better than the oat pieces.
Cons: Not a collaboration between Kellogg’s and General Mills. Using Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes would’ve made this epic. Makes me question how good Lucky Charms is.

REVIEW: Post Nutter Butter Cereal

Marvo / December 20, 2017 / Reviews / 10 Comments

Eating a bowl of Post Nutter Butter Cereal makes me feel bad.

Oh, there’s nothing wrong with its flavor. But its peanut-like shape makes me feel as if I’m eating the corpses of Planters’ Mr. Peanut and his extended family. It would’ve freaked me out if there were also cereal pieces shaped like top hats, canes, and monocles. But that’s not all I found weird about the cereal’s shape. Nutter Butter Cookies are flat but every single piece in the box bends at the middle.

As you can read on the box, this cereal is made with real peanut butter. Of course, that’s if you consider peanuts, dextrose, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and salt as peanut butter and not peanut butter spread. But it’s not as if there’s a thin layer of peanut butter on every piece. Although that would’ve been amazing and messy.

Instead, there’s a powdery coating on the cereal that gives it a strong, sweet peanut butter aroma and flavor. The coating also gives the cereal a cool texture. Yes, it’s still a crunchy cereal, but around it is a flavoring that melts when you bite into it. I don’t know if “melt” is the best way to describe it. But whatever it is, it gives the cereal a creaminess. A powder turning creamy is kind of a weird mindscrew.

All it took was popping one piece into my mouth to know that I would love this cereal. The bold peanut butter flavor, while not exactly like Nutter Butter cookies, makes me want to find the biggest bowl in my kitchen, dump the whole bag into it, and snack on it all day. It has a slight saltiness and doesn’t taste artificial. In fact, there were times when it reminded me of boiled peanuts. Even in milk, the peanut butter flavor stays true because the coating doesn’t wash off. The milk at the bottom of the bowl doesn’t get all peanut buttery. But I’m not too sad about that.

With its great peanut butter flavor, there are so many things I want to do with this cereal. I want to eat it with chocolate milk. I want to make milkshakes with it. Heck, I’m going to eat another bowl right now.

If you miss Peanut Butter Toast Crunch Cereal, this is more than a worthy replacement. With its strong peanut butter flavor, sweetness that’s at a level that takes me back 80s cereal, and creamy texture, I have to say it’s the best peanut butter cereal I’ve ever had.

Disclosure: I was provided a free sample by Walmart. The fact that I got it for free did not influence my review.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 cup – 150 calories, 40 calories from fat, 4.5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 1 gram of polyunsaturated fat, 2.5 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 160 milligrams of sodium, 45 milligrams of potassium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 13 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: Received for free
Size: 19 oz. box
Purchased at: Available as a Walmart exclusive until 4/1/18
Rating: 9 out of 10
Pros: The best peanut butter cereal I’ve had. Bold, sweet peanut butter flavor. Peanut butter coating gives the cereal a creaminess when it melts in your mouth.
Cons: Pieces not flat like actual Nutter Butter Cookies (is it hard to make flat cereal pieces?). Shape makes me feel as if I’m eating Mr. Peanut and his family. Milk at the bottom of bowl not peanut buttery.

Cereal Cookies Nutter Butter Post Cereals

REVIEW: Post Chips Ahoy Cereal

Marvo / December 19, 2017 / Reviews / 5 Comments

“I’m eating chocolate chip cookies for breakfast! Life is awesome! Yo Joe!”

That’s what I imagine I yelled decades ago when I had my first taste of Cookie Crisp Cereal. And this is what I’d like to yell now after having my first taste of Post’s Original Chips Ahoy Cereal.

“I’m eating a poor facsimile of chocolate chip cookies for breakfast/lunch/dinner/midnight snack/whenever I feel like it! Adult life is scary! Wubba lubba dub dub!”

Look, let’s be honest and crush the hopes and dream of children everywhere who somehow end up at this review by pointing out that Cookie Crisp/Chips Ahoy Cereal is to cookies as Velveeta is to cheese. They may look the part, but dig deeper and you’ll find the truth. Sorry, kids.

Speaking of digging, I wouldn’t be surprised if Post Chips Ahoy Cereal is a rebranded version of Malt-o-Meal’s Chocolatey Chip Cookie Bites, which is also produced by Post. The two have the exact same ingredients, in the same order, and the exact nutrition facts.

The cereal looks like mini Chips Ahoy Cookies, if you look at it from three feet away. Anywhere within three feet, it looks like Cookie Crisp. Unfortunately, looking like Chips Ahoy from a distance is the only similarity it has with the popular packaged cookie.

The cereal has a sweet, oat-y aroma that lacks any chocolate. The chocolatey dots don’t stick to the corn and whole grain oat pieces well, so expect a pool of dark dots to settle at the bottom of the bag it came in.

It tastes similar to Cookie Crisp. There’s a nondescript sugariness to it, but only a whisper of chocolate, even with pieces loaded with chocolatey specks. There’s cocoa in the dark dots and in the cereal itself, but it’s hard to detect. Once the sugariness dissolves, the underlying corn and whole grain flavors start to come out. In milk, the dairy enhances the sugary flavors a little, but I wish the chocolate flavor stood out more.

Post Chips Ahoy Cereal doesn’t taste like Chips Ahoy, but that’s what I expected since Post Oreo O’s Cereal doesn’t exactly taste like Oreo cookies. But, it’s disappointing because there’s nothing about it that makes it stand out.

If you enjoy Cookie Crisp, then this will be fine to eat while watching Saturday morning cartoons as part of a complete breakfast or when you throw your spoons in the air and wave ‘em like you just don’t care about what you’re eating for dinner.

Disclosure: I was provided a free sample by Walmart. The fact that I got it for free did not influence my review.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 cup – 120 calories, 20 calories from fat, 2 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 120 milligrams of sodium, 35 milligrams of potassium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 11 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.)

Purchased Price: Received for free
Size: 19 oz. box
Purchased at: Available as a Walmart exclusive until 4/1/18
Rating: 5 out of 10
Pros: Adequate flavor. Tastes similar to Cookie Crisp. Stays crunchy in milk for a while. Comes in big box.
Cons: Doesn’t taste like Chips Ahoy. Doesn’t taste anything like chocolate chip cookies. Possibly a repackaged version of Malt-o-Meal’s Chocolatey Chip Cookie Bites. Doesn’t have a strong chocolate flavor.

Cereal Chips Ahoy Cookies Post Cereals

REVIEW: Limited Edition Banana Nut Cheerios

Vin / December 13, 2017 / Reviews / 5 Comments

Every time I see a new banana-flavored product on shelves, my inner Primate comes out. I have to fight the urge to beat my chest like an excited gorilla right there in the aisle.

There’s something about that flavor that always resonates with me. Cakes, breads, candies, ice cream, yogurts, it doesn’t matter – if you make it banana, you’ve got my money.

Sadly, I haven’t tasted many cereals flavored with the fruit. There’s never been a huge market for them, and when they do come out, they always seem to get discontinued. I can recall a few Honey Bunches of Oats types and a Minion one, but beyond that my experience with them are lacking.

Good thing Limited Edition Banana Nut Cheerios has come to my rescue.

I wish I could tell you I got a waft of fresh banana bread when I tore the bag open, but in reality, the smell was kinda indistinguishable. I don’t know, I expected more, but to me it wasn’t distinctly banana.

Since these are “banana nut” flavored, I figured I’d try them with almond milk as well as whole milk. I also had Egg Nog, but couldn’t pull the trigger on using that as milk, despite the pleas from the voices inside my head.

I considered mixing in slices of the yellow fruit, but I’m of the controversial opinion that putting slimy fruit pieces in cereal doesn’t enhance it all that much.

With the first bite, I got hit with cinnamon, but that instantly blended into the banana flavor. Don’t expect anything overly sweet, because this uses real fruit puree, not artificial flavor. (More on that later.)

On the next few bites, I realized this variety may as well have been any Cheerios flavor. It all mushed into generic Cheerios. While there were hints of a great cereal there, it was short lived.

Now I was ready to call Banana Nut Cheerios a big disappointment when it hit me with the hidden ace up its sleeve – delicious cereal milk.

Let me backtrack. The “whole” milk cereal was delicious. Unflavored almond milk is worthless, especially with cereal. The “nuttiness” did nothing to enhance the flavor. Not only that, it’s more watery than skim, and made for a mundane bowl.

Whole milk, however, soaked into the little O’s and made it come to life. You’d be hard pressed to find many cereals that improve as they sog, but this one bucked the trend. The flavor improved as they settled and the runoff culminated in banana bread-flavored creaminess.

Still, I left a tad underwhelmed. I must just prefer a sugary artificial flavor to natural. I guess that’s the kid in me. I’d be all in on Banana Toast Crunch.

Banana Nut Cheerios are worth a try, but they weren’t better than reliable Honey Nut variety. If you can only afford one box, I’d recommend the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios over these as well.

(Nutrition Facts – 3/4 cup – 110 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 120 milligrams of sodium, 80 milligrams of potassium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: $2.50
Size: 12 oz. box
Purchased at: Stop & Shop
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Creamy delicious cereal milk. Decent banana flavor. Nice cinnamon kick. Oatey nuttiness peaks through. The prospects of Banana Toast Crunch.
Cons: Lacked strong banana aroma. Tasted best after the sog. Middle of the road Cheerios flavor. Limited Edition like all banana cereals. There’s no Banana Toast Crunch.

Cereal Cheerios General Mills

REVIEW: Kellogg’s Donut Shop Cereals (Pink Donut and Chocolate Donut)

Adam / December 6, 2017 / Reviews

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.

Cereal Kellogg's