Tag: Post Cereals

REVIEW: Post Nutter Butter Cereal

Marvo 10 Comments

Post Nutter Butter Cereal

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.

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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.

REVIEW: Post Chips Ahoy Cereal

Marvo 5 Comments

Post Chips Ahoy Cereal

“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.

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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.

REVIEW: Post Shredded Wheat Frosted Cinnamon Roll Cereal

Marvo 1 Comment

Post Shredded Wheat Frosted Cinnamon Roll Cereal

I can’t help but stare at the Post Shredded Wheat Frosted Cinnamon Roll Cereal box for two reasons.

  1. From afar the cereal pieces look as if they’re the children of a block of dried packaged ramen noodles and a Twinkie.
  2. The white creamy centers in those cereal pieces on the box do not show up in the actual cereal pieces. In tiny print, it says, “enlarged to show detail.” Unfortunately, a detail is wrong.

What’s not wrong is the aroma that comes out after opening the package. It’s a nice sweet cinnamon smell that I’d love to wake up to every morning. However, the cereal itself is not one I’m sure I’d wake up for.

As you can read on the box, the part of a complete breakfast has whole grain wheat, no synthetic colors, and is “bursting with vanilla flavored chips.” It’s frosted on one side and cinnamon is an ingredient. Now, this sounds like this could be a decent cereal, and, I’ll be honest, it is when eaten dry.

The cinnamon flavor isn’t as pronounced as its aroma, but the frosting, vanilla-flavored chips, and cinnamon do a great job at acting as the Paxil, Zoloft, and Prozac to deal with the depressing blandness of the shredded wheat.

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But I do wish Post upped the cinnamon dosage. It’s not Cinnabon level of cinnamon, it’s more like licking the bottom of the box a Cinnabon came in after someone else licked it. The frosting and vanilla chips add a generic sweetness and artificial vanilla-ness that help the insoluble fiber go down. The chips aren’t like what’s shown on the box, they’re more like white blobs with a texture that’s more crunchy than creamy.

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While fine when eaten dry, a problem arises when it sits in milk for a few moments, which is a situation cereal finds itself in 9 out of 10 times. The dairy bath causes the pieces lose ALL THEIR FLAVOR and turn a decent cereal into a depressing one. Now you’d think those vanilla chips might save it, but even their flavor disappeared. Actually, my mouth couldn’t even feel those chips in the soggy pieces. It’s as if they dissolved in milk.

If you’re going to eat these as a dry snack, you’ll enjoy them. They have a hearty crunch and a decent, sweet flavor. But, while milk helps strengthen bones, it hurts this cereal by washing those good things away.

(Nutrition Facts – 22 biscuits – 220 calories, 2 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 10 milligrams of sodium, 49 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fiber, 16 grams of sugar, 5 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: $2.98
Size: 15.5 oz. box
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 5 out of 10
Pros: Tastes good dry. Uses actual cinnamon.
Cons: Flavor washes off when sittin in milk for a few moments. Could use more cinnamon flavor. Deceptive image of cereal pieces on box. Looks like a dried ramen block and a Twinkie had a child.

REVIEW: Post Honey Maid S’mores Cereal

Adam 5 Comments

Post Honey Maid S mores Cereal

I think everything is better with a brand name.

An Oreo Blizzard beats a chocolate sandwich cookie Blizzard ten times out of ten; a Lucky Charms milkshake kicks the crap out of a marshmallow cereal milkshake; and an Arby’s sandwich on a King’s Hawaiian bun is far superior to a sandwich on a sweet enriched roll that may or may not have come from a rock in the Pacific Ocean.

Don’t ask me about the logic behind this phenomenon. It might be proprietary recipe secrets. It might be social conditioning. It might just be that you’d have to be an idiot to roll out something called a “marshmallow cereal milkshake.”

Honey Maid S’more cereal follows much of the trend, which is surprising because it’s made by Post, which previously bought Mom’s Best, which owns Malt-O-Meal, which produces both a mediocre Cocoa Puffs imitator and a pathetic Golden Grahams doppelganger.

Oh, and by the way, a s’mores cereal.

I’ve never had the Malt-O-Meal cereal with the same name, but I have had many other Malt-O-Meal cereals and consider them hastily assembled Halloween costume versions of their General Mills, Kellogg’s, and Quaker counterparts. Knowing this, I was not expecting much from this s’mores cereal.

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Sampling the pieces individually didn’t do much to change my outlook. The marshmallow pieces were okay but nothing special, like a 6-6 college football team that limps into a bowl game. Meanwhile, the chocolate cereal pieces (which look and taste like Malt-O-Meal’s Cocoa Puffs imitator Cocoa Roos) are about as dreadful as a chocolate cereal can be, with virtually no cocoa flavor and too much sweetness.

Post Honey Maid S mores Cereal 3

Eaten alone, the only redeeming element is the Honey Maid graham pieces, which have a deep graham flavor and light crunch that’s distinct from the glazed molasses sweetness of Golden Grahams.

But a funny thing happens when you shove a handful of the mix in your mouth. It starts to taste like s’mores, and out of nowhere a light cocoa flavor emerges in the background.

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I attribute this 100 percent to a dusty coating that covers all the pieces. It’s not unlike the peanut butter coating that covers Reese’s Puffs, but instead of tasting like powdered chocolate peanut butter, it tastes like powdered S’mores. The coating is especially tasty in milk, which seems to coax more cocoa flavor out of the chocolate cereal pieces, and gives the graham pieces a delectable, milk-infused sogginess.

Even though the chocolate flavor is a letdown, Honey Maid S’mores is a slightly better than Smorz (which I gave a 6) but not as good as Krave S’mores (which I gave an 8). Is it because of the Honey Maid Graham Cracker pieces?

Well, it’s not because of some generic graham cracker pieces.

(Nutrition Facts – 3/4 cup without milk – 120 calories, 25 calories from fat, 2.5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 210 milligrams of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 1 grams of protein..)

Purchased Price: $3.98
Size: 21 oz. box
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Authentic honey graham flavor. Campfire coating binds flavors together with a deep burnt sugar taste with hints of cocoa. Very good in milk. Correct spelling of S’mores. Avoiding the tempting Hamilton Porter S’mores reference from The Sandlot.
Cons: Less cocoa flavor than a tootsie roll. Only adequate as a snacking cereal. The reasoning behind Cocoa Roos. Brand name food collusion.

REVIEW: Cinnamon Pebbles Cereal

Rachel 7 Comments

Cinnamon Pebbles Cereal

Churros existed before I discovered them in 2009, or so I’m told. But that fateful March afternoon in a Barcelona café was a personal turning point. As in – I turn my head any time I hear the word now. “Did someone say churros?” I ask, more a plea than a question.

When Cinnamon Pebbles cereal was announced last month, it was immediately linked with churros. Blog posts breathlessly asked if the breakfast flakes would taste like them. News articles suggested making Cinnamon Pebbles-covered churros.

My churro buds were aching when I ripped open the box of Cinnamon Pebbles. The scent was definitely cinnamon, but not churro-y. It was familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it reminded me of.

Cinnamon Pebbles Cereal 2

I threw a dry handful into my mouth. The size, weight and texture are the same as the classic Pebbles varieties. Then the taste revealed itself. These were not Churro Pebbles. They were the simple cinnamon sugar of my youth.

I instantly flashed back to 8 years old, finding an ancient shaker of Domino’s “Sugar ‘n Cinnamon” in the back of the kitchen cabinet. I started dumping clumps of cinna-sugar (emphasis on the sugar) over my plain Rice Chex cereal. That is precisely the taste of Cinnamon Pebbles.

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The cereal absorbed milk quickly, in typical Pebbles (and most rice cereal) fashion. The flavor stayed pretty true wet or dry, which makes me think it’s really baked in, not just a coating. It did impart some cinnamon-sweetness and a beige tint to the leftover milk, but visually not the party of brown flecks I expected.

While I loved the cinna-sugar/rice cereal combo in 1984, and eating it now was a bit of fun nostalgia, it’s 2017 and tastes have changed. Flavors have gotten more complex, exotic and sometimes silly. Hence, I can’t say that this cereal was exciting or “new.” It needed a hook to make it more modern.

Cinnamon Pebbles might have been greatly improved by adding a dash of red pepper, so I set out to do just that. I spread a layer of the cereal on a cookie sheet, sprinkled a mixture of water, ground cayenne and roasted Saigon cinnamon on top and gave it a quick toast in the oven (250 degrees, 5 minutes or so).

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The results were beyond my expectations. The extra cinnamon knocked down the overwhelming sugar and the red pepper brought a delayed warmth that hit just as I was ready to take the next spoonful. This was a cereal worth buying again.

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I also tried using the Cinnamon Pebbles as a pie crust. Filled with devil’s food instant pudding and a bit of cayenne, it was an easy and decent approximation of churros and chocolate.

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(Nutrition Facts – 3/4 cup cereal only – 120 calories, 10 calories from fat, 1 gram of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 10 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.)

Purchased Price: $3.69
Size: 11 oz. box
Purchased at: Stop & Shop
Rating: 5 out of 10
Pros: Yep, they’re Pebbles alright! Pleasant throwback cinna-sugar flavor.
Cons: Too simple for novelty-seekers. Needs something to offset or amp up the cinnamon.