Is 2017 poised to be the Year of Cinnamon?
Cinnamon Pebbles hit shelves just as the new year did. Cinnamon Frosted Flakes will be making its full, nationwide debut this month. And now, with the release of these Crunchy Cinnamon Squares, Trader Joe is eyeing the cereal aisle’s “Sugar-Swirled Cinnamon” throne. His cookie butter-colored irises watch deviously as Cinnamon Toast Crunch sits squarely on that very same seat.
“Soon,” he whispers.
But will Trader Joe’s newest cereal be tasty enough to overthrow a 22-year old cinnamon dynasty? The side of its box claims that, “after one bite you may want to eat these Crunchy Cinnamon Squares for every meal,” but the front doesn’t even feature any grandfatherly bakers or cannibalistic quadrilaterals: just the same calm blue color scheme of Andy’s wallpaper in Toy Story.
Right out of the box, good ol’ Barterer Joseph loses points for loosely dusting the cinnamon onto his Crunchy Cinnamon Squares, instead of swirling it. This may sound petty, but unless Cinnamon Toast Crunch has patented the technique, there’s no reason every cereal shouldn’t be coated with sugary spiral galaxies.
Our friends at What’s Good at Trader Joe’s called Crunchy Cinnamon Squares’s flavor “Diet Cinnamon Toast Crunch,” and I wholeheartedly agree. Rather than punting an unadulteratedly sugary dropkick of cinnamon sugar straight into the goal post of my mouth, Trader Joe’s Crunchy Cinnamon Squares trudge into the end zone with their base wheat and rice flavor first and the cinnamon chugging along behind as the caboose.
This cinnamon sensation is mild, yet cozy, as its earthy, vegetable oily sweetness somewhat makes up for its muted meekness. It pairs well with the rich base flavor, too, a flavor that feels more densely grainy and woodsy than Cinnamon Toast Crunch’s squares, which are pretty much just blank stages for the cinnamon sugar to sing the addictively delicious song of its people.
To sum the pair up: if CTC is cinnamon toast made on Wonder Bread, then Trader Joe’s Crunchy Cinnamon Squares is cinnamon toast made on whole grain wheat.
Crunchy Cinnamon Squares are also much curvier than their direct competitors—I half expected to find one that was completely folded over like one of those legendary folded potato chips.
Because of their curvature, Crunchy Cinnamon Squares tend to become milk buckets, as dairy puddles up inside them like pizza grease in deep dish pepperonis. Also like meaty pizza toppings, Crunchy Cinnamon Squares stay crisp for a long time—unlike a certain sog-friendly General Mills cereal.
What doesn’t stick around is the cinnamon coating. Without the glazed-in cinnamon of Cinnamon Frosted Flakes or the swirling gravitational pull of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, all the cinnamon sugar on TJ’s Crunchy Cinnamon Squares jets off like loose swim trunks in an embarrassing sitcom water slide incident. This leaves behind two things: delightfully sweet, golden brown endmilk and a bowl of naked wheat pieces.
While these bare squares may lose most of their sweetness in milk, they still retain a sophisticated biscuity flavor, like that of a milk-dunked cinnamon graham cracker.
Overall, Crunchy Cinnamon Squares is the subdued cereal of a pensive breakfaster—the kind who pours a bowl of cereal and ponders it over a Wall Street Journal or a 5-star difficulty Sudoku puzzle. It’s tasty as a grown-up cereal, but let’s just say that, if I ate Cinnamon Crunchy Squares every morning as a kid, it probably wouldn’t have made it onto the “What Are You Thankful For?” paper hand turkey I made in elementary school art class.
Though to be fair, I’m pretty sure my 8-year old self only wrote down a bunch of Pokémon names on that particular Thanksgiving craft.
The Bowl: Trader Joe’s Crunchy Cinnamon Squares
The Breakdown: With a biscuity base flavor that drags its comfy cinnamon taste along with it like an oaky mahogany tome, Crunchy Cinnamon Squares is light on potency but heavy on whole wheat wholesomeness. Stick with Cinnamon Toast Crunch if you prefer aggressively sugary awesomeness.
The Bottom Line: 7 Chicago-style deep dish cereals out of 10
(Quick Nutrition Facts: 130 calories, 2 grams of fiber, 9 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein per 3/4 cup serving. Note that these are identical to Cinnamon Toast Crunch.)
I just had a bowl of this. This review is spot on! 😂😂 Thank you!
An eastern European cereal brand, Cerera, makes a cinnamon square cereal, Cinamoni, that I think is the only one that’s ever outdone Cinnamon Toast Crunch. They are more dense than CTC, but not too hard either. No idea how to get them in the US, though.
There’s also a Chocomoni, which is that brand’s take on Chocolate CTC. It’s also better than the Big G’s version, if I recall correctly.
Hell… just looked Cinamoni up (and i need to figure out how to get a box myself), but who needs better CTC when you can have “Coffe Beans” (Crispy wheat cereal with coffee flavour)
Dan! That’s OUR Cereal! ^^
And they even have frosted version of Honey Smacks… “Frosty Smacks”? 😉
I’m in love with that coffee idea! The Coffee Cereal I reviewed here a while back was delicious, but the package was tragically too small.
Hmm, that’s interesting! It’s too bad they don’t have a version of my beloved PB Toast Crunch for me to ship in.
Ever try Cascadian Farms’ CTC clone? I imagine these squares are an awful lot like those in terms of the mildness in sweetness and the semi-grainy texture. It makes for a great dry snack but like TJ’s loses much of its flavor in milk. Still, it deserves some merit for offering something different.
Surprisingly, even Cascadian Farms’ squares are more directly sweet than Trader Joe’s Crunchy Cinnamon Squares. I think the key difference is crunchiness: TJ’s is denser and chewier.
I read the What’s Good at Trader Joe’s-review a while ago and though they also gave the cereal a 7 out of ten Trader Joe’s Crunchy Cinnamon Squares didn’t received a really good appraisel (in my opinion).
So i was really looking forward to your review, especially ’cause i know your love for CTC ^^
And I think your review puts the Crunchy Cinnamon Squares in a “better light”. It seems they aren’t that bad, just not CTC. Which they might not meant to be.
And i think a CTC with more grain flavor than too much cinnamon sweetness is sometimes a thing i would wish for. Especially in the mornings. (The rest of the day CTC would probably win ;))
Thanks for the amazing review, as always!
Yeah, these definitely have a niche place in the cinnamon cereal market, but Cinnamon Frosted Flakes are still blowing my mind with their casual innovation.
“their casual innovation”
Your November 28 review said “Kellogg’s reportedly tried 100 different formula variations before settling on this one”
Doesn’t sound very casual to me.
Ahh, I meant “casual” more in regards to the apparent simplicity of the “glazed cinnamon” idea. It seems so obvious of an idea, but it took an oxymoronically long time to perfect.