Spooned & Spotted (Canada): Post S’Mores Cereal

Ready your pointed roasting sticks and start building some flaming marshmallow catapults, because the great S’More War might soon be upon us.

There are several s’mores flavored cereals out there, and thanks to Canadian cereal fan Jas A. (thanks for the photo, Jas!), we now know that Post has tossed their milk caps into the arena, too. Their creatively named “S’MORES” cereal follows the lead of Malt-O-Meal’s Madagascar S’Mores Jungle Party by combining Golden Grahams-esque ridged graham pieces with marshmallow orbs and chocolate corn puffs.

One might accuse Post of stealing MOM’s war plans, but in reality, the two have been allies for over a year. See, in early 2015, Post Foods bought Malt-O-Meal, meaning that this S’Mores cereal is likely just Madagascar S’Mores Jungle Party repackaged with English/French packaging so that Canada can share in the s’mores love.

So the s’mores cereal battlefield now features S’Mores Jungle Party and “S’MORES” facing off against Kellogg’s two pronged assault of Krave S’Mores and Smorz. This begs several questions:

Which side are you on? Which s’mores cereal melts your heart like a gooey marshmallow? Does Post S’Mores taste different than Madagascar? Will General Mills return to the fray after the long ago casualty of S’Mores Crunch? And most importantly, is Cap’n Crunch hiding a S’Mores Crunch of his own?

While we wait for the cocoa-scented dust to clear and for all these campfire-burning questions to be answered, you can send your own picture or thoughts and have them featured on a “Spooned & Spotted” post. All you have to do is head over to our submissions page or email us at cerealously.net@gmail.com.

And for hungry Canadians looking for their own Post S’Mores, Jas found this box at Canada Safeway.

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: post, s'mores, spooned & spotted. 5 Comments

Jun. ’16

Review: Kashi Dark Cocoa Karma Cereal

The main teaching of karma is “what goes around comes around.”

Then how come Kashi’s new Dark Cocoa Karma shredded wheat cereal comes as a square, and not a round loop?

Looks like you really missed a chance to tie your tasty breakfast offerings into the cyclical nature of moral interchange, Kashi.

That’s okay. I’m willing to forgive your philosophical blunder if this exciting cereal actually tastes good. I say “exciting” because Dark Cocoa Karma is essentially the second ever cereal—after Chocolate Toast Crunch—to combine chocolate and cinnamon in the same bowl.

Time to pop on a DVD of My Name is Earl and find some cinnamon chocolate zen. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 8 rating, chocolate, cinnamon, kashi, shredded wheat. 9 Comments

Jun. ’16

Review: Limited Edition Cap’n Crunch’s Orange Creampop Crunch Cereal

As I opened my box of Cap’n Crunch’s Orange Creampop Crunch, a frosty symphony played in my head.

Ice cream truck music, the steady drip of melting banana splits, and a chorus of kids groaning at terrible popsicle stick jokes: yes, this was the sound, the smell, and the edible heartbeat of summer itself.

I encourage you all to play this on loop as your read on.

Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 10 rating, cap'n crunch, captain crunch, orange, quaker. 36 Comments

Jun. ’16

Review: Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes with Marshmallows

Welcome to Marshmallow Monday: a series I just invented that celebrates everyone’s favorite squishy sugar spheroids.

Mandatory Marshmallow Monday activities include playing games of Chubby Bunny, choking down pretzel marshmallow Jell-O dessert leftovers that have been in the freezer since last Thanksgiving, and sacrificing a flaming s’more to the box of Lucky Charms Marshmallows Only that sits above my fireplace.

Oh, and reviewing a marshmallow cereal, of course. Today’s is none other than Kellogg’s new Frosted Flakes with Marshmallows!

As you can see, Frosted Flakes with Marshmallows contain Frosted Flakes and marshmallows. As for the flavor, Frosted Flakes with Marshmallows tastes like Frosted Flakes…just with marshmallows.

Thank you for reading my review of Frosted Flakes with Marshmallows!

…

Oh, fine: I’ll give it a closer look. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 4 rating, frosted flakes, kelloggs, marshmallows. 4 Comments

Jun. ’16

Cerealously Visits the 2016 Battle Creek Cereal City Festival!

It was like wandering through a desert, with only oases of milk and sugar to keep me alive.

Hold on, let me catch you up on the narrative. Each year in their home city of Battle Creek, Michigan, Kellogg’s and Post temporally set their cereal aisle rivalry aside to put on an annual Cereal City Festival, complete with entertainment, vendors, and most importantly, unlimited free cereal and Pop-Tarts!

As a Michigan native and cereal zealot, I make the pilgrimage every year. While most just come for a free breakfast, I bop and bounce around the streets like an excited anthropomorphized pinball, annoying all passerby with my unexpected enthusiasm for cereal.

But back to the desert of thinly disguised desserts. While last year’s Cereal City Festival was overcast, drizzly, and cold, Cereal City Festival 2016 promised nothing but blue skies and temperatures so sweltering that I nearly melted into my leather seats and became a horrifying half-man, half-seat monster.

They would have called me “Helter Swelter” on the news. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: cereal city, cerealously, kelloggs, malt-o-meal, post, ralston, special. 4 Comments

Jun. ’16

Review: Trader Joe’s Mango O’s Cereal

I don’t know if I can trust you, Trader Joe.

For some reason, you chose not to pluck the literal low-hanging fruit and call your new mango cereal “Mang-O’s.” And I just don’t know if I can trust a man who doesn’t exploit every bad pun possible. It’s simply punacceptable.

But I’ll play along anyway, mostly because Trader Joe’s Mango O’s is one of very few mango cereals to ever exist. Outside of Peace Cereal’s Mango Peach Passion and the unfortunately discontinued Mango Coconut Honey Bunches of Oats, mango lovers have long been forced to eat something other than cereal for breakfast.

Like some kind of, I don’t know, fresh fruit or something?

But despair no more, mango maniacs, because Mango O’s are here to provide a breath of fresh air. Well, more like a breath of mango air that’s been sealed for a while in a plastic bag, but you get the idea. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 7 rating, fruit, mango, trader joe's. 8 Comments

Jun. ’16

Spooned & Spotted: Nature Valley Raisin Oat Clusters and Chocolate Oat Bites

Nature Valley’s first three cereals were all delicious. They must have been successful, too, because now we’re getting two more!

Raisin Oat Clusters and Chocolate Oat Bites are joining Chocolate Oat Clusters, Baked Oat Bites, and Honey Oat Clusters, all debuted earlier this year from General Mills’ resident granola-smiths at Nature Valley.

If my experiences with Nature Valley’s first three offerings—which all tasted like baked goods for some reason—are to be believed, Raisin Oat Clusters will taste like a cinnamon raisin bagel, while Chocolate Oat Bites will be like miniature chocolate doughnut flavored Cracklin’ Oat Bran.

Yep, I’m gonna start surfing Craigslist now for bulk deals on larger sized pants. Maybe I’ll pick up a sketchy old mattress and a bag of soggy fireworks while I’m there, too.

To all readers who would like to see their picture or thoughts featured on a “Spooned & Spotted” post (yours truly spotted these at Kroger), head over to our submissions page, or just email us at cerealously.net@gmail.com.

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: general mills, nature valley, raisin bran, spooned & spotted. 1 Comment

Jun. ’16

Spooned & Spotted: Cap’n Crunch’s Orange Creampop Crunch Cereal

(Update 6/15: I reviewed Cap’n Crunch’s Orange Creampop Crunch here!)

Just looking at this picture makes my tongue melt like a popsicle.

Okay, maybe that’s just drool, but you get the point. We reported back in January that Quaker had filed a trademark application for “Cap’n Crunch’s Orange Creampop Crunch,” and after months of worrying that this was the universe playing some sort of cosmic orange joke, the cereal has finally arrived.

And its box is beautiful. It depicts the Cap’n waving a freshly bitten Creamsicle like a magic wand, leaving a wondrous spectral aura over his ~~cheddar cheese~~ orange Crunch chest pieces.

If you had read that sentence aloud before today, I would have yelled at you for stealing quotes from my fan fiction. But now my fan fiction is a saliva-inducing reality with a soundtrack of ice cream truck music blaring on infinite repeat.

This pic comes to us from Instagram user @keenancamp, so all photography credit is rightfully earned by him (thanks Keenan!). He spotted it at a Jewel Osco store, and since I’ve already heard another reader sighting of Orange Cremepop Crunch at Jewel Osco, I think it’s safe to say that the cereal has started there and will spread nationwide shortly.

The box says limited edition, but let’s all just pray this isn’t a test market cereal. That would suck harder than, well, me with a Creamsicle during. the dog days of summer.

To all readers who would like to see their picture or thoughts featured on a “Spooned & Spotted” post, head over to our submissions page, or just email us at cerealously.net@gmail.com.

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: cap'n crunch, orange, quaker, spooned & spotted. 3 Comments