Review: Sainsbury’s Mince Pie Wheats

Sainsbury's New Mince Pie Wheats Cereal Review Box

Merry Post-Christmastime! May your day after be filled with contented lethargy, stocking stuffer candy snarfing, and cats rustling joyfully through bins of discarded wrapping paper.

Yet for bootstrapping cereal bloggers such as myself, the end of Christmas means I’ve got a mountain of cereal news and reviews to surmount. January is the biggest time of the year for new breakfast releases, and cereal company PR reps have been mailing me salvos of sweet stuff for the past few weeks. And while this may have been a serendipitous way to find boxes for all the gifts I gave, I still have enough cardboard clogging up my house to provide beds for twenty more cats than I already own.

By my cursory count, there are nearly two-dozen cereals in my kitchen, and while not all of them call for a blog article, I certainly have my work cut out for me. So before I dive into 2020’s best and brightest breakfast inductees, I want to ease in with a quick look at a U.K. exclusive that’s really bringing a snowy inn’s worth of cheer and innovation to this winter. Continue reading

News: Salted Caramel Pretzel Pop-Tarts

Kellogg's New Salted Caramel Pretzel Pop-Tarts Box

Salted Caramel Pretzel Pop-Tarts. Has a nice ring to it.

No, seriously: I think it’s Trochaic Tetrameter—assuming you pronounce it “car-mel,” which I realize is a reckless assumption.

Let’s make one thing clear: Pretzel Pop-Tarts are pretty darn good. Like Gone Nutty Pop-Tarts before them, they shake up the crust game instead of just the flavor. Both of the line’s debut flavors, Chocolate and Cinnamon Sugar, were sweet & salty & scrumptious, so I have little doubt that Salted Caramel Pretzel Pop-Tarts will be up to the same standards. These have already been spotted on Meijer’s site—thanks to Candy Hunting for the initial tip—so they’ll probably hit shelves within a month or two.

Now that Pretzel Pop-Tarts have crossed another reasonable, if not a little uncommon, pretzel flavor pairing off their pastry to-bake list, I wonder where they’ll go next. Here’s hoping we get Peanut Butter Pretzel Pop-Tarts before Whole-Grain Mustard.

News: Crayola Jazzberry Cereal

New Crayola Jazzberry Cereal Box

Crayon eaters rejoice!

No longer need you get up early to prepare a full meal of scrambled marigolds and sizzling tickled pinks, served with a side of burnt sienna toast. Kellogg’s & Crayola are making it easier than ever to consume crayons for breakfast with an upcoming cereal flavored like Jazzberries. What does a Jazzberry taste like, you might ask? Well, I think they grow on vines that spring from the decomposed fibers of discarded Jazz solo cups. You know the ones.

As the fruit born of such a distinguished plant species, Jazzberries therefore have much expected of them. When I astral project the aesthetic of Jazz solo cups onto my taste buds, they taste like half-melted blue raspberry ICEEs and grape Kool-Aid. Perhaps this is a bit too puckering of a flavor profile to expect of a licensed cereal, so in reality Crayola Jazzberry cereal will probably taste like Caticorn cereal or Llama Loops. Which is to say, bad.

While that is a pretty grim prognosis for Jazzberry cereal’s potential, it’s also pretty realistic. Who knows, though: Crayola made a smart move with Jazzberry cereal’s color-able box—not just because of the fun value, but also the box design’s intense contrast of white to sharp saturation. This will no-doubt catch the eyes of many children in the cereal aisle, upping Jazzberry’s impulse buy appeal.

Pretty tricky, but at least it’s original. Whether or not the flavor will hold up to the same avant garde scrutiny is another story. Crayola Jazzberry cereal is already listed on Walmart and Meijer’s websites, and while they don’t have details or availability yet, they’re likely to drop within a month or so.

What’s your favorite crayon, by the way? I’m a sucker for good ol’ blue-green.

Review: Raisin Bran Toasted Oats & Honey

New Kellogg's Raisin Bran Toasted Oats & Honey Cereal Review Box

Give me the opportunity to ideate a new Raisin Bran (Crunch or Otherwise) flavor, and I’ll come back to you with an annotated binder of possibilities, each obscure taste more convoluted and full of cultural callbacks than the last.

You give the ideas guys at Kellogg’s the same chance, and they’ll show you a million ways to change the stuff without really doing a whole lot of anything. Raisin Bran with Cranberries—a dried fruit tasting basically the same as raisins, but tougher to chew. Raisin Bran with Vanilla—they actively made the stuff worse with an overpowering, industrial vanilla veneer. Oh, and why not just chuck some bananas in there?

Wait, that one gets a pass. It at least calls back to every on-box proposed Raisin Bran serving of yore.

But this newest exhibition of nothingness is, at least conceptually, the most offensive of all. The ideological barrier between Kellogg’s Raisin Bran and Raisin Bran Crunch is thicker than a three-wide cluster of stuck-together bran flakes. The two cereals attract very different types of people. And while I respect regular Raisin Bran, it’s not for me. I love me some Crunchy bunches of honey-toasted granola—which is why it’s egregious that “Toasted Oats & Honey” is positioned here as a spinoff of plain ol’ Raisin Bran.

It should’ve been called Raisin Bran Crunch 2: Deliciously Deconstructed. Accurately allocating valor is important, Kellogg’s! Continue reading

News: Golden Grahams & Cinnamon Toast Crunch Protein Bars

General Mills New Golden Grahams Protein Bar

It seems 2021 will be the year of, in addition to many other things, buff cereal products. First Pebbles drops protein powder, now General Mills is getting into the protein bar game. What’s next, Kellogg’s Raisin Bran energy gel?

To be fair, General Mills’ Golden Grahams and Cinnamon Toast Crunch protein bars look pretty appetizing, and 20 grams of protein feels pretty standard for the likes of Power Bars or Quest Bars. I’m glad they committed to making a muscle-building munchie instead of a weird, sugary Clif Bar type of hybrid. They can save that idea for Lucky Charms.

You can already find the bars listed on General Mills’ Foodservice and Convenience website, so if you’re trying to track down these cereal protein bars, it seems like gas stations or school cafeterias would be your best bet. Whichever’s easiest.

What do you think? Cereal protein bars: yes or no? Personally, I’ll be defeating the Golden Graham bar’s purpose with a jar of marshmallow fluff.

News: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Krave Cereal

New Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Krave Cereal

This is my Krave! This is the Krave meant for me!

For real though, Krave haters be darned, I’m absolutely psyched that not only is there a new variety hitting shelves now, but it’s one of my all-time favorite flavor profiles. Sure, chocolate chip cookies are alright, but nothing beats a chewy, slightly grainy, and brown-buttery gob of unbaked cookie dough—salmonella also be darned. Granted, cookie dough is a pretty nuanced flavor to cram into a single cereal shell—sadly, the filling on these is only chocolate—but Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is also probably my favorite Pop-Tart flavor currently available, so I trust Kellogg’s to infuse the same amount of indulgent goodness into these chips off the ol’ chocolate block.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Krave has already been spotted at Meijer. Have you tried it yet?

Review: Elf on the Shelf Vanilla Candy Cane Cookie Crunch

New Elf on the Shelf Vanilla Candy Cane Cookie Cereal Review Box

You know those quasi-popular memes that contrast one’s grieving friends & family with the reality that one is in the underworld as Doomguy, looking for vengeance? Yeah, that’s gonna be me in the bowels of H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks, aiming to double-damn the infernal blight of the Elf on the Shelf. Of course, I’d never find him, since that well-hidden Elf resides either high in Satan’s castle or in some abstract negative space unreachable by human souls.

All that to say, I don’t like Elf on the Shelf. I don’t like his silent menace, his plasticine face, or his chaotic-neutral mischief. But since Elf on the Shelf Vanilla Candy Cane Cookie Crunch is one of only two new Holiday cereals this season, I’m obligated to give this wintertide rascal his due bloggerly diligence.

Because if I don’t, he’ll probably curse me into endlessly wandering his snowy pocket dimension’s gingerbread labyrinth. Continue reading

Quick Review: Cinnamon Toast Crunch Soft Baked Bars

New Cinnamon Toast Crunch Soft Baked Bars Review Box

When it comes to Quick Reviews on this blog, I have a sordid history: 98% of the time that I title a post “Quick Review,” I end up removing the word “Quick” after effortlessly coasting past the 500-word mark. But this time, with Cinnamon Toast Crunch Soft Baked Bars, I’m committed to making this, perhaps, my shortest review ever. Why? Let me give you a few quick reasons: Continue reading