Review: Maple Cheerios Cereal (2018 American Edition!)

General Mills American Maple Cheerios Cereal Review 2018 Box

Some flavors just stick.

S’Mores, brownie batter, caramel: all slightly unconventional flavors that, despite not being a honey nut, chocolate, or strawberry, always seem to find their way back into the breakfast aisle—and some how under our nails, in our hair, and even binding together electronics as a haphazard tape replacement.

What, you didn’t know toasted marshmallow was a great conductor?

In all seriousness, this class of adhesive alumni are led by their viscous valedictorian: maple syrup. A popular arboreal elixir in Vermont and Vancouver alike, maple is such a sticky flavor that Maple Cheerios, released last year as an allegedly Canada-exclusive cereal to celebrate the country’s 150th birthday (that’s a lot of pancake candles), has arrived in the U.S.

Must’ve stuck to the bottom of a border-crossing General Mills truck, hence the spilled-syrup maple leaf—I can only assume this is a government-issued Canadian seal of approval, like how America’s exported cereals must get ranch & mayonnaise stars & stripes. Continue reading

Review: Cinnamon Toast Crunch Toaster Strudel – Cinnamania!

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Toaster Strudel Review Cinnamania Box

Uh, yes, General Mills customer service hotline? Yes, I’d like to file a serious complaint of the geometrically misleading nature.

See, your popular breakfast cereal product “Cinnamon Toast Crunch,” with its cinnamon-swirled, famously see-able taste, frequently tells me in its commercials—featuring cannibalistic cereal creatures who send a bad message about disrupting the food chain, but that’s a different phone call—to “Crave those Crazy Squares.”

Yet, the cereal’s newest crossover product, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Toaster Strudel, lacks the proper equilateral dimensions to qualify as a square. At best, they’re rectangular prisms, but even that forces me to uncomfortably suspend my knowledge of high school mathematics in order to enjoy this product.

Not that this is the first time you’ve spurned Cinnamon Toast Crunch’s signature shape, but after this egregious misstep, I must request that you atone for your mistake by changing the trademarked slogan to either “Reach toward those Rascally Rectangles” or “Quest for those Quirky Quadrilaterals.”

I’ll forgive your twice-toasted error for now—at least until breakfast is over—but just know one thing: your obtuse disregard for geometry has been acutely noted. Continue reading

News: Pop-Tarts Bites are Coming Soon!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn_pYkZldrR/?taken-by=candyhunting

(Update: We reviewed both flavors!)

In the year 20 C.G.E (Crazy Good Era), humans can enjoy a Pop-Tart whenever they want, however they want.

Unlike the clunky “into face” interface of the iTart and the borderline septic seepage of Pop-Tarts’ “Pop-Up Fuel Nozzlez,” current Pop-Tarchitecture is able to seamless transmit Pop-Tarts flavor activators right to the taste buds via uvular implant. So with the push of a button, we can—and do, all day long in fact—taste Crazy Good molecules!

It’s a bleak future, I know, but at Kellogg’s current rate of developments in Pop-Tart portability, we’ll all be wearing Pop-Tart Duel Disks by New Year’s. Just weeks ago, we learned of the impending return of Pop-Tarts Cereal (née Crunch), and now serial snack journalist Candy Hunting brings news of Pop-Tarts Bites, which appears to be a bionically reassembled hybrid of Kellogg’s other three up-til-now-discontinued horseman of Pop-Tarts convenience: 2002’s snub Snak-Stix, 2006’s hot dog-sized Go-Tarts and 2011’s cracker-esque Mini Crisps.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn6fkXfncZA/?hl=en&taken-by=thejunkfoodaisle

I’m not at all upset about this reintroduction, which Candy Hunting along with The Junk Food Aisle assert will return in both Strawberry and Brown Sugar Cinnamon (it seems fan favorite S’Mores is toast again), because I have a long history of fangoriously devouring gelatinous pastries—especially in multiple quadrilateral dimensions. But when we see these hit shelves, likely in early 2019 alongside its mother-flagship cereal, don’t be surprised if the prize in side is a sweepstakes to “explore” the Pop-Tarts Innovation Laboratory.

But hey, maybe you’ll get to try a cryogenically frozen Pop-Tart. I hear that’s the coolest way. Thanks again to our Insta-friends for their discoveries!

News: Reese’s Puffs Hearts are Coming for Valentine’s Day!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn4l0xtnPkJ/?taken-by=markie_devo

Oof, there are so many emojis available to express my reaction to Reese’s Puffs Hearts, the latest in the brand’s series of “same flavor, different surface area” varieties. I need to choose my pixelated emotions carefully.

The twinkling euphoria of 💖 definitely feels right, but so does the transcendent multiplicity of 💕 and 💞. ❣️ and 💝 are too forward. And 💘? What is this, a Kindergarten Valentine’s card exchange?

No, for news this delicious, I have to choose something universally accessible, whether it’s on an iPhone XS or a Jitterbug XL. <3 is overdone, so I’ll go with this:

Screen Shot 2018-09-22 at 3.27.21 PM

Shoutout to Cerealously’s frequently contributing pal @markie_devo for his discovery of what may just be the first major Valentine’s Day Cereal—though not the first ever. I hope this paves the way for more hearty cereals, perhaps even one that’s flavored for the Hallmark holiday. Perhaps a Box of Chocolates Cereal, where every other bite is mint or coconut?

Or maybe…hear me out on this one: Envelope Glue Loops. Gotta lick ’em all!

As Markie says, we can expect to these hearts pumped out to shelves in early 2019. Until then, feel free to show our Submissions page some love if you see a new cereal of your own!

Review: FunkO’s Cereal – Cuphead Don’t Deal with the Devil!

FunkO's Cereal Review - Cuphead Don't Deal with the Devil Box

“Well, Cuphead and his pal Mugman
They like a sugared munch…
By chance they came ‘pon Devil’s Crunch
And gosh, they paid a price!
A slightly lower price…
And now they’re noshing for their lives
In a breakfast dyed with dread…
And if they eat, but face defeat…
Well…
The Devil will leave their palates shredded!”

I’ve been putting off trying Funko Pop’s self-populating ecosystem of pop culture FunkO’s Cereals, mostly due to the cartoon eye-popping prices charged by each flavor’s exclusive home store—a common trend amongst premium tie-in cereals, even those that don’t include prizes.

Now preparing for its third series of Tony-Hawk-Pro Skater-cheat-code-headed character cereals, Funko has chosen a litany of increasingly obscure locales, from Hot Topic to Books-a-Million, to up the scavenger hunt-esque collector’s potential—and most of them, like FYE, prefer to charge around $12 a box for the toy-stuffed treats.

I resisted the urge to go on a golden goose-priced wild goose chase, and instead succumbed to a different type of temptation: that of Cuphead’s GameStop-exclusive Don’t Deal with the Devil Cereal, for just $8.

Now that’s a great de…uh, bargain! I mean bargain! Please don’t let this cereal become soul food. Continue reading

Review: Buffalo Wild Wings & Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries Blender!

Cap'n Crunch Buffalo Wild Wings Crunch Berries Blenders Review Cereal Shake

We already know that human sports exist within the cereal world: Wheaties is practically an in-universe ESPN, Tony the Tiger coaches little league, and Cap’n Crunch has played in so many games that a human man of his age would have retired with soggy joints years ago.

But this past year or so of cereal–restaurant tie-ins suggests that our beloved cereal mascots, many of whom are older than us, have turned to a new form of friendly competition—one that avoids lost teeth and crunched bones. The bowling of the cereal world, this is a sport ironically played in a cup:

Milkshake Mixology!

Yes, Buffalo Wild Wings & Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries Blender is, by my count, the ninth major cereal milkshake to debut in recent memory. And while the Cap’n may be wearing palate guards now, my slightly lactose-intolerant stomach has tried them all.

But will B-Dubs and C-Crunch’s drinkable dessert be an ace serve against Burger King’s incredible shake trio? Or will it post up next to Steak ‘n’ Shake’s milquetoast quintology of bench-warming waterboys?

There’s only one way to find out, and it involves going somewhere I never go without the supervision of an overbearingly athletic family member who will doubtlessly inquire deeply about my collective one year of Kindergarten soccer experience.

(I almost got kicked off the team for trying to tickle other kids too much. True story.)

Continue reading

Spooned & Spotted: Chocolatey Winter Lucky Charms Cereal

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn0FoCeBnSj/?taken-by=jhome_market

What’s the regifting equivalent of that old grade school exchange? You know, the one that goes, “Hey, can I copy your homework?” “Okay but change it up a little so it’s not obvious.”

I’d imagine that a similar kind of yuletide tomfoolery would involve spray painting unwanted tube socks, or maybe deep frying a fruit cake.

Or, you know, something like Lucky Charms’ “new” cereal variety for Holiday 2018.

See, the reason the above image, discovered by @jhome_market on Instagram, looks about as uncannily familiar as an Orwellian news report is because last year General Mills released Cinnamon Vanilla Lucky Charms alongside the spellcheck-triggering redundancy of Hot Cocoa Cocoa Puffs. But this time, they’re evidently cutting their losses, cutting their creativity, and splicing 2017’s snowiest cereals together into one cereal that totally hasn’t been made before. Next thing we know, Big Lucky is going to tell us we’ve always been at war with Kellogg’s.

Last year’s supernova, elongated pacifier, and marshmallow-shaped marshmallows are returning too, again masquerading as snowflakes, snowballs, and snowpersons. A final unwelcome comeback is Chocolate Lucky Charms’ bizarre tradition of using corn instead of oat ingredients, a snowshoe-sized misstep that swaps Lucky Charms’ iconic density with something more hollow and starchy.

So apologies for my preemptive Grinchitude—I’m just not looking forward to not getting a Gingerbread Toast Crunch again this year. I’d even settle for Coal-coa Puffs. But until we know more about this December’s cereal lineup, I give my thanks to jhome_market for sharing (the cereal can be found at Walmart, so far). And if you see a new or interesting cereal, be sure to send it to our Submissions page for a chance to see it here.

Have a holly jolly leaf raking!

Introducing The Empty Bowl Podcast!

Is separating your Reese’s Puffs into a two-toned sepia yin yang not bringing you peace?

Do you find Raisin Bran Crunch ASMR compilations more terrifying than tranquil?

And have therapists dismissed your destructive desire to go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?

If so, there’s a solution for you! I’m proud to help debut The Empty Bowl podcast. Hosted by me and advice-guru turned cereal-yogi Justin McElroy (of My Brother, My Brother & Me fame), this is a meditative podcast about cereal, designed to help you focus on the sense of slowed-down zen that comes with a well-proportioned bowl of morning cereal.

From the first clink of cereal in the bowl to the last slurp of endmilk, eating cereal is a calming ritual, and The Empty Bowl’s news recaps, mini reviews, and exciting variety segments aim to fill it with a calming white noise (the dairy kind, of course).

In our maiden cereal voyage, Justin and I discuss Monster Cereals, Malt-O-Meal & Cold Stone Creamery’s recent Our Strawberry Blonde, and the curious case of Cherry Vanilla Cheerios—here’s the YouTube video from that segment, just to make sure you see it in your nightmares later:

The show is available on a multitude of platforms you can discover from our hub on Anchor—I look forward to sharing more episodes soon!

I’d love to hear your feedback on the show so far, and if you have segment recommendations, feel free to send them our way in the comments or on Twitter.

And thank you all for supporting this blog for so long that I’m able to do this—at this rate we’ll have Cerealously’s Cutthroat Pantry on the Food Network by 2020, and Cerealously 4D: The Interactive VR Digestive Journey at Epcot by 2022.

But until then, feel free to ditch the essential Cap’n Crunch oils and lend us your ears!