Monthly Archives: August 2016

Review: Kellogg’s Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Nutri-Grain Bars

Kellogg's Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Nutri-Grain Bars Box

I’ve never once eaten a Nutri-Grain bar for breakfast. So why is my breakfast blog reviewing these new Pumpkin Spice Nutri-Grain bars?

Well first, the box does call them “breakfast bars.” And second, they’re listed as “Limited Batch,” which is a much cuter, more exclusive, and more alluring term than “Limited Edition.” But most of all, Nutri-Grain bars hold a special, nostalgic place in my heart.

Seriously: whenever I have one of these miniature, flaky fruit burritos, I’m transported back to elementary school snack time. Even if I just smell a Nutri-Grain bar, my brain instinctively imagines the subtle odor of Crayola crayons in the background.

(Kindergarten me didn’t mess around with RoseArt.)

So because of my wistful relationship with Nutri-Grain “breakfast” bars, I’ve long wanted to review them on this site. And what better way to start than with Kellogg’s Pumpkin Spice Nutri-Grain bars, which are brand new for 2016?

I hope somebody brought the orange crayons. Continue reading

Review: Nature Valley Granola Crunch – Cinnamon & Maple Brown Sugar

Nature Valley Granola Crunch Cinnamon and Maple Brown Sugar Bags

Chunks of rock are underrated. Whether you’re gazing at geodes in a museum, winning a piece of the Aggro Crag on Nickelodeon GUTS, or simply throwing things in the quarry with Creed from The Office, chunks of rock are versatile and fun.

And edible chunks of rock are delicious, too. Fruity Pebbles, rock candy, chocolate-covered rocks, and Rocky Road ice cream? All of the above, please! The latest snack to join this honorable lineage of gravel is Nature Valley’s Granola Crunch. These green satchels come in Cinnamon and Maple Brown Sugar, and they promise to contain 21 Nature Valley Granola Bars-worth of flavor-packed oat rectangles that fell apart on the granola bar assembly line lovingly crafted oat bites.

I’ve recently had a personal granola rebirth, so I’m excited to bathe in the warm-baked glory of these craggy crumbs. Continue reading

Guest Review: Country Style Cinnamon Toast Crunch Doughnut

Country Style Cinnamon Toast Crunch Doughnut

Jeffrey Scott aka the Junk Food Dog here for Cerealously, in the great white north of Canada (I’m actually 15 minutes from Detroit, MI in Tecumseh, Ontario).

I was asked to review a new doughnut from a Canadian donut & coffee chain: Country Style. Seeing how there was one only 45 minutes from home, I went on a wild goose chase for Country Style’s NEW Cinnamon Toast Crunch Doughnut. This new doughnut features their cake doughnut filled (and topped) with cream cheese icing and sprinkled with Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Continue reading

Meet the Illustrator Behind Cap’n Crunch!

Cap'n Crunch's Artist Header

Yep, you read that title right. Recently, Cap’n Crunch’s box art game has been very on point—and I’m not just talking about the boxes that involve Cap’n Crunch playing actual sports games.

From HomeRun Crunch and Touchdown Crunch to Orange Creampop Crunch and super close-up revamps of classic boxes, the white-haired Cap’n has been looking more spry and animated in 2016 than ever before.

Cap'n Crunch Contest Box Art

Better yet, the backs of these boxes feature more than just the ever-lively cereal ship captain we know and love. Alongside games, puzzles,  a bustling zoo of caricatured animals, and at least one Statue of Liberty, recent Cap’n Crunch boxes have featured countless revivals of vintage Quaker mascots.

cap'n-crunch-touchdown-crunch-back-of-box

From Crunch mainstays like Jean LaFoote to obscure, decades-old villains like Magnolia Bulkhead, these 2016 boxes have something for cereal lovers from the ’60s, ’80s, and every where (or should I say every when) in-between.

As a serious cereal fan myself, I wasn’t content with just looking at these awesome new boxes. I wanted to find out what was behind this recent Crunchatized revitalization, especially after boxes of Peanut Butter Crunch have featured that same Olympics scene since the 2008 Beijing Games.

Before long, I found out who was behind this shift, too. Continue reading

Review: Limited Edition Cap’n Crunch’s Touchdown Crunch Cereal

Cap'n Crunch's Touchdown Crunch Cereal Box

All brands celebrate football season differently. M&M’s slaps eye grease and jerseys on their famous spokescandies. Pepsi erects giant cyborg quarterbacks made out of cardboard and 12-packs for grocery store displays. But Cap’n Crunch? He releases an entire football themed cereal!

It’s called Cap’n Crunch’s Touchdown Crunch cereal, and it was first introduced in 2009. However, there’s one key difference between today’s Touchdown Crunch and the one from 7 years ago. If you cross-compare the boxes, you’ll see that Cap’n Crunch got buff!

Since the Cap’n is a 53-year old cereal mascot, I can’t see why he suddenly reformed his fitness plan. Maybe it was to silence all those high school bullies who made fun of his gravity-defying eyebrows.

Or maybe it was just to impress attractive mermaids. Continue reading

Review: Kellogg’s Limited Edition Special K Pumpkin Spice Crunch

Limited Edition Special K Pumpkin Spice Crunch Cereal Box

Well, you know what this means, folks. Now that I’ve reviewed Pumpkin Spice Cheerios and Pumpkin Spice Life, once I review this Special K Pumpkin Spice Crunch, I’ll have tried every new pumpkin spice cereal, and 2016’s pumpkin spice season will be over.

Harvesters will cease harvesting. Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte taps will run dry. And maniacally grinning jack-o-lanterns will become mild mannered office workers once more.

Nah, I’m just kidding. We all know there’ll be a million new pumpkin spice breakfast bars, Greek yogurts, and Greek yogurt-filled breakfast bars on shelves before I even click the “Publish” button on this post.

But while we wait for that Nutri-Grain Bar Nutri-nitty-gritty to befall us, let’s fall into a bowl of pumpkin spice Special K instead. Continue reading

Four More from “Cereal Time with Gabe Fonseca!”

Need something to Brite-n your day? Okay, do you need four things to brighten your day after that terrible pun?

Well you’re in luck, because there are four new episodes in cereal archivist Gabe Fonseca’s Cereal Time YouTube series. Longtime Cereal Time binge watchers know the drill, but I’ll catch everyone else up to speed on this series in one sentence:

One man spotlights one cereal every one week to produce three-to-four fun-filled minutes of breakfast nostalgia.

Intrigued? Let’s start somewhere over the rainbow with Gabe’s episode on Rainbow Brite Cereal. As he states in the video, this 1985 cereal was a tie-in with Rainbow Brite’s animated feature film, and it features a literal rainbow of fruity and crunchy…shapes?

The more logical would see them as Rainbow Brite’s hair curls or shirt sleeves, but I prefer to call them “Macaroni & cheese mixed with the colorful grubs Timon and Pumbaa eat in The Lion King.” Continue reading

Review: Quaker Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Life Cereal

Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Life Cereal Box

I know this cereal is called Pumpkin Spice Life, but in my mind, there’s an invisible equals sign in-between the last two words.

Pumpkin Spice = Life.

It’s the kind of thing a true autumn addict would get tattooed above their knuckles after getting sent to jail for building jack-o-lantern totem poles above the legal height limit. If that sounds like the plot of a gritty Goosebumps reboot, then I’ve succeeded.

But for these next 3-4 months, pumpkin spice really will be life for grocery store browsers and BuzzFeed editors everywhere. And the latest cereal staple to jump on this cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, Donner, and Blitzen bandwagon is Life. Continue reading