Monthly Archives: October 2016

Spooned & Spotted: Cinnamon Star Crunch Cereal

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLd9zvjAqnF/

(Update: We reviewed Cinnamon Star Crunch!)

It’s okay. Stars are cool, too. They’re certainly more Christmasy than any old squares—even deliciously buttered sugared squares!

Oh, it’s no use. I’m sitting here trying to justify General Mills’ apparent decision to replace Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch—a 2014-2015 cult classic loved by children, food reviewers, and probably adorable panda bears everywhere—with the grinning, quintuply pointed cinnamon corn puffs seen above. But I just can’t seem to do it. The only way star-shaped puffs could ever be better than Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch would be if General Mills decided to also reuse their shapes to revive Sprinkle Spangles.

I’d sacrifice a fresh batch of gingerbread men to bring back Sprinkle Spangles.

This exclusive sneak peek was provided by our friends over at Junk Banter, whose junk food news and reviews are always on point—or in this case, on all five points.

Junk Banter got this picture of Cinnamon Star Crunch, fresh off the truck and in the backroom of a Target. We can only assume that the cereal will hit shelves soon, likely in early November when the world’s pumpkins and Count Choculas begin their winter hibernation. But while we wait, let’s analyze what can.

This holiday cereal shift has been secretly occurring right beneath our cookie-loving noses for months: it turns out that General Mills filed their “Cinnamon Star Crunch” trademark way back in March. Cinnamon Star Crunch also uses the same packaging design as last year’s Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch iteration, and it also appears to diverge from the typical “Toast Crunch formula” of wheat and rice flour. I predict that cinnamon on corn will produce a dramatically different flavor than we know from Cinnamon Toast Crunch and that these repurposed SpongeBob Cereal pieces stars will soak up milk even faster.

Cinnamon Star Crunch Cereal Box

While this isn’t a complete confirmation that Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch won’t return for 2016, this back of the box image, also generously provided by the sleuths at Encyclopedia J. Banter, only shows Holiday Sprinkles Cookie Crisp as being a part of General Mills’ holiday ensemble. Holiday Sprinkles Cookie Crisp is great and all, but no number of sugar sparkles and awful winter puns can heal the broken heart left behind by an unexpected Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch breakup.

If you’re like me and Junk Banter—who is one of the few earthlings who loves Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch than me—and want to see those snowy, fresh-baked squares return, it’s worth rallying for them on social media.

Maybe we can even get the big man himself to support our cause:

Review: Erewhon Simply Vanilla Granola

Erewhon Gluten-Free Simply Vanilla Granola Box

Another day, another free granola sample from Attune Foods that I’ll happily review because it means I didn’t have to pay for my own breakfast. But as usual, receiving my morning meal via USPS doesn’t mean that I’ll be pulling any punches or crunches when taste testing.

I accept all free samples, but I give no free rides.

Today’s spotlighted spoonful is Simply Vanilla Granola. With its abbreviated ingredient list, highlighted organic and gluten-free promises, and stout packaging design, this granola really wants to appear simple. It’s a lot like me: I spend a lot of time convincing people I’m a man of simple pleasures, when in reality I have a .txt file of “cool cereal adjectives” saved to my desktop.

Let’s see if Simply Vanilla Granola earns any of those effervescently grandiose adjectives. Continue reading

Spooned & Spotted (Europe): Nestlé Lion Cereal

Nestlé Lion Cereal Box

Cerealously’s European readers are probably familiar with Lion Cereal, but hungry Americans like me are roaring with jealousy, because an entire Atlantic Ocean separates us from chocolatey, caramel-y breakfast happiness.

Longtime Spooned & Spotter Marc P. sent in the above photo of a Lion Cereal box he procured on a trip to Copenhagen, and if I could reach through the Internet and snatch a spoonful of it from him, you better believe I’d be elbow deep in my monitor right now.

Lion Cereal has been a European favorite since the early 2000s, when Nestlé introduced it as a loose cereal version of their classic Lion Bar, a wafered chocolate bar stuffed with crisped cereal and caramel. Lion Cereal contains chocolate and caramel-flavored crisps, too, which is a truly unique flavor that’s unheard of in American cereal aisles. I mean sure, you could mix Superman Cereal with Batman Cereal, blend Cap’n Crunch’s Caramel Popcorn Crunch with Chocolatey Crunch, or just crumble Chocolatey Caramel Pop-Tarts into a bowl with milk, but none of those have a beastly lion mascot.

Just moody superheroes, an old ship captain with eyebrows on his hat, and a trip to the dentist.

Hopefully I can find an international grocer around me that has Lion Cereal imported. Otherwise, I might just splurge and scour eBay for a box. This might be dangerous, though: if Lion Cereal is Europe’s best exclusive cereal and Oreo O’s are the cereal pride of Asia, then bringing both into the same household with Waffle Crisp—America’s best exclusive cereal—could bring too much talismanic cereal energy together in one place.

I’m just trying to eat a balanced breakfast here, not tear a hole in the space-time continuum.

A big thanks to Marc for sending in this photo. If you’d like to see your own picture or thoughts featured on Cerealously’s next “Spooned & Spotted” post, all you have to do is head over to our submissions page or email us at cerealously.net@gmail.com.

Review: Franken Berry Monster Cereal (2016)

Franken Berry 2016 Box Election

Poor Franken Berry. Our strawberry-flavored, lumpy headed friend is constantly overshadowed by Count Chocula’s mainstream appeal and Boo Berry’s cult appeal. Despite the fact that he’s a big pink creature, Franken Berry’s really more like the black sheep of the Monster Cereal family.

But that’s why I love Frank so much. He’s an outsider’s outsider. He’s a champion of the niche. And most of all, he’s a role model for the weird, the different, and the artificially colored. And that’s why I’m voting Franken Berry all the way in this year’s Monster Cereal Election. Because in a world where artificial colors are being drained from our cereals faster than blood from a vampire bite, Frank is committed to making cereal unnaturally pink again.

Let’s revisit Frank’s flavor platform to make sure his policies match his nostalgic rhetoric. Continue reading

Classic Review: Waffle Crisp Cereal

Post Waffle Crisp Cereal Box

Despite the recent dawn of October, this review isn’t Halloween-themed. It is nostalgia-themed, though, and Halloween is a season of eternal nostalgia draped in a thin veil of sheet ghosts and dollar store cobwebs. There’s no better way to ring in the Month of Spook than by reviewing a cereal that’s as golden as the childhood memories it conjures up.

It’s Post’s much-beloved Waffle Crisp. I’ve been meaning to review Waffle Crisp for some time, and since I reviewed my other favorite childhood cereal last week, I wanted to keep the nostalgia ball* rolling with another classic I remember munching with reckless abandon before elementary school. My 8-year old self was convinced that if I poured my mountain of crunchy waffles high enough, I could hide in it and skip class.

*Oh, and if you’re wondering what a nostalgia ball looks like, it definitely looks like one of those foam Nerf Vortex footballs. Continue reading

News: Cap’n Crunch Teams Up with KITH Treats for a Unique Cereal-Fashion Collaboration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hQ_aGtCbAI

Who says a white-haired, curly mustachioed sea captain can’t roll with the cool kids?

With the help of NYC fashion company KITH, Cap’n Crunch is ditching his barnacle-encrusted nautical garb for some truly 21st century threads. I guess he finally realized that epaulets are so last millennium. The partnership between the Cap’n and KITH comes as an extension of the latter’s KITH Treats cereal bar—the first of its kind in the city, predating even Kellogg’s recent foray into the cereal café game.

The ever-trendy KITH Treats has partnered with nostalgia icons like Power Rangers and Rugrats in the past, and since I’ve written before that Cap’n Crunch is nostalgia embodied, it makes sense that KITH designer Ronnie Fieg would make the Cap’n his next V.I.P.

Any party that has Rita Repulsa, Tommy Pickles, and Cap’n Crunch on the guest list is worth sneaking past the bouncer for. Continue reading