Category Archives: News

News: Cap’n Crunch’s Freedom Crunch is Coming Soon, for Some Reason

Cap'n Crunch's Freedom Crunch Cereal Box

(Image via Quaker)

(Important Update: Cap’n Crunch himself has alerted me that this is not a real cereal hitting shelves. It was a scrapped concept never meant to be seen online. I’ll leave this post up for history’s sake, but know that you won’t be crunching into a bowl of AmeriCrunch any time soon.)

I’m not here to extrapolate on Cap’n Crunch’s political views—after he saved the Earth’s supply of Crunchium in the Volcanica at the Earth’s molten core, I know he’s a humanitarian, and that’s enough for me.

So here’s my completely non-partisan take on Freedom Crunch, the newest Cap’n Crunch variety, coming soon: it’s red, white, and blue Crunchberries, and that sounds delicious. I would like to eat it, because I believe that it would taste good. For breakfast. With milk.

That is all. Thanks for reading!

In all seriousness, I don’t know why Cap’n Crunch is debuting such a patriotic cereal in a non-major election year, so far from 4th of July. But hey: I guess Quaker had to use the Crunchberry colors they already have, and ‘Merica-themed made more sense than Swirly Toothpaste or Barbershop Pole Crunch.

No word yet on when this cereal is hitting shelves—maybe we won’t see it ’til Independence Day—but until then, I can admire the gorgeously drawn, saluting eagle, and see if I can buy a flagpole small enough to hoist a cardboard box above my kitchen table.

It’s just too bad they didn’t release this two years ago—could have called them “Crunch Barries.”

News: Kellogg’s Donut Shop Chocolate Donut Cereal is Coming Soon!

Kellogg's Donut Shop Chocolate Donut Cereal Box

(Image via Kellogg’s)

Somewhere out there, in whatever crunchy, cosmic Valhalla awaits discontinued cereals, Cap’n Crunch’s Choco Donuts weeps.

See, Kellogg’s is debuting a new Donut Shop Chocolate Donut Cereal, and it reminds me of the Cap’n’s long-discontinued and much-beloved chocolate pastry cereal from the early 2000s (its full name: Oops! Choco Donuts, as if that was anything but the happiest accident).

Sure, Kellogg’s version, which has a gorgeously Pepto-Bismol pink, family-sized box, may lack the Cap’n’s sprinkles, and sure, the Cap’n still has Sprinkled Donut Crunch to rival or mix with this, but it still does feel like a low blow to the Cap’n’s dearly departed doughnuts (that’s the correct way to spell it, ugh), whom I’m sure he misses like a edible, frosted children that went to study abroad in Rome and never came back.

At least, I like to tell myself that there’s still a box of Choco Donuts hidden somewhere beneath the Colosseum.

No word yet on when Kellogg’s Chocolate Donut Cereal will hit shelves—or whether it’ll just taste like Cocoa Puffs or cream-less Oreo O’s—but I like to remain hyper-optimistic: if “Chocolate Donut” is just one variety of a wider “Donut Shop” brand, maybe we’ll finally get the world’s first Sour Cream Donut Cereal.

Too ridiculous? Fine, I’ll settle for Boston Cream.

News: Gingerbread Spice Life Cereal is Coming Soon!

Gingerbread Life Cereal – Quaker Spiced Multigrain Box

(Image via Quaker)

DAYS SINCE LIFE-CHANGING CEREAL INCIDENT: 0

It’s been a while since I had to change that sign, but this news seals it. Limited Edition Gingerbread Spice Life Multigrain Cereal is coming this holiday season, which, seeing how people prepare for winter celebration, means a box of Gingerbread Life it should have been in my pantry two weeks ago, sandwiched between Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cinnamon Frosted Flakes to make a crunchy speculoos sandwich.

Speaking of which, I have a history with gingerbread cereal—or at least with fanatically wanting it. A search on my site reveals how big of a gingerbread fanman I am, and I’ve always thought that Cinnamon Toast Crunch would adopt the flavor first (if anyone ever did), due to their reputation for holiday cereals tasty enough to open your third eye and hang mistletoe from the lashes.

Life Cereal was one of the last brands I’d expect to release a naturally flavored gingerbread cereal—right alongside Crispix, Froot Loops, and Fiber One—but seeing how well they spiced Pumpkin Spice Life, I’m willing to give old man Quaker the benefit of the doubt. Seriously: the only thing on the line is the crushingly weighty anticipation built up slowly over decades of my life. That’s it. No pressure.

While I wait for Gingerbread Spice Life to hit shelves, I think I need to add something new to my cereal bucket list. Almost all my dream flavors have now existed as cereals: maple, PB&J, and now gingerbread. I’ll just have to pick something so obscure and impossible that it’ll never happen and I can wistfully dream about it forever.

Zucchini Bread Toast Crunch, anyone?

News: “Classic Trix” is Making a Comeback!

Classic Trix Cereal Box 2017

(Image via General Mills)

Grab your HitClips, Heelys, and old retainer, because Classic Trix are making a comeback, and since Trix are for kids, you’ll have to act like a kid to eat them. Otherwise some neighborhood ragamuffins will swing through your kitchen on a cartoon vine, call you a silly rabbit, and make off with your raspberry red, lemony yellow, orangey orange, wildberry blue, grapity purple, and watermelon bounty.

On second thought, you might want to leave the dental gear behind. Wouldn’t want you to be stuck sipping Trix yogurt through a straw. Continue reading

News: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios are Coming Soon!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios Cereal Box

(Image via General Mills)

By golly, someone is finally challenging Reese’s Puffs’ munch-worthy monopoly in the “chocolate and peanut butter cereal” market.

But wait…the call is coming…from inside the house?

Yes, instead of Kellogg’s, Post, or Quaker taking Reese’s Puffs head on with Chocolate Peanut Butter Krave, Pebbles, or…Corn Crunch, General Mills is just releasing another choco-PB cereal: the appropriately named Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios.

Dang, I would’ve preferred “Reese’s Doughnut Crunch.”

The only reason I can see for doing this is so that Reese’s Puffs have a thematically appropriate tag-team partner when Vince McMahon inevitably starts a Cereal Royal Rumble. My money is on Cap’n Crunch and Count Chocula, as they’ll doubtlessly just tear their opponent’s mouths to shreds.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheerios, which is flavored with real cocoa and peanut butter, isn’t the first time we’ve seen those respective flavors in Cheerios. We’ve had Chocolate Cheerios, Dark Chocolate Multigrain Cheerios, Peanut Butter Multigrain Cheerios, and plain ol’ Peanut Butter Cheerios (only abroad, with an appropriately nutty mascot). But this is the first time they’ve been paired together.

No word on when Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios will hit shelves, but I hope they debut alongside the return of Banana Nut Cheerios late this October, so I can mix them together and make a Bluth’s Frozen Elvis Banana Cereal.

News: Steak ‘n Shake is Debuting Cereal-Flavored Breakfast Shakes!

Steak 'n Shake Breakfast Shakes – Cereal Milkshakes with Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Krispies, Honey Smacks

If you believe the clickbait headlines, “millennials are killing breakfast cereal,” whether it’s because they’re too lazy to wash bowls or because they prefer the portable taste of Electrolyte-Fortified Kale Rectangles to sugary cinnamon squares  in the morning.

But even if millennials are killing breakfast cereal, then it seems like more of a noble sacrifice for a greater good than a murder, because we seem to have entered a golden age of cereal milkshakes.

First, Burger King gave us two delectable cereal shakes infused with chunks of Froot Loops and Lucky Charms, respectively.

And now Steak & Shake, an honorable eatery that knows milkshakes well enough to build 33.33% of its business on them (though I prefer their flame-grilled ampersands), is adding 5* specialty breakfast shakes to their portfolio of plasmatic lactose beverages.

*I qualify this 5, because though coffee is an essential part of any balanced breakfast, Steak ‘n Shake’s Caramel Frappé seems laughably out of place here. They might as well have added a Scrambled Egg Shake at this point

We get three recognizable Kellogg’s in shake form: Frosted Flakes, Honey Smacks, and Cocoa Krispies, as well as an über generic Cinnamon Crunch Shake. This makes sense, since Kellogg’s seems to have exclusive milkshake rights here, and they don’t have a pure cinnamon cereal to bring the table—at least not without making Tony do double duty, negotiating a complicated Cinnabon cross-promo, or making a hilariously ironic Special K Shake.

I don’t know which flavor I’m most excited to try first—probably the sheer uniqueness of a Honey Smacks Shake that I can Dig ‘Em into—but I do know one thing: I hope they’re served all day long. Because if I’m going to be forced to eat 1200 some calories before 9am, I’d rather eat a couple peanut butter & strawberry Pop-Tart sandwiches.

News: Halloween Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts are Returning…with New Printed Fun!

Halloween Spookylicious Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts Printed Fun

(Image via Kellogg’s)

Rejoice, fellow spook scholars, because Halloween is drawing ever closer. We’ve cleared the werewolf days of summer, which means we’re now beginning the “back to ghoul season,” and it’s at this critical period of pre-Halloween prep that we must savor every little scary detail we can find in grocery store aisles—because before you know it, Santa and his fleet of reindeer conquistadors will be edging our proud inflatable pumpkins off of front lawns everywhere.

These Halloween Edition Printed Fun Frosted Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts are a perfect example of the little things that make the coming season great. The box art alone proves that every bile-dripping zombie hand and ghost-emitting chocolate fudge chunk brings the world closer to perfection.

And Kellogg’s decision to mix up their established Halloween Pop-Tart design is the neatest trick and sweetest treat yet. Formerly known as Spookylicious Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts (a moniker which was especially terrifying for my spellcheck), these resurrected toaster pastries now boast a slab of orange frosting and fun, jack-o-lantern-esque faces—instead of the crunchy sprinkles of its ancestral Tarts. Kellogg’s website gives us a sneak peek at another, more arachnid print.

Though a sneak peek may not be necessary. Some have already seen these Pop-Tarts popping up in stores, alongside returning autumn flavors Pumpkin Pie and Caramel Apple. Since all three tastes in this Tart trilogy, which represent scaling levels of Halloweeniness, are delicious, I can safely say that the scariest part of this October will be the low number of costumes my ballooned waistline will be able to fit into after eating a triple-decker stack of fall-flavored Pop-Tarts.

I’ll be the one at the party dressed as a sumo cow.

News: Banana Nut Cheerios Cereal is Returning for 2017!

Banana Nut Cheerios

(Image via General Mills. Note: this is an old box photo, as the new one hasn’t been released yet.)

It would be so, so easy to make a “going nuts” joke to open this review, but that would be too easy. I’ll hold off, because I know it would make you all go bananas.

Whoops.

But whichever gastronomical idiom you use to express your excitement, there’s plenty to be giddy about. Even after gifting us delicious new apple cinnamon and mocha cereals, as well as the sure-to-be-delicious-because-c’mon-just-look-at-them Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bites doughnut holes, General Mills is treating cereal fans like spoiled grandkids once more by bringing back Banana Nut Cheerios, a fan-favorite variety that lasted from 2009 until late 2015.

Thanks to a tip from our friend Steffen (who has a great site about foreign cereals, if you have a translator ready), the above press release confirmed that the cult favorite Cheerios were returning to shelves.

We love you, Grandma Mills: you always did make the best banana bread.

Which is interesting, because while banana nut and banana bread are similara flavors, I don’t consider them exactly the same. It will be fun to see (and taste) whether the revival of Banana Nut Cheerios is exactly the same as before, or if it draws inspiration from Canada’s delightfully dense and ripe Banana Bread Shreddies.

Or maybe they’ll just subvert all expectations and make them taste like a peanut butter banana sandwich. Speaking of which…hey General Mills, people did love your discontinued Peanut Butter Cheerios. Hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge.