Category Archives: Reviews

Review: Malt-O-Meal & Coldstone Creamery Birthday Cake Remix Cereal

Malt-O-Meal Cold Stone Creamery Birthday Cake Remix Cereal review box

Okay, here’s the scoop:

I’ve wanted to start out a review with “here’s the scoop” since I started this blog.

There, now that I got that out of the way, here’s the review:

Birthday Cake Remix is one half—alongside Our Strawberry Blonde—of a landmark partnership between Malt-O-Meal, classically known for their economy-sized cereal bags, not for their industry clout, and Cold Stone Creamery, a left-field ice cream chain with about as much breakfast aisle experience as Meow Mix.

Seriously, this is about as expected as Malt-O-Meal teaming up with Stone Cold Steve Austin to release “And That’s The Bottom Lime” cereal.

So not only does Malt-O-Meal & Cold Stone’s Birthday Cake Remix open the door for other zany cross-category cereals in the future (I’m lookin’ at you, Insomnia Cookies), but it also opens my mouth.

For cereal to enter.

Because I’m ready to eat it now.

Continue reading

Review: Peanut Butter & Cocoa Pebbles Cereal

Post Peanut Butter & Cocoa Pebbles Cereal Review

Yabba dabba DUUUUDE!

That was my dinosaur bone-a fide reaction after smelling, eating, and then continuing to eat Post’s latest entry in the Flintstone clan’s second most vitamin-packed series of products: Peanut Butter & Cocoa Pebbles cereal.

The reason I was so surprised was because PB&C Peebs (the two of us are close now, so I can use pet names) is the first Pebbles cereal since Sugar Cookie to win me over.

See, I’ve historically treated the cereals with snark and mild derision, as I’m not usually a fan of airy cereals that leave me hungrier after I’ve finished them.

But here, oh sweet Barney here we have a cereal tasty enough to justify a vicious cycle of crunch-munch-repeat.

So hold onto your novelty Jurassic Park hats, because I’m about to walk you through it bite by trilobite.

” style=”background-size: 1900px 20px; width: 366.719px;

Quick Review: Wild Kratts PB&J Power Discs Cereal

wild-kratts-pbj-power-discs-cereal-box

Entering this review, PB&J and cereal have a flawless track record.

After 2016’s fantastic JIF PB&J Cereal and the ’80s’ mythical PB&J Cereal—which was apparently so transcendentally mind-blowing that no one knows how it tasted—Wild Kratts (whose cartoon series I won’t pretend to know anything about: I thought it was a bootleg Thundercats) has a 100% perfect legacy to stack up to with its appropriately stackable PB&J Power Discs.

I just hope I can finish this review before a rogue box of PB&J Cereal falls into my lap and wipes my memory. Continue reading

Review: Pop-Tarts Strawberry Cheesecake Splitz

Kellogg's Strawberry Cheesecake Pop-Tarts Splitz Review Box

Leave it to Kellogg’s to know what we want, before we even want it.

If the arcane flavor wizards behind Pop-Tarts came to me like genies in the night, asking what my ideal combo of an old and new toaster pastry would be, it wouldn’t include Strawberry and Cheesecake—only because I’m not creative enough. I’d probably say something dumb, like Maple Brown Sugar + Honey, Raspberry + Doughnut, or Chocolate Fudge + Cookie Butter.

Wait, wait: those are good ideas. Who told you I wasn’t creative, Kellogg’s? Get your best poppin’ people on these! But seriously, Strawberry Cheesecake Pop-Tarts are genius, too. So genius, that I’d love to see a whole factory, just making cheesecake Pop-Tarts!

I’d call it…The Mascarpone Mill.

While the idea is good, the last Pop-Tarts Splitz I had left me a little apprehensive—its two strong flavor personalities argued more than they played nice—so the only solution is to dive in to one of these suckers like a kid into a pool full of cheesecake.

(If I say “pool full of cheesecake” enough times, I’m hoping Sara Lee will make it a reality) Continue reading

Review: Honeycomb Cereal (It’s Back! Original Flavor)

Post Honeycomb Cereal Original Flavor 2018 Cereal Review Box

You know the end of the movie, when the big bad has been defeated and the main, side, tertiary, and no-name characters (who will definitely get fan fiction lore) are all celebrating a fight/romance/exorcism well done?

That’s where we are—in the third act of Honeycomb’s story.

Here’s the IMDB-worthy synopsis for those who eat their breakfasts under the comfort of a shady rock:

Honeycomb cereal, good for years.
Lots of people, eat Honeycomb for years.
Post Foods, makes Honeycomb all natural.
Post Foods, thinks they know what people want.
Post Foods, is wrong.
Hundreds of people, mad about Honeycomb.
Hundreds of people, blame me, divine meddling, spam the word GARBAGE.
Post Foods, brings back Honeycomb
Cool, hip blogger, reviews Honeycomb again

Long story short, BIG REAL HONEY FLAVOR is back, baby, and Andre the Giant is fist-pumping in his grave. Now let’s see if all that buzz holds up. Continue reading

Review: Pop-Tarts Sugar Cookie & Brownie Batter Splitz

Kellogg's Pop-Tarts Splitz Sugar Cookie Brownie Batter Review Box

You can’t just slap two things together and expect it to be delicious. As a midnight pantry plunderer since a young age, I’ve learned this the hard way. Because it’s a slippery slope. First there’s peanut butter and honey sandwiches, then there’s peanut butter and pickles.

Before long, you’ve branched out into condiments and there’s ketchup on your Cheetos and popcorn. Shame not the boy I was: admire the man it hardened me into.

The first of Pop-Tarts’ two* new** Splitz varieties is far less risky—sugar cookies and brownies are long-time alumni of Grandma’s Dessert Table University—but it doesn’t necessarily mean the two are better together.

I mean, one was voted Most Creative (because of the icing) and the other was voted Biggest Stoner.

Of course, the only way to test these two’s flavor chemistry is to hunker down on the couch with a box and hope my pants down split three pastries later. A paramedic with a sewing machine is on hand.

*The other is Strawberry Cheesecake.

*Not entirely new: P-T Splitz were born and killed a decade ago in more boring flavors.

Continue reading

Review: Malt-O-Meal French Toasters Cereal

Malt-O-Meal French Toasters Cereal Review Bag

Malt-O-Meal definitely lives in an alternate universe—an alternate timeline, if you will. In this version of breakfast reality, Cookie Crisp was less corny, Count Chocula never changed after the ’90s, and Post didn’t release Oreo O’s first—that’s like America losing the Space Race!

Oh, and French Toast Crunch’s squared form survived Y2K.

What do I mean? Well if you recall, French Toast Crunch—the clear ancestor of Malt-O-Meal’s French Toasters—started as bread shapes, changed to curved, Cinnamon Toast Crunch-like swirled squares, then disappeared (or at least disappeared to the Canadian tundras, where they remained available through 2012) until their 2015 rebirth. Yet now, here’s French Toast Crunch bizarro cousin, keeping tradition alive.

It took me too long to find this cereal (it came out a year ago—but my stores haven’t carried it until now. I blame the second coming of bread-shaped cereals), so I’m looking forward to some closure on my search for: it’s time to see if F. T. Crunch’s dark reflection (and I mean that in the best way) can keep its flavor modern.

Continue reading

Review: Trader Joe’s Crunchy Cinnamon Squares Cereal Milk Chocolate Bar

Trader Joe's Crunchy Cinnamon Squares Milk Chocolate Bar Review

I love cutting out the middle man—or in the case of this Cinnamon Toast Crunch-inspired chocolate bar, cartoon baker.

See, when I eat a healthy(ish) cereal like Trader Joe’s Crunchy Cinnamon Squares, I like to reward myself for making good decisions. I don’t go overboard, and I always aim for balance: I’ll top my hot dogs with pizza (a vegetable), put extra syrup (made from trees!) on my pancakes, or I’ll eat a dozen fun-sized candy bars.

(As they’re objectively the least fun candy bar size, I’m doing the world a favor.)

But now thanks to Trader Joe, I don’t have to waste time between snack(ish) and treat, time that I’d just waste breathing, walking, or *shudder* exercising. By merging their pretty-good Crunchy Cinnamon Squared into an appropriately squared milk chocolate bar, TJ’s has radically optimized my calories-per-minute stats.

No more Homemade Double Decker Mayonnaise Oreos for this happy fella! Continue reading