Category Archives: Reviews

Review: Burger King Froot Loops Shake

“I love this thing. I actually just had Froot Loops at 3a.m. last night—cereal really is great at any time of the day.”

You know a milkshake is gonna be good when you order it and the Burger King cashier feels inspired to gush over cereal. It was this serendipitous cereal fanboyism that made me certain BK’s new Froot Loops Shake would be true to its namesake breakfast classic before I even tried it.

When I first heard about this cereal milkshake, I was instantly excited. It sounded like the ol’ creepily masked monarch who gave humanity the Whopper had really outdone himself this time by mixing vanilla soft serve, Froot Loops cereal bits, a tantalizingly ambiguous “sweet sauce,” and whipped topping. But would the actual thing live up? I emerged from my tent outside a local Burger King bleary-eyed and thirsty for gooey, iridescently sugar-chunked dairy.

(Okay, I didn’t actually camp out waiting, but my brain hasn’t thought about anything else for this past week except Froot Loops Shakes and the occasional Reese’s Egg.) Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 8 rating, froot loops, kelloggs, non cereal. 5 Comments

Apr. ’17

Review: Honey Nut Cheerios Granola Snack

Have you ever been eating Honey Nut Cheerios in one hand and Pop Rocks in the other and thought, “Gee, I really wish someone would combine the best of these two completely different foods. That way I could have a free hand for high-fiving strangers, wrangling rattlesnakes, and writing obtusely obscure hypotheticals into online cereal reviews?”

Well think no more and start mindlessly munching, because General Mills’s new Honey Nut Cheerios Granola Snack is about to make your obtuse problem feel a lot more right.

And yes: that was a geometry joke. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 7 rating, cheerios, general mills, granola, honey. 6 Comments

Apr. ’17

Review: Trader Joe’s Organic Frosted Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Toaster Pastries

Toaster pastry family dynamics are confusing.

Take the Brown Sugar Cinnamons, for example. From Kellogg’s to Kroger, every brand under the toaster oven’s warming sun has a unique take on Brown Sugar Cinnamon, but they all taste different. Sometimes, I like to try connecting each doughy rectangle on an imaginary family tree.

You have the OG pastry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tart, a sweet and sugary gal who was clearly raised by a “fun parent:” the kind of hyperactive, dad joke-slinging manchild who I aspire to be someday. You have Cinnamon Roll with Brown Sugar Toaster Strudels, who stays cold and aloof in his room until you warm him up and he comes alive. And you have Cinnamon + Brown Sugar Megpie, the plump child who ran away from home to become a barista and eat one too many Starbucks marble loaves during his break.

Now there’s Trader Joe’s new Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Toaster Pastry. He must’ve been raised by the family’s all organic, hippy grandma out west. Just why do I say that? Well let’s ask the quirky quadrilateral himself. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 9 rating, cinnamon, pop-tarts, trader joe's. 7 Comments

Apr. ’17

Review: Trader Joe’s Strawberry Raspberry Oatmeal

Today’s review is important.

Why? Because starting with Trader Joe’s new Strawberry Raspberry Oatmeal, this site will now be exclusively about oatmeal. Keeping with our inquisitive theme, I will soon be changing the site’s name to “Oatmeally?” After cutting the roof of my mouth one too many times on Crunch Berries, I’ve vowed to give up The Breakfast Which Shall Not Be Named and focus on something warmer, mushier, and more palate friendly. So stay tuned for more reviews, squishy glamour shots, and hot tips for making your own oatmeal bath bomb.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSWTleMD9uw/?taken-by=cerealouslynet

Just kidding! I already had some oatmeal April Fool’s Day fun on Instagram, so I figured I’d lovingly annoy you all here, too. My apologies to anyone reading this on, well, any other day of the year. I would say “I promise I’m not always like this,” but we all know that’s a bigger lie than “fill oatmeal with 1/2 cup water for best results.”

That being said, Trader Joe’s Strawberry Raspberry sounds pretty cool for something so hot, so I’m giving it a try. It’s pretty much the opposite of TJ’s other new oatmeal: Tart Cherry, Chia and Pumpkin Seed Oatmeal. While that oatmeal gave an underrated fruit the spotlight, Strawberry Raspberry stars two of the cereal aisle’s juiciest recurring characters.

And based on my “more sour than sweet” review of Tart Cherry, let’s hope this stuff tastes totally opposite, too. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Leave a comment

Mar. ’17

Review: Trader Joe’s Tart Cherry, Chia and Pumpkin Seed Oatmeal

Consider the humble cherry.

Long-overshadowed by strawberry, the people’s champion, and grape, its cheaper taste analogue, cherry has been trapped in a breakfast aisle pitfall for decades. Sure, there’s Frute Brute, who’s currently trapped in General Mills’s monster mausoleum for…well…ever, probably. And there are Cherry Pop-Tarts, who go unnoticed like the rosy-cheeked nerd girl in every teen movie whose sweetness is only revealed to the one boy brave enough to give her a chance (my Pop-Tart metaphors are complex).

But other than those two and a few obscure health cereals, cherry is very rarely seen as breakfast fare. Which is unfair, because any fruit that tops sundaes and acts as the Kool-Aid Man’s lifeblood deserves a spot at my table.

Thankfully, Trader Joe—a longtime liberator of unsung and under-appreciated flavors—is giving cherry a shot in his latest instant oatmeal cup. This is the same Joseph who once one-upped Pop-Tarts by cramming both cherry and pomegranate into a single toaster pastry, a mad feat I haven’t seen since 1998, when The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, sending him plummeting 16ft through an announcer’s table.

Staying true to his squirrelly status as “the Uncle Joey of grocery stores,” Trader Joe also stuffed chia and pumpkin seeds into this plastic oat cylinder. Let’s celebrate the dawn of spring by watching this one blossom in the microwave. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 5 rating, cherry, non cereal, oatmeal, trader joe's. 1 Comment

Mar. ’17

Review: Cinnamon Toast Crunch Granola Snack

Take that, Canada!

You may get exclusive, drool-worthy Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Oatmeals, but we here in the States are getting our own cereal-oat hybrid with new Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch granolas! In fact, this stuff is actually better than granola, because it’s a “Granola Snack!”

Just why is a Granola Snack better than plain ol’ oat clusters? Because with the word “Snack” in the name, I’m justified in munching through a whole bag anywhere, at any time, no matter how ridiculous I look.

Stuck in rush hour traffic and every radio station is playing commercials at the same time? Keep a Granola Snack in your cupholder.

Halfway through a stationary bicycle workout and need something to do with your hands? Double fist two Granola Snacks.

Grocery store ran out of stuffing mix and the turkey’s already in the oven? Spice up your bird with some cornbread and a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Granola Snack.

But okay, okay, I shouldn’t propose ruining Thanksgiving until I know this stuff’s actually good. Let’s go find a spin class and test it out. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 7 rating, general mills, granola, toast crunch. 8 Comments

Mar. ’17

Review: St. Patrick’s Day Edition Lucky Charms with Green Clovers Cereal

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Or as it’s known in the cereal community, “Unofficial But Pretty Much Official Lucky Charms Day!”

Because let’s be real here: if there were ever a thematically appropriate day to suck down leprechaun-endorsed oats and marshmallows by the beer stein-full, it’s St. Patrick’s Day.

As they always do, General Mills and Lucky Charms themselves have acknowledged the iconic cereal’s spiritual tie to this day of green by releasing an especially enviable Lucky Charms with Green Clovers! This cereal has been released before in a number of forms: 2017’s two-toned, minty fresh and earthen pine green shamrock marshmallows aren’t new, but previous years have also seen our four-leaved friends paired with sugary pots o’ gold and gold coins.

Who knows: maybe next year Lucky Charms will “Mix Up” these marshmallows like they did with the others, and we’ll finally get the black and neon pink marbits my edgy high school self always dreamt of. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 8 rating, general mills, holiday, lucky charms. 4 Comments

Mar. ’17

Review: Bear Naked Chocolate Almond Clusters Cereal

According to the box, Bear Naked Cereal’s new Chocolate Almond Clusters are “APPROVED BY BEARS.”

Personally, I’d like to see the National Bear Advisory Board’s citations on this, because like many mammals, bears can’t eat chocolate! The stuff contains theobromine, a chemical that’s toxic to our furry friends. So why, then, would the entire bear population sign off—in all capital letters, no less—on a cereal that contains enough cocoa to have them growling “oh no” as they cartoonishly grip their stomachs like Yogi Bear after stealing a picnic basket full of potato salad that’s been in the sun too long?

Are they trying to fatten us up with a calorie-dense breakfast so we taste better later? Are the bears just bad at reading contractual fine print? Or is this all just a pointlessly long-winded introduction I wrote to hide the fact that I spent $4 on this cereal?

The answer to all three is yes. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Reviews. Tags: 6 rating, bear naked, chocolate. Leave a comment