Category Archives: Reviews

Review: Lucky Charms Marshmallow Pancake Kit (+ Mrs. Butterworth’s Fruity Pebbles Syrup!)

Lucky Charms Marshmallow Pancake Kit Review Box

I don’t know about this, y’all. Between this pancake kit and last week’s Cinnamon Toast Crunch Coffee Cake, cereal reviewing rarely requires this much effort from me. See, half the fun of reviewing cereal is that you’ve just gotta pour a bowl, pour some milk, and dig in. Take some pictures, and then there’s only one dish to clean. But now you’re telling me I have to soak ‘n’ soap ‘n’ scrub a big mixing bowl, a whisk, a measuring cup or two, a frying pan, a plate, and a fork? Maaaan, it really harshens my vibe when I have to elevate myself from “total lazy layabout” to “lowest-bar functioning person.”

But for you, dear readers, I will clear that ankle-high bar. Just let me take a seat on it first and rest my eyes for a moment… Continue reading

Review: Wendy’s Frosty Cereal

New Wendy's Frosty Cereal Review Box

See her? That red-haired, doe-eyed dame looking all innocent at the top of this Frosty Cereal?

It’s her fault. All of it. The turmoil afflicting our world, the sallow tension draped over everything, the insidious doom oozing from every earthly orifice: or The Baconated Blight of Wendy, as I like to collectively call it.

You see, if Wendy’s social media accounts hadn’t decided to kickstart an insidious trend of sassy, apathetic, and terminally online brands, I’m convinced we wouldn’t be in this mess. I truly loathe the soulless snark of faceless corporate entities, and for that I can never forgive Ol’ Gwendolyn or her new Frosty Cereal here.

It doesn’t help that this cereal really phoned it in component-wise, pairing boring chocolate spheres with the worst marbits imaginable—but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s see just how Wendy’s Frosty Cereal fares in my bowl…

…and if I hear one cocky clapback from the girl on the box, I’m heaving the whole thing in a gravel pit. Continue reading

Bite-Sized Reviews: Cinnamon Almond Butter Plentifull & Cinnamon Toast Crunch Coffee Cake Mix

Oh, don’t mind me—just sharing a few quick reviews that aren’t quite rich enough for full blog breakdowns. Be sure to follow me on Twitter for more to-the-minute thoughts like these!

Oh, and check out the latest upcoming bit of Kelloggian ephemera hitting shelves now—

 

Review: Strawberry Banana Cheerios

New Strawberry Banana Cheerios Review Box

Cheeri-Oats are the Cheery G.O.A.T.s!

There ya go, General Mills: I just wrote you a free catchphrase that uses trendy lingo all today’s kids can relate to.

What’s that you say? I’m not a youth any more, let alone a hip nor happenin’ one? Well listen, I came here to review twice-fruited Cheerios, not walk right into a self-inflicted existential crisis like Sideshow Bob into a rake.

The point of my haplessly out-of-touch sloganeering was to simply point out how, as a brand, Cheerios does not miss. Those dense ‘n’ hearty toasted oat rings are the perfect vehicles for any flavor imaginable, to the point where I can’t think of a Cheerios variety I didn’t like. At worst, you’ll get something that’s just plain solid like Chocolate Strawberry Cheerios, but more often than not, Cheerios is cranking, churning, extruding, and glazing out hit after hit—to the point where it starts to make little sense why less impeccably consistent cereal lines like Lucky Charms and the Toast Crunch family seem to get all the public praise.

I get it, though. Cheerios doesn’t have the same bombastic, kid-focused and mascot-fronted brand appeal, but darn it, Cheerios should. As one of the last breakfast aisle bastion’s of purely oat-powered acumen, Cheerios deserves first dibs when it comes to creative new flavor infusions.

And if, somehow, you needed even more convincing proof of Cheerios’ wholesome bowlsome of O-some awesomeness, look no further than these new Strawberry Banana Cheerios. Continue reading

Quick Review: Reese’s Puffs Cluster Crunch

Reese's Puffs Cluster Crunch Review Box

Sometimes you just want the movie theater popcorn, with the sextuple pumps of atomic yellow butter that’ll leave your palms semi-translucent.
Sometimes you just want Chinese food from the place in the rundown strip mall, where the sesame chicken is so oily that the paper takeout container is leaking from every fold.
And sometimes (most times), my cats would rather eat the processed kibble equivalent of a Big Mac, instead of a freshly ground turkey pâté.

That’s how I internally rationalize any remaining appeal of Reese’s Puffs. Simply put, for me Reese’s Puffs are outclassed on every edible level by Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios, which really nail the sumptuous blend of milky cocoa and authentically nutty butter that I’m looking for out of such a cereal.

In comparison, the choco-PB approach of Reese’s Puffs feels cheap and hollow, yet weighed down by an oily processed-ness that progressively glazes your tongue with sluggish sweetness. And while that may sound unappealing, sometimes that’s exactly what you need out of a mainline cereal—nothing too high falutin’, just glorious garbage. I’d say I get such a specific craving for Reese’s Puffs maybe once a year, so I’m getting it out of the way early for 2022 with this new Reese’s Puffs Cluster Crunch. Continue reading

Review: CinnaGraham Toast Crunch

CinnaGraham Toast Crunch Review Box

*Extremely Ferris Bueller voice*

You’re still here? It’s over. Go home—then get in your car and go to the store and buy this cereal!

Seriously, you need a review to tell you that CinnaGraham Toast Crunch is good? You’d think it would only take one look at the box above to stoke the very same deep, primal hunger for cinnamon-coated graham goodness that helped early humans evolve beyond simple hunter-gatherers and into sophisticated graham miners, their crude pickaxes chiseling away at vast veins of golden grain.

I joke, but seriously: there’s something about graham, be it crackered, pie crusted, or Teddy’d, that just gets my motor runnin’, directly counterintuitive to the anti-prurient origins of the foodstuff itself. And since, two years ago, we already got a spiritual predecessor to this CinnaGraham Toast Crunch in the form of Honey Maid Cinnamon Graham Cereal—which I called my Cereal of the Year—I went into this review beyond confident that General Mills’ latest Toast Crunch crusader couldn’t possibly fail.

But what if I told you…I was wrong? Continue reading

Review: Peanut Butter Plentifull Cereal

Plentifull Peanut Butter Cereal Review

Ha, Apri—err, I mean, January Fools!

Either way, I totally got ya, didn’t I? I bet when you saw General Mills’ lineup of new 2022 cereals hitting shelves this month, you thought I’d spring right for the exciting ones: most likely the golden twinkling CinnaGraham Crunch, or possibly the bold Reese’s Puffs Clusters Crunch. But no, instead I’m tearing into the new year with the less assuming, least outwardly exciting box of the bunch. The one whose whole branding is based around one of cereal’s tiredest tropes—that is, the proposed benefit of a making you feel more full using whole grains and other assorted brown stuff. I mean, just look at that bowl on the box: it all kinda warps together like a Magic Eye puzzle if you stare at it too long.

Of course, the second you look beyond the bland branding (blanding), Plentifull’s true promise shines through. With the promise of peanut butter coated flakes, you know you’re in for a cereal that isn’t so much filling in the sheer gut-leadening, bland and Grape-Nutsian sense of the word, but rather in the “candy bar filling” sense of a cereal using dense, rich ingredients to make it feel more like a full meal. That meal being dessert. Continue reading

Review: Dominique Ansel Bakery’s Christmas Morning Cereal

Dominique Ansel Christmas Morning Cereal Review Box

Merry Christmas y’all!! We* here at Cerealously hope your day is merry, bright, oh-so-sweet, and just right.

*By “we” I literally mean me and my two cats, whose best approximation of “cereal” is salmon bits suspended in gravy.

For such a special day, naturally I’ve got a special review on deck. This aptly titled “Christmas Morning Cereal” is a premium breakfast product from Dominique Ansel Bakery—the folks behind the once infamously hyped Cronut phenomenon. Apparently Dominique Ansel Bakery has been selling this Christmas Morning Cereal in limited annual batches since 2013, but I’ll admit this is the first year I’ve even heard of it, let alone tried it. That’s probably because I’m used to $4 family sized boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, while Christmas Morning Cereal costs $15.50 for a demure carton that’s just about big enough for 2-4 bowls of designer indulgence.

However, this particular Christmas Morning Cereal carton was an incredibly generous gift from the kind John Riggs, who runs a gaming YouTube channel in addition to being a fellow cereal fan and historian. So my sincerest Yuletide thanks go out to him, as I dive into what may very well be the priciest per-bite review in this site’s history. Continue reading