Category Archives: Specials

Spooned & Spotted: Kellogg’s Frosted A&W Root Beer Pop-Tarts

(UPDATE: Click this to read my review of Frosted A&W Root Beer Pop-Tarts!)

What’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys? A barrel of root beer, of course!

And what’s more fun than a barrel of root beer? Cramming it inside your morning toaster pastry!

Earlier this year we reported that Orange Crush and root beer flavored Pop-Tarts are on the way, and thanks to this picture sent in to us by reader and redditor /u/boyfoster, we know that those mythic sarsaparilla Tarts are not only real, but they’re A&W branded, too. Sorry, Mug and Barq’s fans: maybe you can convince the Pillsbury Doughboy to use those drinks in some Toaster Strudels.

According to boyfoster, who received and sampled these pastries from an in-store source, they taste good, but alas, they don’t fizzle. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to wait for Pop Rocks Pop-Tarts.

Oh, and one more juicy bit of news: according to boyfoster (whose word I now trust like scripture), there are also new Caramel Apple Pop-Tarts on the way that he was unable to photograph. Now that’s a flavor worth bobbing for!

Thanks again, boyfoster. To all readers who would like to see their picture or thoughts featured on a “Spooned & Spotted” post, head over to our submissions page, or just email us at cerealously.net@gmail.com.

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: kelloggs, non cereal, pop-tarts, spooned & spotted. 4 Comments

Apr. ’16

Cerealously Looks Back at Chex Quest!

Oh boy, this one really does take me back.

When I talk about moments that really got me into cereal—not just cereal as a food, but cereal as a culture, hobby, and lifestyle—my discovery of Chex Quest is always one of them.

It was one of those summer days when it’s hot enough to make the sky warble and the hot dogs melt right into their buns. I had sought refuge in my cool basement and was digging through a drawer of old CD-ROMs and floppy disks. I happened upon this disk:

Since most of the other CD-ROMs contained word processing software and Encarta encyclopedias, the technicolor cartoon art on Chex Quest magnetically held my eyes and imagination alike. I couldn’t wait to boot it up, and as soon as I did, I happily lost myself in a world of pixelated breakfast heroism. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: chex, general mills, ralston, special. 2 Comments

Apr. ’16

Cereal Time with Gabe Fonseca: Cracklin’ Oat Bran and New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereals

Quick: does the word “bran” fill you with a sense of fear, loathing, and disgust? If you answered “yes,” then you might be one of the many anti-branners out there who spurns cereals like Bran Flakes and Raisin Bran for being bland and boring.

As seen in the cereal’s first advertising campaign, Cracklin’ Oat Bran was made for such bran banners back in 1977. This is just one of the interesting historical factoids you can expect from cereal ninja Gabe Fonseca, who has two new episodes in his fun and informational Cereal Time YouTube series that we’d like to share with you.

There’s only one thing more addicting than watching Cereal Time, and that’s popping squares of Cracklin’ Oat Bran into your mouth like Macklemore pops tags (that’s the most modern reference I’ll make on this site, so enjoy it). That’s why it’s so appropriate that Cereal Time finally has an episode dedicated to these uniquely shaped and textured oat squares. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: cereal time, general mills, kelloggs. Leave a comment

Mar. ’16

Cereal Time with Gabe Fonseca: Nut & Honey Crunch and Cröonchy Stars Cereal

*Raises right hand*

I, Dan G. of Cerealously, formally swear to make it through this entire post without making any juvenile “nuts” jokes.

Okay, now that we’ve finished all the formalities, let’s put our honey where our mouth is. It’s that time again: time to share the latest two videos in cereal honcho Gabe Fonseca’s YouTube series. Cereal Time covers a different cereal each week, and each episode is sure to teach you more than your middle school American History class ever did.

The first episode we’d like to share with you covers Kellogg’s Nut & Honey Crunch cereal. Despite the simplicity of its name and ingredients, you’d be surprised just how complicated this cereal’s history is. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: cereal time, kelloggs, post. Leave a comment

Mar. ’16

Spooned & Spotted: Lucky Charms with Green Clovers & Gold Coins

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, or as it’s alternatively known, “Beer & Lucky Charms Day!” I can’t recommend mixing both together, but if you alternate swigs and spoonfuls, I won’t tell anyone.

What I can recommend is Lucky Charms’ Limited Edition Green Clover & Gold Coin Marshmallows cereal, specially released for this season of emerald and jade.

The name of the cereal says it all: instead of his usual rainbows, horseshoes, shooting stars, and more, ~~Irish Timmy Turner~~ Lucky has cut down his marshmallow menagerie to two holiday appropriate ones.

The good news is that these Lucky Charms come in both original and chocolate, so oat purists and chocoholics alike can both have a happy St. Patrick’s Day. The bad news is that the green marshmallows don’t have any special minty flavor or anything.

C’mon, Lucky! This was your chance to overthrow Shamrock Shakes for the title of “St. Paddy’s Day dessert of choice!” I have nothing against Shamrock Shakes, but I am still a little bitter that Uncle O’Grimacey isn’t around anymore. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: general mills, holiday, lucky charms, spoooned & spotted. 1 Comment

Mar. ’16

Happy National Cereal Day 2016: Dan’s Cereal Top 10!

That’s right, fellow cerealists, the greatest day of the year has come once more! March 7th is National Cereal Day, and it’s better than 25 Christmases stuffed into a Thanksgiving turkey that’s been strapped to a 4th of July firework and launched into a jack-o-lantern carved to look like the Easter bunny.

Today, cereal munchers everywhere are paying loving tribute to the fun, delicious, and ever-nostalgic breakfast classic that faithfully serves us 365 days a year (or 366, on years like this one).

Since Cerealously was only born in July of 2015, this is our first National Cereal Day as a blog. Despite this, I want to do a brief throwback to National Cereal Day 2015, when General Mills sent a few lucky cereal fans this rockin’ jigsaw puzzle that is way too cool not to share with the Internet.

I will say, though, that even though this jigsaw puzzle is cool, it was difficult enough to put together that Jigsaw from Saw must have been the one who designed it. If you can imagine a slightly sweaty grown man hunched over and swearing while trying to fit a Lucky Charms horseshoe piece into a Cheerio-shaped hole, you wouldn’t be far from the truth.

In reality, I was much sweatier.

This year, General Mills teamed up with the Food Network’s Justin Warner to develop a bunch of exclusive cereal recipes. I’d love to make one, like the above Trix Sunrise Chill Pie, but we all know that my “baking session” would end 10 minutes later with me passed out on the kitchen floor, face down in a puddle of milk with a half-eaten box of Trix spilled around me like fruity crime scene giblets. You can check out this and other recipes here.

Meanwhile, no National Cereal Day would be complete without a contribution from Gabe Fonseca, a friend of Cerealously and a binge watchable cereal YouTuber. Gabe made this awesome tribute video for his channel, which features a whole bunch of cool people sharing their favorite cereals. Look closely, and you might even catch yours truly in the video.

Just don’t blame me if my face makes you go blind.

But Gabe isn’t the only one who’s ever asked me what my favorite cereal is. In fact, I get asked it so often, that I wanted to properly celebrate National Cereal Day here on Cerealously by counting down not 1, not 5, and not even 8.125 of my favorite cereals. No, it’s time to rank my Top 10 Cereals of All Time!* Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: general mills, kelloggs, national cereal day, post, trader joe's. 14 Comments

Mar. ’16

Cereal Time with Gabe Fonseca: Honey Bunches of Oats and Sugar Smacks Cereal

Well, looks like it’s time to renew my monthly subscription to HBO. And no, I’m not talking about getting my Game of Thrones fix—I mean Honey Bunches of Oats! With two new episodes in cereal squire Gabe Fonseca’s Cereal Time YouTube series, we wanted to share both with you. Cereal Time takes an in-depth look at a different cereal lineage each week, and it’s chock full of vitamins, minerals, and occasionally King Vitaman.

Honey Bunches of Oats takes the honey-soaked stage first. As Gabe describes, Honey Bunches of Oats have humble beginnings, ever since 1986 when good ol’ Vernon Herzing first mixed 4 different Post cereals into a single Frankenstein’s cereal monster (not to be confused with Franken Berry, of course). Honey Bunches first started as “Battle Creek Cereal,” and even though I’m a Michigan native and would have loved for that name to catch on, it was the much more literal “Honey Bunches of Oats” that finally stuck (both literally and metaphorically: honey is sticky!).

Maybe “Battle Creek Cereal” sounds too much like a cereal killer horror movie. Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: cereal time, kelloggs, post. 1 Comment

Feb. ’16

Cereal Time with Gabe Fonseca: Ghostbusters and Cabbage Patch Kids Cereal

When there’s something cool, in your breakfast pantry…who you gonna call?

Gabe Fonseca!

That’s right, cereal specialist Gabe Fonseca is back with two new videos in his Cereal Time YouTube series that we’d like to share with you. For the unfortunately uninitiated, Cereal Time covers a different retro, obscure, or legendary cereal each week, and each video is chock-full of fun and flavor (you’ll have to imagine the flavor; please don’t pour milk on your keyboard). Continue reading →

Posted by dan g.. Categories: Specials. Tags: cereal time, ralston. 1 Comment