Oh, filled cereals—is there any cereal subgenre with a legacy as troubled as yours?

Perhaps it all started with 1993’s Hidden Treasures, a high-concept cereal that paired hollow cereal pieces with a trio of fruit-filled ones for breakfasters to serendipitously spoon. Heck, there was even a codex for determining which pieces held which fruit: “Pieces with a seam very close to the edge had a grape filling, off-center seams had orange, and directly center seams had cherry.”

And while Hidden Treasures is remembered incredibly fondly by today’s nostalgic noshers, it only lasted on shelves for two years, either due to poor sales or the high cost of producing a breakfast cereal elaborate enough to require a field guide.

Thus began the curse of the filled cereal: if you’re a crisped biscuit with a lil somethin’ in the center, you were destined for either discontinuation (like Pop-Tarts Cereal) or divisiveness (like Krave, which, despite being a cereal aisle mainstay and one of my personal favorites, seems to be deeply hated by about 50% of those who try it).

That leads us to today: these three Loaded Cereals are, in fact, General Mills’ third attempt at a post-Hidden Treasures filled cereal revival. First we had the ill-fated Fillows, whose dense, dessert-like decadence didn’t land with those seeking morning meals that wouldn’t leave them anchored, bloated and drooling, to their breakfast tables. Then there were General Mills Filled Bites, which were basically just Fillows all over again, and, as such, they never made it out of test markets.

Which is a huge bummer, since I, as a shamelessly indulgent density devotee, loved both Fillows and the Filled Bites. But perhaps there’s room in my heart to try again. So give me your best shot, Loaded Cereals…before you end up disappearing and breaking that very same heart again.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Loaded Cereal Review

One thing is for sure: much to my own personal, apparently unrelatable chagrin, General Mills certainly “learned their lesson” about filled cereal density. These Loaded Cereals are way less weighty than their Fillow and Filled Bites ancestors. Amply aerated, these little pillows make for much lighter snacking, which, if that’s what you’re looking for, great! But me? I can’t help but feel that this change comes at the expense of not just mass, but flavor per volume, too.

This effect is perhaps most apparent with Cinnamon Toast Crunch Loaded Cereal, because I have the closest mental decadence precedents to compare it to—both Cinnamon Roll Fillows and Filled Bites, whose Cinnabon-y blast these CTC’s phantasmal sweetness simply can’t match.

But I get it, most people don’t fondly remember Fillows, if they even tried them in the first place, so I’ll push my bias out of mind. But even then, CTC Loaded can’t go sucrose-for-sucrose with normal Cinnamon Toast Crunch, either. It simply has less cinnamon-sugar flavor, which was probably a deliberate decision so that the cereal shell’s flavor could defer to the filling, which is intended to be the star of the show, spoon, and bowl.

The problem is that the cream filling is pretty, well, unfulfilling. Like Frosted Flakes or Lucky Charms marbits, it doesn’t have much nuanced flavor beyond generic sweetness. It lacks even the vanilla notes promised by the box. The overall taste of the cereal is still good, mind you—I especially like the crispy–creamy texture—and it’s a great option for mindless dry snacking, but ultimately CTC Loaded doesn’t pack much of a memorable punch. This is especially evident in milk, which really only doubles down on the filling’s one-dimensional sugariness while further diluting the scarce cinnamon.

Not bad, CTC Loaded, but with other, better cinnamon cereals out there—CinnaGraham Toast Crunch and Cinnamon Cheerios Oat Crunch come to mind—it’s hard to imagine myself picking you again without the dessert x-factor of filled cereals foregone.

The Bottom Line: 6 shells of shells past out of 10

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Trix Loaded Cereal Review

So if Cinnamon Toast Crunch Loaded was kinda cinna-milquetoast, does Trix Loaded fair any better? Yes! But only a little.

See, all the same issues from CTC still prevail here: the the flavor of the cereal shell takes a too-subtle backseat to the too-simple cream taste, while the hyper-aerated shell, with its pointed edges, pose a distinctly Cap’n Crunchian threat to roofs-of-mouths everywhere.

But thankfully, the filling ends up complementing the taste of Trix way better than it does Cinnamon Toast Crunch. The classical combo of fruit & cream is on full display here—a combo that works especially in Trix’s favor, since the citrus-forward cereal’s tang is pleasantly tempered by a bit of straightforward sweetness.

I just can’t help but wish there were more of that toothsome Trix taste, y’know? I get that mileage may vary, though, so take my opinion with a gram of sugar. If you aren’t into demigodly decadence like me, you’ll probably dig this restrained approach more.

And unlike the other Loaded Cereals, milk is actually a good call with Trix. Talk about pour performance!

The Bottom Line: 7 Trix that aren’t just for kids because kids will probably just want these to be more flavorful out of 10

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Cocoa Puffs Loaded Cereal Review

Look, it’s no secret at this point that I’m just not a huge Cocoa Puffs fan. If my feverish love of fudge-focused Krave were any indication, I think Cocoa Puffs is just far too weak—a crazed bird’s got nothing on the depravity of a carnivorous cereal square. Plus the corn base of Cocoa Puffs does the stuff no favors, but that’s beside the point. What matters is that Cocoa Puffs Loaded inherits much of its namesake’s blasé blandness.

As I’ve pointed out, the Loaded Cereal line has enough problems as it is. It doesn’t need a boring cereal flavor on top of that. Cocoa Puffs Loaded just comes off as a crude Krave imitator—one that outright inverts its competitor’s appeal, at that. See, in both cereals, the filling is where the flavor is, which is why Krave puts the chocolate in the filling. By demoting its chocolate flavor to menial shell duty, Cocoa Puffs Loaded presents a grave error in palate-pleasing prioritization.

With Cocoa Puffs Loaded—and honestly with all three cereals here—the experience could’ve been exponentially improved by creating uniquely flavored fillings. A Cinnadusted filling, a sweet berry filling, and an actually fudge’d filling would’ve elevated these Loaded Cereals far beyond the ho-hum reality of what I’ve just eaten.

As a filled cereal fan, I’d love to see General Mills try another round of Loaded Cereals—Golden Grahams Loaded S’Mores, anyone?—but as it stands, this trio seems destined for obscurity. Don’t ask me how I know, but between the lackluster branding, the lack of strong promotion, and 8+ years of cereal intuition, I can tell Loaded Cereals aren’t meant to last. Feel free to come back to this post and razz me if I’m wrong.

Oh well, nice try regardless though, General Mills. Please don’t stop cramming crap into little squares just because I didn’t love these.

The Bottom Line: 4.5 cereal skill issues out of 10