As a wise little green friend once said:
“Always two there are; no more, no less.”
And while he may have been talking about an arcane order of insidiously apprenticed malevolence, I think the moral of that particular space opera applies to honey nut cereals, as well. See, Honey Nut Cheerios didn’t become America’s favorite cereal off alleged heart-healthiness alone.
No, Buzz’s magnum O-pus is far and away the most famous honey-nutted nectar on cereal shelves because it understands balance and simplicity like no other. The neutral-by-nature Cheerios base is basted with a simply satisfying glaze of golden, cozy honey and authentically ambrosial almond earthiness.
And that’s it: always two enriching and bewitching flavors. No more, no less.
This minimalist breakfast mantra was on my mind when cracking open Kellogg’s new Honey Nut Frosted Flakes. Tony’s take on a honey nut cereal, set to debut everywhere in early 2019, is clearly tiger-eyeing Cheerios’ lion share of the niche.
But can a cereal already so sweet really add a veneer of honey and nut without sugar-watering it down? It’s time to bee thorough.
Immediately the smell makes me fear a self-fulfilling prophecy. Smacking the nostrils with wispy floral sweetness that borders on “Tony the Treacle,” plastic-bagged Honey Nut Frosted Flakes smell like the sticky remnants of a Tim Hortons honey cruller tray.
And the flavor delivers on that olfactory promise: honey and sugar dominate the cereal’s flavor profile and submissive corn core from the first bite. This combo isn’t sickeningly sweet—in fact, it’s comfortingly simple for much of the bowl—but over time it has me thinking the scotch-&-Splenda-drinking Michael Scotts of the world may find it a bit more splendid than I.
More concentrated than a graham cracker, the honey sheen on HN FFs is syrupy and concentrated, like distilled Honey Bun varnish or shimmering baklava filling…
…except without any of those wonderful baklavian nuts, almond, walnut, pistachio, Deku or otherwise. While the honey sheen of Honey Nut Frosted Flakes is palpable enough to be charming, there’s no perceivable nuttiness to give it a memorable depth. Unlike the transparently labeled Natural Almond Flavor in Honey Nut Cheerios, these Frosted Flakes’ ingredients list makes no mention of any such nutty nugget, outside of “Natural Flavors.”
Since that could mean anything from free-range exorcised cashew souls to ground-up DVD copies of The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature, I’m going to guess that Kellogg’s chose to skimp on the likely pricy nutted ingredients—hence why the Cheerios’ simplicity may be economically inspired, as well.
Because while I could hypothesize and scrutinize flavor nuances all day, the casual ferocious Frosted Flaker likely won’t stop to swish the cereal around their palate long enough to detect any imagined almond je ne sais quoi.
Milk makes Honey Nut Frosted Flakes a better cereal, but still not a better honey nut cereal. With sugar and honey alike blending seamlessly into one pasteurized elixir, the final product ends up tasting like flattened and freeze-dried Honey Smacks, albeit Smacks that get soggy far quicker due to their daintier construction.
Honey Nut Frosted Flakes is ultimately homogenous and quite tame, but this toothless tiger is nonetheless a safe bet for those looking for a freshly textured perspective on milk and honey.
Because it certainly tastes better than a Rupi Kaur book.
The Bowl: Honey Nut Frosted Flakes Cereal
The Breakdown: Short, sweet, and to 50% of the promised point, this heavily sugared, modestly honeyed, and absolutely almond-less cereal makes for quite an Absent-Minded Nutty Professor.
The Bottom Line: 6.5 barrels of DVD-meal out of 10
ray from wheelers hill
I think the honey nut cornflakes standing some
where near honey the last box bought 23 dec 2021
dont have any honey coat at all on the flakes
the last box I bought the flakes where sticking
together if flakes where left open on the plate
in the day or so??
I wrote a letter to Kellogg’s and they told me “there are no nuts in the cereal, “Honey Nut” is just a flavor description, the flavoring contains no nuts, and these are not made with the same equipment as products that contain nuts. I hope enough people ask Kellogg’s the question I asked them that the information they told me starts appearing on the front panel of boxes of Honey Nut Frosted Flakes.
“Milk makes Honey Nut Frosted Flakes a better cereal”
No, it makes it worse.
Similar to my recent poor experience with the new Donettes cereal, milk also makes this stuff much worse by washing away the very mild honey taste and leaving just regular frosted flakes that somehow taste worse than plain Frosted Flakes cereal. Not at all worth eating.
I miss Nut N’ Honey Crunch, and I miss Crunchy Nut. Fortunately, I made a resolution this year to read labels on food items more closely before buying them, so I didn’t just blindly put a box of Honey Nut Frosted Flakes in my cart–I read the box first. And as soon as I read that the “nut” in Honey Nut Frosted Flakes was nothing more than flavoring, I was disappointed. This isn’t the first time Kellogg’s skimped on cereal ingredients, either–they stopped making Raisin Squares, Strawberry Squares and Blueberry Squares (fruit-filled shredded wheat) ages ago, but then came out with Frosted Mini-Wheats with strawberry-flavored and blueberry-flavored frosting. _Not the same thing_, guys!
Have you ever tried the (now discontinued) cereal ‘Frosted Flakes Gold’? It was similar to this and had a honey taste. It was really great.. not sure if this Honey Nut cereal tastes the same or not.. whether it’s a re-brand or not.. but also, I heard it’s a diss back at General Mills from another source.
I just got a box of the new cereal and am excited to try it. Frosted Flakes Gold was my favorite and was heartbroken to see it go. Hoping this feels similar!
After reading Kellogg’s is releasing a Honey Nut version of their Frosted Flakes, i was immediately curious if they will taste different than the Crunchy Nut Cereal (formerly know as “Honey & Nut Corn Flakes” in the US) you can get in the EU or the same.
You never had the chance to try the Crunchy Nut Cereal Dan, did you? Because I’m still curious if the “frosted part” is just for using a well know brand and mascot in the US instead of trying to establsih a “new” brand in the US or if the cereal is really that much sweeter, because Kellogg’s used honey on topo of the sugary frosting xD
CHEERS! 🙂
Not sure if America’s Crunchy Nut was the same, but I did try it and loved it! Though it was nothing like these Frosted Flakes. Crunchy Nut had a wonderful peanut brittle flavor. Very unique!
alright… so they are completely different. Good to know. As i said, the first time i heard about them I thought it’s just Crunchy Nut released under the brand of Frosted Flakes 🙂
CHEERS!
That flavor was amazing and it was a travesty we can’t eat it in the USA anymore. I was trying to figure out if this Frosted Flakes tasted the same so thanks for asking! Bummer though.
I meant get it in the USA but eat it works too 😆🤦🏻♀️