Ever wonder what a plain ol’ butter & jelly sandwich might taste like? What about simply sour chicken, an unadorned upside-down cake, or a pizza topped only with…pepper?

Yeah, me either. But that’s the Honey Vanilla Cheerios experience: like eating something extremely familiar, but without one of the signature, accenting somethings that define the dish. Granted, I’m exaggerating, and Honey Vanilla Cheerios don’t taste as bad as fouled fowl, but it’s palpably missing something.

And that something, dear reader, is Nut.

Sincerely, earnestly hoping everyone kept reading instead of taking that sentence out of context. But it’s true: Honey Vanilla Cheerios is basically a slightly worse echo fighter of Honey Nut Cheerios, which is a particularly unfortunate circumstance since the latter Cheerios are both America’s best-selling cereal and one of my personal favorites.

As you might expect, HVC has all the same toasted goodness and warm honey richness of HNC, but without the sweet, almost savory, earthy undertones that elevate Honey Nut Cheerios to breakfast godhood. So Honey Vanilla Cheerios are perfectly pleasant, but the mild vanilla beaniness is no replacement for the mouthwatering, mighty legume-iness of Honey Nut Cheerios’ esoteric “natural almond flavor.”

Which is all to say, the very legitimacy of Honey Vanilla Cheerios’ existence is on rocky foundation. Why should anyone buy a directly inferior pseudo-clone? Well, you may argue that Honey Vanilla Cheerios is perfect for someone with a tree nut allergy who nevertheless wants to experience what the Honey Nut Cheerios hype is all about. And you’d be right, but I’d personally argue that said person is still better off going with the likewise nut-less Honey & Oat Cheerios Oat Crunch, which packs even richer nut-free toasted honey perfection.

I’d also like to point out here, as more of a fun fact than anything, that Honey Nut Cheerios allegedly doesn’t even contain nuts—though boxes do list warnings for those with nut allergies, the “natural almond flavor” used in the cereal is most often made not from almonds, but from ground-up apricot pits. The more you know!

All ingredient asides aside, Honey Vanilla Cheerios are the definition of a redundant cereal. Outclassed in every way by a cereal that’s been on shelves for almost a half-century, these good-but-not-great rings are bound to be forgotten by time. Feel free to give Honey Vanilla Cheerios a shot if you’re a long-time Honey Nut fan looking to mix things up, but somehow I doubt you’ll go nuts for them. In fact, you’re more likely to say aw, beans.

The Bowl: Honey Vanilla Cheerios

The Breakdown: These are just Honey Nutless Cheerios, in a (non-existent) nut shell. They’re fine enough for mindless munching, but such mild-mannered cereals rarely make history.

The Bottom Line: 5 boxes of Straight-Up Toast Crunch out of 10