Dearest Corn,

Look, I know I’m probably the last person you want to receive a letter from. In fact, you probably called me a “mother-shucker” and popped a movie-theater-buttered blood vessel just seeing my name on the envelope. But I owe you an apology. Several, actually.

I’m sorry for blaming the death of the already undead Monster Cereals on you. I’m sorry for calling you “a starchy scourge that’s turned the cereal industry into a (literal) husk of what it once was.” And I’m sorry I double-dipped that tortilla chip in the guac when no one was looking.

Because the truth is, while, yes, 99% of modern cereals that use your milled flour as a base turn out to be terrible—as the flavors basted on top struggle to contend with your maize-y twang—there’s also another kernel of truth that says there are good corn cereals. In fact, there are corn cereals as outstanding in their field as the scarecrows that guard them. These mostly include those cereals that wear their corniness on their weathered flannel sleeves: the Corn Flakes, Corn Pops, and dearly departed Corn Bran Crunches of this world.

And yes, Corn Chex, too.

You see, I’ve noticed something: amongst all the endlessly reproducing Chex varieties, whose choices of base grain always seem arbitrary, the corn ones always trump the rice ones. Honey Nut Chex? Peanut Butter Chex? The likes of Blueberry and Apple Cinnamon are glass cannons of flavor-blasted blandness in comparison to you, corn, and your comparative golden-toasted heartland heartiness.

Now, Maple Brown Sugar Chex belongs amongst that elite Chexian Corps., too.

So here’s to you, corn. You’re a hull of a guy, after all.

Unassuming as they may look, Maple Brown Sugar Chex pack some powerful flavor. And by “powerful,” I mean, “powerfully subtle and strategically not overpowering.” This may come as a surprising statement from breakfast cereal blogger, but as I get older, and as my palate grows more sensitive (to both sugar and nuance), I become more appreciative of cereals that can do more with less sweetness. My primary problem with rice-based Chex varieties is that they’re so super-charged with flavor dust that, after the first Simpsons-makeup-gun-like blast of concentrated taste, the novel enjoyability turns off like a light. And getting briefly bazooka’d by flavor with every bite is far less fun than tactful ribbons of restrained flavor that are sustained over the full course of the “chew cycle.”

Maybe that doesn’t make any sense, but it’s a roundabout way of saying that Maple Brown Sugar Chex will surely please fans of sugary cereals and simpler ones alike. Maple-wise, it’s like a classier Waffle Crisp, with a sharper, less-airy crunch and a syrupy sheen that’s more authentically golden than candied or Buttersworthian. This is wisely accented by the even subtler, but no less impactful brown sugar notes, which add a warm ‘n’ cozy, molasses-y undercurrent. It’s so good that the only real criticism I can think of is that this stuff seems better suited for a winter release than a summer one, as eating it makes me want to grow a beard, domesticate a big blue ox, and go to town on some snowy conifers with the business end of an axe.

Maple Brown Sugar Chex is a great cereal to eat with milk, too. Its hardy composure (rare for a corn cereal) gives it good anti-sog stamina, but the classic latticework of its Chexian geometry still allows for maximally munchable dairy permeation. Not to mention how good the endmilk gets—seriously, keep a Belgian waffle in your back pocket to dunk into this stuff.

Just, uh, be sure to remove that waffle from your back pocket before you sit down. Don’t ask me how I know.

Overall, Maple Brown Sugar Chex rules. One might even say it, to borrow an ancient turn of phrase, rox my sox. MBS Chex might as well be called M.B.A. Chex, the way it cleverly makes the most of its base grain and tactically moderated flavor to supply exactly the kind of erudite cereal experience guys like me demand. I find myself wanting to nitpick because I rarely award perfect scores, but to heck with it: an A+ for you, Maple Brown Sugar Chex.

And to think, it couldn’t’ve been done without corn. Now maybe corn’ll take the compliment, withdraw from the Monster Cereals, and start a full-time job on the Chex team.

(That is, unless Oat Chex ever makes a comeback.)

The Bowl: Maple Brown Sugar Chex

The Breakdown: Sweet (but not too sweet) and symphonically in syrupy symbiosis with its constituent flavors, this is the best Chex in recent memory—and the best maple cereal, too. It’s like if Waffle Crisp grew up and started a French-Canadian pâtisserie.

The Bottom Line: 10 failed attempts at a “corn syrup” joke out of 10