For yet another boring Crunch Berry palette swap, this is still a juicy development for the Cap’n.

Close followers of Crunchian lore will remember a certain Freedom Crunch, a hyper-patriotic Cap’n variant that I discovered last summer and later redacted, after hearing from Cap’n Crunch that it was never actually produced. But then, I received word from Minnesota that the cereal demonstrably did reach at least one very select market (ironic for a nationally branded cereal). The truth of Freedom Crunch’s purgatorial existence has never been revealed—but hey, the stuff even has an officially licensed shirt!

(Image via Quaker)

No matter the fate of Freedom, its American Dream is alive and real with Cap’n Crunch’s Red, White & Blue Crunch. RW&B Crunch is conceptually identical to its spiritual ancestor, albeit with a de-birded theme and a more on-the-beak, Independence Day-friendly fireworks show theme. On that note, I wish this cereal would’ve upped the creative ante with crackling, Pop-Rocked Berries—much like Poppin’ Pebbles—or at least Colbert-style chocolate waffle pieces.

As it stands, Red, White & Blue isn’t as exciting as the Cap’n’s other, upcoming sweet seasonal. Nevertheless, I’ll have to snag a box just to see how ridiculously starred & striped the back-of-the-box game is. Really hoping for a revival of the “Where’s the Cap’n?” concept cross-branded with Carmen Sandiego.

Many thanks to @raresnacks_toronto on Instagram for sharing the above photo (spotted at a Detroit Meijer), as well as Chris from Twitter for sharing a photo from an Iowa City Hyvee—so you know this is likely a wider release than Freedom Crunch. If you have a cereal finding of your own, sugar-spangled or otherwise, you can send it on over at our Submissions page.