Tag Archives: holiday

04

Dec. ’16

Spooned & Spotted: “It’s Finally December” Edition

Kellogg's Rice Krispies with Holiday Colors Cereal Box 2016

For every buzz-worthy Christmas Crunch and Cinnamon Star Crunch, there are plenty of less-exciting, non-Crunch based limited edition products that make grocery shelves a little merrier from the rough period of November 1st to December 31st. So while the Cap’n and those cannibalistic stars will get plenty of time in the breakfast spotlight, I want to give a shoutout to two of the little guys.

Or in the case of Rice Krispies with Holiday Colors, three of the little guys. Snap, Crackle, and Pop’s annual offering of red and green-speckled Rice Krispies is back again for 2016, returning silently to breakfast aisles in the night like a rice-stuffed Christmas present.

That’s what the song “Silent Night” is all about, right?

I “reviewed” (translation: “played with”) Holiday Rice Krispies last year, and I encourage you all to use this cereal to make your holiday season a little holiday-ier. You could make candy cane-shaped Rice Krispies Treats like the box recommends, or you could cover a snowball entirely in Rice Krispies and chuckle as innocent passerby unknowingly bite into an Ice Krispies Treat.

Quaker's Holiday Limited Edition Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Box

Quaker’s “Limited Edition” Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal may seem like a cop-out, as it’s just their (arguably) most famous flavor repackaged with a charming living room Christmas tree scene. I mean, they could have at least tossed in some pine nuts, right?

But I’m going to stay positive and express my love for this holiday oatmeal. I couldn’t imagine a more cozy, warm scene than the one Quaker lovingly immortalized here in cardboard. And they picked the perfect, warmly cozy flavor to pair it with.

This Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal is just ho-ho-wholesome, and I look forward to eating it from a novelty Rudolph mug while sprawled flat on my belly under my own tree. There’s a 100% chance I’ll be reading old Garfield comics while I do it, too.

If you’ve spotted any cool limited edition breakfast products, let us know! Click yourself right on over to our submissions page, or just email us at cerealously.net@gmail.com. There’s a good chance your picture could be featured on the site.

 

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12

Nov. ’16

Review: Kellogg’s Frosted Sugar Cookie Pop-Tarts (Printed Fun!)

Kellogg's Printed Fun Frosted Sugar Cookie Pop-Tarts Box Review

Sugar Cookie Pop-Tarts are symbolic of a centuries-old conflict.

See, in the battle for holiday cookie supremacy, gingerbread men and snickerdoodles are the obvious competitors. But as those two vie for kitchen counter dominance—as gingerbread men tragically lose their limbs and as the ‘doodles stop snickering—sugar cookies look on from afar, calm and Buddha-like.

Sugar cookies rarely get media spotlight—after all, they’re not shaped like adorable people or flecked with glittering cinnamon sugar. But sugar cookies are still annual staples for a good reason: they’re reliably delicious, and few would ever dare to debate that, lest they evoke the collective rage of a billion treat-baking grandmas.

This universal appeal is probably what made the late Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch (goodnight, sweet cereal prince) so widely beloved, and it’s what brings “Printed Fun” Sugar Cookie Pop-Tarts back to shelves year after year. Continue reading →

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10

Nov. ’16

Spooned & Spotted: Cap’n Crunch’s Christmas Crunch Cereal (2016)

Cap'n Crunch Christmas Crunch Cereal 2016 Box

(Update: My closer look at Christmas Crunch 2016 is here!)

“It’s just Crunchberries in different shapes. It’s just Crunchberries in different shapes. It’s just Crunchberries in different shapes.”

I can remind myself again and again that Cap’n Crunch’s annually released holiday cereal is the exact same as his year-round fare, just color filtered and molded into barely recognizable trees, snowmen, stars, and Santa hats. But every year, I just don’t care. Christmas Crunch’s yearly return always fills me to the brim with Yuletide merriment, and in a way, it’s a heralding angel of all the winter fun that’s soon to come.

I spotted the above cardboard igloo of Christmas Crunch boxes at my local Spartan store, but the light-bedecked Cap’n has also been spotted at Target and many other major stores.

The first thing that Christmas Crunch connoisseurs will notice is that we’ve got a brand new box design for 2016. This comes after what felt like 1,225 repeated iterations of that infamous gaudy red box. Of course, knowing the talented mind behind Cap’n Crunch’s illustration, I’m not at all surprised that this year’s Clark Griswoldian box is so mindblowing (and presumably fuse-blowing).

I want to do an annual re-review of Christmas Crunch right this very moment, throwing all Thanksgiving plans to the wind and blasting “Wonderful Christmastime” out my window with the intensity of a JG Wentworth commercial. But I know it’s too soon: if I review every holiday cereal so impulsively, I’d run out of seasonal content by Black Friday. And you really don’t want to see me spend December desperately trying to connect Raisin Bran to the holidays.

I’d imagine it involves sadness, a VHS copy of the SpongeBob Christmas special, and a lot of crushed up scented pinecones.

So look for a full review of Christmas Crunch 2016 in the coming month. For now, know that it’s out there and grab a box of your own for an early espresso shot of holiday cheer. And if you’d like to see your own picture or thoughts featured on Cerealously’s next “Spooned & Spotted” post, all you have to do is head over to our submissions page or email us at cerealously.net@gmail.com.

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08

Nov. ’16

Review: Cinnamon Star Crunch Cereal from General Mills

General Mills Cinnamon Star Crunch Cereal Holiday Box

A Eulogy for Sugar Cookie Crunch:

O Cookie! my Cookie! our sweet breakfasts are done,
My spoon is in the dishwasher rack, your “prize inside” was fun,
December’s near, Salvation Army bells I hear, the people’s stomachs rumbling,
While eyes scan the cereal aisle, the boxes plump and shining;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O this new bleeding box of red,
While in the trash my last Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch lies,
Eaten, empty, and dead.

Okay, I could easily go on for two more verses, fervently typing until my own fingers fall cold and dead, but I think it’s time to move on and face the facts. Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch was arguably the most revolutionary Holiday cereal in years, but after a two-year tenure on shelves, it has been unexpectedly replaced by Generals Mills’s new Cinnamon Star Crunch. My instinct is to remain pouty and cynical, but I’m going to take “the Grinch approach:”

When someone steals your annual present, sometimes you just have to sing anyway. So let’s carve into this box like it’s a roast beast.

Continue reading →

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12

Oct. ’16

Spooned & Spotted: Cinnamon Star Crunch Cereal

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLd9zvjAqnF/

(Update: We reviewed Cinnamon Star Crunch!)

It’s okay. Stars are cool, too. They’re certainly more Christmasy than any old squares—even deliciously buttered sugared squares!

Oh, it’s no use. I’m sitting here trying to justify General Mills’ apparent decision to replace Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch—a 2014-2015 cult classic loved by children, food reviewers, and probably adorable panda bears everywhere—with the grinning, quintuply pointed cinnamon corn puffs seen above. But I just can’t seem to do it. The only way star-shaped puffs could ever be better than Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch would be if General Mills decided to also reuse their shapes to revive Sprinkle Spangles.

I’d sacrifice a fresh batch of gingerbread men to bring back Sprinkle Spangles.

This exclusive sneak peek was provided by our friends over at Junk Banter, whose junk food news and reviews are always on point—or in this case, on all five points.

Junk Banter got this picture of Cinnamon Star Crunch, fresh off the truck and in the backroom of a Target. We can only assume that the cereal will hit shelves soon, likely in early November when the world’s pumpkins and Count Choculas begin their winter hibernation. But while we wait, let’s analyze what can.

This holiday cereal shift has been secretly occurring right beneath our cookie-loving noses for months: it turns out that General Mills filed their “Cinnamon Star Crunch” trademark way back in March. Cinnamon Star Crunch also uses the same packaging design as last year’s Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch iteration, and it also appears to diverge from the typical “Toast Crunch formula” of wheat and rice flour. I predict that cinnamon on corn will produce a dramatically different flavor than we know from Cinnamon Toast Crunch and that these repurposed SpongeBob Cereal pieces stars will soak up milk even faster.

Cinnamon Star Crunch Cereal Box

While this isn’t a complete confirmation that Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch won’t return for 2016, this back of the box image, also generously provided by the sleuths at Encyclopedia J. Banter, only shows Holiday Sprinkles Cookie Crisp as being a part of General Mills’ holiday ensemble. Holiday Sprinkles Cookie Crisp is great and all, but no number of sugar sparkles and awful winter puns can heal the broken heart left behind by an unexpected Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch breakup.

If you’re like me and Junk Banter—who is one of the few earthlings who loves Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch than me—and want to see those snowy, fresh-baked squares return, it’s worth rallying for them on social media.

Maybe we can even get the big man himself to support our cause:

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03

Jul. ’16

Review: Kellogg’s Rice Krispies with Red & Blue Krispies Cereal (and Happy Fourth of July!)

Red, White, & Blue Rice Krispies Box

Since I’ll be spending tomorrow stuffing my face with hot dogs while watching others competitively stuff their faces with lemonade-soaked hot dogs, I figured I’d go light today by munching on Kellogg’s seasonal Limited Edition Red, White, and Blue Rice Krispies.

Truth be told, I’m glad the only Independence Day-themed cereal available this year (we’ve had Summer Berry Pebbles before) is this one. Since it tastes exactly the same as normal Rice Krispies, I can celebrate this most laid-back holiday of the year with an appropriately laid-back review.

So, uh, yeah: if you’ve had Rice Krispies, then these taste the same. No strawberry or blueberry taste—just neon colored food dye soaked into airy rice crisp niblets. They don’t really taste like anything, for that matter. If you grit your teeth and focus like Jimmy Neutron during a brain blast, there are notes of lingering toastiness, but few people are likely to eat these as a traditional cereal (whether dry or with mush-ifying milk) anyway.

These Red, White, and Blue Rice Krispies are destined to be bathed in butter and marshmallow for use in Rice Krispies Treats. I would have made some for the purposes of this review, but I’m saving all my butter and marshmallow fluff for use in my annual “Fourth Of July Butter ‘n’ ‘Mallow Slip’n Slide,” a tradition that I totally didn’t just invent to explain why I don’t have the ingredients for Rice Krispies Treats in my house.

My family just loves apostrophes, okay?

Red, White, & Blue Rice Krispies Flag

Instead, I made you this to make up for it. These Red, White, and Blue Rice Krispies lose points for not tasting especially fun and for not having enough red and blue pieces, but in the spirit of the holiday, I’ll give ’em a few extra just for being so darn festive. Don’t hesitate to buy a box if you ever wanted to make your own cereal American flag.

Or your own cereal flag for Australia, Cambodia, Chile, the Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, the Faroe Islands, France, Haiti, Iceland, North Korea, Laos, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Russia, Samoa, Schleswig-Holstein, Serbia, Sint Maarten, Slovakia, Slovenia, Taiwan, Thailand, or United Kingdom, for that matter.

Uh, yeah, there are a lot of red, white, and blue flags.

Happy early Fourth of July, everyone: I hope all your fireworks Snap, Crackle, and Pop!

 

The Bowl: Rice Krispies with Red & Blue Krispies

The Breakdown: They’re Rice Krispies. They taste like Rice Krispies. Also there are red and blue ones. I want hot dogs.

The Bottom Line: 7.4 (see what I did there?) hot dog bun-shaped Rice Krispies Treats out of 10

(Quick Nutrition Facts: 120 calories, 0 grams of fiber, 4 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein per 1 1/4 cup serving)

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17

Mar. ’16

Spooned & Spotted: Lucky Charms with Green Clovers & Gold Coins

IMG_5334

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, or as it’s alternatively known, “Beer & Lucky Charms Day!” I can’t recommend mixing both together, but if you alternate swigs and spoonfuls, I won’t tell anyone.

What I can recommend is Lucky Charms’ Limited Edition Green Clover & Gold Coin Marshmallows cereal, specially released for this season of emerald and jade.

The name of the cereal says it all: instead of his usual rainbows, horseshoes, shooting stars, and more, Irish Timmy Turner Lucky has cut down his marshmallow menagerie to two holiday appropriate ones.

The good news is that these Lucky Charms come in both original and chocolate, so oat purists and chocoholics alike can both have a happy St. Patrick’s Day. The bad news is that the green marshmallows don’t have any special minty flavor or anything.

C’mon, Lucky! This was your chance to overthrow Shamrock Shakes for the title of “St. Paddy’s Day dessert of choice!” I have nothing against Shamrock Shakes, but I am still a little bitter that Uncle O’Grimacey isn’t around anymore. Continue reading →

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25

Dec. ’15

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Cerealously!

IMG_1227Oh boy, my hands are covered in so much sticky coconut oil after assembling that photo, but it was worth it. For all of you!

And while I’m sure most of you are rightfully too deep into your personal oceans of eggnog, presents, and merriment to bother reading a silly blog about cereal, if you happen to be reading this, please allow me to extend my warmest wishes to you and your families this holiday season.

With this comes a very sincere “thank you,” too. I started this blog earlier this year, and as 2015 comes to a close, I’m eternally grateful for the growth this site has experienced and all the people who have (somehow!) enjoyed my pointless rantings, ravings, awful puns, and obscure references.

It’s all of you readers that make doing this worthwhile, and it’s because of you and your sharing of this site that Cerealously will keep crunching and munching happily through the end of 2015, into 2016, and beyond!

So with that, I’ll leave you to your cookies, turkey, and fruit cake that won’t be touched until mid-February when it somehow starts acquiring sentience.

If you feel like having a lazy afternoon/evening/night/entirety of 2016 and want something to read, here are some links to all the holiday or winter cereals we reviewed this year. And if you want to discuss the holidays, your favorite cereal, what you got for Christmas, or even just what your favorite discontinued ’80s snack food is, the comment section is always open. Enjoy!

Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch

Holiday Sprinkles Cookie Crisp

Trader Joe’s Cranberry Gingerbread Granola

Froot Loops with Winter Blast Marshmallows

Trader Joe’s Organic Triple Ginger Instant Oatmeal

Cap’n Crunch’s Christmas Crunch

Rice Krispies with Holiday Colors

 

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