There Are A LOT Of Weird Cereal Products On The Market — I Taste-Tested The 13 Absolute Weirdest
Have y'all been to a grocery store cereal aisle recently? They are...something. Apparently cereal has been expanding and doing ambitious crossovers to an extent that would make the Marvel Cinematic Universe clutch its pearls. There are cereals trying to be completely different foods, and random foods/flavors trying to be cereal — it's wild! The other day I spent 5 or 30 minutes just taking in all of the shocking cereal innovations.
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Then, I went to a couple different stores and expanded my search to multiple aisles to try to find the most interesting-sounding cereal-based products for one big taste-testing session. Here's a look at the strangest and most interesting stuff I found:
Despite what I suspected it might do to my blood sugar levels, I tried each item so I could report my research back to you. A snackrifice I was honored to make on behalf of everyone, even though not a single person asked for this. Anyway, ready? Let's begin.
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1.Cosmic Brownies Cereal
Here's how the actual cereal looks:
TASTED LIKE: It's definitely better with milk than it is dry, but there's a chalkiness that I didn't love, though if I were a kid I'd probably love it. I did enjoy the crunch — these things don't get soggy fast, and I appreciate that they tried to keep the same colorful sprinkle design that the brownies have, but these look less like a cosmic starry night sky and more like someone didn't pick up their dog's droppings on a hot summer day, which is unfortunate.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 98% any chocolate cereal, 2% Cosmic Brownies
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 5
2.Cinnamon Toast Crunch Toaster Strudels
Here's a poorly frosted, freshly air-fried Toaster Strudel:
TASTED LIKE: OK, these are freakin' delicious (especially cooked in an air fryer), but I don't think there's much of a Cinnamon Toast Crunch specific taste here. They remind me of the cinnamon Toaster Strudels that have existed forever, but maybe there's some Cinnamon Toast Crunch dust or something subtle that I didn't pick up on!
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 80% classic cinnamon Toaster Strudel, 20% Cinnamon Toast Crunch, though I might've just falsely convinced myself that there was some element of cereal flavoring in there.
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 9 (-1 because I feel a bit swindled)
3.Dunkin' Mocha Latte Cereal
Here's what the actual cereal looks like:
TASTED LIKE: OH MY, we have a winner here! First of all, when you open the bag, your nostrils are greeted with a glorious waft of coffee, and the cereal itself contains that same, strong mocha taste. The little marshmallow bits are like the sweet cream that pairs well with the coffee, and they give a nice chewiness to go with the crunch. Oh, and the milk after the cereal is gone is basically coffee. I'm impressed. THIS IS INNOVATION, and hopefully it's the start of the coffee-cereal era.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 75% mocha latte, 20% sweet marshmallow, 5% classic cereal
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 9.5
4.Trix Oatmeal
This, and the other oatmeals that follow, have two separate packs. One containing just oats, the other a "topping" bag, which is pretty much just a small pack of the corresponding cereal. Here, I had some tiny pieces of Trix.
Here's the finished product:
TASTED LIKE: Oatmeal with random pieces of cereal dumped on top. I expected the cereal to actually be, like, mixed into the oats in some way, not just a glorified garnish.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 90% (boring) oatmeal, 10% the cereal packet randomly dumped on top.
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 1.5
5.Fruity Pebbles Oatmeal
Here's how the Fruity Pebbles oats look:
TASTED LIKE: Everything I said above still applies, but also Fruity Pebbles get soggy fast and oatmeal takes a bit to cool off, so it was oats with wet, limp cereal pieces. Not particularly appetizing.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 90% (still boring) oatmeal, 10% damp laundry cereal
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 1.5
6.Lucky Charms Oatmeal
Here's how the finished, stirred Lucky Charms oats look:
TASTED LIKE: Once again, nah. The Lucky Charms marshmallows melt and turn the oatmeal strange colors, which may or may not appeal to children. As an elderly man, I wasn't feeling it.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 90% (you guessed it — still bland, dull, completely and utterly boring) oatmeal, 10% food coloring
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 1.5
7.Wendy's Frosty Cereal
Here's what the actual cereal looks like:
TASTED LIKE: Dry? Not great. With milk? Not great but wet. Sometimes I smell dog treats and I'm like, I bet it wouldn't taste that bad by human standards, and this is the sort of taste I have in mind. OK, that's probably hyperbole — it's just that it pretty much tastes like an ordinary cocoa cereal with marshmallows thrown in the mix. Perhaps the actual Wendy's Frosty has been placed on such a high pedestal in my mind that this cereal never stood a chance of satisfying me.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 90% any cocoa cereal you've ever had, 10% dull marshmallows
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 5.2
8.Cap'n Crunch Berrytastic Pancakes
Here's what the finished pancake I made looked like, though I must warn you, I did a terrible job on the flip so it's a sad, slightly mangled, aesthetically off-putting lil' guy:
TASTED LIKE: Despite appearances, this pancake was glorious. That pancake mix DOES NOT cheat you. It's filled with little crunch berry particles that have a prominent taste, actually differentiating it from your ordinary pancake. I also tried it with syrup, which you'll see just below here.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 50% crunch berries, 50% pancake, perhaps the best balance of any item on this list.
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 9.2
9.I paired my fugly pancake with the Fruity Pebbles Syrup.
TASTED LIKE: OH MY. This is special. When you peel the little covering off the top, you smell the Fruity Pebbles, and this is basically a thick, liquid version of the cereal. I drizzled a generous puddle onto my pancake and was blown away. Together, the Fruity Pebbles syrup and Crunch Berries pancake are my favorite thing I ate on this list. Legendary duo. Tag team champions.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 50% Fruity Pebbles, 50% syrup. Perfectly balanced as all things should be.
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 9.7
10.Lucky Charms Marshmallow Pancakes
While the pancake mix already has some sort of colorful specks in it, there's also a small packet of Lucky Charms (mostly marshmallows) that can be added for topping.
So of course I dumped that shit on top, and here's how that came out:
TASTED LIKE: This was solid, but I should've had it before the Crunch Berry pancake raised the bar. This tastes more like a regular pancake with a hint of Lucky Charms in the mix, and a bit of cereal dumped on top. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't spectacular either. I also paired this with a syrup you'll see below.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 60% pancake, 40% Lucky Charms
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 7
11.I took this opportunity to add Cap'n Crunch Ocean Blue Maple Syrup onto the pancakes.
TASTED LIKE: I guess the label says it, but I didn't realize that this is just maple-flavored syrup. It has nothing to do with Cap'n Crunch, other than the label. It's not false advertisement; in fact it's quite upfront, but to insist on including mention of the Cap'n is a strange hill to dye on. Yes, it's blue, but so is Eiffel 65 — that doesn't warrant a special Cap'n Crunch label.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 100% maple-flavored syrup
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 5
12.Cinnamon Toast Crunch Popcorn
Here's what the actual popcorn looks like:
TASTED LIKE: Yep, that's cinnamony popcorn. It's got more of a dust than a glaze. It's one of those things that's pretty alright, but if you keep it next to you, half the bag might be gone pretty quickly.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 70% popcorn, 30% cinnamon
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 6
13.Finally, Cocoa Puffs Popcorn
Here's what the popcorn looks like:
TASTED LIKE: Not great. Like someone halfheartedly drizzled cocoa glaze onto popcorn. This...doesn't necessarily need to be a thing, but since it is, maybe it should have a little more chocolate.
FLAVOR PERCENTAGES: 93% bagged popcorn, 7% cocoa glaze
OVERALL RATING ON A SCALE OF 1–10: 1
That's it folks, but you want to know what's wild? I didn't even buy every single cereal item I saw. Here were some of the other things that exist — Cinnamon Toast Crunch cake, cookies, and frosting, Fruity Pebbles cake, and Rice Krispies Treats coffee creamer. Imagine what other cereal-based stuff might be sitting within the grocery store aisles near you, waiting for you to find them...
