Frute Brute

Name: Frute Brute
Variation: Monster Cereals
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: It occurred to me last year when I tried Monster Mash, that apart from Count Chocula, all the Monster Cereals are fruity. In their defense, they do all have marshmallows, but that's why Count Chocula is my favorite. Still, I was excited to see Frute Brute on the shelves this year, because it's one of the forgotten Monster Cereals that's hard to find, and I don't think I've ever tried it before (unless I was too young to remember). I was even more intrigued when I picked up the box and noticed that it's a cherry-flavored cereal*. Franken Berry suffers in that it has a lot of competition from other strawberry cereals on the market, and I think part of Boo Berry's appeal is the novelty of blueberry as a cereal flavor. Well, cherry has that novelty (maybe even more so), but it suffers from not being very distinguishable - at least visually - from strawberry.

As a matter of fact, when I opened my box of Frute Brute, I thought for a second that there had been a manufacturing error, because it looked exactly like Franken Berry. I guess I thought it would be a different shade of pink. Upon closer inspection, the marshmallows are different (orange, yellow, pink, and purple), and the cereal has a distinct cherry flavor. I like it better than Franken Berry. In fact, excluding Count Chocula, this might just be my favorite fruity Monster Cereal. I'm surprised it's not more popular*. To my disappointment, I saw stacks of boxes on clearance before the end of September (don't get me started on stores displaying Halloween products in August and liquidating them before even the start of October). For a second-tier Monster Cereal, I wasn't expecting Frute Brute to be very good, but it has exceeded my expectations!

Now I just need to get my hands on a box of Fruity Yummy Mummy...

*Some quick research has revealed that Fruit Brute (it used to be styled without the quirky misspelling) originally featured lime marshmallows, instead of being cherry-flavored. I daresay this may have contributed to it being the first Monster Cereal to be discontinued. Which is unfortunate; I suspect it would have been more popular in its current formulation - but how will people know it's been improved? Besides, Frute Brute will never be able to compete with the name recognition of Franken Berry. If I were in charge of Monster Cereals, I would change Franken Berry to Franken Cherry, but I don't know how the rest of the cereal-loving world would feel about that.

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: It's pink, but I was hoping for a stronger cherry flavor.