Trix Mystery Color

Name: Trix Mystery Color
Variation: Trix
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: Honestly, I'm getting a little annoyed with all these minor variations of Trix. I don't even like Trix that much* to begin with. I was fed up when they kept throwing different versions with marshmallows at me, and now they don't even have marshmallows!

First it was "silly rabbit turned milk pink", and now it's "turns milk a mystery color". The mystery color better not be pink. >.> In fact, I would hope that it would be a different color each time, based on the combination of cereal pieces - although I don't know how that would work, if it's all pretty much evenly mixed in the box.

Anyway, it tastes just like Trix (with the fruity shapes, not the puffs), and the mystery color reveal is anti-climactic. My default rating for Trix is 2 bowls, but I'm tempted to rate it a 1, just because the novelty is so lame, and I feel like I've been "Trix'd" into buying another box...

*It's funny how, being forced to repeatedly eat some cereals I kinda like (such as Trix) is making me like them less, while being forced to repeatedly eat some cereals I never really liked (such as Frosted Flakes), is making me like them more.

Rating: 🥣
Leftover Milk: 1 of 3 colors? All I get is orangey-pink.

Frosted Flakes with Jibbitz Marshmallows

Name: Frosted Flakes with Jibbitz Marshmallows
Variation: Frosted Flakes
Manufacturer: Kellogg's

Review: Kellogg's is doing a promotional tie-in with Crocs (also featured on Froot Loops w/Marshmallows, but with the regular marshmallows). I'm not crazy about Crocs - I think they're a dubious fashion statement. And for a while I passed this cereal up. But ultimately, I decided I could stand to add a box of Frosted Flakes w/Marshmallows to my breakfast lineup, since I didn't hate it when Tony was schmoozing with the Creeper Bits.

Toucan Sam is sharing the advertising duties.

The light green and orange marshmallows - while not as strongly colored as they look on the box - make for a nice, soft visual palette. As far as nutritional content goes, Frosted Flakes is actually fat free, but because they're frosted, it's not the least sugary cereal on the market (and adding marshmallows doesn't help). I think the marshmallow shapes could be more interesting, especially if they're imitating Jibbitz charms (what are they - flowers, fish, and... balls?).

What are Jibbitz charms, you ask? They're a last ditch effort to make Crocs seem cool by giving people the option to accessorize and individualize their shoes (while lining the inventor's wallet). It's this generation's fidget spinners, or Silly Bandz bracelets (remember those?). Anyway, the taste of Frosted Flakes with marshmallows has definitely grown on me. If it were plain, I wouldn't be so sure, but with the marshmallows, it's actually not bad.

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Sweet, but flakey.

Fruity Cheerios

Name: Fruity Cheerios
Variation: Cheerios
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: You'd think something with a generic name like "Fruity Cheerios" would have been done before, but the box says it's new. Ignoring the green Cheerios, this cereal makes a much better impression of "red, white, and blue" than Team Cheerios did (ironically). The only fruit mentioned by name on the box (on the back, and in the ingredients) is pear - which is intriguing. However, the flavor is a little underwhelming. After having Team Cheerios (which was good), and Peach Mango Cheerios (which I liked better than I expected to), this is a bit of a letdown. It's too bad that both of those cereals are "limited editions", and this is the one that's "new" (and therefore, more likely to stick around). That said, it's been growing on me, and it does taste good with fresh fruit added in. I think I could learn to like it.

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Pink and pear-y.

Peach Mango Cheerios

Name: Peach Mango Cheerios
Variation: Cheerios
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: I wasn't sure how I was going to like this new flavor of Cheerios, but I know somebody who was very excited to see it. The Cheerios are lightly-colored, and slightly yellowish. They taste kind of plain dry, but that's because the flavor only really comes out in milk. And I can distinctly taste the peach and mango. It's actually quite refreshing. Turns out, peach and mango complement each other really well. It reminds me of a mango colada drink I had recently. I know I don't have great memories of Toasted Coconut Cheerios (although I wonder if my opinion would change if I tried it again), aside from the beautiful teal green box, but this cereal makes me think a Pina Colada Cheerios would be really good. In any case, this is another resounding success for the Cheerios brand. It's almost a shame it's a limited edition. Imagine having all the flavors of Cheerios at your disposal - like from a big cereal vending machine - and being able to mix and match. I bet a tropical medley of Cheerios flavors would be better than Froot Loops Tropical was...

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Fancy a peach mango smoothie?

Chocolatey Chocolate Lucky Charms

Name: Chocolatey Chocolate Lucky Charms
Variation: Lucky Charms
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: I was pretty surprised when I saw this new version of Chocolate Lucky Charms on the shelf. Not only is it chocolate, but it's chocolatey chocolate! I thought, "how different could it be?" But, you know I had to try it. It has a combination of regular Lucky Charms marshmallows, and new chocolate-flavored marshmallows. Honestly, I suspect it's just a slightly rebranded version of Lucky Charms with Haunted Marshmallows that we saw last fall, which is pretty much the same thing. It's basically what you would get if you mixed Chocolate Lucky Charms with Count Chocula. I should love it - and I do like it - but at this point I feel like we're just retreading old ground. And I actually miss the bright colors of Lucky Charms' original marshmallows.

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Chocolatey, but not as chocolatey as Cocoa Puffs.

Crunch Berries

Name: Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: Having now had plain Cap'n Crunch, I can properly assess the virtues of this cereal. And I can say, from the very first bite, the fruity flavor is a welcome addition to round out the plainness of the regular crunch pieces. And the colors! This is a very colorful cereal. No competition for Fruity Pebbles, but I do appreciate the differently-colored red, green, blue, and purple berries. I'm glad we've managed to get here from only having red berries when this cereal originally debuted (not that I was around for that). People complain about the sharpness of Cap'n Crunch's cereal pieces - and it's a valid concern - but when I eat them in milk, they soften up enough not to cause me any problems. This is definitely one of my favorite cereals on the market and, like Reese's Puffs, whenever I eat it, I can't seem to shovel enough of it into my mouth!

Rating: 🥣🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Sweet, and just a little bit fruity.

Cap'n Crunch

Name: Cap'n Crunch
Variation: n/a
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: It's time to review one of the classics! Actually, I've never had plain Cap'n Crunch before. I've had Crunch Berries. I've even had Oops! All Berries. But never just Cap'n Crunch. Although the difference in nutritional content between this and Crunch Berries is just one gram of sugar and ten calories, so it's not like eating Lucky Charms without the marshmallows. That said, it is kinda plain, and I do miss the subtly fruity complement of the crunch berries. It's not a terrible cereal, but these crunch pieces don't fare as well as the crunch berries do on their own, and I just can't see me going out of my way to have this cereal again, when I could have it with crunch berries instead.

Rating: 🥣
Leftover Milk: Still sweet.

Birthday Cake LOADED

Name: Birthday Cake Loaded
Variation: n/a
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: Having tried Cocoa Puffs, Trix, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Loaded, I was surprised to see this new cereal on the shelves. It's the first one to break the mold of being based on an already established Big G cereal. I'm not even sure whose birthday we're celebrating... But given that I've described the other Loaded cereals as tasting like eating vanilla frosted cupcakes, it would seem to be a natural choice.

This time, the biscuits are pretty and pink. I don't know if it's just the power of suggestion, but I swear they taste faintly of strawberry. In milk, they actually do a really good job of imitating the texture and mouthfeel of a frosted birthday cake. Given that I'm not very fond of birthday cake to begin with (as has already been established), I like it better than I thought I would. In fact, this might just be the best birthday cake cereal on the market - better, even, than LOL Surprise!

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Pink, but kinda plain.