Mystery Crunch

Name: Mystery Crunch
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: I'm not going to waste any time with a preamble, because I'm itching to dive into the mystery that is this new unidentified flavor of Cap'n Crunch. The box is a pleasing - but not very enlightening - shade of purple. The crunch pieces look a little pale. Upon first smell, my thought was marshmallow. The back of the box claims to offer some clues. On it, the Cap'n is depicted stranded on a tiny island. A volleyball with his dog's face drawn on it (I'm told this is a reference to the movie Cast Away) sits at his feet, next to a treasure chest. A scroll lists some possible flavors, with "coconut" crossed out, and "creamy" circled. The cereal does taste creamy. There is fruit scattered about - apples, an orange, strawberries, and cherries. Bananas are growing in a palm tree curling around which are the unmistakable flowers of the vanilla plant. Curiously, there is a crab in a leaky canoe sipping cola from a glass bottle. All is bathed in twilight, under a full moon.

If the literal red herring jumping out of the water is any indication, these clues yield more questions than answers. The box is labeled "Vol. 1" - does this mean that there are (or will be) other boxes with other clues? Or is there actually more than one different mystery flavor swirling about? That would be diabolical, but it could explain the contradicting clues. I would love for there to be a "pina colada" flavor of Cap'n Crunch - it would suit the brand's beachy vibe perfectly - but there are no pineapples depicted, and "coconut" is crossed off the list. Anyway, I don't think the cereal tastes particularly fruity - and the fruits scattered about aren't especially tropical, either. My best guess is cream soda. And the more of this cereal I eat, the more convinced I am of it. I'm even starting to detect a hint of a bubbly texture! Whatever it turns out to be, I can tell you that I like it (even though I don't normally like cream soda). And I've had fun probing this mystery.

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Sweet and creamy.

Orange Creampop Crunch

Name: Orange Creampop Crunch
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: Echoing Post's own introduction of a fruit 'n' cream cereal, this new summer limited edition by Quaker Oats uses the orange creampop as its inspiration. I'll be honest, orange is probably my least favorite fruity flavor, and you should know by now that I'm not fond of mixing fruit and cream. Consisting of orange Cap'n Crunch pieces (no Crunch Berries here to speak of), the orange flavor doesn't punch you in the mouth, but it is noticeably creamy. However, it leaves a pungent aftertaste. The cereal features Cap'n Crunch's usual mouthfeel (some complain about its sharpness, but it also has a tendency to make you wanna shovel it into your mouth), so it's not unpleasant to eat. But as far as flavors go, it's definitely not my thing. Now, if only Cookie Crisp would debut a summer edition of their cereal based on the chipwich!

Rating: 🥣
Leftover Milk: A creamy, orange milkshake...

Arctic Crunch

Name: Arctic Crunch (Vanilla Frost)
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: Continuing Quaker Oats' campaign to donate a portion of sales to Ocean Conservancy, this new variety of Cap'n Crunch would seem to be a sequel to last year's Sea Berry Crunch. I only wish last year's unfortunate recall hadn't hamstrung Sea Berry Crunch's chances at popularity (I've noticed that Cinnamon Crunch - which was also affected - appears to be poised for more longevity). I like the idea of the Cap'n sailing to the Arctic - it's entirely on-brand. But I think I've established by now my feelings on vanilla. I'm just glad the "frost" part doesn't refer to that mouth-cooling menthol effect that I've had quite enough of already.

Opening the box, you can definitely smell the vanilla. The white and blue color mix looks suitably arctic. I feel like the Crunch Berries are softer than usual - they almost melt in your mouth. The vanilla flavor is not overpowering, but I do miss the Crunch Berries' usual, fruity flavor. I really like this cereal's presentation and thematic consistency - I believe those are things that deserve recognition. But the bottom line is that this is a breakfast cereal, and a commercial product. And I don't know that I like eating it enough to buy it again, especially when there are better Crunch Berry cereals already on the market...

Rating: 🥣
Leftover Milk: Cool blue vanilla.

Sea Berry Crunch

Name: Sea Berry Crunch
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: I've been on the lookout for this cereal ever since the last box I bought (all the way back in January) was recalled (along with Cinnamon Crunch). So you can imagine my excitement - and relief - when I finally saw it back on the shelves late in the year. I thought it would just be like a blue version of Oops! All Red Berries. But then I read that it was "berry" flavored, so I've been eager to try it.

The "blue" is actually more of a turquoise, and it looks beautiful. Does it have more of a blueberry (as opposed to strawberry) flavor? Maybe. It's hard to tell; and you can't figure it out by looking at the ingredients, because all it says is "natural and artificial flavors". Regardless, it tastes great, as expected. I'm not sure I'd choose it over the regular version of Oops! All Berries, but I enjoyed having it as an alternative.

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Sweet, and mildly fruity.

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.

Cinnamon Crunch

Name: Cinnamon Crunch
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: This is one of two new varieties of Cap'n Crunch that I originally picked up at the start of the year. But, unfortunately, there was a recall. So I've been waiting patiently to see them on the shelves again, and this is the only one I've spotted so far. It's a straightforward - but intriguing - new variation of Cap'n Crunch. No Crunch Berries, just cinnamon crunch pieces. And you can really taste the cinnamon. It's reminiscent of eating snickerdoodle cookies. I guess if you don't like cinnamon, you're not gonna like this - it's a straighter dose, I think, than what you get in Cinnamon Toast Crunch. But I like it. The crunch pieces have a good mouthfeel, and they're sweet, to keep you coming back for mouthful after mouthful. Now I just hope I can find a[nother] box of Sea Berry Crunch...

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Expect sweet, cinnamon milk.

[Experiment] Fluffernutter Crunch

Description: For this experiment, I added generic cereal marshmallows to Peanut Butter Crunch to imitate the flavor of "fluffernutter" - a combination of peanut butter and marshmallow. I'm surprised I haven't seen this done before; cereals with marshmallows are ubiquitous. Then again, peanut butter isn't the most obvious choice for a base flavor, and peanut butter cereals themselves are not all that common (Peanut Butter Crunch may be the only one you can really count on). Come to think of it, I've never seen a variation of Cap'n Crunch that had marshmallows, so maybe Quaker Oats just doesn't like putting marshmallows in their cereal.

Anyway, it's a good combination. The marshmallows are soft and sweet and add a counterbalance to the crunchy peanut butter flavor. Sourcing the marshmallows (from a different cereal) was a chore, so making it yourself is not that easy, but I think it's a great idea. Cereal manufacturers take note!

Rating: 🥣🥣

[Experiment] Froot Loops Lemonade

Description: I wanted to try this experiment last summer, but I never got around to fitting it into my schedule. But after trying Frosted Lemon Cheerios this spring (and then discovering another lemon cereal in Hot Wheels), I felt it was time.

I remember being pretty shocked when I learned that the flavor of Froot Loops is lemon - less from the realization that the differently-colored loops are not different flavors, and mainly because when it comes to fruit-flavored candy and snacks, I tend to favor the red fruits (strawberry, cherry, watermelon) over the citrus-y ones (lemon, lime, orange). Yet, somehow, Froot Loops is my favorite (mainstream) fruity cereal.

Anyway, knowing that Froot Loops is lemon-flavored, I'm surprised Kellogg's has never (at least to my knowledge) capitalized on that fact and marketed a "lemonade" oriented version of Froot Loops. It could be a summer staple! I was thinking that you could pare down the loops to just yellow and red/pink, and call it Froot Loops Pink Lemonade.

Pink & Blue Lemonade

Of course, once I thought of that, my imagination started running, and I realized you could do a number of other variations - like Lemon Lime, Blue Raspberry, and Cherry Limeade!

Lymon Loops

Blue Raspberry

Cherry Limeade

As you can see, I went a step further and started tossing in differently-colored Crunch Berries - which could be used to simulate Strawberry and Blueberry Lemonade!

Strawberry & Blueberry Lemonade

(Yes, it's really red).

Honestly, it got to a point where the myriad possibilities started to become overbearing, and I just had to draw a line and stop experimenting. Maybe that's why Kellogg's has never released a Froot Loops Lemonade. Still, I think it's a good idea.

Rating: 🥣🥣

[Experiment] Peanut Butter Waffle Crisp

Description: As far as waffle cereals go, I actually like Eggo Homestyle better, but I thought "Peanut Butter Waffle Crisp" had a better ring to it. I was introduced to peanut butter waffles the first time I ate at a Waffle House, on a road trip. They sprinkle peanut butter chips (like chocolate chips, but made with peanut butter) over hot waffles. It's delicious! Since then, I've gotten into the habit of spreading peanut butter directly on my waffles at home (on the rare occasion that I do eat waffles). So I thought this would be a fun idea for a cereal experiment. It's good, and the peanut butter adds a little variety to an otherwise kind of one-note cereal. Give it a try sometime!

Rating: 🥣🥣

[Experiment] French Toast Crunch Berries

Description: So I tried General Mills' Cinnamon Toast Crunch derivative French Toast Crunch, and (like with my real French toast) I felt that it could benefit from being paired with a fruity companion. And Quaker Oats' Oops! All Berries is pretty versatile, and well-poised to serve as an add-in to other cereals. The result of their combination is basically strawberry French toast - in cereal form!

I'm still not super fond of the texture of the French toast pieces (no matter how cute they are). The addition of the Crunch Berries is an improvement, but I don't know if it really comes together. When I tried using JoJo Siwa Strawberry Bop!, it was a little more cohesive, but not necessarily any better. I can't imagine going out of my way to have either one again.

Rating: 🥣

Birthday Crunch

Name: Birthday Crunch
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: This year is the 60th anniversary of Cap'n Crunch, and you know what that means - Quaker Oats is celebrating with a birthday cake-flavored version of their flagship cereal. The colors (blue, purple, red, and yellow) aren't quite as dark as they appear on the box, but it does give them that almost pastel look that's often characteristic of the birthday cake aesthetic. I appreciate that the cereal pieces are shaped like balloons, and not just plain spheres. The birthday cake flavor is not super strong (which I actually think is a good thing). They're kind of like subdued Crunch Berries - with all the crunch that you'd expect. Honestly, I'd just as soon be eating Oops! All Berries, but this is a perfectly acceptable cereal, and as long as it only comes along once every five or ten years, I'm happy to be able to join in the Cap'n's birthday celebration!

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: A little cake-y, but more corn-y than you might expect.

Oops! All Red Berries

Name: Oops! All Red Berries
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: These days, Crunch Berries come in four colors: red, green, blue, and purple. But legend has it that when Crunch Berries debuted in 1967, all the berries were red. So this would be like if Oops! All Berries came out in the seventies. It's actually a pretty clever marketing idea for Valentine's Day (albeit without explicitly mentioning the holiday) - and the box is gorgeous. You already know my opinion on Oops! All Berries, and I find that the red is pretty enough that the reduction in colors doesn't bother me much. It's probably just a psychological trick, because they're all red, but I feel like I can taste the strawberry flavor better than usual. And the milk at the end is the reddest milk I've ever seen! I'd say this is another successful addition to Cap'n Crunch's holiday lineup.

Rating: 🥣🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Dark, vibrant pink!

Oops! All Berries

Name: Oops! All Berries
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: I realize this is neither a new or limited edition cereal, but it must have been quite the novelty when it first came out. Anyway, I found myself in possession of a box, so I figured I'd give it a proper space on this blog.

Oops! All Berries is exactly what it says on the tin - Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries, and nothing but Crunch Berries. It's like if Lucky Charms were nothing but marshmallows, or Honey Nut Cheerios were nothing but nuts dipped in honey.

Actually, it's very good. I'm not sure if it's better than regular Crunch Berries - because even though the berries are better than the plain yellow pieces that come in regular Cap'n Crunch, like with Lucky Charms, there's a balance to be found. A virtue in moderation. Like how a beautiful gem can be set off by a contrasting, plain background.

That said, I'm not gonna lie and say there isn't any joy in finding a treasure chest filled with nothing but glittering jewels. But I feel like the appeal would wear off if that's what you woke up to every day. Still, this is a fun cereal, and it tastes good, too!

Rating: 🥣🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Sweet and fruity!

Peanut Butter Crunch

Name: Peanut Butter Crunch
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: Although I featured this cereal already for my Chocolatey Peanut Butter Crunch experiment, I felt like it deserved a proper entry. I wish I could do the same for Chocolatey Crunch, but amazingly, it seems to have been discontinued. Though there are plenty of other chocolate cereals on the market. Peanut butter cereals are (surprisingly) few and far between - this is one you can usually count on finding at the store. It's a great idea for a variation on Cap'n Crunch, and it has a great peanut butter flavor. It also has lots of potential as a peanut butter mix-in for other cereal experiments, as we've already seen, and as we're going to see more of in the future. I love it!

Rating: 🥣🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Peanut buttery.

DC's Strong Berry & Cinnamon Bolts

I must have missed these cereals the first time around, because I found these two boxes at second run stores within about a month of their expiration date. I actually found one at one store, saw an ad for the other on the side of the box, and thought to myself, "I'm never gonna find the other one." But then I went to the next store, and there it was! I was so relieved!

Cinnamon Bolts features The Flash, and Strong Berry celebrates your choice of Superman or Supergirl, depending on which side of the box you favor (in a cereal box version of the "double A-side"). These cereals remind me of the Superman and Batman cereals they had several years ago (probably a promotion for the Batman v. Superman movie from 2016). I don't recall those cereals being very good, but intriguingly, these feature the words "Cap'n Crunch" on the box. Let's see how they taste!

Name: Strong Berry
Variation: Cap'n Crunch?
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: I have to say, I was really hoping this cereal would taste just like Cap'n Crunch, or maybe even Oops! All Berries, because it looks just like Red, White & Blue Crunch, except with the pieces in the shape of triangular loops (like the field against which the 'S' in Superman's symbol sits). But instead, it's just... plain. Like the kind of cereal you would expect a company named "Quaker Oats" to make if you didn't know they were responsible for Cap'n Crunch. If there's any strawberry flavor at all, it's not berry strong. They could have gone with a proven formula, but instead we get this? What's the point?

Rating: 🥣
Leftover Milk: Udderly plain...

Name: Cinnamon Bolts
Variation: Definitely not Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: Before I tried Strong Berry, when I still thought these cereals were based on Cap'n Crunch, I was very curious to try this one, because I've never seen a cinnamon version of Cap'n Crunch before. But it's just another basic, oat-based cereal, with a subdued cinnamon flavor. The lightning bolt-shaped pieces are really neat, though - Pikachu ought to take note. Between these two cereals, I think this is the better one, but it's not very good, either.

Rating: 🥣
Leftover Milk: Mildly cinnamon.

[Flashback] Chocolatey Peanut Butter Crunch

Notice: Flashback reviews have been written from memory, without having the cereal in front of me. I started taking pictures of notable cereal varieties several years before I decided to start a blog reviewing them. As such, details beyond whether I simply liked the cereal or not may be hazy, especially regarding the quality of the leftover milk. Whenever possible, I have made an effort to procure another box of the cereal for a proper review (even the ones I didn't like), but due to the ephemeral nature of many of these novelty cereals, this is not always possible.

Name: Chocolatey/Peanut Butter Crunch
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: I wanted to do something special for the one year anniversary of this blog, so I'm taking a look back at the very first cereal I ever photographed following the renaissance of my interest in breakfast cereals. Not only does this photo document two different varieties of Cap'n Crunch, but represents a homebrew experiment involving mixing different cereal ingredients together in one bowl - something I'd like to document more of on this blog if the onslaught of new novelty cereals ever lets up. I've also still got a handful of flashbacks to post featuring cereals I've taken pictures of from before I started this blog. But I'm quickly learning that novelty cereals are a surprisingly lucrative industry (no doubt thanks to suckers like me, who'll buy anything just because it says "new" or "limited edition" on the box); I'm struggling to keep up!

This flashback takes us back ten years(!), to the end of 2012. Back then, I was taking matters into my own hands, mixing Chocolatey and Peanut Butter versions of Cap'n Crunch together. Although Reese's Puffs is one of my favorite cereals, it has a particular taste and texture, and this is more of a distinct mixture than a homogeneous combination of the two flavors. I haven't seen Chocolatey Crunch around for a while (though Chocolate Caramel Crunch has been making the rounds of late), and there is a dearth of peanut butter cereals on the market. I was disappointed when Cheerios recalled their Peanut Butter flavor due to peanut allergy concerns (although it buttered me up for the later release of their Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor), leaving a conspicuous vacuum of good cereals in which to cut up bananas - something I hardly ever do anymore. But this is a winning combination; I'm surprised I've never seen these two cereals marketed together in the same box, considering that the chocolatey crunch pieces and the peanut butter puffs complement each other as perfectly as Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries!

Rating: 🥣🥣🥣

Red, White & Blue Crunch

Name: Red, White & Blue Crunch
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: Unlike the other holiday varieties of Cap'n Crunch which take after Crunch Berries, I suspect that this cereal - which has no yellow crunch pieces and boasts "red, white & blue berries" (now in "new star shapes") - is more akin to Oops! All Berries. Which is still not a bad thing. In fact, the berries are my favorite part of the cereal, so I think I might like this variety (which I have also seen marketed as "Hero Crunch") even better than Christmas Crunch (although Halloween Crunch's milk-changing ghosts are still a lot of fun). Either way, it's a great choice of cereal to have on the morning of the 4th of July!

Rating: 🥣🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Sugary sweet!

Chocolate Caramel Crunch

Name: Chocolate Caramel Crunch
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: My recent experience with novelty editions of Cap'n Crunch has largely included holiday editions that still taste like the regular cereal, so I was really excited to try this Chocolate Caramel Crunch. Caramel may not be my favorite companion to chocolate (that would be peanut butter), but it's certainly not a bad choice. I remember the first time I had a bowl of this cereal last fall, the flavor combination was a little off-putting. But as I worked my way through the box, the taste of it grew on me (as sometimes happens). After all, it is still Cap'n Crunch. This cereal may not be my favorite ship in the captain's fleet, but I do enjoy eating it.

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Flavored with chocolate and caramel!

Christmas Crunch

Name: Christmas Crunch
Variation: Cap'n Crunch
Manufacturer: Quaker Oats

Review: I was relieved to find this cereal this year, so I could review it for my blog - and on Christmas Day! I actually saw a man setting up the display at Walmart on the last day of November, and was the very first person to grab a box. This cereal tastes just like Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries (which, again, is not a bad thing), but with berries in festive red and green shapes. Although it doesn't turn the milk purple, it does leave the usual sugary sweet taste.

Rating: 🥣🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Sugary sweet!