Chocolate Toast Crunch

Name: Chocolate Toast Crunch
Variation: Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: Chocolate Toast Crunch has an advantage over other "chocolate alternative" cereals (e.g., Chocolate Cheerios, Cocoa Krispies, Cocoa Pebbles, Chocolate Frosted Flakes) in that it's not just chocolate. The thing that makes Cinnamon Toast Crunch unique is its cinnamon flavor, and the chocolate variety maintains that flavor. The one other cereal that does this is Chocolate Lucky Charms, which preserves the marshmallows that characterize Lucky Charms. But marshmallows aren't as uncommon in breakfast cereals as cinnamon, and the combination of chocolate and marshmallows (as much as I love it) isn't exactly unique, whereas chocolate and cinnamon is almost unheard of. But most importantly, they taste good together. I always enjoy an opportunity to dig into a box of Chocolate Toast Crunch.

Rating: 🥣🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: A tasty blend of cocoa and cinnamon notes.

Tres Leches Toast Crunch

Name: Tres Leches Toast Crunch
Variation: Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: I had to look up the difference between "dulce de leche" and "tres leches", because it sounded to me like "tres leches" just meant more leche... As it turns out, "dulce de leche" is a milk-based caramel-like confection, while "tres leches" is a type of sponge cake soaked in three different kinds of milk (in varying densities, from evaporated to condensed to heavy cream). Sounds pretty decadent.

Choose your leche.

This cereal has a very strong smell out of the box - I don't know how else to describe it but "very milky cake". And the milky, creamy flavor follows through. Given the emphasis on milk, and the fact that you pour milk over cereal, I feel like "tres leches" was a pretty obvious choice for a cereal flavor, but I can't say that I like it. I don't actually like the flavor of milk - I prefer when a cereal makes the milk taste like something else. Most of the time, I can power through a cereal I don't particularly like, but I don't know that I want to eat even a second bowl of this - the milky milky milk flavor just puts me right off.

Rating: 🥣
Leftover Milk: Super sweet milky cinnamon.

TMNT Mutant Mayhem

Name: TMNT Mutant Mayhem Cowabunga Cinnamon Apple
Variation: Cookie Crisp?
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: I was intrigued by this cereal promoting the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie Mutant Mayhem right from the outset, with its "Cowabunga Cinnamon Apple" flavor, and the fact that it has marshmallows. Is this General Mills' answer to Kellogg's Apple Jacks? The Nickelodeon tag calls to mind last year's variation, Apple Jacks Nickelodeon Slime. The back of the box features half of a board game, in what feels like a cheap ploy to get you to buy a second box; but the game looks fun pieced together.

"Collect both games to complete the adventure."

Upon opening the box, I see suspiciously Cookie Crisp-like wafers, but with a sweet and apple-y taste. The marshmallows (I feel like there could be more of them, or have they sunk to the bottom of the box?) are little green turtle heads with their four different colored masks. I would describe the taste as if applesauce were made into a cereal, but the flavor fades a little bit as your tongue acclimates to it. The wafers offer a satisfying crunch, and the occasional bite of marshmallow is always appreciated.

I feel like these flat, round saucers could easily have been pizzas - I'm surprised they didn't capitalize on that. But I guess that would have been a weird flavor for a cereal (can you imagine "Pizza Puffs", or "Marinara and Mozzarella Crunch"?). I feel like this cereal distinguishes itself perfectly well from Apple Jacks, despite featuring a similar flavor (though it's a good choice as we're heading in to fall). As to whether I prefer it over Apple Jacks with Marshmallows? Hard to say.

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Definite hints of apple & cinnamon.

Apple Jacks with Marshmallows

Name: Apple Jacks with Marshmallows
Variation: Apple Jacks
Manufacturer: Kellogg's

Review: This cereal is very similar to Apple Jacks with Star Marshmallows that I've had before, but with less flashy marshmallows. And I think that the rating I gave it back then has borne out, because I'm enjoying eating this cereal, too. It remains to be seen if I'll ever become a fan of plain Apple Jacks, but adding marshmallows to it is definitely enough to grab my interest!

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Tastes a bit marshmallow-y.

Lucky Charms & Cocoa Puffs Minis

It was a fun surprise when I walked into stores this spring and discovered that General Mills had expanded its Minis lineup (initially launched last fall) to include Lucky Charms and Cocoa Puffs. Of course I had to try them!

Name: Lucky Charms Minis
Variation: Lucky Charms
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: Trix may have been the most visually impressive of the Minis cereals, but Lucky Charms is the most structurally interesting, given that it has both mini puffs AND mini marshmallows (which are positively adorable!). The puffs give it more of a crunch than regular Lucky Charms (with a texture that is perhaps more akin to Marshmallow Clusters or Honey Clovers), but I'm afraid the marshmallows have not benefitted from this cereal being put under the shrink ray, as the balance has shifted subtly away from them. Still, it's a decent facsimile of the original cereal. Not an improvement, once again, but a fun novelty nonetheless.

Rating: 🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: I detect notes of marshmallow and corn.

Name: Cocoa Puffs Minis
Variation: Cocoa Puffs
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: This is one of the more straightforward of the Minis cereals - like Reese's Puffs without the peanut butter. The only difference from the regular cereal is that the puffs have shrunk! It has a really good cocoa flavor, and I like the crisp crunchiness of the mini puffs; which, again, you have a tendency to want to shovel into your mouth. It's not flashy, but I think that, along with Trix (which IS flashy), I think this is one of the cereals that has benefitted most from the Minis treatment.

Rating: 🥣🥣🥣
Leftover Milk: Tastes like a chocolate syrup milkshake!

Once again, the backs of these boxes contain punch-out additions to the mini kitchens we've built before - adding an art room and a game room to our mini cereal mansion. And, because I did it last time, these two cereals taste great together, too! (It's basically Chocolate Lucky Charms Minis). I think these two were a worthy addition to the Minis lineup - I'm glad they expanded it. Come fall, will there be Cookie Crisp and Honey Nut Cheerios Minis on the shelves? I'd like to see that!

Vanilla Spice Cheerios

Name: Vanilla Spice Cheerios
Variation: Cheerios
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: My main question for this cereal was, what's the difference between vanilla and vanilla spice? And the answer is - cinnamon! Of course, I would have known that if I'd paid more attention to the box, but it's not a very eye-catching box. Honestly, the brown doesn't hint at cinnamon so much as it looks like the box is old and the colors are faded. Which, as it turns out, is just how this cereal tastes. To be fair, I wasn't actually expecting to like this flavor, but I was hoping it would at least have flavor. I'd be curious to see what a vanilla & cinnamon cereal tastes like, but I'm not sure I even taste vanilla, and there's only the barest hint of cinnamon. I might as well be eating plain Cheerios - or Multigrain, which is what it looks like. This cereal is wholly underwhelming.

Rating: 🥣
Leftover Milk: Barely even flavored.

Cheerios Oat Crunch Berry

Name: Cheerios Oat Crunch Berry
Variation: Cheerios
Manufacturer: General Mills

Review: After hyping this cereal up in my own mind, it turned out to be an anticlimactic finish to my survey of the Oat Crunch lineup. The cereal has a slightly purple-ish cast, but there are no dried fruit bits like I was hoping for. The berry flavor is muted, but noticeable - it doesn't blast you with sweetness. Some would consider this a positive; I consider it a negative. It's a good flavor idea for this lineup, but it's not the runaway winner I thought it was gonna be. I think my favorite is still Almond, but again, that's not saying much. Now that I've done my due diligence, can I go back to eating Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch, please?

Rating: 🥣
Leftover Milk: By the time you're finished eating the bowl, you won't even notice the subtle berry flavor in the milk.