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Today’s cereal video started with a fan request. And then we visited a Walmart in Virginia on our way home from a wedding and found a Limited Edition cereal to compare it to.

Apple Cinnamon Cheerios are a General Mills whole grain oat cereal. They taste like Cheerios always taste, but with a delicious cinnamon coating. The apple isn’t very noticeable, but the cereal is very tasty. Also, thanks to Kung Fu Panda 2, there was a toy inside the box. If NYCWD had been in the room the cereal would have received 5 bowls for that alone. Apple Cinnamon Cheerios also gets pluses for a good box and bag opening, a perfect sog, and real apple puree in its ingredients. Deductions are for having wheat but not listing it as an allergen and being high in sugars while being low on fiber and protein.



Post Pebbles Boulders are listed as being Stone Age Caramel Apple flavor. It smells like apple, it kinda tastes like apple, but it definitely tastes like sticky caramel sugar that will rot your teeth before you can even finish grabbing for your toothbrush. Its nutrition information is pretty comparable to Apple Cinnamon Cheerios but boasts whole grain corn flour as well as whole grain oat flour. Kudos to Post for listing wheat so those allergic will quickly be able to see they should stay away from this one. Too bad the taste knocked out any positive. I feel generous in the number of bowls I gave this cereal. Despite its claim to having less sugar than Honey Nut Cheerios, it tastes like a big bowl of sweet yucky. Also, what’s up with the bones? I know it’s a Flintstones based cereal, but I don’t eat bones. Ew. Dude.

Apple Cinnamon Cheerios

Taste: Deliciously cinnamon oat goodness
Box opening: Good
Bag rippage: A little tough to get in the bag but it didn’t rip
Bag slippage: None, and a toy came flying out! Bonus!
Sog factor: Unsoggy
Allergy alert: No listed allergens, but there’s wheat in there

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Apple Cinnamon Cheerios visit Cheerios.

Pebbles Boulders Stone Age Caramel Apple

Taste: Like apple, but with a really strange and sweet tang
Box opening: A little rip.
Bag rippage: Tough
Bag slippage: No slip
Sog factor: Unsoggy
Allergy alert: Wheat is listed as its ownly “Contains” ingredient

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Pebbles Stone Age Caramel Apple Boulders visit Post.

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Fiber One Blueberry Toaster Pastry is a General Mills product that is high in fiber and whole grain and peculiar on flavor.

Fiber One Blueberry Toaster Pastry tastes entirely like the Newton portion of a Fig Newton, and very little like blueberry at all. Perhaps that’s because it is being flavored with grape juice and colored by food dye instead of having much natural blueberry in it to start.

As you may recall from the video, this product has gelatin in it which, unless explicitly listed as vegetable gelatin, should be assumed to be an animal based gelatin and therefore this is not a vegetarian product.

It also has a large amount of wheat in it so isn’t gluten free either.

I was having trouble understanding what was providing the fiber in Fiber One Blueberry Toaster Pastry during filming. Enzyme modified soy protein is NOT the fiber ingredient, that’s just a cheaper way of adding soy to things, and therefore adding protein. The fiber ingredient is polydextrose, which always throws me off because it has the word dextrose in it, which to me means SUGAR. But here it means fiber. (Insert eyeroll here.)

Allergens listed: wheat, milk, and soy

Deductions for taste, method of flavoring, too much pastry, some pretty un-awesome ingredients, and lack of vitamins and minerals.

This thing’s lucky it got any bowls, GEEEEZ.

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Fiber One Blueberry Toaster Pastry visit …well, for whatever reason General Mills doesn’t talk about their own freaking product, so how about you just go buy some at Amazon. For other Fiber One products visit Fiber One.

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Kellogg’s Frosted Chocolate Pop-Tarts Mini-Crisps are the name of the game in today’s Marbits edition.

This is a 100 calorie snack item made from a breakfast item, so qualifying as relevant to the CW world.

The Frosted Chocolate Mini-Crisps are super dry, not very chocolatey tasting, and the “frosted” part tastes like artificial sweetener on my tongue. They taste nothing like original Pop-Tarts, actually.

I was feeling generous when I gave Frosted Chocolate Pop-Tarts Mini-Crisps such a high bowl rating. I think I threw it a bowl for creative packaging even though I said we don’t pay attention to packaging in Marbits. Oh well. The other bowl is for a cool concept, too bad it doesn’t follow through with taste.

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Frosted Chocolate Pop-Tarts Mini-Crisps, including nutrition information, visit Kellogg’s.

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Quaker True Delights Dark Chocolate Mocha Hazelnut Café Squares is a breakfast inspired granola bar. It is chock full of whole grain oats in the form of granola, has cellulose gum added to boost its fiber, has great for you hazelnuts, but then it ruins its healthy reputation with a chocolate coating, a chocolate drizzle, and ginormous chocolate chunks.

CONTAINS MILK, SOY AND HAZELNUT INGREDIENTS
MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF PEANUT AND OTHER TREE NUTS

This snack is also low on vitamins and minerals but high on allergens.

Considering the package I bought from the store was expired, I’m guessing these aren’t flying off the shelf. An unenjoyable first impression on my tongue plus a mixed bag of nutrition adds to my deductions.

I mentioned in the video my concern for possible wheat in the maltodextrin, but then wheat was not mentioned in the allergens list so I looked up maltodextrin. In the United States it is *usually* made from corn, while in Europe it’s typically made from wheat. I’ll leave it up to my gluten-free friends to sk00l me on if this cereal square makes them sick…

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about True Delights Dark Chocolate Mocha Hazelnut Café Squares visit the Quaker site.

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Honey Nut Chex is a gluten free cereal offered to us by General Mills. Its honey flavor is from actual honey, while the nut portion is from natural almond flavor rather than almond slivers directly in the cereal. The Chex is a perforated pillow of corn, perfect for letting the milk sink in to activate the sweetness. The honey flavor is very prominent while the almond flavor… uh, there’s almond in there? Yah, not so noticeable.

The cereal was a so-so sog for NYCWD but for me it tasted like I had tablecloth material in my mouth, coated in a bunch of sugar.

How about the nutrition? Let’s take a look:

The carbs in Honey Nut Chex are from corn meal and whole grain corn. If the corn meal is purely corn then this is how the product is gluten free, meaning it is free from wheat, barley, rye, malts and triticale or added to the ingredients under the guise of “maltodextrine”, “dextrine”, and “dextrose”. Low on fiber and protein, decent on vitamins and minerals, and this is our gluten-free friend’s favorite cereal so it must actually be gluten free or she’d complain a lot more often that her tummy hurts.

Taste: Tastes like honey
Box opening: Easy
Bag rippage: None, but HARD to open
Bag slippage: Not glued in
Sog factor: The sog made the squares taste like tablecloth
Allergy alert: Contains almond

Poppy’s Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

NYCWD’s Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Honey Nut Chex visit the Chex site.

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Today is an accidentally action packed version of Cereal Wednesday! Ahhh, the one take rule is so much fun.

Post Marshmallow Pebbles is a new flavor in the Pebbles line. It is officially suffixed With Vanilla-Graham Flavors on its website, although not on the box itself. It is a rice, wheat, oat, and corn based pellet dyed with Yellow 5 to make it look appealing to its customer. I didn’t want to say this in front of my parents, but I’ll say it in front of the entire Internet: The Pebbles pellets look like pee. Very unappetizing. And slightly ironic since I just reviewed boogers on poop two weeks ago!

There are approximately 40 billion marshmallows in a bowl of Marshmallow Pebbles. I might be hyperbolizing slightly, but I’ve never seen a cereal rely so heavily on its marshmallow quantity to make it taste like anything good. The marshmallows are sweet tasting just like in any of its marshmallow competitor products. Mom thought it tasted like a Marshmallow Krispies Treat in the first bite, but beyond that she swayed to my side – those yellow Pebbles taste like absolutely nothing. They taste like void. It’s very odd.

Here’s the nutrition breakdown:

Ok, fine, they didn’t lie about the Excellent Source of Vitamin D since 3/4 cup of Marshmallow Pebbles has 5% less Vitamin D than 1 cup of milk!

Note to vegetarians and vegans: There is gelatin listed in the marshmallow ingredients and it doesn’t say it’s vegetable gelatin so we must presume it’s gelatin from animal and therefore not free of animal product.

Thanks so much to Mom and Stepdad for playing along! And thanks to NYCWD for making his presence known by phone.

Taste: The first bite is like Marshmallow Krispies Treat but those yellow pellets taste like… void.
Box opening: HARD!
Bag rippage: It exploded into ripped glory
Bag slippage: It didn’t fall out, but it wasn’t secured so it might
Sog factor: It was quickly sogging although it hadn’t sogged out yet
Allergy alert: Wheat

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Marshmallow Pebbles visit the Post website.

Today our video is wrapped in purple on purpose. Please do your part to end bullying.

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Boy, oh boy, do I have a lot to say about today’s cereal.

Sprinkles Cookie Crisp is a corn-based General Mills product. It is similar to original Cookie Crisp in the shape of each disc of cereal, but it has colorful sprinkles on top instead of having chocolate chips embedded into the cookie.

According to the box, Sprinkles Cookie Crunch is supposed to taste like vanilla cookies and milk. First bite tasted like Cap’n Crunch without ripping up the roof of my mouth, but the sog factor bite tasted like a glob of corn puff in my mouth. It was not pleasant at all. The milk did not absorb any good flavor from the cereal. Vanilla cookies was the farthest thing from my mind for either bite. I wonder if they know that vanilla cookies are flour-based, and that corn-based products can never taste the same. (That might have been sarcasm.)

Sprinkles Cookie Crisp is definitely for kids or adults who live like kids. It’s very colorful. The box itself is also a very colorful dither of pink tones on the front and includes Sprinkletown Fun, a maze for kids to follow from their home to the big bowl of Sprinkles Cookie Crisp at the finish. Also there are a few bonus games based on the maze design.

Hint for the kiddos who can’t figure out the answer to the secret word: It’s on the bottom of the box.

General Mills refers to Grow Up Strong With Big G Kid Cereals on the side of the box, and has the Whole Grain Guaranteed checkmark listed. There is a lot of corn in this product so it will help you grow, but there are a lot of other whole grains that are better for growing bodies and none of those other whole grains are included in this product.

Nutrition facts at a glance:

Check out that ingredients list. It’s sugar and corn! That’s crazy. This product is naturally gluten free because it is corn based and does not contain wheat or other wheat-based products.

I am offended that Sprinkles Cookie Crisp states “Whole Grain & Calcium Guaranteed” on the front of its box because we all understand this implies there is a decent amount of both in a serving, when in fact there is only 10% of Calcium per 3/4 cup serving of the cereal. Most processed cereals can claim that much calcium, so let’s quit with the tricks to get moms and dads to pick this cereal from the shelf when kids see the pretty box with pretty sprinkle cookies and a wolf with a cute purple nose and pick it up to appease the kid.

I think it’s pretty clear that I am very disappointed with General Mills and with Sprinkles Cookie Crisp. Can’t win ‘em all, sixth largest food company in the world!

Taste: Like Cap’n Crunch before the sog, like a big glob of corn after
Box opening: Easy
Bag rippage: None
Bag slippage: If I’d poured any longer I would have had to eat through the bag
Sog factor: Stays crunchy
Allergy alert: No allergens listed

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Sprinkles Cookie Crisp contact General Mills .

For more information about Big G Kid Cereals visit Grow Up Strong.

For more information about Whole Grain Guaranteed visit Whole Grain Nation.

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Chocolate Chunk Hazelnut Biscotti granola is the “generic” brand sold by the superstore conglomerate Target. It’s an Archer Farms cereal, but there is no independent information listed on the web about this cereal, it’s only shown as associated with Target directly.

Chocolate Chunk Hazelnut Biscotti is big on chocolate and oat flavor. There are definitely big chunks of hazelnut in there but they still have their skin on so it’s an odd flavor in comparison to a hazelnut with its skin removed. Makes it taste kinda like an almond. Don’t get me wrong, I like almonds, but hazelnuts aren’t supposed to taste like almonds. (Ask any Belgian, they’ll tell you.)

Nutrition (or lack thereof) facts:

Nowhere on the web did I find the listing of ingredients in image or written form, so I took a crooked picture of the back of the package for you!

Yay for rolled oats, milled rice, and whole oat flour! High in fat and calories, low on vitamins and minerals, decent on fiber, whole grains, and protein. A good flavor, but very dangerous for people with allergies since there are so many allergens listed. Bonus bowl for cool packaging with a flip-top freshness closure.

Taste: Like a granola bar
Box opening: Excellent
Bag rippage: No bag!
Bag slippage: No bag = no slip!
Sog factor: Slimy coating on an otherwise still crunchy cereal
Allergy alert: Contains hazelnuts and soy; may contain other tree nuts and wheat

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For a little bit more information about Chocolate Chunk Hazelnut Biscotti please visit the Target website or go directly to a Target store for the entire enchilada.

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Happy spring, cereal fanatics! Today is a marbits comparison of two fiber bars: Fiber One Oats & Chocolate by General Mills and Quaker Fiber & Omega-3 Dark Chocolate Chunk. Both these bars have 35% of your daily value of fiber, but they are so completely different in their approaches.

Fiber One Oats & Chocolate uses chicory root extract to deliver its 35% daily value of fiber. That ingredient combined with high maltose corn syrup, sugar, maltodextrin, and fructose help make this product be extra slippery to the touch and going down the throat. Its sweetness is so overpowering it’s almost impossible to taste the whole grain oats that make up the bulk of this bar. It tastes like someone is trying way too hard to make this appeal to children (both young and older) whose number one priority in life is having more sugar than their guardian would approve of.

Next up is the Quaker Dark Chocolate Chunk bar. It uses Omega-3 from flaxseed to provide its 35% daily value of fiber. This product uses several sugars as well, but much more relatable to us regular humans: sugar, brown sugar, molasses, and honey. Those are all types of sugar I understand. Also, its main ingredient is granola whose first ingredient is the very heart healthy rolled oat. I can taste those oats and they taste absolutely delicious. I can also taste the dark chocolate chunks and the dark chocolate drizzle, but they don’t overpower the wholesome goodness of those oats.

Fiber One’s Oat & Chocolate bar is 40 grams with 140 calories, but if you do the math on the package it comes out to 4g fat x 9 calories, 29g carbs x 4 calories, and 2g protein x 4 calories. What’s that equal? Calculator time! That’d be 160 calories, Bob! Are there calorie shortcuts I don’t know about? I did a little web investigating and fiber can be counted as 0 calories or 2 calories, so let’s see if maybe that’s why the calorie count is vastly different. 29g carbs, but 9g is fiber, so: 4g fat x 9 calories, 20g carbs x 4 calories, and 2g protein x 4 calories equals 124 calories. Nope! Let’s try the 2 calories for fiber. 4g fat x 9 calories, 20g carbs x 4 calories, 9g fiber x 2 calories, and 2g protein x 4 calories equals 142 calories. THERE we go!

Quaker Fiber & Omega-3 Dark Chocolate Chunk bars are only 35 grams but claim to be 150 calories. Let’s do the math here to figure this out. It has 26g carbohydrates, 9 of which are fiber, so let’s try the 0 calorie vs. 2 calories vs. 4 calories trick. 4g fat x 9 calories plus 17g carbs x 4 calories plus 9g fiber x 0 calories plus 2g protein x 4 calories equals 112 calories. Nope. 4g fat x 9 calories plus 17g carbs x 4 calories plus 9g fiber x 2 calories plus 2g protein x 4 calories equals 130 calories. Still nope. 4g fat x 9 calories plus 26g carbs x 4 calories plus 2g protein x 4 calories equals 148 calories. BINGO!

Long story short: Fiber One goes for the shortcut of 2 calories per fiber gram while Quaker isn’t sure how many calories to deduct for fiber so gives it the full 4 calories per gram. Am I the only one who finds that interesting? Probably. But still, let’s get a standard for fiber calorie counts, shall we? That’d be nice.

Fiber One Cereal Wednesday Bowls:


Quaker Fiber & Omega-3 Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about the Fiber One bar please visit their website.

For more information about the Quaker bar please visit their website.

Special note: The Fiber One bar contains chicory root extract which may cause serious side effects for women who are pregnant or nursing. It is advised that you consult a physician before consuming this product.

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Kellogg’s Eggo Maple Syrup Cereal is a crunchy waffle-shaped cereal made from wheat and corn flour. I erroneously said this was a corn based cereal in the video. It’s partly corn, but wheat and oat are the dominating carbohydrates. It looks a lot like Honey Combs on the box! But inside tells a very different story… a story of an alien symbol that confused me greatly when I was staring at it. And then I ate it and stopped worrying what it looked like because that maple syrup flavor (which tastes a lot more like pure brown sugar) packed a huge punch to my taste buds.

Sweet like Cap’n Crunch but doesn’t rip up the roof of your mouth? A dream cereal! There’s nothing particularly unique about Eggo Maple Syrup, but the combination of wheat and corn stops the sog from happening quickly, and I definitely appreciate that. By the end of the bowl the milk is sickeningly sweet so you may want to drink up half-way through or hurry up and eat the whole bowl.

Eggo Maple Syrup per 1 cup serving contains 110 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of dietary fiber, and 2 grams of protein. It offers 25% recommended daily value of Vitamin C, Iron, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, and Vitamin B12.

In addition to a tasty cereal, Kellogg’s offers Adidas sports tees “for free” by mailing in 8 Get Up & Go tokens — from 8 boxes of cereal — so that you can wear them to try their zig zag tag drill and burn the calories from the cereal. Plus, the box includes quick facts about how many calories are burned by the average kid during 30 minutes of sports participation. Way to promote that healthy lifestyle, Kellogg’s!

Taste: Like Cap’n Crunch on brown sugar steroids
Box opening: Hard on the edges, easy in the middle
Bag rippage: A little… and a little tough to open.
Bag slippage: None!
Sog factor: No soggies for a very long time
Allergy alert: Contains wheat ingredients and a trace amount of soybean

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about the cereal please visit the Kellogg’s website.