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Rice Krispies Treats® Chocolatey Crunch Mix is a new snack item by Kellogg’s. It contains Rice Krispies Treats® clusters, mini chocolate chip cookies, cocoa balls, fudge covered pretzel twists, mini pretzel twists, and cocoa buttons.

To say that this snack resembles Rice Krispies or its Rice Krispies Treats® dessert is a bit of a stretch to my tastebuds. The Treat is dry, and the ingredients lists supports my theory that real marshmallows are not involved whatsoever in making the Rice Krispies Treat® cluster. There’s no marshmallow listed. What’s in a marshmallow? Gelatin. That’s its binding glue. And there’s no mention of gelatin, animal or vegetable variety, in the ingredients list. No glue equals dry, unenjoyable “Treat”. Even the Rice Krispies Treats® sold by Kellogg’s as a to-go snack specifically list marshmallows in the ingredients list.

The cocoa ball tastes like Cocoa Krispies, which are yummy. The fudge covered pretzel is kinda to die for and if they want to sell me a whole bucket of those I’ll have to politely refuse so that I don’t grow 10 dress sizes (as if I wear a dress, but you know what I mean). The cocoa buttons I could do without. The mini pretzel is neutral for me, just kinda filler. I forgot the cookie was even in there, so it’s not memorable, other than the fact that each cookie is sliced in 2, probably to prevent a choking hazard.

And the nutrition information…

Oh, my it seriously lacks much that’s good for you. No vitamins and mineral percentages worth mentioning. No fiber. Hardly any protein. Whole grains are mentioned, but half the carb count is sugar. This is purely a treat, no value to a well balanced diet.

I adore Rice Krispies.

I adore Rice Krispies Treats®.

I adore the fudge covered pretzels in Rice Krispies Treats® Chocolatey Crunch Mix.

I way less than adore Rice Krispies Treats® Chocolatey Crunch Mix.

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information about Rice Krispies Treats® Chocolatey Crunch Mix visit the Kellogg’s Convenience Store Team site.

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Kellogg’s Berry Krispies is a rice based cereal that tastes much like its parent cereal, Rice Krispies, with added natural and artificial flavors to produce a berry kick. The box shows a strawberry, blueberry, and blackberry but we tasted only the strawberry. Very tasty cereal that makes for very tasty leftover milk.

Berry Krispies per 1 cup serving contains 120 calories, 0 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and no cholesterol. It offers 25% recommended daily value of Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, and Folic Acid, and 30% of Iron. Total carbs per 1 cup is 27 grams with 9 grams being from sugar, a bit more than Rice Krispies that only has 4 grams of sugar per serving.

This Snap, Crackle, Pop cereal targets kids… or at least for Sponge Bob lovers, judging from the box we taste tested. But not for free — the Nickelodeon Sponge Bob read-o-meter digital bookmark/timer offered for FREE on the box requires in fine print that you pay with 4 Nickelodeon tokens or $1.99 with 1 token. Mmmmmhmmm. How about we stick one in the box, market it as a literacy tool, and call it a day? (This is why we can’t give this cereal a perfect score, but I do so love NYCWD‘s rants.)

Taste: Like plain Rice Krispies with strawberry, and the milk tastes like Strawberry Qwik
Box opening: Not difficult
Bag rippage: None!
Bag slippage: None!
Sog factor: The cereal itself stays “krispie” but the feeling you get lifting the cereal out of the bowl is sludgy like swamp water (yum!)
Allergy alert: None listed, but please check for yourself

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

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

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This was an intriguing assignment for me: I’m not usually one to partake of sugary cereals — most likely a hold-over from my childhood days when the sweetest cereal that would enter our home would be Life — and that was probably because my Mom somehow mistook it for one of the various Chex cereals. We weren’t really ever a Rice Krispies family. And now I understand why: those tiny little kernels can be murder to clean!

My first experience with Cocoa Krispies was at sleep-away camp. I was floored that any right-minded parent would allow kids to have chocolate for breakfast. But I soon came to love breakfast cereals that could double as desserts. I hadn’t yet considered the relationship between Cocoa Krispies and its older, more responsible sibling, Rice Krispies. It was probably because the packaging and the mascots were different. (At the time Cocoa Krispies was adorned by Tusk-Tusk the Elephant.)

When I saw the box of “ChocoNilla” Krispies on the shelf of my local supermarket, I was curious. There are other cereals which emulate a vanilla taste, but often it’s too subtle. Would ChocoNilla give us the same experience? Would the vanilla stick out and coexist side-by-side with its chocolaty counterpart?

The answer, sadly, was “no.” I could taste the sweetness of the cereal, but the cocoa/chocolate flavor (and smell) was overpowering. The vanilla was simply too subtle. Fortunately, this was on sale and cost less than a similarly-sized box of Cocoa Krispies, so it potentially gave the Cocoa Krispie-holics more bang for their buck.

And it takes a lot of boxes (six) to earn that Barbie (or Hot Wheels) FM radio advertised on the back. I bought my box on sale for $2.44 (excluding tax); that’s a minimum of $14.64 for a radio that is likely worth less than six bucks. A disappointing prospect and a waste of an entire cereal box back panel. Not even a maze or a cute story involving Snap, Crackle and Pop.

(Is it just me, or does anyone else call those three Larry, his brother Darrell and his other brother Darrell?)

If you enjoy Cocoa Krispies, you’ll likely enjoy this as well. But if you’re looking for a vanilla twist, you’ll fall short of finding it. ChocoNilla gets three bowls from me.

Cleaning advice: Make sure not to let the sugary kernels dry onto the bowl in the sink. They can be a bitch to scrub off.

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

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

Special thanks to Shiny for doing the review! Sorry about the lower production quality, which I blame entirely on my fickle and temperamental video software Sony Vegas… so instead I had to use Windows Movie Maker with it’s less than stellar graphic package. Hey… at least I got it up!

Introduced by Kelloggs in 1928, their marketing of the cereal did not include the words “Snap, Crackle, Pop!” until 1932. It was this radio ad that inspired artist Vernon Grant to develop physical manifestations of the phrase. The original representation had them appearing more as short round gnomes with over sized ears and eyes. The actual characters did not start appearing in print ads until 1933, and they were the first time Kelloggs used characters to represent a cereal. Snap was the cover character while Crackle and Pop were generally relegated to the side of the box. Their commercial debut wasn’t until 1939 in a screen/film ad called “Breakfast Pals“, when they were portrayed similar to comic book heroes fighting Soggy, Mushy, and Toughy for control of the breakfast bowl.

Snap, Crackle, and Pop are in danger! Click here to Save The Cereal!

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information you can visit the Official Rice Krispies website.

Cocoa Krispies is a very chocolatey and sweet cereal. Unfortunately it does not maintain its crispness for long, however it transforms the milk to an identifiable chocolatey drink for total consumption. If you are a chocolate lover, Cocoa Krispies is good for a morning fix.

What most impressed me about Cocoa Krispies was the fact that they did indeed include an actual toy. The toy was packaged in a separate wrapper and actually placed outside the bag of cereal. The promotion was for XBox 360.

Cocoa Krispies is an offshoot brand of Kelloggs Rice Krispies. As a child brand, they maintain the mascot elfin characters of Snap, Crackle, and Pop for their advertising. The strength of their advertising brand was highlighted in 2002 when political pollster Kellyanne Conway reported that the majority of Americans could name the three elves but were unable to name 3 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices.

Cereal Wednesday Bowls:

For more information you can visit the Official Rice Krispies website.