i ♥ cereal

I had seen these in the store one day and thought "OK, Kellogg's has come out with something to compete with Cookie Crisp." Since they were on sale this week, I had the wife pick up a box to try out. Originally I hadn't noticed that it was not only chocolate chip "cookies" in the cereal, but also fudge ones. My initial impression was "the more the merrier." However, when I actually tried them, I was a little concerned. The "cookies" were crunchy as expected, but the fudge cookies were...gooey. It almost tasted as though they were soggy, yet solid. It was quite the odd consistency, especially with the crunchy cookies. The fudge taste is good (and strong) but I'm having a hard time getting past the overpowering "sludge" feeling I'm getting from the fudge cookies (and there appears to be more of them than the cookies). I haven't finished the box yet, but I sincerely think that when I do, it'll be the last.

I've never been (and don't imagine I ever will be) a big fan of shredded wheat. I spotted these at the store the other day and saw that Kellogg's was running a special where you can send in your receipt and get your money back for the purchse (minus sales tax of course) so I thought it might be worth a shot. Besides, maybe the wife or kid would like them. Well, it's as I thought. They taste like shredded wheat with blueberry flavoring. If you like shredded wheat and blueberries, you'll probably like this. Otherwise, it's nothing new.

It seems like there are two sayings when dealing with too much of a good thing. One goes something like "Too much of a good thing is a good problem to have" while the other goes something like "Too much of a good thing can just ruin it." I'm going with the latter in this case. I LOVE the bunches in Honey Bunches of Oats. Their big crunch and flavor are good complements to the small crunch and subtle flavor of the thin flakes. So Post decided to issue a cereal with just the bunches. The first thing I noticed when trying this new variation was that the bunches no longer tasted like bunches I remember from regular Honey Bunches of Oats. The other thing I noticed is that the cereal now just tasted like a generic granola cereal. Both could have been due to the lack of flakes, but either way, it kinda fell flat. So, while Just Bunches isn't bad, it was definitely disappointing based upon the initial impression I got from the box. Will I buy it again? If it's on sale and I'm looking for a granola cereal, sure. Otherwise, I'll probably just stick with regular Honey Bunches of Oats.

Edit - 08/01/2008: It looks like there's a $2 off coupon on their website if you're interested.