0:37

It's so nice to have you back. Hello

0:40

once again. We're

0:43

thrilled to be here with you, and where is here,

0:45

we'll look around you. It's

0:47

The Empty Bowl, a meditative podcast

0:50

about cereal. My name is

0:53

Justin McElroy, and I'm

0:55

a cereal enthusiast. And

0:57

my name is Dan Gobert, and I am a cereal

1:01

milkman clanging around with

1:03

my big glass milk bottles to

1:06

remind you not

1:07

to forget to drink

1:09

it. Yes,

1:13

perfectly said. I know

1:15

exactly what you mean by that, Dan. As you

1:17

can hear, dear listener, I have a

1:19

slight rasp in my voice that perhaps,

1:22

I don't know, maybe it's not jarring,

1:24

maybe this is a soothing timbre for your relaxation,

1:28

but

1:29

I wanted to let you know that no, your ears are not deceiving

1:32

you. You are not playing at a slower speed.

1:35

This is just how I sound right now. Too much

1:37

Cap'n Crunch to the trachea? Hey,

1:40

you know what, Dan? We're going to

1:43

talk about some news and reviews and all

1:45

that stuff, but I did want to let you know that I

1:48

was presented with a short video,

1:51

as one is, by the algorithm. The

1:53

algorithm summed up a video for me, and it

1:56

was Kate Beckinsale trying

1:59

cereals.

1:59

for the first time on James

2:02

Fallon's program. She's

2:04

a British lady, but somehow she

2:06

had never tried Captain Crunch,

2:09

Lucky Charms, or Fruit Loops. And

2:11

so I got to watch someone try

2:14

Captain Crunch for the first time. What

2:16

was her conclusion? She

2:19

said about Captain Crunch, she said, I could mess

2:21

around with that, which I think

2:23

is,

2:25

yeah, I mean, that's fair. If

2:29

you were walking someone through though, and you

2:31

were like, you've never had American

2:33

cereals, and you have those three,

2:35

I don't know that I would start with Captain

2:38

Crunch. Yeah, I mean, setting the bar extremely

2:40

high, I feel like trying to describe

2:42

American cereals to someone and like prepare

2:44

them for something is like trying to describe

2:47

a new color or something. It's

2:49

like, it's such a foreign like

2:51

experience, so alien to so many other

2:53

foodstuffs that like you can't really prepare

2:56

someone, I feel like

2:58

you usually end up with a lot of like describing

3:02

flavors as colors. It's like,

3:04

it's kind of real purple, it's

3:05

like very purpley as it

3:08

tastes, it tastes kind of purpley, orangish. I

3:13

am excited about some of these new, these

3:15

new entries in the world of cereal, and of course,

3:18

I want to get your thoughts on some of the new entries.

3:23

But let's start off with this, this icy

3:25

cereal.

3:26

Because I think this is a real, this seems

3:29

at the very least innovative. So

3:32

this icy cereal, you know, based

3:35

off of the icy line of frozen

3:38

slushy confections, is

3:40

sort of Kellogg's second attempt at using

3:43

this mouth cooling magic

3:46

inside of their cereal, even after

3:48

the not exactly

3:50

super successful debut of this technology

3:53

with Elf on the Shelf, North Pole Snow

3:56

Cream cereal, which was

3:58

very like mentholated. You

4:00

know, the cooling effect was certainly there,

4:04

but they didn't really pair it with any

4:06

sort of interesting base cereal flavor.

4:08

It was just kind of a sugar

4:10

flavored cereal, right? So now they're

4:12

bringing that mouth

4:15

cooling effect to an icy

4:17

cereal that is certainly promising

4:19

on the face of it to have a more

4:21

bombastic flavor profile with

4:24

red and blue puffs alike flavored

4:27

like cherry and blue raspberry.

4:30

And it's quite the, quite the atomic

4:32

combo of potent flavors. Nothing

4:35

I've really

4:36

experienced in the cereal aisle I feel

4:38

like before, even just a cherry cereal in general

4:40

was extremely rare outside of what

4:43

is the one who fruit is sort of the, if

4:46

you think of the original, there was a, when it came

4:48

out, there was a licensed thing. I

4:50

want to say it was maybe

4:53

one of those FYE cereals.

4:56

Elf, was there a cherry elf

4:58

cereal? What am I thinking of? There

5:00

was one that like a very pronounced cherry flavor.

5:04

It does sound familiar. I know there were some

5:06

random Cheerios. I'm

5:11

not seeing anything. I'll have to come back to it. It'll come

5:13

to me. I'm sure. But

5:15

cherry. Yeah. I don't really

5:17

know how that'll differ. Well, I mean, like, you know, artificial

5:19

cherry is certainly a very real

5:22

pronounced thing. I'm curious how

5:24

in like the history of artificial flavors, like

5:26

fake cherry started tasting

5:29

like it does. Like it definitely doesn't taste like a

5:31

real cherry in any way, but like, not

5:33

in any way about that cherry Kool-Aid

5:35

sharpness has just become so iconic

5:37

in the realm of artificial tastes

5:39

and flavors. And I mean, blue raspberry too, obviously

5:42

not being something that is real in nature

5:45

by any stretch of the imagination. So you pair

5:47

both of those super, super

5:49

fragrant, impotent fake flavors with

5:51

this mouth cooling effect. And this is

5:53

sort of like, I don't know, the platonic

5:56

ideal of a crazy lab

5:58

generated cereal. It's

6:00

interesting there are these like three

6:04

different progenitors

6:08

I guess of the slush right there's Icy's

6:10

there's slush puppies which

6:12

is maybe more of a regional thing for me and

6:15

slurpees and I feel like Icy has

6:17

gone harder unlike the the

6:19

merchandising end of it or the licensing

6:22

end of it I guess you'd say I see I see

6:24

Icy products a lot more

6:26

than I see Icy's just like for sale in the wild.

6:29

Yeah I mean at least from my opinion

6:32

like the texture of a Slurpee is unbeatable

6:34

I have not had a slush puppy so

6:36

I can't really comment there but oh

6:38

it's worse okay cool demonstrably

6:42

I think Icy definitely has the best branding

6:44

going for it with their sick radical

6:46

polar bear mascot who I've always loved

6:49

and who I'm glad has not been given like that

6:52

soft pliable 3d

6:54

CGI treatment and then he's

6:56

still rocking his still his original cool

6:59

self so I will support

7:01

the bear. Now this is gonna be very interesting

7:03

for you Dan

7:05

slurpee oh my gosh

7:07

slurpees are made by Icy. What?

7:12

I know right? It's fakery all

7:14

the way down. That's

7:16

why perhaps that's why we see so much

7:19

more branding for Icy's because

7:21

they're the ones who have

7:23

a horse in the race. Are slush

7:25

puppies still a sovereign kingdom? Yeah

7:28

I guess slush puppies are on their own.

7:31

Slush puppy has a much bigger

7:35

ice like the ice

7:38

chunks in slush puppy

7:41

are a lot more pronounced it's like it's

7:43

not as smooth it's it's chunkier.

7:46

Icy so you got the whole spectrum of velvety

7:49

viscosity here.

7:50

Yeah um oh okay

7:54

Dan slush puppy was

7:56

acquired by J&J Snack Foods also

7:58

known as the Icy

7:59

Oh my god. A food

8:02

manufacturer. And so

8:04

yeah, that's that's why it's a Cincinnati

8:07

polar monopoly slash

8:09

puppy a Cincinnati original got snatched

8:11

up by

8:12

by the icy company and now somebody's got

8:14

to do something about this. Why is no one talking

8:17

about this? There's only one if

8:19

they go down. That's it, man.

8:21

That's it. We lose.

8:23

We lose icees. We also lose dippin' knots.

8:25

So that would be great, actually, to wipe

8:28

those right off the face of the planet. And then uh,

8:31

well, Luigi's Italian

8:33

ice, fiddly swirl. A lot

8:35

of frozen products from this company. I can't believe

8:38

it. Such a strong conglomerate. I think we need to start

8:40

our own slushy company so that there's at

8:42

least something buoying the industry

8:44

in case it all goes tumbling down. Where's

8:46

the indies? The empties.

8:52

What else we got going on in the world of serial

8:54

news, Dan? So significantly less interesting

8:57

is at least to me. But a

9:00

new special K variety that

9:02

is strawberry cheesecake

9:04

special K. Okay. And I can

9:07

only find a pretty low has image of these so

9:09

far, but you can still see from

9:11

the box that there's a little bit of duplicity

9:14

going on here and that this is not. A

9:17

special K cereal with strawberry cheesecake

9:19

chunks in it like you might hope it is strawberry

9:22

cheesecake flavored flakes.

9:25

Whatever that even really means. I don't

9:28

know how you can translate something so

9:30

like uniquely tangly

9:32

sweet to like a wheat

9:35

flake basically. But I

9:37

mean, I'm interested to see where

9:39

this goes. I just thought that I

9:42

thought and hope that this would finally be our chance

9:44

to see something like. A cheesecake

9:46

piece in a cereal and that might I

9:49

guess need to be something that's refrigerated if that

9:51

were to be attempted, but I really

9:54

want someone to go that extra mile.

10:01

I hope I mean I always try

10:03

to stay optimistic with

10:05

these new cereals we'll see

10:08

But I mean special K isn't known for being

10:11

super decadent. I suppose

10:13

for the most part. It's true Although they

10:16

are the same cereal that just straight up

10:18

Chopped up the chocolate bar and tots

10:20

to write the box underrated more cereals

10:23

need to do that It's

10:26

special K and 150 tiny

10:28

chocolate bars

10:32

Uh, oh great value

10:35

who is who's trying to set themselves apart.

10:37

What are they up to? Yeah, it's interesting We

10:39

were talking before when

10:41

great value launched that like Apple fritter

10:44

type cereal that it's super

10:46

rare for a store brand to do something

10:49

different that other cereal companies aren't doing

10:52

already and I kind of thought

10:54

that would be a one-time anomaly, but

10:57

They're debuting three new

11:00

Limited edition variety cereals under

11:02

the great value name. We've got Cotton

11:04

candy, you know, which we get the

11:06

cotton candy cat and crunch. So this isn't entirely

11:09

new but still with that one being gone This

11:11

is kind of your only chance to eat a cotton candy

11:13

cereal, right? They've got

11:16

cinnamon mini donut cereal, which

11:18

you know not Crazy unique.

11:20

There's a lot of cinnamon cereals out there. But

11:22

the one I'm most interested in here is their

11:25

strawberry lemonade cereal Which

11:28

pairs, you know strawberry puffs

11:30

with lemon puffs Ostensibly

11:32

by looking at the box and at least

11:34

in my own personal universe 2023 is

11:37

the year of the lemon But

11:40

with lemon frosted Cheerios setting this

11:42

off, right been drinking a lot of good

11:44

lemonade in my personal life lately These

11:47

are the best one way to start a trend

11:49

life. Yeah, your late 20s are your prime lemonade

11:51

in years So

11:54

I'm happy to see that

11:56

Lemon frosted Cheerios was not a one-time

11:59

one-off thing and that there are other cereal

12:01

companies embracing the

12:03

sweet and tangy lifestyle here. And

12:06

I bet you do. Now do we think that,

12:10

I will say that the cotton

12:12

candy cereal looks a lot like Captain Crunch.

12:15

As far as I know, there

12:17

is no strawberry

12:20

lemonade cereal that has been in production before.

12:24

Do you think that the, do these, do the donut

12:27

pieces remind you of anything? Like, do

12:29

you think that those might look, be just

12:31

like a rebrand of, I

12:34

don't know, Fruit Loop Cinnamon Donut

12:36

or, God, probably not Homer's Cinnamon

12:38

Donut. Yeah, they unearthed a

12:41

tomb of those. It's

12:44

hard to say because you're definitely spot on with

12:47

the cotton candy being looking exactly

12:49

like the Captain Crunch variety. But if

12:51

you go back to that Apple

12:53

Fritter cereal, that one was totally just

12:56

a post product because they had released it in

12:59

Canada at the same time under

13:02

the post branding. So I

13:04

would have thought that they'd be working with post, but Captain

13:06

Crunch is not a post product.

13:08

So I just, I don't know if they're

13:11

just like wheeling and dealing fast

13:13

and loose with different cereal like

13:15

coke packing facilities, so to speak,

13:18

or not. But if anybody's got

13:20

connections to all the big cereal companies, I guess

13:22

it would be Walmart considering that. Sure, yeah.

13:24

They're the ones who seem to be getting all the new cereals

13:27

first. So I wonder if there's some

13:29

like intricate web of

13:31

corporate connections going on there where,

13:35

you know, Walmart

13:37

has some dirt on a cereal exec or something

13:39

and now has full exclusive rights

13:41

to everyone's production lines. Yeah,

13:43

but it's interesting. They just switch off the box making

13:46

machine and turn on their own. Hey,

13:49

Dan, I've been trying to not like pivot

13:51

away completely in a jarring fashion, but

13:54

what is going on with

13:56

this captain on the oatmeal

13:58

box? That's what I was about to say.

13:59

to say it's like okay so there's this new

14:02

Cap'n Crunch's Oops All Berries instant

14:04

oatmeal that's coming out. And if I could say just to start

14:06

with,

14:07

it's not all berries.

14:11

Yeah it, we'll get into that but it's

14:13

like I can't even really pay attention to the

14:15

product itself because what is going

14:17

on with this Cap'n Crunch design? It

14:21

sucks. This looks so bad.

14:25

He looks like

14:27

a family guy parody of Cap'n Crunch

14:30

or something. He does, he does,

14:32

good call. It's like

14:35

bad

14:36

Dreamworks CGI

14:38

from the late 90s. It's

14:42

so bogus. Yeah, because I know

14:44

we've had the classic Cap'n design

14:46

on boxes when he needs to be in static,

14:49

not dynamic animation. And then there's also

14:52

a much more rudimentary cartoon version

14:54

of him that they've used in like animated YouTube

14:57

videos and commercials and stuff like that.

14:59

But this guy, who

15:01

is this guy? He's coming out of nowhere as a third

15:03

Cap'n. He's

15:06

got some shading issues. Let

15:08

me tell you, this is a shady fellow. Okay,

15:13

part of it is, and you are going to laugh

15:15

at me, a part of it is his eyes have

15:19

always been above the brim of his

15:21

hat. And they are now below

15:23

the brim of his hat. That's part of the weirdness.

15:26

The eyebrows are still up there, but

15:28

the eyeball. The more anatomical

15:31

correctness is weirder. Right?

15:34

I think that's like the main, the

15:37

main thing is like the, the,

15:39

he looks more human like and

15:41

it's bad.

15:42

They have also given him, and I

15:44

know that we talk about this a

15:47

lot and everybody likes to have a lot of fun, but

15:49

we got to agree on the number of fingers

15:51

somebody has. We just all have to get

15:53

together and say they have this many fingers

15:55

or not because the

15:58

Cap'n has traditionally had three fingers.

15:59

years in a thumb and this cat has

16:02

four fingers and i just don't know what to

16:04

do ah man i

16:06

don't have much and then like as you said this

16:08

is not truly in obs all berries

16:10

oatmeal either this is this capitalise

16:12

building are thrown of lies here yeah

16:16

so it's not all berries yeah

16:18

this is just sort of admitting that hoops

16:20

all berries is not ah

16:23

a know a playful accident that results

16:25

in only berries

16:27

in your cereal groups are buried has become

16:30

a brand a a

16:32

phenomenon that's that's simply

16:34

refers to a preponderance of crunch

16:36

berry flavor and i think that

16:39

devaluation of the

16:41

original incident that caused oops

16:43

harbor harrys on the production line

16:45

is trivializing the moment i guess

16:48

and the others fake they have a guy on the box

16:50

to i mean i don't know

16:52

out like through or meals clinically

16:54

army will try it i

16:56

also wonder about if they can keep

16:58

the anyway more the crunch she's

17:00

get soggy i feel like the yeah they

17:02

do they always do with the cereal and fused

17:05

own meals you end up with these sort of moist

17:07

serial husks floating

17:09

of the hurt lastly just when you think they

17:11

care pebbles in the something else they find

17:14

that the us put battles and it's honestly

17:16

impressive to me how they keep doing more

17:18

pebbles products i don't it

17:20

just seems like any time i share the news about these

17:22

like on my twitter win over there is a diminishing

17:25

return and how excited people are about

17:28

it i just don't know if like the flintstones people

17:30

have some sort of contract that there has

17:32

to be twelve new pebbles products

17:34

a year they lose the license but i

17:37

guess i was reflecting on this earlier to like

17:40

do any kids today actually

17:42

like know fred and barney from the flintstones

17:45

or they just the serial guys yeah

17:49

don't think so i thought about

17:51

this a lot ah i

17:54

don't think that it it has anything

17:56

like i don't think that there is much

17:58

if any awareness i mean like

17:59

My kids don't know who they are outside of cereal. Hmm,

18:03

well, I feel like kids will barely even know

18:05

them as a cereal anymore, but with them appearing

18:08

all over the grocery store. And

18:10

now in the freezer aisle, we

18:12

are getting fruity pebbles, frozen waffles,

18:15

as well as cocoa pebbles, frozen waffles.

18:17

And these are exactly what

18:19

they sound like, where you've got your

18:21

kind of traditional buttermilk waffles with

18:23

pebbles bits strewn throughout. And

18:26

then the same thing goes for the cocoa pebbles,

18:28

except you're actually starting with like

18:30

a cocoa brown waffle. And

18:33

I've never been much like a frozen waffle

18:35

guy. I've always found that they're a little bit too

18:38

small for my tastes. I like the giant Belgian

18:40

waffles with the little, you know, syrup

18:44

holes that are big as quarters, square

18:46

quarters, I guess.

18:48

But I never ended up trying like the

18:51

Fruit Loops frozen waffles either. I don't know

18:53

if you did. Uh,

18:56

no, no, what the Fruit Loops ones? Yeah,

18:59

there were Fruit Loops. Yeah, I did try that. Not particularly

19:01

memorable. They didn't hit you super

19:03

hard with like the fruit flavor, but

19:05

that, that,

19:08

that, I mean, there's

19:11

not a lot to say. I didn't love them. Yeah,

19:14

I'll admit that frozen waffles are kind

19:16

of my breakfast blind spot

19:19

when it comes to my experience in trying

19:21

and reviewing them. So perhaps someone

19:23

who has more of a tenure

19:26

reviewing frozen waffles can leave

19:28

us a voicemail. They try these. I

19:30

honestly find it, and this is gonna be, I'm gonna

19:33

sound a little bit highfalutin. And

19:35

I just find most freezer

19:37

waffles like really depressing.

19:38

I just think they're, they're just

19:40

so small. They're small

19:43

and not very delicious.

19:45

Every once in a while you'll get a good one, but

19:48

it's not my favorite. Now,

19:51

speaking of new favorites, Dan, I know

19:54

you tried a few new breakfast

19:56

products over the past few

19:59

weeks.

19:59

since we've been in the empty

20:02

bowl studio. What

20:05

did you think about, let's start with Fruit

20:07

Loops Mega Mixups. Fruit

20:10

Loops Mega Mixups, I mean, I

20:13

feel like I got tricked by these a little bit

20:15

because I expected

20:17

them to be normal Fruit

20:19

Loops mixed with Mega Fruit

20:21

Loops. But if you look closer at

20:23

what it says on the box, these are actually

20:26

classic Fruit Loops with jumbo Fruit

20:29

Loops mixed in. And

20:31

that might not sound like it means

20:33

anything, but I think there's a very important

20:36

distinction between mixed with and

20:38

with mixed in because

20:40

mixed with sort of implies an even

20:43

one-to-one ratio of normal

20:45

sized Fruit Loops with jumbo Fruit Loops. But

20:48

classic Fruit Loops with jumbo Fruit Loops mixed

20:50

in actually presents itself

20:52

as a roughly like eight-to-one

20:53

ratio of normal Fruit

20:56

Loops to giant Fruit Loops. It's

20:58

almost entirely normal

21:00

sized Fruit Loops with these weird freakish

21:03

outliers laying around that makes you

21:05

really just think it actually was like

21:07

a production line mishap or something.

21:10

And I mean, this isn't really

21:12

a problem because the cereal

21:14

was always destined to just end up tasting

21:16

like Fruit Loops anyway. I just

21:19

wish there were a few more of

21:21

the big guys in here. But

21:23

despite that, I really enjoyed my

21:25

time eating this cereal and it's

21:28

because of this cereal that I've developed

21:30

a new theory of sorts if

21:33

you care to hear it where- Please,

21:36

yeah. I believe that at any

21:38

given moment when you're at the grocery store, the

21:40

best cereal to buy

21:42

is not your favorite cereal, but

21:44

rather the

21:45

cereal you want like 70% as

21:49

much as your favorite cereal. Okay,

21:53

okay. Because I will buy my favorite

21:55

cereals all the time. Like your Raisin

21:57

Bran crunch, your Golden Grahams, your Crepe.

21:59

those are in my regular

22:02

rotation, but it's the cereals

22:04

that I

22:05

haven't had in like a year or longer

22:07

that I've forgotten what they taste like that

22:10

when I do end up getting them like they're not my favorites

22:12

of all time I did like them growing up or whatever

22:14

I just don't ever get around to

22:17

buying them regularly anymore like Fruit Loops

22:19

it's those ones that when I buy them I'm

22:21

like whoa I forgot these were so

22:23

good and instead of like eating a

22:26

eating a nice hearty bowl a day like I would with

22:28

a Raisin Bran Crunch I'm chain eating bowls

22:30

of Fruit Loops mega mix-ups

22:32

and just being like wow it just tastes good

22:34

yeah it's more

22:35

of a refresher of course like Fruit Loops

22:37

are good and I had forgotten how good they are I

22:39

love that feeling that you get sometimes where

22:42

all of a sudden you just there is some

22:44

cereal that you have to eat and

22:47

you can't think about other cereals until

22:49

you consume that one I get that with

22:52

honey

22:55

nut o's

22:59

where it's just like that

23:01

it's that that our honey gram o's

23:03

or honey o's whatever wherever they're going right now but

23:06

like that that circle with the the

23:09

the filling in the middle for some reason every once

23:12

a while I'll just get a hankering and

23:14

that's all I get I get it's all I can think about

23:16

yeah so if you're listening to this and are

23:18

wondering what cereal you should buy next don't

23:20

go for the one that you most want

23:23

look for the one you most mediumist want

23:26

and you will be blown away have

23:30

you tried anything else new Dan so

23:32

I tried also both of these

23:35

new pop tarts flavors that have yeah

23:37

once again they were not available near me so

23:39

my mom mailed them to me so thanks again

23:41

mom but these are

23:44

banana bread pop tarts and Apple

23:46

Jack's pop tarts I will

23:48

tell you that one of these flavors is very good

23:50

and one of them is very bad can

23:52

you guess which is which I I

23:56

think that

23:59

Okay.

24:03

I'm gonna say Apple Jacks is very

24:05

good and Banana Bread is very bad. You would be

24:08

wrong. Okay, yeah, I

24:10

was going counterintuitive. Yeah,

24:13

so... I got a little too clever for why I was

24:15

good there, I think. So Banana

24:17

Bread Pop-Tarts, I really liked because

24:20

they improve on everything that was wrong

24:22

with 2019's frosted

24:25

Banana Cream Pie Pop-Tarts, which

24:27

were just so, like,

24:29

candied, fake banana, overly,

24:32

like, cloyingly sweet and,

24:34

uh... like that, and

24:37

it just didn't really have any lasting

24:39

re-munch value, right? I would eat one of them

24:41

and I'd be like, alright, I get it, I'm done with

24:43

this now. But Banana Bread Pop-Tarts

24:45

have these more nuanced undertones

24:48

of, like, brown sugar and that riper

24:51

baked banana flavor that is just way

24:53

cozier and way more conducive

24:56

to a toaster pastry, especially when

24:58

you warm them up, of course. Or freeze

25:00

them, honestly. This is a good all-arounder Pop-Tart.

25:04

You still have to like banana flavor

25:06

to some degree to really enjoy these,

25:09

but I feel like unless

25:11

you are like a true blue or rather like

25:13

true yellow banana Laffy

25:15

Taffy fan, then you will definitely

25:17

prefer these over that much more artificial

25:20

tasting ancestor

25:22

flavor. Right.

25:25

Now, Apple Jacks. But the Apple Jacks...

25:28

I don't know what went wrong here. It's

25:31

almost like

25:33

they were trying to do some sort of meta thing where,

25:35

like, Apple Jacks the cereal already

25:37

barely tastes like apples, but

25:41

Apple Jacks Pop-Tarts barely

25:43

even tastes like Apple Jacks. In fact,

25:45

I'll go as far as to say that they don't taste like Apple

25:47

Jacks at all. This

25:50

is... There's no apple flavor, first

25:52

of all. All there is is this really

25:54

sharp, spicy cinnamon, not

25:57

far off from like a Cinefuego level

25:59

of, like, peppery.

25:59

cinnamon that that really comes

26:02

at you fast with a nice burn but it's also

26:04

artificial at the same time to the point where it made

26:06

me think of like those Christmas

26:09

cinnamon candles that you'd get from Yankee candle

26:11

or whatever whoa where the whole thing just tastes

26:13

like this assault on the taste buds

26:15

that is far more painful

26:18

than it is pleasant

26:20

so unless you have like a

26:22

wick and you want to light this Applejack Pop-Tart

26:25

then you're better off going for banana

26:27

bread or just like

26:29

a brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tart or

26:31

the apple cinnamon Pop-Tart that they also make I'm

26:34

not and this is just fitting in a very like weird

26:37

uncanny valley between flavors that

26:39

doesn't really need to exist especially

26:41

since it doesn't represent its namesake

26:43

cereal nearly as well as the Fruit

26:45

Loops Pop-Tarts did.

26:49

That's

26:52

very disappointing I guess I thought with

26:55

Apple Jack's like doesn't feel like

26:57

they have all these cereal flavors in a vial right

27:01

they just have a vial full of it. Yeah exactly

27:04

they just dump it in it's like well no it's Fruit

27:06

Loops you're right they just like Fruit

27:08

Loops you got it.

27:11

Okay now I did try these this

27:13

next item too and

27:15

I'm I'm just on Tensor Hook Sweet

27:18

and hear what you think about Cinnamon Toast Crunch bars. So

27:20

I don't believe these are strictly speaking new

27:22

this is some sort of weird semantic rebrand

27:25

where these used to be called Cinnamon Toast Crunch

27:27

Treats and now they're just calling

27:29

them Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bars they are the same

27:31

product as far as I can see but

27:34

just one word name change but

27:37

I think they're pretty good honestly I think

27:39

it levels up the

27:41

Cinnamon Toast Crunch flavor where that same

27:43

like super cinnamon sweetness is still

27:45

there like you can still taste

27:47

that these are Cinnamon Toast Crunch product

27:50

but they did add an additional sizzle

27:53

of cinnamon not to the same like nastily

27:56

overbearing degree as the Apple Jack's Pop-Tarts

27:58

but enough of that. So left that little

28:00

accenting cinnamon spiciness to

28:02

make these like really compelling and munchable.

28:05

What did you think?

28:07

Uh, yeah, the same. I'm

28:09

not in love with cereal bars, generally

28:12

speaking.

28:13

My kids seem to really like them though, especially

28:15

for like a quick kind of thing in the

28:17

mornings. As a busy

28:20

parent on the go, I love hitting

28:22

my kids cereal bars. So I

28:25

again, I think we have, we agree

28:27

on these for a long time that they're just like, I just

28:29

don't find them particularly satisfying. Um,

28:33

and so I don't think any cereal bar

28:35

I like, I love. Yeah,

28:38

I honestly miss the days back when they had

28:40

like the milk and cereal bars where they had

28:42

that weird like layer

28:43

of dried milk in between

28:46

like little rectangles of cereal. And

28:48

I know this seemed kind of like gross

28:51

texturally at the time, but now this

28:54

sort of cookie cutter trend of having these like

28:56

globbed together granola bars just doesn't hit

28:59

quite the same as they used to.

29:02

There was a, um, some

29:04

sort of generic fruit loop

29:07

cereal bar that used to be in the

29:09

vending machine when I was a kid. I wish I could remember

29:11

the name of it because it was a really hard

29:14

chewy book, like a real, a real project.

29:17

Um, see, that's good though, because like these cereal

29:19

bars, you eat them so fast and they're just gone

29:21

and you instantly forget they ever existed. But

29:24

if there is that,

29:25

that, uh, Sisyphean

29:27

chew that is required, then it's

29:30

better. We

29:32

asked y'all for, um, some

29:34

cereals that you thought would, that

29:36

would need to be stored in the freezer aisle. Uh,

29:40

and so we got a couple of answers to that and then we

29:42

just got a, a, a sort of a side

29:45

from Olivia, um,

29:48

providing some international perspective as

29:50

we've requested y'all do. Um, so,

29:53

uh, let's listen to those and then we'll

29:55

be right back.

29:59

Hi, Dan and Justin.

30:02

This is Nathaniel from Texas and

30:05

as someone who already stores cereal

30:07

in the fridge, I can

30:09

say that it doesn't really affect texture

30:12

and the other

30:12

quality of the pieces. A cereal

30:16

that was designed for the fridge however

30:18

could introduce a much-needed refreshing

30:21

element such as cucumber,

30:23

watermelon, or perhaps even

30:26

missing link to the mint debacle we

30:28

all experienced.

30:29

Thank you so much for the podcast

30:31

that really does help with the

30:33

sleepy time troubles. Hi,

30:36

Dan and Justin. This is Rook. My

30:39

proposed refrigerated cereal

30:41

experience would be something akin

30:44

to an advent calendar where

30:47

behind every door

30:49

is a different cereal topping

30:51

that needs to be refrigerated that

30:54

it encourages

30:56

you to add to your cereal and maybe

30:59

it suggests cereals that

31:01

would pair well with the particular topping.

31:05

I had in mind like some

31:07

cut-up peaches or like

31:11

popping boba or

31:14

any of the suggestions that you

31:16

had during last episode like

31:19

cookie dough and

31:21

so on. Thanks. Hi,

31:25

Dan and Justin. My name is Liv.

31:27

I'm originally from Ireland,

31:29

in the UK and I

31:32

wanted to chime in on

31:35

Lucky Charms. So as

31:37

I was growing up I watched a lot

31:40

of Disney Channel and things and

31:42

everyone seemed to talk about Lucky Charms

31:44

all the time and them being very

31:47

Irish but I as a kid

31:49

was very confused because I couldn't find them anywhere

31:52

and I realised as an adult

31:54

that I don't think Lucky

31:57

Charms is produced in Ireland or the

31:59

UK. and in fact you can

32:01

really find it in import aisles for

32:03

like 10 euros a box but

32:06

luckily now that I live in

32:08

the UK I can get multi meal

32:10

at Marchmell M80s so I've got

32:13

access. Thank you so much

32:15

guys you help me sleep every night.

32:19

My friend Ludwig Kietzman

32:21

and I used to work with an AOLs

32:23

video game site joystick.

32:26

He lived in

32:29

South Africa and the first time he

32:31

came stateside

32:32

he did not try Lucky Charms he instead tried

32:34

marshmallow M80s and that was the

32:36

cereal that he got fixated on and that

32:39

we would have to send him boxes of marshmallow

32:42

M80s which I've heard are very good

32:44

I have not tried them myself but I heard they're quite

32:46

good. You mean big bags of marshmallow M80s?

32:49

Yes boxes of bags of marshmallow M80s. Exactly.

32:55

I love that idea of like fresh fruit just

32:57

being part of it.

32:59

You just have a packet of fresh fruit you dump in there because

33:01

it's stored in the fridge. A little burst of juiciness

33:04

or perhaps a little pouch of cheesecake bites if

33:07

I may interject. Perhaps

33:09

perhaps. I've

33:12

got some emails here just

33:14

cleaning out our our inbox.

33:18

Today I was running low on two boxes

33:20

of cereal and ended up combining Syngram toast crunch

33:22

and honey nut Cheerios in a bowl. The results

33:24

were delicious. Are there any cereals you guys like

33:26

to mix together? That's from James in Los Angeles. We

33:29

have answered this before but you

33:31

had I thought a new a new entry

33:34

to share. Yeah

33:36

so we definitely answered this question before

33:38

but I discovered a new a

33:40

new cereal mix

33:43

recently that I really enjoyed and

33:45

that would be mixing the frosted

33:47

lemon Cheerios with the oh

33:52

god I already forgot what the cereal was called

33:54

the one that makes you fall asleep the

33:57

was sweet dream cereal man

33:59

I think it's Sweet Dreams. That's embarrassing.

34:02

There's a box of it in my

34:03

pantry right now, but the blueberry one. You

34:07

mix that and it already has like a blueberry lavender

34:09

flavor with it. And you pair that with the really

34:12

like mellow lemony-ness of those Cheerios.

34:14

And it's just such a

34:17

calming combo that really reinforces

34:19

that psychological, if

34:21

not actually physiological feeling

34:23

of like relaxation and, you know,

34:26

approaching sleep's door and knocking

34:28

gently. I think that's something I've been really

34:31

enjoying lately. I think the

34:33

mixing potential of the Frosted Lemon

34:35

Cheerios is very high. And I think now

34:37

seeing the Great Value

34:39

Strawberry Lemonade cereal on

34:42

the way, I need to think of what the ideal

34:44

strawberry cereal to mix the lemon Cheerios

34:46

with might be.

34:48

Have you tried any new mixes lately?

34:52

Trying to think. I was

34:55

running low on several cereals

34:58

for a while. I was doing that thing where I was trying to like

35:00

clean it out. So just mix whatever random

35:03

stuff I found in there.

35:05

I tend to think

35:07

as a universal mixer, I think

35:09

crispics

35:12

are really good at just about everything. Really?

35:14

I don't think I give enough credit to crispics. I like

35:17

using snack mixes, but I don't eat enough

35:19

by itself. It's a really good mixer. That's

35:21

a cereal I haven't had in so long that would probably

35:23

fall into my theory of

35:26

being most medium-ist desired. So

35:28

maybe I need to go pick up some crispics.

35:31

Picks up some crispics. Quite good.

35:35

That also feels like one of those cereals that

35:37

could just be discontinued at any moment, right?

35:40

Doesn't it feel like, no, if

35:42

you're not eating crispics on a regular basis,

35:44

I feel like it could just vanish. Someone

35:47

has to be buying it. That cereal has been along for so

35:49

long. There's definitely a dedicated silent

35:51

majority that like if they

35:53

threaten to discontinue it, heads

35:55

would roll. Yeah.

35:59

Oh. Here's a note from Faith

36:01

about favorite cereal mix-ins. Trader

36:04

Joe's sells delightful little packs of freeze-dried

36:06

fruit,

36:07

including bananas, mangoes,

36:09

and more. I bought them for overnight oats,

36:11

but I've been using them on cold cereal.

36:14

There's not a lot of truly

36:17

gluten-free cereals I can enjoy, so having

36:19

the ability to change up my checks is

36:21

a delight. My favorite so far is peanut butter

36:23

checks with chocolate oat milk and

36:25

freeze-dried banana pieces. I mean, that

36:27

sounds great.

36:28

I think the textural addition of this

36:31

sort of freeze-dried fruit is huge. Anything

36:34

that mixes up that standardized texture

36:37

of a cereal is very smart.

36:39

Bananas like that also are not going

36:41

to collapse in milk. That's going to

36:43

be a nice crunch. How you

36:46

doing, Justin? I hope you're doing well. I've

36:48

never pranked anyone on my own, but a few

36:50

weeks ago, I heard you mention Cinéphégo

36:53

Toast Crunch, and an idea popped in my head. My

36:55

fiancé loves sugary cereal,

36:58

and especially the Toast Crunch family. I

37:00

ordered Cinéphégo online, bought a box of Cinéphégo's

37:02

Crunch, and swapped the two. I used

37:04

a hair straightener and parchment paper to reseal the

37:06

plastic pack. On the night

37:08

of March 31, I played an idea that said that we should have cereal,

37:11

and then I picked him up a treat. The morning

37:13

of April 1, he was excited to pour himself a bowl. I

37:15

took a video of his reaction. Um,

37:20

I...

37:21

That is, uh, I don't know.

37:24

You could see this poor person just

37:26

in shambles, destroyed. Exactly the way that

37:28

we reacted. But I can't imagine trying

37:31

Cinéphégo and not knowing that you're

37:33

about to taste this. Oh, god. Four-dimensionally

37:36

painful cereal. It's true. It's

37:38

true. Like, wickedness is alive

37:40

and well in your household. Well, didn't we say

37:43

that, like, after Cinéphégo got

37:45

such bad feedback, they started rebranding

37:47

it as a prank cereal? Which

37:49

is really funny and, like, almost

37:52

a masterclass in marketing to realize that your product's

37:55

so bad that you need to totally change

37:57

the communication around it to make it, you

37:59

know,

37:59

impish intentionally.

38:01

Hold

38:04

on Dan, I pulled out a little bit of audio

38:07

for this video that I think we can we can play

38:09

for our listeners to give an idea of what we're dealing

38:11

with here.

38:18

Oh wow. Wait,

38:28

is that a lot of cinnamon? Or am I crazy?

38:35

So yeah, they had

38:38

it. It

38:40

was this poor person is

38:42

just, he's now

38:44

having a coughing fit and trying to recover

38:47

from eating cinophilia. Yeah, y'all, it's

38:50

you messed up on that one. It's okay. It's okay.

38:52

Yeah, you know, everybody whiffs. The next step is to

38:54

buy your fiance some brown sugar cinnamon pop

38:57

tarts and swap in some Apple Jacks

38:59

ones and Jacks the hair straightener back out.

39:02

If you would like

39:05

to contribute to our show bowl

39:07

dot rest is the address.

39:09

We are no longer a posted

39:13

by anchor. I guess we're now hosted by Spotify

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for a podcast in cover

39:17

of night anchor was done away with and

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now Spotify for podcasters is where we live.

39:22

But you can just go to bowl dot rest. Nothing has changed

39:24

on that end. If you have something,

39:26

you know, we usually ask questions,

39:28

but if you just have a thought about

39:31

it, Sierra, you want to share in a calm way. I think that's

39:32

great. Don't you, Dan? Just I love

39:35

that that piece from Olivia. This is

39:37

kind of out of nowhere. So

39:39

feel free to freestyle. Yeah,

39:42

please. Send us a note. Anybody else

39:44

we have gratitude to? We'd like to thank Chris Zabriskie

39:47

for our opening theme of the Sun is scheduled

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to come out tomorrow. Brea Davis

39:51

for incredible podcast branding as

39:53

well as M Loper and Samuel Rarden for designing

39:55

our empty bowl merchandise.

39:59

I'm just so happy to be

40:02

able to have an opportunity to be here with you and to

40:04

talk about cereal. I

40:14

hope you were trying to sleep, I hope you're not hearing this.

40:16

I hope you've fallen asleep. And

40:19

otherwise I hope you're pretty hungry and are thinking about what

40:21

cereal you're going to eat. But

40:23

that is going to do it for us. So until next week,

40:25

for Dango Bear, my name is Justin McElroy. And

40:28

as Dan always says at the end of every

40:29

episode, do remember

40:33

to consume the dairy

40:35

beverage.

40:39

Subverting

40:41

expectation. Oh

40:43

man, the pod people take over starts with Dango

40:46

Bear. Who would have thought? Who would have thought?

42:00

hey