0:00

As

0:39

we turn the page on another

0:42

year, I think it's

0:44

good to remember that the next page

0:47

is printed on the other side of it.

0:51

So the end and the beginning

0:53

are really one and the same. I

0:56

very much enjoy eating cereal. Hello.

1:00

Welcome to the empty

1:01

bowl, meditative podcast about

1:03

cereal. My name is Justin

1:05

and I'm a cereal in enthusiast. And

1:08

my name is Dan Gabbare, and I am just

1:10

cereal, cereal, cereal, really

1:13

happy to be here. Serialist

1:17

okay. Hey. Welcome.

1:19

Portman toes on our thing. You know what our thing

1:21

is, making a relaxing serial

1:23

based podcast for you. This is our

1:25

year end spectacular, but

1:28

it's not gonna be explosive as

1:30

many others as they've heard this

1:32

year. It's gonna be relaxed thing. So

1:34

we ask that for the next half hour, so you

1:37

give yourself permission to

1:40

just think

1:42

about cereal. We're gonna have

1:44

some probably a little

1:46

bit of serial news. Things

1:49

have slowed down on the release front. So

1:51

we're not gonna be talking any reviews,

1:53

but we will be talking about

1:56

our some of our big hits

1:59

and big misses for

2:02

for the year. And I'm very

2:04

excited to see where you've you've ended up. I'm

2:06

always looking forward to. I like

2:08

re reviewing. But, you know, there

2:10

just isn't what you you

2:12

hope for some sort of Wikipedia page

2:14

that says, Here's all the new cereals

2:16

that came out this year and accompanying

2:19

Box Art. But it's it is

2:21

that resource for serial

2:23

podcasters I've not been able to

2:25

find yet. So I relied on seriously

2:27

dot net for for my information

2:29

here. Yeah. I mean me

2:31

too, obviously. But then even I will go back to

2:33

all the things that I reviewed in a year and I was like,

2:35

wow, I totally either forgot that it existed

2:38

or I thought it happened like five years ago.

2:41

Serial time does not work like normal

2:43

chronological time. No.

2:46

Serial time is Well,

2:48

that's Gabe's Show. Right. Right. Right. Is

2:50

copyright. Are

2:52

you counting, by the way? We

2:55

talked about synogram to

2:57

his crunch last year. Right? Even though the review

2:59

came out in twenty twenty two,

3:02

we included that in our twenty twenty one

3:04

rankings. Correct? No. I don't

3:06

think we did. And he might not have spoiled

3:08

the entire entire number one serial

3:10

of the year. Well, I I couldn't remember because I

3:12

know we definitely got I think we got review boxes.

3:15

At the end of the year. That's good to know.

3:17

Alright? That that that helps me with my rankings.

3:19

So we'll we'll we'll return to that. Dan,

3:22

what's going on in the world of news?

3:26

So you mentioned copyright infringement earlier

3:29

and boy -- Yeah. -- was there a great case that

3:31

happening in the cereal world. So

3:33

I don't know if you've heard of mischief before,

3:36

like the word mischief without any vowels

3:39

in it. Yeah. They do, like, it's one is

3:41

like drop companies.

3:43

Right? They do, like, exclusive weird

3:45

drops of stuff that you can buy. Yeah.

3:47

And basically, their stuff tends to,

3:50

you know, play fast and loose with other

3:52

people's intellectual properties. And

3:54

I don't -- Right. -- frankly know how they keep getting

3:56

away with it. But They have

3:58

done it again with the mischief big

4:00

loop, the big fruit loop spelled

4:02

like the word fruit because, you know, that's how you

4:05

skirt the copyright lawyers. Right.

4:07

But this is basically one

4:10

giant fruit loop inside of a

4:12

box. And, you know,

4:14

as these limited edition drops, tend to go.

4:16

It already sold out in, like, literal

4:18

seconds of it coming out, and

4:20

I did not get one. But this is, like, the

4:22

first time where I'm really upset about that

4:24

because most a time I don't really care about these

4:26

drops, but man -- Right. -- one giant

4:29

box sized fruit loop is something I'm

4:31

totally into. And I've

4:33

kind of been watching the resale market, hoping

4:35

that someone will sell one for

4:37

below, like, a hundred dollars so I can

4:39

shamefully actually indulge in

4:41

that fantasy, but I guess I'll just keep

4:43

waiting to see if it depreciates. Well,

4:46

it will considering the fact that it's a

4:48

giant fruit loop, it will depreciate. It

4:51

in value. I have to assume. Right?

4:53

It will disintegrate EightyOne slow.

4:55

Incidentally. Yes. What I

4:57

like is that, like, this became a big headline

4:59

obviously because of the clickbait value. And I was

5:01

reading, like, the CNN business article

5:04

about it, and they even reached out to Kellogg's

5:06

about it. And Kellogg's are just like,

5:08

given the trademark infringement and unauthorized

5:11

use of our brand, we have reached out to the company

5:13

seeking an amicable resolution. Like,

5:15

what do they hope that's gonna be? Like,

5:17

they they ended up selling it anyway, so I'm

5:19

guessing no sort of amicable resolution

5:22

was was we We're sending the cease and

5:24

desist, but I think they're out of the game at this point.

5:26

Right? Like, they're they're they're done. They just

5:28

can't believe that this small, like,

5:30

scrappy startup was able to do this

5:32

on like, without, you know, Kellogg's

5:35

army of lawyers trampling all over

5:37

them. But -- Yeah. -- maybe the profit that

5:39

they're getting from Honestly, just

5:41

scalping it themselves and selling it on the resale

5:43

market maybe is how they do it. don't know. But

5:45

there's something going on here. Talk

5:49

to me about, you know, I'm a big Disney

5:51

fan. They're they're getting back into

5:53

the cereal game. Yeah.

5:55

So Disney has now seemingly

5:57

worked with every single major serial

5:59

company. Like we saw in the past that they

6:02

released cereals through General Mills and

6:04

Kellogg's, but now post is getting

6:06

in on the Disney cereal game with

6:08

two different cereals to celebrate

6:10

Disney's one hundred years of

6:12

wonder centennial anniversary

6:15

event. You know, I'm not as much of a

6:17

Disney guy as you are, so I'm interested to

6:19

hear your take on these two cereals,

6:21

one of which is a Mickey Mouse

6:23

Club, confetti cake

6:25

cereal, and the other is

6:28

sort of just you

6:30

know, it's not even like a name

6:32

for what this flavor is on the box. It just

6:34

says naturally and artificially fruity

6:36

flavored sweet and cereal. Which appears

6:38

to be in the shape of red and blue Mickey

6:40

Mouse heads. So from

6:42

my perception, it's not the most EightyOne, but

6:45

Yeah. I kinda feel the same way. I like

6:47

the boxes actually. I think the boxes

6:49

are kinda cool. And a

6:51

lot of this, like, Disney one hundred years of

6:53

wonder, has the same, like, aesthetic.

6:57

So I mean, the the Mickey

6:59

Mouse shaped pieces, I think, are cool.

7:03

It just you know, Fruity is, like, the biggest

7:06

question mark. What what other, like,

7:08

post Fruity stuff? I mean, What

7:12

other post fruity stuff do you think this could

7:14

be? I mean, it's not gonna lift fruity pebbles

7:16

flavor. Like, what

7:18

other templates does this post

7:20

have? For, like, fruity

7:22

stuff. I don't know that

7:24

they really do. I mean, what I'm

7:26

thinking is that considering that post also

7:28

owns multi meal. They do kind of

7:30

have the machinery, I guess, to

7:32

produce the fruit flavor

7:34

from any of their other like dupes

7:36

that they've done for, like, fruit loops or tricks or

7:38

otherwise. So -- Yeah. -- considering the

7:41

the range of formulation that they have access

7:43

to, in their shared post multi

7:45

meal laboratories. I I think

7:47

it's really hard to say. It could be anything. I'm I'll

7:49

look forward to it. You know, I like a fruity flavored

7:51

cereal. I'll look forward to for sure. The

7:54

other one, the I don't know. Birthday

7:56

cake. Katie's sort of stuff like that.

7:58

I'm I'm very very

8:00

skittish on confetti cake cereal.

8:02

I know that's gonna taste it. I

8:04

don't think I'll love it. Oh. Tell

8:13

me about these cookie dough bites, Dan. So

8:16

this is a really really strange

8:18

one, and I don't really

8:20

understand the whole story behind

8:22

it. But, like, you know, cookie dough

8:24

bites the sort of, like, candy that you

8:26

can you don't get a movie theater staple.

8:28

Right? It's only maybe theater as far as I know.

8:30

Yeah. This one really specific niche

8:33

candy brand is apparently big

8:36

question mark after that. Getting its own

8:39

cookie dough bites cereal.

8:41

And, you know, just from looking at the

8:43

box, there's no major cereal

8:45

company seemingly attached

8:47

to this stuff. I post about

8:49

it on Twitter and, you know, someone

8:51

was pointing out that it is

8:53

probably made by taste

8:55

of nature. Which is,

8:58

you know, the parent company of the actual

9:00

candy. They make things like missus

9:02

Fields cookies and all kinds of different candies

9:04

and stuff. So I wouldn't imagine that

9:06

they have, like, the full

9:08

facilities to make

9:10

a cereal like this. And a lot of the stuff on

9:12

the box art, I have to imagine isn't

9:14

finalized because like, they just

9:16

have new with two exclamation points,

9:19

proudly boasting it as the original and,

9:21

you know, listing it as original

9:23

cookie dough by its cereal. Yeah. Listing

9:25

it as an excellent source of ten

9:27

vitamins and supplements, which is definitely what I

9:29

care about in a cookie dough bite cereal.

9:33

I don't think I've heard supplements. What

9:37

really throws me about this though is that, like, if

9:39

you Google it, there are places where

9:41

you can place an order for

9:43

a box of cookie dough bite cereal, and I

9:45

tried. And like a week later, they

9:47

canceled my order outright and said that they

9:49

didn't have it. So they're kidding.

9:52

Yeah. I don't know if this is in

9:54

EightyOne, early, a profools joke

9:56

or what. I I really want this

9:58

to be real because I like cookie dough flavored

10:01

things. I like like the keyboard serial in the

10:03

past and the chocolate chip

10:05

cookie dough crave. So this is something

10:07

that I'd really like to get my hands

10:09

on if at all possible. Someone

10:11

out there is hoarding both all of the world supply

10:13

of mischief big loops and cookie dough

10:15

bites cereal, and I need to have a word with

10:17

this individual. How

10:19

you want look at the side of this box is

10:21

a little hard to make out, but it's advertising

10:24

something else that I feel like, is

10:26

it just for the company? Or

10:29

It looks like it's just listing all the different candies

10:31

that they were selling. So

10:34

who knows? There's

10:36

something too if I don't know if you I don't know

10:38

if you can see it very blurred. I couldn't really find

10:40

a higher resolution. The picture the

10:43

words at the bottom of the box next to the

10:45

actual candy says candy. Images

10:48

are for illustration

10:52

purposes only and not included,

10:54

I believe, is what it says. Okay. So I

10:56

mean, yeah, it makes sense. But this actually

10:58

included little cookie dough

11:00

bites within the cereal. It's kind of

11:02

a false hope. And

11:04

I think based on the ingredients list that I

11:06

saw on the listing, this is just kinda

11:08

like another corn based cereal. So

11:10

maybe it's alright. If I my hands

11:12

on this. Yeah. You just be a disappointment,

11:14

but also And

11:16

our last sort of like cereal co

11:18

branding of of the year,

11:21

This one looks really

11:24

lazy. It looks lazy, but

11:26

it also looks really tasty.

11:28

This is Betty

11:30

Crocker Reese's Puffs complete peanut

11:32

butter pancake kit. And

11:34

this is actually the second

11:37

complete pancake kit to come

11:39

from Betty Crocker, which is, of

11:41

course, a general meal subsidiary in

11:43

the past year. They launched a

11:45

lucky charms pancake kit

11:47

that you know, it was just kind of alright

11:49

because like pancakes and lucky

11:51

charms kind of similar veins

11:53

of flavor that don't do much more than

11:55

like complement each other naturally. But,

11:58

like, I'm a big fan of

12:00

a peanut butter pancake. There's this place

12:02

near me that serves, like,

12:04

face sized, like, your face

12:06

sized peanut butter chocolate pancakes and

12:08

that's like and this feels really

12:10

almost sacrilegious to say considering

12:12

the context here. I'm usually not

12:14

a sweets for breakfast kind of guy.

12:16

Kind of flavor that I can

12:18

get behind. And even though there's

12:21

Reese's Puffs complete peanut butter

12:23

pancake kit, The only

12:25

really alignment with Reese's puffs

12:27

is the little bits of cereal that they will give you

12:29

to scatter on top. The fact

12:31

that these pancakes are stuffed

12:33

with Reese's peanut butter chips is enough

12:35

to get me interested and

12:37

onboard completely. Dan,

12:42

now it comes to the the more

12:46

sort of business. Business

12:48

forward aspect of our program

12:50

today. It's rare that we have

12:52

something that is so monumental,

12:55

and I'd say, like, impactful for the cereal

12:57

world. I know they're all waiting on with baited

12:59

breath to see what we

13:01

choose as our our you

13:03

know, favorites of the year. Do

13:06

you wanna start with the

13:08

best cereal of the year and

13:10

work down from there? Or

13:12

do we build to that? Well,

13:15

let's see. So we kinda talked about this

13:17

and, like, usually, we would do a

13:19

top five cereals of the year. But

13:21

given, like, the comparative

13:23

dearth of really, really stand great

13:25

out options. I kinda was only

13:27

able to pair my list down to three. So

13:29

maybe let's start by counting

13:31

down our top three of the

13:33

year, and then maybe we can go into a couple

13:36

spin off categories too. That's

13:38

great. Give people an idea of what else came out this

13:40

year. Dan, what was your number

13:42

three cereal of the year? So

13:44

this one's a little bit tough. Because

13:47

this is a cereal that I'm guessing maybe

13:49

like a dozen people in the

13:51

entire country even got to try.

13:53

But these were the general mills filled

13:55

by its cereals that at least

13:57

at this point were still only released

13:59

in, like, demo markets in

14:01

Minnesota. And I guess

14:03

maybe they didn't perform as well as

14:05

you would have hoped because I haven't heard anything

14:07

else about them. But

14:09

those were Mainly the

14:11

Golden Graham's s'mores variety of

14:13

those filled bites just really drove

14:15

me wild. This concept

14:18

was basically an evolution of the Philips

14:20

Cereal that General Mills released in the

14:22

past. Yeah. But this

14:24

iteration of it where they had this look

14:26

golden grams flavored pillow

14:30

that was then filled with sweet

14:32

cream and then also dusted

14:34

with chocolate on top was just the

14:37

ultimate layering of flavors

14:39

that I love so much. And

14:41

it was extremely dense, extremely

14:43

hardy, and it was so dense. It

14:45

didn't fly so well alongside

14:47

other conventional light and airy

14:49

cereals, but as far as I'm

14:51

concerned, denser and

14:54

heavier is the future of cereal. I

14:56

want that. I was gonna say heavy

14:58

metal cereal, like heavy metal the concept, but

15:00

I really don't want any jagged

15:02

metal crustyos in my breakfast. Right.

15:04

So you get the idea. But that is my

15:06

number three. I don't know. What what's your

15:08

number three? My number

15:10

three this year is strawberry

15:12

banana chirios. An

15:15

early fry you know, we we

15:17

are big fans of of a lot of

15:19

different Cheeriest varieties. And I, you

15:21

know, I really thought that

15:25

the the new berry variety

15:27

of Oak Crunch

15:29

would be in this list for me and

15:31

it didn't quite make it, but these did, these

15:33

strawberry banana chirgos. I just found

15:35

the tartness of the strawberries and the

15:37

banana flavor to be really

15:39

a nice balance to the hardiness

15:41

of the of the oat pieces. And

15:44

I really enjoyed this variety. You know,

15:46

I I usually like chirios

15:48

in all their different forms. But this

15:50

this flavor was really nice. That was a

15:52

good one. Light and refreshing. It didn't quite

15:54

crack my top of the list, but I will agree it was a

15:56

good one. Good one.

15:58

What was your what was your number two?

16:00

So my number two, this is one of the ones that

16:02

surprised me that it actually came out this year. It

16:04

was actually the first product that

16:06

I reviewed in twenty twenty two and this

16:08

was peanut butter plentiful cereal.

16:10

A cereal that's already by this

16:12

point in the year become pretty hard to find

16:15

based on what I've been seeing and

16:17

researching. But it's really a

16:19

disappointment. And I think a lot of it had to do

16:21

with the branding surrounding it and like how

16:23

it was not really given a

16:25

distinctive voice as a cereal. But

16:27

regardless, this was a cereal

16:29

that managed to pack the most genuine

16:31

peanut butter y flavor. Like, again,

16:33

like I was saying when we first reviewed it, rarely

16:35

do you see a cereal that focuses only

16:38

on peanut butter without supplementing it with

16:40

chocolate or something else? But

16:42

this plentiful knew what it was doing. It

16:44

tripled down on the actual real

16:46

nutty peanut butteriness. And for

16:48

that, I have to give it credit. It was delicious.

16:52

Now my my number two

16:54

is gonna ruffle some feathers,

16:57

but I had to look I really

16:59

looked at, like, what did I go back for,

17:02

bowl after bowl. And

17:05

it was Pandora flakes. And I know. I

17:09

I know. But I

17:11

really like those blueberry pieces

17:13

in the Pandora flakes. And

17:16

we'll talk about EightyOne later.

17:18

It will it will get a mission there

17:21

too. But for me, Dan. I know. I

17:23

know. I know. Mhmm.

17:25

But it has been a weird year for cereal,

17:27

and that cereal there something

17:29

about that combination of the frosted flakes of those

17:32

blueberry spheres that

17:34

I really enjoyed. Could it have been a

17:36

combination I made myself maybe,

17:38

but I didn't, and Kellogg's did.

17:41

So that is my number

17:43

two favorite cereal of

17:45

the year. Well, I can always count on you to bring an out of left

17:47

field approach. And I guess you're in

17:49

luck because you'll probably get three more

17:51

Pandora Flakes varieties with the next Avatar

17:53

sequels. So Yeah. I mean, from

17:55

your lips to god's ears. So,

18:00

yeah, I mean, kinda

18:02

kinda spoiled a little bit earlier, but

18:05

my top cereal of the year has to be

18:07

synogram toast crunch. Let's put the tension

18:09

in its mind too. Okay. Scott, I'm

18:11

kinda worried that, like, I don't remember. Did we

18:13

pick this one for cereal of the year last

18:15

year? But honestly, ultimately, it doesn't

18:17

matter because it deserves to be cereal

18:19

of the hair for both twenty twenty one and twenty

18:22

twenty two. Like, it's

18:25

unbelievable how much better scintagram

18:27

toast crunch is than even normal

18:29

cinnamon toast crunch, let alone any other

18:31

cinnamon cereal out there. The

18:33

glamour base, this proves

18:35

its viability in all use

18:37

cases. So don't see how even

18:39

after a year of synogram toast crunch

18:41

since this did come out at the start of the

18:43

year, we haven't seen that that

18:45

Gram Dynasty expanded into other areas yet. So

18:47

-- Yeah. -- outside of the field bytes, of course,

18:49

which, you know, didn't land, I guess.

18:52

But I will also say another thing that

18:54

I really like about this pick is that

18:56

I it is one of this a

18:58

lot of cereals, that new cereals can be

19:00

very finicky and they can come and go. I will say that

19:02

this one I've seen pretty consistently --

19:05

Mhmm. -- in stores. I've I think this

19:07

one must be doing well because I see it

19:09

a lot. Yeah. This is one

19:11

too. We're like, I'll still get comments on my blog

19:13

post months and months later EightyOne people being

19:15

like, you know, I was apprehensive, but you're

19:17

so right. I tried it. Absolutely

19:19

the best out there. And I haven't I don't understand

19:21

any apprehension about this

19:23

product, but I will I will grant it,

19:25

I suppose. Yeah. I also wanna

19:28

give an honorable mention. The one that almost

19:30

cracked my top three was the

19:32

cinnamon toast crunch rolls.

19:34

And this was one that I did have apprehension surrounding

19:36

just because I was like, oh, it's like

19:38

the churros. It's another new shape for the

19:40

same basic flavor. But

19:43

the small rounds of cinnamon toast

19:45

crunch seemed to just hold the flavor a

19:47

lot better and especially in milk

19:49

that performed especially well. So

19:51

here's hoping that In twenty twenty

19:53

three, we get a synogram toast crunch

19:56

rolls to really bring the best of those two

19:58

worlds together. Now.

20:03

But what about

20:06

the bad serials, Dan? Certainly.

20:08

As as hard as, you know, I tend

20:10

to be of the school of thought

20:12

where, you know, pretty much any

20:14

cereal is good. Like, I like most

20:17

every cereal. It's rare that I have a

20:19

cereal I just camp.

20:21

And this year I had a few

20:23

that I just I just couldn't

20:25

get there. Mhmm. So I think

20:27

we all know what the number one here is.

20:30

Another representation for the Toast

20:32

Crunch family on this list. They

20:34

really captured the highs and lows of this

20:36

very interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So it's San

20:38

Diego Toast Crunch for me one

20:40

hundred million percent. That was

20:42

just It's unreal. There

20:44

have been some people who have said that I

20:46

was wrong for this and that they and

20:48

their specific love of hot

20:50

tamales should be justified in

20:52

liking this cereal. But, like, you

20:54

are the vast, vast minority in that case. I'm

20:56

sorry. This stuff is painful. It's

20:58

as close as you can get to being

21:00

wrong about something that is It's

21:03

completely subjective. Yeah. To me, this was

21:05

getting pepper sprayed in the mouth and, you

21:07

know, being told it's a delicious hot cinnamon

21:10

flavor. Until it's being rebranded as a prank, of

21:12

course. So I

21:14

don't think the future of

21:16

spicy cereal is especially bright

21:18

after after San Diego to a crunch.

21:21

Yeah. Did you have did you have another that

21:23

No. That was my number one. The well,

21:26

I mean, I do want to give

21:28

special notice to Alf on

21:31

the shelf. I mean, Alf

21:33

on the shelf writ large, all bad.

21:36

But alpha in the shelf snow cream was

21:38

one of the most unpleasant

21:40

serial eating experiences I had

21:42

this year. Truly gross.

21:44

I don't know who it's for.

21:46

I don't understand it. It feels like

21:48

a TikTok style food. And

21:50

I don't know why they made it. It's just

21:52

so unfortunate to me because, like, we harp all day

21:54

on this show about wanting more innovation

21:57

in this real aisle. And -- Right. -- these

21:59

companies try to do something crazy with, like,

22:01

temperature manipulation, and

22:03

it just falls so flat so

22:05

vocally against it, then I'm worried they're never

22:07

gonna try anything creative again.

22:09

But, you know, there's other directions you

22:11

can go outside of this

22:14

sort of you know, phthalmological magic.

22:16

I wanna give a

22:18

dishonorable mention as well. This one is like

22:20

one that wasn't necessarily terrible.

22:23

It was just very, very disappointing

22:25

and that was Wendy's Frosty

22:27

Cereal. That was on my list too

22:29

for the disappointment fact. Actor

22:31

for sure. Yeah. This is just something that when you have

22:34

a name as iconic as the Wendy's

22:36

Frosty attached to a serial,

22:38

You have to do something more than just repackaged

22:41

cocoa puffs, but that's all that really

22:43

happened here and it's

22:45

instantly forgettable as a result. The best thing

22:47

about it was that included a coupon for

22:49

like a free frosty or something.

22:52

Do you know the the flavor I was

22:54

thinking about But the flavor that I

22:56

feel like they could that was missing

22:58

from this and it's kind of

23:00

like missing from a lot is the is

23:03

malt. Yeah. You know, that is a

23:05

melted fro like, frosty is a

23:07

melted treat and, like, malt

23:09

flavor is delicious.

23:11

And, like, I mean, even multi

23:14

meal. I don't feel like it's bringing the malt

23:16

in the way that you would you would want. I would

23:18

love to see malt flavor represent

23:20

more. Like, if they had it

23:22

had some of that multi ness in

23:24

there. I feel like it would it could have been a

23:26

lot stronger. But, yeah, I thought

23:28

that was hugely hugely disappointing. Yeah. If

23:30

we got, like, a whopper's cereal, that

23:32

would come on. Yeah. We're more likely to

23:34

get a Burger King whopper's cereal, I

23:36

think. So fitness of the Steve line of

23:38

fast food Wendy cereals. But

23:41

yeah. Any other especially

23:43

bad ones this year? I

23:45

think you hit it with the alpha on the shelf ruling, which

23:47

is, yeah, so vulgar.

23:51

So vulgar. No.

23:54

We mentioned Box Art a little

23:56

bit earlier. Were there any that, like, jumped

23:58

out to you is really is really great

24:01

this year? So my my pick for

24:03

box art of the year award goes

24:05

to tricks tracks actually. Oh

24:07

my god, Dan. It's mine. Yes.

24:09

I really love the juxtaposition of

24:11

the cartoony tricks rabbit in his little, you know,

24:14

tragic park ranger outfit contrasted

24:16

with this photorealistic tyrannosaurus

24:19

chasing him and it doesn't hurt that,

24:21

like, I like tricks with

24:23

marshmallows as a concept, so the cereal actually

24:25

paired well with that and something you can

24:27

just stare at and really appreciate the

24:29

EightyOne severity of it as you're eating

24:31

this pretty good cereal, and I like that a lot.

24:33

I like that cereal a lot too. You

24:35

know, it almost got into my list. It's

24:37

really fun. It the and it helps

24:39

the boxer too because it looks gorgeous. I

24:42

mean, like, it is like what

24:44

you think of as serial

24:46

as a kid. It looks like the what the Barron's

24:48

EightyOne would have eaten -- Mhmm. -- and like a

24:50

cereal. I think it just looks so, like, colorful

24:52

and fun. IIII

24:55

like when my kids liked it. It was a good it

24:57

was a good Sierra. I loved that

24:59

that box like that that was some

25:01

of my favorite. But sounds like you

25:03

have another honorable mention there as

25:06

well. No. No. That was that

25:08

was my number one. I mean, that that one really

25:10

you know, it's hard with box art because

25:12

there's been some cool but it's like,

25:14

it's it's so not specific

25:16

to the cereal. Right? Like, I

25:18

like some of the new boxes. I think the

25:21

ambush Reezy post box

25:23

look kinda cool. I don't know. The

25:25

amazing fantasy is a classic

25:27

cover on the cinnamon toast crunch. I don't

25:29

know what it has to do. It's it's it's

25:31

granted gold though. But I thought you were gonna give it to Pandora

25:33

Vikes. I mean, that is the III

25:36

mentioned it before, but yes, to return

25:38

to it. Pandora flakes

25:40

is astounding. The

25:42

fact that that is that

25:44

is a cereal that it feels like

25:46

kink content is fantastic.

25:48

III think that it is a

25:50

a truly wonderful looking

25:52

boxer where you see Tony ready

25:54

for but he's got a

25:58

Navy seemed curative.

26:01

He's just looking at you like,

26:03

yeah, I did it. Yeah.

26:08

III really dug the the

26:10

star the Star Wars Frost and Flakes box

26:12

two that they did. It really seems like

26:15

Tony's getting all the budget when it comes

26:17

to crazy box art, whereas,

26:19

like, all the other Kellogg's mascot

26:21

redesigns have been pretty bland, but they're going

26:23

all in on CGI Tony

26:25

and I really like having the

26:27

actual mascot getting adapted

26:29

to this licensed property better than,

26:31

you know, just slapping the characters on

26:33

a box. From the film. So

26:35

good on them for that.

26:39

So, yeah, I thought we could round it out

26:41

with a handful of wildcard

26:44

categories that I have picked up for the year. I

26:46

don't know if you have any, but I can just sort of

26:48

go through I had a couple that I

26:50

wanted to ask you about. If you have a if

26:52

you have one, but I believe you're one of yours.

26:54

Let me start with what I'm calling

26:56

the not quite a serial of

26:58

the year award. And this one goes out to a cereal

27:00

adjacent product that you're not

27:02

gonna eat in a bowl with milk. Well, maybe you

27:04

will, but it's sort of

27:07

I'll just cut to the right to the chase. It's the count chocula

27:09

and Frankenberry pillsbury

27:11

shaped cookies. And man, those

27:13

things were so good. I

27:15

love the pillsbury shape cookies when they come

27:17

out for every holiday. But never before

27:20

had I seen pillsbury

27:22

infuse a flavor into those sugar

27:24

cookies? And what they did with chocolate

27:26

and strawberry varieties to to

27:29

commemorate the monster cereals. Fill like a

27:31

really good cap on the

27:33

Halloween season. Something you can make super

27:35

easily and yet they're so addictively

27:37

popping your mouthful. And

27:39

I really really like that.

27:41

Yeah. I think I'm

27:43

gonna go with the Reese's

27:46

big cup with Reese's Puffs. You try

27:48

I like that. I haven't found it yet. I like

27:50

that. I found it at sheets. Yeah. I like the

27:52

Oroboros nature of that. Like, It's

27:54

an an an infinite recursion of

27:57

of Reese's, and I I think

27:59

that is fantastic. Did

28:02

the custom text It didn't really come through.

28:04

Yeah. Nice texture. It's it's good. It's a

28:06

good it's a good little 10I

28:08

like that. I wanted

28:11

to ask you, Dan, and maybe I don't know I don't

28:13

know what your other questions are, but I did

28:15

wanna ask you, do you have a most

28:17

anticipated cereal for next year

28:19

of the things we've heard of

28:21

rumored. And this is interesting because if you look

28:23

at I mean, look

28:26

at some of the Instagram sources where it's like, this

28:28

has been spotted in places. This is coming.

28:30

There are so many that I thought we would see

28:32

this year that just have not

28:35

material like that those

28:38

pebbles stars, you know what I

28:40

mean? Or the Oh, I saw somebody behind

28:42

us. Did I Yeah. Have those been

28:44

located? I mean, III limited

28:46

selection here too. And the minis too. Have

28:48

you seen those pop up anywhere? I've

28:50

heard of those popping up at

28:53

different sort of offs cereal

28:55

or sorry, off supermarkets as well,

28:57

not necessarily at the big places, but

28:59

I think they are starting to slowly roll

29:02

out And I don't know about you, but I did just get a General

29:04

Mills twenty twenty three new serial

29:06

care package that did include the

29:09

trick's minis as well. So

29:11

those are I'll probably be delivering a

29:13

review of those in our next episode. When

29:15

did you get that box? Literally

29:17

yesterday. So Oh my gosh. So maybe there's still

29:19

hope for me. I'll cross my fingers.

29:22

Yeah. So but but one of the ones that I did get in

29:24

that box is one that I have been anticipating,

29:26

and that would be the the

29:29

IHOP mini blueberry pancakes

29:31

series. Mhmm. I'm excited to dive into that one.

29:33

I don't know if it will be it's

29:35

it's all gonna hinge on what the

29:37

the base grain texture is

29:40

like. I know it's probably gonna be corn. It looks like

29:42

it's corn, but, like, blueberry

29:44

maple always has my heart, so I'm looking

29:46

forward to that one. I

29:50

did also wanna mention I

29:52

was feeling poorly a

29:54

few days ago, and

29:56

I usually reach for waffles.

29:59

When I feel sick for some reason. It's just what

30:01

I like to eat when I'm sick. And I had

30:03

some fruit loops waffles that we

30:05

purchased for the kids. Oh, really do that.

30:07

They're okay. Not as vibrant

30:09

as you might hope in terms

30:11

of in terms of the fruit loop

30:13

flavor, but it doesn't overpower it, which

30:15

is nice. Anyway,

30:17

this neither here nor there. Nice.

30:19

Okay. So my next

30:22

category goes to the pop tart of

30:24

the year. And, you know, we kinda didn't have

30:26

a huge number of them to choose from. I

30:28

count three mainline pop art

30:30

releases that came out this year. But

30:32

far and away my favorite was Boston

30:34

cream pie pop tarts.

30:36

And that really I

30:38

don't know. They really nailed the cuss

30:40

dirty filling on that one, which I think was very

30:42

unique for a pop tart filling. Where usually,

30:45

they'll just do sort of the same sort of sweet

30:47

cream on the middle. But they really up

30:49

game with that one, and I really dug

30:51

that. And even on I'll

30:53

honestly give an honorable mention in that

30:55

category to something that's not an outright

30:57

pop art. And that would

30:59

be the crumble cookies strawberry pop tart cookie.

31:01

We didn't even know I had

31:04

some some quality control issues with how

31:06

much filling distribution

31:08

there was in mind, like,

31:10

the way that they adapted this

31:12

sort of thinner toaster pastry to a

31:15

really thick and

31:17

dense and doughy cookie was a really great

31:19

evolution. It was basically like

31:21

they they did evolve this pop tart into a more

31:23

of a a mega form. I'm

31:26

not a big

31:29

pop tart guy. So I did not

31:31

try any new varieties of pop tarts this year,

31:33

Dan. It's a strict serial

31:35

purist. I understand. I

31:37

have a I have a category for

31:40

you. Please. Non cereal

31:42

add in of the year. Non

31:44

cereal add in of the year. So

31:46

what, like, not Like, what did you

31:48

mix into your cereal the most this year?

31:50

And I'll start with mine because I've been

31:53

big into it. I

31:56

I have quite a few times this year

31:58

made a large batch of caramel

32:00

corn. Mhmm. And

32:03

III eat some of it and then

32:05

eventually it gets like, okay, I can't with

32:07

this stuff anymore. This is like it's getting

32:09

overpowering, but mixed

32:12

into a more neutral cereal,

32:14

like your Crisp mix, your

32:16

cornflakes, your in any most of the

32:18

checks, what have you. Easily

32:21

elevates most cereals. It's a fascinating

32:24

texture. It's kinda surprising

32:26

to me that we haven't seen except for the fact

32:28

that it's like not really

32:31

a cereal grain, and I understand that.

32:33

But, like, it feels like

32:35

the opportunities there to just put popcorn

32:37

in it. I know it's a you know,

32:39

it takes up a of space. Like, that's what people

32:41

love about the corn

32:44

stuff. Right? Like, this is a it's an

32:46

inexpensive commodity. I

32:48

I'm surprised that you just had to see more caramel

32:50

corn, but I I especially homemade

32:52

caramel corn through a handful of

32:54

your cereal, fantastic. I mean, I'm just worried about

32:56

the sort of the holes issue. I don't want

32:58

any sort of milky holes stuck

33:01

between my teeth from pioneering but chilly

33:03

captain Mean, I don't know what to tell you.

33:05

Don't know whether you're valuable to safety or

33:07

you don't. I

33:09

don't know under risk it for

33:11

the biscuit. That's a good question

33:13

though. In terms of cereal mix ins, I

33:15

think this is something I've talked about

33:17

before where I like to

33:19

before I start eating my cereal,

33:21

I will dip my spoon and

33:23

take a little mini scoop of like peanut

33:25

butter from the jar. So that

33:27

when I start scooping out my cereal, not only do I get

33:30

a little bit of bite of peanut butter, but also the

33:32

cereal pieces will stick to

33:34

my spoon, basically like a little

33:36

flycatcher, which is not the most appetizing

33:38

metaphor, but you get what I

33:40

mean. What I tried mixing up this

33:42

year was that instead of using

33:44

normal peanut butter. They make this honey

33:46

peanut butter, which I think

33:48

complements extremely well with any like

33:50

honey not based cereal to get

33:52

you both of Additional hit of both

33:54

honey and nut. And, you

33:56

know, now that I think about it, I

33:58

have another addition to my list of most

34:00

anticipated cereal of

34:02

next year. I have heard early

34:04

word that Kellogg's crunchy nut

34:06

will be reappearing on shelves.

34:08

And, wow, I talked

34:10

about plentiful cereal being like

34:12

the most peanut buttery cereal out there,

34:14

but Critek Kellogg's crunchy nut is the

34:16

only cereal I can think of

34:18

that really elevates

34:20

the peanut. Straightforward, not peanut butter. This is a peanut

34:22

flavored cereal and there's something really

34:24

special about

34:26

that. Any other

34:28

categories, Dan, anything else that you

34:30

were I've been thinking about? Okay. I got one

34:32

more, and this is sort of a dual

34:35

award category. K? First, this is the Wait.

34:37

Who this goes to a cereal that I

34:40

most completely forgot even

34:42

existed that came

34:44

out this past year that I didn't even remember about

34:46

until I went back through all my reviews.

34:48

And this goes to honey

34:50

vanilla cheerios.

34:52

A cereal that was so barely distinct

34:55

from, like, just a normal cheerio

34:57

or a honey nut serial

34:59

that it feels like it didn't really have any

35:02

reason to ever be released.

35:04

Yeah. Just it it

35:06

went in

35:08

one mouth I'm not gonna

35:10

finish that.

35:14

But yeah, it's not

35:16

much to speak of. Let's just

35:18

leave it in the past and forget it. But

35:20

the complement to that award goes to the weight who

35:23

EightyOne award. And this goes

35:25

to a serial that I

35:27

may have forgot existed, but when I remember

35:29

that existed, I remember just how good

35:31

it was, and that goes

35:33

to pebbles' shakeups. Specifically

35:36

the sweet and salty birthday

35:38

cake version of it. This is the

35:41

only time I'll ever probably give props to

35:43

a birthday cake related cereal. But

35:45

these were little snack pouches that mixed a bunch

35:47

of different bits together from different

35:50

post products. You got birthday cake,

35:52

pebbles, boulders, waffle crisp

35:54

pieces and salted pretzel

35:56

bits. And that's how you

35:58

do birthday cake. Right? As you elevate

36:00

with something else, you give that

36:02

sweet snack of waffle crisp

36:04

maple syrup and you add

36:06

that crazy good salted pretzel

36:08

bite. Like, if spicy cereal is

36:10

not the future, maybe having a hint of

36:12

salt is. Those things were really good.

36:14

And I hope it's not the last we'll see of pebble shakeups because they

36:16

really did write on the

36:20

the Chicken and Waffles version from Post in the past

36:22

where they took out sort of the

36:24

the nuts, so great chicken y bits and left

36:26

behind that salty sweetness that did

36:28

us right. So congrats,

36:30

spend those shakeups.

36:32

Congrats to all of our winners for

36:34

this year. Congratulations. It's a

36:36

it's a huge achievement. I'm sure you

36:39

know, you're gonna start seeing

36:41

the headlines tomorrow after, you

36:44

know, this episode's released in

36:46

the trades. But I'm just happy to play a part in history.

36:48

Mhmm. But Dan, who do we

36:50

owe gratitude to this week? We

36:52

would like to thank

36:54

Chris Zabriski for our opening

36:56

theme of the sun is scheduled to come out

36:58

tomorrow, Pria Davis for our

37:00

amazing podcast branding, m

37:02

Loper and Samuel Rarden for designing our

37:04

empty bowl merch And to

37:06

all of our listeners who stuck with us through

37:08

twenty twenty two, we wish you

37:10

a very crunchy and happy twenty

37:12

twenty three. That's gonna do it

37:14

first for this week. So

37:18

until the next episode for

37:20

Dan Gabbir, my name is Justin

37:22

McElroy. And as always.

37:25

Don't forget yet to

37:27

drink to drink at

37:29

Mount at midnight. Oh, yeah. That's that's true. Get

37:31

your special milk. Kiss of all the

37:34

cheerios on the on the clock strikes

37:36

midnight. So your

37:38

champagne fluke Okay.

37:42

Look.