New Product Review:

Cocoa Puffs Combos

Reviewed by Mr Breakfast on 7/22/2008

Breakfast product manufacturers seems to be having a little trouble with chocolate and vanilla these days. They're trying to treat the flavors like fun-loving rivals by placing them in separate cereal nuggets or opposite sides of a toaster pastry with the hopes that the flavors will clash and play off each other to make a more interesting product.

Here's the truth about chocolate and vanilla... sure, they have a contrast in color and flavor, but when you put them together they get along so well that a new flavor is created... a sort of muted, mellower chocolate.

That's what you get in Cocoa Puffs Combos. With it's separate brown and yellow-white cereal pieces, you expect some contrast and appreciation of the dual flavors. But when the chocolate balls get together with the vanilla balls in your mouth, the result is simply a toned-down Cocoa Puffs flavor.

To it's credit, the vanilla is a slight bit more noticeable than it was in two similar products I reviewed recently, Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies Choconilla cereal and Kellogg's Chocolate And Vanilla Pop-Tarts Splitz. In those products, the vanilla seemed to just get cancelled out by the chocolate. In Cocoa Puffs Combos, you sense a hint a vanilla, but not enough to make a big impact.

This cereal manages to retain most of the fun of original Cocoa Puffs. The texture of the pieces are the same. This cereal might even seem a little more sweet. It's just that is has less chocolate flavor, and that's something I've never heard someone request. "I like Cocoa Puffs, but I wish it had a little less cocoa flavor". That's Cuckoo.

Nutritional information: Each 3/4 cup serving has 110 calories, 1.5 grams total fat, 0 grams saturated fat, 0 grams trans fat, 23 grams carbs, 1 gram dietary fiber, 11 grams sugar, 1 gram protein and a 10% or 25% spatter of many of the vitamins and minerals listed.

The price we paid: $3.99