New Product Review:

Rice Krispies With Real Strawberries

Reviewed by Mr Breakfast on 3/6/2007

This is a pretty good cereal. I've had complaints with other cereals that include freeze-dried strawberries. In those cases, the berry pieces had a near-Styrofoam texture and the fruit seemed more of a distraction than a pleasure. This cereal got it right. The texture and flavor of the freeze-dried strawberries blend well with the classic Rice Krispies cereal.

I've always been one to add a teaspoon of sugar to original Rice Krispies. I didn't feel the need to do that here. The strawberry pieces add an additional light sweetness. The picture on the box shows more strawberries than there actually are. But that's okay. You get a berry in every second or third spoonful. That's just enough to give the new cereal distinction and still maintain the character of the original cereal.

My only criticism is a little personal. I miss the good old days of cereal marketing. Cereal boxes used to be art - the height of commercial creativity. What a missed opportunity to introduce a new character - maybe simply named "Berry". On this box, it's nice to see the character "Crackle" holding up a large strawberry while "Pop" dumps pieces into a bowl from a basket. (Lazy "Snap" just looks on while the others work - like he's the one who will eat the cereal). But I keep thinking how fun it would be if they had a crazy new strawberry friend. "Berry" could swim in the cereal bowl. Maybe the other characters think he's a troublemaker... only to discover his antics add flavor to their cereal. Maybe he has super powers that add super flavor.

Oh well. I guess we'll have to wait for the next animated blockbuster to see new characters on cereal boxes. It's all about cross-promotion now. The movie character Shrek not only appeared on a Lucky Charms box, General Mills created a Shrek cereal. Heaven forbid that a new character appears on a cereal box without the cereal manufacturer getting a paycheck from a movie company.

That said... the bottom line is that I'd buy Rice Krispies With Real Strawberries again if the price was right. Of the cereals currently doing freeze-dried strawberries, this is one of the best.

The price we paid: $3.99