I have been eating Monster Cereals my whole life (45+years) by far my favorite cereals. Original frosted OATS recipe formula was incredible! Super Tasty soggy-resistant, dyed milk (and your stool) then General Mills switched to corn meal (and briefly peanut flour.) Tasteless soggy blobs. Depressing
I still buy boxes every year, but it's strictly nostalgic brand loyalty. I have t-shirts, plushies, toys, pillows, records, CDs, saved boxes, stickers, etc. all based on fond memories from decades ago when it tasted great. The quality as tasty food took a huge nosedive. The newest flavor is very bad
I came into the comments just to post this. I have been eating monster cereals all my life, and the idea sounds pretty good I absolutely love caramel Apples but the actual flavor of Carmella Creeper is awful. No amount of Marshmallows will save this one
In 2005, I purchased some Alpha-Bits, and Post had changed the recipe. I was expecting a sweet, frosted taste, but instead, I got the taste of an unsweetened, burnt, inferior clone of normal Cheerios. They would sweeten it again a few years later, but that particular box tasted A-B-C-Disgusting.
Second-place is the Sonic the Hedgehog cereal General Mills put out in 2022 to promote the second movie. I was expecting the flavor of Honey Nut Cheerios, but it was just a pale imitation. The marshmallows were okay, but they had weird shapes that didn't make me think "Sonic." Mario Cereal it ain't.
Grape Nuts - the only cereal where I couldn’t finish the box. Inedible. Surprise! It doesn’t taste like grapes or nuts. It has the texture of gravel and tastes like malt and raw grain.
Kellog's Double Dip Crunch i remember trying that cereal back then and somehow there mix of honey and nut was a bit underwhelming, the jingle was catchy but the cereal was just meh
I was a HUGE fan of E.T. I didn't get sugary cereals too often, so when Mom said I could have a box, I was over the moon (pun entirely intended). I forced myself to eat one bowl, but that was all I could handle. The box sat in the cupboard for weeks because I didn't want to admit it was terrible.
Add this to my list of worst cereal experiences. I also loved E.T. but couldn't get it because I am allergic to peanuts. Sounds like I didn't miss much. I still want a box, though, for my cereal box collection.
As are all the things I want. Whenever people ask me what do you for Christmas, I never tell them the long list of overpriced junk I want. It is usually I guess a gift card to a restaurant so me and my wife can go on a date.
My wife says I'm impossible to shop for for exactly this reason. I have all of these Saved searches on eBay for things she's never even heard of :) I have to add normal things (boooooring) to an Amazon Wish List just so she can get me something for my birthday or Christmas.
Ha, exactly. My Amazon forced wish list is a few books, puzzles, and movie soundtracks. Luckily, I have a twin brother who is an esoteric collector and likes the stuff I do. Our presents to each other are all I really look forward to.
I used to love Frosted Cheerios, back when they first came out. I ate boxes and boxes of the stuff as a teen. A few years ago I found these Frozen licensed Frosted Cheerios and excitedly bought a box only to find they were utter trash.
The cereal itself wasn't even consistent with Cheerios, despite it being the actual brand. The pieces were smaller and had a different consistency. And the "frosting"; it tasted nothing like I remembered. Utterly bland.
Oh, also, original Rice Krispie Treats cereal (in the teal box). I had a really good report card so I was allowed to pick any cereal and movie rental I wanted one weekend. I picked that cereal, and "The Big Green". Both gave me a significantly worse version of what I was expecting.
Funny, the modern version of Rice Krispie Treats cereal and Lucky Charms Marshmallow Clusters were the first things to pop into my mind. I guess the concept has just never been good.
Mine is Cookie Crisp. I wasn't allowed to get it as a kid, then finally in like 2nd grade, someone brought it in as a snack and let me try it. In my head, I legit thought it was gonna be like mini Chips Ahoy. Nope, little styrofoam circle with dots painted on them. Worst cereal letdown ever
I think cookie crisp is a universally disappointing experience. it could've been a win if the texture was less like packing peanuts and more like. y'know. food
Ok no but they *marketed* it like what you imagined. That was the story of every single commercial. Cookies in milk in a bowl. When I was allowed to have Cookie Crisp (maybe 2 X ever) I just forced myself to love it like it WAS what was in the commercial. I ate it with tears in my eyes 🥲
Maybe the Nintendo cereal from the 80s. It was rare for us to get a cereal that wasn't super cheap, but I was obsessed with Mario as a kid and somehow must of convinced my mom to get it. It was pretty lackluster and not at all like playing a video game in my mouth.
Teddy Grahams Breakfast Bears. I remember the TV ad saying they "stay crunchy in milk," yet within two minutes the entire bowl was cinnamon graham mush.
Bought a box of Kellogg's Wednesday cereal. The box is great. The cereal was terrible. It was like eating a spoonful of unsweetened baking cocoa, terribly bitter. First time I ever threw away the whole bag after one bite.
This is my answer as well. I wasn't allowed to get it as a kid, then finally in like 2nd grade, someone brought it in as a snack and let me try it. In my head, I legit thought it was gonna be like mini Chips Ahoy. Nope, little styrofoam circle with dots painted on them. Worst letdown ever
Your comment about Cookie Crisp reminds me about how since I grew up in Canada we never got that cereal for the longest time I would watch a lot of American kids programming and see commercials for it and it made me so jealous same with trix yogurt
Threw it out. Smirked when it was the only cereal left on the shelf when the COVID panic buying happened. People would not even touch it during that time.
This one is going to be polarizing for sure but I was so super excited for the release of Yummy Mummy in 1987 and was so happy to finally find it. When I finally tried it I thought it tasted terrible. Overly sweet fruit taste that didn’t pair well with the vanilla marshmallows.
I got Oops! All Berries back in the day because I was having my awakening that ads could have narratives that led to real life products and that was fun.
Then I realized I actually hate the Crunch Berries cereal because of the berries, like what am I thinking.
I had a similar or maybe corollary (?) experience. I do like Crunch Berries, but not so much Cap’n Crunch. So this seemed perfect. Except I discovered that the Crunch Berries NEED the Cap’n Crunch to bring out the Crunch Berry flavor. It’s like adding almond extract to cherry desserts, I guess.
Damn, I noticed that, too. A health food store I used to live near had gotten in a few cases of Quisp somehow, and I bought one for curiosity. Cap'n Crunch without the scraping! Awesome! But so very, very rare.
Frankenberry, a few years ago. I hadn't had any in several years, & a store had an after-Halloween sale of $2 per box. I got three, bc I love strawberry stuff. But at home... I dunno, it has a flavor like canned peas now. Something's changed in the formula, & it sucks. And I had 3 boxes to finish.
When I was a kid my step-grandma got a job giving out samples at Price Club. She would send us boxes of swag from time to time. One day she sent us a huge cardboard box full of individual samples of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. To this day I cannot eat that stuff
Smurfberry Crunch. Begged my parents for it. It was inedible, even to my 5/6 year old self. We tried feeding it to the ducks in our backyard and even THEY wouldn't eat it.
Maybe Boo Berry. In the 90s I occasionally had Count Chocula and Frankenberry but I would hear the legends of Boo Berry. Blueberry flavored treats were so rare. Finally one day my mom found a box. I was so excited to finally try it. It's the worst of the monster variety cereals to me.
This will def be the winner but I’d say in general any cereal that attempted to replicate the taste of another breakfast food (like anything in the pancake, waffle french toast realm always just tasted like maple syrup) or dessert pre-2000s’ was always a disaster
The chicken and waffles cereal Post made a few years ago. The maple bacon and donuts cereal wasn't very good, either, but the chicken and waffles was just gross!
They used actual poultry seasoning, if memory serves, which is so disgusting to think about in relation to milk, I think I need to stop my response now before I pass out
There’s a line about this in Microserfs by Douglas Coupland, like how there was “raw gobbits of mouth-beef” hanging from the roof of his mouth that made him talk like Cindy Brady for the rest of the day.
I had my mother get me captain crunch when I was a kid because I wanted the toy. She said “you better eat it!” I did not like it. She still brings it up. I’m 38…
Strawberry Milkshake Frosted Flakes... just wanted the coating to stay on the flakes, not the immediately come off in the milk. Might as well make strawberry Nesquik and put it on some corn flakes.
Idk if it gets worse than Cookie Crisp tbh. It doesn’t taste anything like what you’d expect. If you blindfolded people and asked them what the flavor was supposed to be, I’m sure many wouldn’t be able to guess it.
Back as a child? Any cereal that got instantly soggy. Wheaties, Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies.. ugh. As an adult? The taste of both Honey Nut & Regular Cheerios. They don't taste the same any more.
About a decade ago Wegmans changed the supplier of their "honey-comb" knock off and it broke my heart, because it went from being a 10/10 to being closer to a 3/10.
I was so excited for these and then they were so hard that they bent my braces' wires.
Also it didn't taste as good as a Toast Crunch Cinnamon experience.
those cereals with the chalky little marshmallow bits. i cannot describe how deeply upsetting/unpleasant/jarring it is to crunch into one of those. i know, i know, milk is supposed to soften them but i don’t like soggy foods!
The TMNT Mutant Mayhem cereal is my most recent disappointment. The shapes have nothing to do with ninjas and it tastes strongly apple cinnamon chemicals.
Cookie Crisp for the same reasons as you mentioned, but Frosted Mini Wheats was my #2. Couldn't get over the texture, it was like eating a clump of dry spaghetti
I couldn't tell you the name of it for the life of me, but it was this like.... puffed packet and the gimmick was that some pieces were filled with frosting and some weren't, with the advertisements focusing on a robot trying to guess which ones were and weren't.
When I finally got them, in addition to not tasting that great, the main gimmick of the cereal (not knowing which pieces had frosting and which didn't) was ruined by the frosting-filled pieces being significantly different (longer) than the non-frosting-filled pieces.
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Just couldn't get into them.
i had built it up in my head too much
Threw it out. Smirked when it was the only cereal left on the shelf when the COVID panic buying happened. People would not even touch it during that time.
Frute Brute however...now that's my guy right there.
Then I realized I actually hate the Crunch Berries cereal because of the berries, like what am I thinking.
I’ve always been a mark for a gimmick
My favorite FAVORITEST FAVORITE cereal in the world was Quisp. They stopped making Quisp.
I found out CC tasted the same as Quisp.
EXCEPT IT HURT ME.
THE THING THAT TASTED LIKE MY FAVORITE THING HURT ME.
Fuck you, Captain Crunch.
I never ate Lucky Charms again.
(I'm Australian fwiw)
How is this cereal still popular? It’s like eating little sandpaper nuggets.
And I mentioned it in another comment, but Oreo O's. Tasted like eating Oreos when you have a stomach bug.
*So far
Just last night I bought “Strawberry Milkshake” Frosted Flakes. I should have known better…
Apple Jacks was my favorite cereal in my teens (I stopped eating cereal at age 15) and when I tried it again in my 20s, it was awful.
that's how you get green poo.
Also it didn't taste as good as a Toast Crunch Cinnamon experience.
“What are you eating, dear?”
“Nuttin’, honey”