The Good: Nutritious enough, Comparatively inexpensive.
The Bad: Not a distinctive enough flavor
The Basics: General Mills Frosted Toast Crunch cereal is left me entirely underwhelmed, which is not something I’ve ever said about original Cinnamon Toast Crunch!
As I flesh out my reviews of cereals, I am realizing that when I take the time to actually focus on the cereals I eat, they often are quite a bit more bland than I ever would have guessed. In fact, lately some of the sweeter cereals I have tried have been quite a bit blander than I ever thought. Having just tried Frosted Toast Crunch, a new cereal trading on the popularity of General Mills’ Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I was actually astonished by how underwhelming the flavors in the cereal were. In fact, if this sweet cereal had been less nutritious, it would have been very easy to outright pan it. As it stands, this is a remarkably average cereal whose blandness knocks it toward the lower ends of average.
Basics
General Mills Frosted Toast Crunch cereal is a new twist on a familiar old cereal – Cinnamon Toast Crunch has been around almost my entire life! It looks like a baked square flake made of baked wheat and rice and generally sprinkled to look as if it was lightly frosted. Each Frosted Toast Crunch flake is approximately 1” x 3/4" and less than 1/8” thick. The white and light brown squares are fairly uniform in their appearance, though they do not particularly look like toast wedges.
The standard box of Frosted Toast Crunch cereal is 12.3 oz. That represents approximately eleven servings and my box came out to just under eleven servings. This cereal is comprised of just the square cereal bits themselves, with nothing else in them.
Ease Of Preparation
Frosted Toast Crunch cereal is a breakfast cereal, so this is one of the low-impact breakfast options as far as preparation goes! Simply open the box of Frosted Toast Crunch cereal, pour out three-quarters of a cup (I’ve taken to using a measuring cup) and add 1/2 cup of milk to it. I have discovered, as part of getting healthy, that one of the biggest challenges one might have with breakfast cereal is actually eating the serving size recommended by the manufacturer.
For the purposes of my reviews, and my regular consumption, I only use skim milk (fat free) milk with cereal.
Taste
Frosted Toast Crunch smells like sugar and vanilla, the net scent adding up to exactly what one thinks of when they think of white frosting. Whatever cinnamon is dusted on the Frosted Toast crunch, it does not lend itself to the aroma of the cereal.
Dry on the tongue, Frosted Toast Crunch has a surprisingly subtle flavor. In addition to tasting dry and grainy from any side that is not fully coated in the vanilla sugar, the thin squares actually taste like cinnamon. This is not an overwhelmingly sweet cereal in its dry state and those expecting (or hoping) for a super sweet cereal will be disappointed.
. . .At least until one adds milk. With milk, Frosted Toast Crunch takes on a sugary flavor that is augmented by a dry cinnamon kick. The flavor of Frosted Toast Crunch is more generically “white frosting” than actual vanilla, but the light, sugary taste is enhanced by the presence of the cinnamon and both flavors eliminate any dry or grainy flavor inherent to the cereal itself. That said, as the cereal remains in the milk, the sweetness diffuses through the milk and the cereal itself begins to taste more and more like wheat and rice than anything memorable.
Nutrition
General Mills Frosted Toast Crunch cereal is fairly nutritious on its own and with skim milk! Made primarily of whole grain wheat, sugar and rice flour, the Frosted Toast Crunch ingredient list degenerates into a chemistry equation after “cinnamon.” This cereal has some preservatives in it, but it also has a separate list of vitamins and minerals, which implies that this is another cereal that has nutrients sprayed onto it. That makes it very important to drink the milk after one has consumed the actual cereal.
A single serving of General Mills Frosted Toast Crunch cereal is 30 grams, 3/4 cup. In that serving, there are 120 calories, with 30 calories coming from fat. There are .5 grams of saturated, 1 g polyunsaturated, and 1.5 grams of monounsaturated fats in this cereal, but there is no cholesterol. With 170 mg of sodium and only a gram of dietary fiber, this is not a terrible dietary choice for those striving to improve heart health. With one gram of protein and 50mg potassium, Frosted Toast Crunch has some decent nutritional elements other cereals do not. On its own, this cereal has significant percentages of eight vitamins and minerals, though none are greater than 25% of the RDA!
Storage/Cleanup
Frosted Toast Crunch is a cereal, so as long as it is kept sealed in its box, it ought to remain fresh for quite some time. The box of Frosted Toast Crunch cereal I purchased on July 2, 2012 had an expiration date of March 25, 2013, but I have already eaten it all up! Obviously, when you are done pouring the cereal from the box, fold down the plastic inner wrap to help maintain the cereal’s freshness.
Cleaning up after Frosted Toast Crunch cereal is simple as well. Simply brush away crumbs left by it and you are done! It is that simple! This cereal does have dry sugary and cinnamon that easily comes off its flakes and that might need to be wiped up. If you get the colored milk from this cereal on your clothes, be sure to consult a fabric guide for how best to clean it out of your garments.
Overall
Frosted Toast Crunch cereal was not bad at all, but it was of no real interest to my palate and that made for a surprising disappointment for this new cereal.
For other cereals, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Chocolate Cheerios
Quaker Original Life
Honey Kix
4.5/10
For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the food reviews I have written!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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