The Good: Good nutrition, Good ingredients, Reasonably priced, Does not taste bad
The Bad: Not the most impressive flavor, Requires milk to get the most out of it
The Basics: Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats Pumpkin Spice cereal is a limited addition to the Mini-Wheats line that is very much hit or miss.
Despite how much more often "pumpkin spice" flavored items released in autumn are cinnamon and nutmeg dominated, as opposed to anything that tastes like actual pumpkin, I actually enjoy a lot of pumpkin spice flavored foods. Because I enjoy the standard limited edition flavor of autumn, I was inherently biased toward Frosted Mini-Wheats Pumpkin Spice cereal when I picked it up. And the execution . . . was mediocre, not exceptional.
Part of the expanding line of Frosted Mini-Wheats cereals, the Pumpkin Spice flavor is one of the non-fruit flavored selections in the line and only available for a limited time each year in autumn.
Basics
Kellogg’s Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal is a new, limited edition, twist on the tried and true Frosted Mini-Wheats formula. Instead of simply being a generic sugar flavor, the Pumpkin Spice cereal strives for more complicated sweet flavors and it largely succeeds.
The standard box of Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal is 15.5 oz. That represents approximately eight servings and my box made it to the full eight servings when I measured each one out to 25 pieces per serving. The actual Pumpkin Spice cereal is comprised solely of 5/8” wide by 3/4” biscuits of shredded wheat. One side has the trademark white (and orange for this flavor) frosted side (it is also where the rest of the flavoring is apparently painted on) and one “naked” shredded wheat side.
Ease Of Preparation
Frosted Mini-Wheats 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 Mini-Wheats cereal, count out twenty-five biscuits and put them in a bowl. 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. Given that I have been monitoring my intake for a couple of months now, I am now able to enjoy a single serving of only 25 pieces of Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal in a sitting!
For the purposes of my reviews, and my regular consumption, I only use skim milk (fat free) milk when reviewing Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal.
Taste
Opening the box, Frosted Mini-Wheats Pumpkin Spice cereal smells like cinnamon and nutmeg, which is exactly what one might expect from a Pumpkin Spice cereal. The smell is very inviting to anyone who loves the traditional autumn flavor.
On its own, the Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal is sweet and dry. The wheat flavor is occasionally overwhelming, but especially when one puts the frosted side down, the cinnamon flavor comes strongly out. When the wheat side encounters the tongue first, though, the flavor is more or less lightly cinnamon-flavored shredded wheat.
With milk, the Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal changes flavor. The sweetness spreads through the milk and there are more subtle pumpkin flavors that come out. The cinnamon, nutmeg and a maple-like flavor comes out with something a little more squashlike for the aftertaste. The wheat flavor of the Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats is completely cut by the milk and the milk has a pretty flavorful, spicy taste to it after the cereal is consumed.
Dry, this cereal has a very dry aftertaste. With milk, the Pumpkin Spice flavor has a sweet and dry flavor (as if from cinnamon) that lingers in the milk, but does not endure in the mouth more than three minutes after one is done consuming it.
Nutrition
Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats Pumpkin Spice cereal is fairly nutritious on its own and with skim milk! Made primarily of whole grain wheat, sugar, and brown rice syrup, there is nothing unpronounceable in th Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal. Given that there is a separate listing of vitamins and minerals, I suspect that Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal is one of those cereals where the nutrients are then sprayed onto the cereal, making it important to drink the milk with this cereal in order to get all of the nutritional benefits out of it.
A single serving of Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal is 55 grams, 25 biscuits. In that serving, there are 190 calories, with only ten of those calories coming from fat. There is no saturated fat in this cereal, nor cholesterol. With no sodium as well, one might think this shredded wheat could be devoid of any real nutrition, but it has 6 grams of dietary fiber, which is 24% of the RDA! With five grams of protein and 200 mg potassium, Pumpkin Spice has more nutritional benefits than the average sweet cereal. On its own, this cereal has 25% or more of the RDA seven vitamins and minerals, with significant quantities of Iron (90% RDA) and Folic Acid (50% RDA).
Storage/Cleanup
Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats 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 Mini-Wheats cereal we purchased last month had an expiration date of July 12, 2017. 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 Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal is simple as well. Simply brush away crumbs left by it and you are done! It is that simple! This is a cereal that only minorly discolors the milk added to it, though, so if the milk gets on your clothing consult a fabric guide to clean it out. Still, it is not a cereal that is likely to stain clothes from its milk.
Overall
Frosted Mini-Wheats Pumpkin Spice cereal is all right, but not extraordinary. Were it not for its nutritional benefits, it might not be worth picking up, but as it is so healthy and tastes good, it is worth trying at the very least.
For other Kellogg’s cereals, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Frosted Flakes Chocolate
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Chocolatey Almond cereal
Fiber Plus Antioxidants Cinnamon Oat Crunch
6.5/10
For other cereal reviews, please visit my Cereal Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the cereal reviews I have written!
© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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