British cereal

I thought the two chocolate cereals would be my favourites. I used to love chocolate cereal, so that seemed like a fairly safe prediction. By the end of my British cereal taste test, though, I was holding up Curiously Cinnamon and Crunchy Nut as the clear winners. The chocolate choices had disappointed me.

In 2022, I went to Tesco and Morrisons and bought eight cereals to put my childhood favourites to the test. I was Canadian, but had grown up on American cereals such as Cap’n Crunch, Lucky Charms and Trix. The sugary cereal of my childhood was what I had in mind, and I knew comparing that memory with the boxes in front of me wasn’t entirely fair.

What I wanted from a bowl of cereal

This was supposed to be breakfast, although it was actually lunchtime. Time on the internet doesn’t matter. I only poured a little of each cereal because I had eight to get through, and I was especially interested in whether they had a proper flavour and stayed crunchy. I hated soggy cereal.

Original Shreddies weren’t a promising start. Both supermarkets had the frosted version, but I’d chosen the original, which tasted plain, sad and boring to me. My mind was full of the very sweet marshmallow and chocolate cereals I’d grown up with, and these weren’t that. I’d even described having fond memories of Cap’n Crunch cutting the roof of my mouth, which probably tells you something about my starting point.

The chocolate let me down

Coco Pops had me excited, because I thought they might be the best of the lot. Once I tried them, though, what I tasted was mainly popped rice, with very little chocolate. They weren’t terrible, but I’d wanted a chocolate cereal and felt disappointed by how little chocolate flavour I was getting. Adult disappointment, in cereal form.

Nesquik came later, and by then I was a bit hesitant. I’d loved that kind of chocolate-ball cereal before, although I wasn’t sure whether the one I remembered had been called Nesquik. This bowl was crunchy and had a little flavour, but again it didn’t taste particularly chocolatey to me.

That was the surprise. The two choices I’d expected to love most just weren’t doing it for me, and Nesquik wasn’t anywhere near the cinnamon cereal or Crunchy Nut. I was complaining about growing up as much as I was complaining about breakfast, but the taste verdict was still pretty clear.

Crunchy Nut finally made me happy

Crunchy Nut was a flake cereal, and when I tried it, I immediately thought it was delicious. It tasted much sweeter to me than the Coco Pops I’d just had, and I was more than happy with it. I called it eight out of eight and a half morning cereals, which was a fairly enthusiastic response.

It might not have been the most exciting cereal, but it was tasty and crunchy, and it didn’t get soggy immediately. That last point mattered. Honey Monster Wheat Puffs, which came next, turned soggy almost straight away even though I was trying not to leave them sitting while I talked. I didn’t like them at all, and they weren’t in the same ballpark as Crunchy Nut.

Curiously Cinnamon had everything I wanted

I wondered whether Curiously Cinnamon might be something like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and hoped it would actually have a taste. It did. I was shocked by how good it was: definitely cinnamon, a really nice crunch, and no immediate sogginess. After some disappointing bowls, I was very happy about this one.

I gave it five out of five surprisingly good scores. For me, it had what a cereal needed, a definite flavour, crunch and the ability to spend a little time in milk without going completely soggy. By the time I tried Golden Nuggets afterwards, I was still thinking about the cinnamon cereal.

Alanna holding a yellow Crunchy Nut box and an orange Curiously Cinnamon box at the end of her cereal taste test.
My two winners, Crunchy Nut and Curiously Cinnamon, from the original taste-test video at 20:47.5. Resized and converted to WebP.

There were still other things to try, including Weetabix, which I found incredibly plain and boring. I knew other people might like it, and wondered about adding fruit or trying a different version, but that bowl was not for me. Nothing else in my selection overtook those two favourites.

At the end, Curiously Cinnamon and Crunchy Nut were way out in front. I even liked them dry. I’d started with a challenge about whether anything could beat the American cereal I remembered, and finished with two British supermarket choices I was very happy to eat.

Watch my original video about my British cereal taste test.