I am not a huge cereal lover.  I like it fine, but I was never a die hard, “can’t live without my Wheaties before starting the day” kind of girl.  Growing up watching my brother consume 3-4 bowls each morning, like he had been starved for days or it might be the last time he would be given the magical opportunity to taste such a divine breakfast creation, I instead usually reached for Aunt Jemima’s cinnamon coffee cake.  When I spent the night at Gigi’s and we had a bowl of Shredded Wheat or Grape Nuts as a midnight snack (it was really closer to 9pm) before going to bed, I loved the special moment shared with my grandmother; but, as all my cousins know, the cereal never made onto the breakfast table the next morning – that was reserved for dippy eggs and skinny toast.

For the few cereals that I did have a taste for; well, you can just add most of those to the list of things that are no longer manufactured because I must have been one of their only die-hard consumers (it happens to me a lot – and certainly more than most people I know).

As I kid, I think my favorite was Wafflelos, the cereal that tasted like a lightly toasted waffle lightly glazed with maple syrup…and, it’s no longer around.

When my parents went out of town, my favorite cereal treat was Vanilla Wafer flavored Cookie-Crisp…they decided to stop production and only make Chocolate Chip – and I actually don’t really like chocolate chip cookies.  I know.

And, then there were the fruity flavors of Fruity Pebbles* and Fruit Loops.  They both decided that red, yellow & orange weren’t enough fruit flavors; so, around 1990, they tainted the recipe by adding purple, blue and green…ruined the cereal, in my opinion.

Gone or changed.  Clearly, I must have never been the target market.  Though, for the record, you can’t find the Aunt Jemima cinnamon coffee cake anymore either.  But those of us that can remember adding the egg and milk into the plastic bag, mixing it with our hands and pouring it into the mini aluminum pan that came in the box; we can at least keep the delicious memory alive.  But, there goes my breakfast.  What did survive was Cinnamon Life & Captain Crunch and if they ever change the recipe for either of those, I think I’ll hang up by cereal spoon for good.

However, with all that negative cereal hullaballoo, there is something that Post, Kellogg’s and General Mills does still do to capture my curiosity and my dollars – they switch things up for suckers like me.

First, there are the seasonal flavors.  You know, when September rolls around and all of the sudden everything includes the words Pumpkin Spice in the description or just before Christmas when everything is labeled Gingerbread.  Never fails, each year I’m tempted to rethink if I actually can get hooked on the delightful breakfast crunch of this or that cereal.  As I’m sure I’m not the only one to discover, they never taste quite as good as you imagine they will.  And, I’m also a huge pushover for Cinnamon.  It’s always a good flavor addition that is guaranteed to lure me in to buy at least one disappointing box, as well.  So far the only success that brought me back for seconds was Cinnamon Life.  And, if I had to name my favorite cereal of all time that would probably be the one.

Then, there are the clever changes made for what they say is a “limited time” even if their marketing plan is to keep the cereal on the shelf for years to come.  The Captain Crunch, “Oops, All Berries” is, of course, something I had to try.  Not that I even like Crunch Berries.  In fact, I prefer my crunch in original flavor, foregoing the added balls of berry fruit.  Or, last year’s Cookie Crisp that came up with Christmas Cookies.  By the way, it wasn’t as good as the Vanilla Wafer Cookie flavor.  And, the most recent of my finds – Lucky Charms with shamrocks ONLY.  Guessing cleverly made to inspire St. Patrick’s Day breakfast table fun, I came across it last weekend and had a bowl full less than an hour after arriving home from the grocery.  It actually wasn’t bad; and, it turned the milk green, which gives it an extra kid kind of fun property (I think the latest Ghostbusters cereal might have done that as well).

However, the kicker, the main bait, the one that gets me every time is the cereal named after movies or television shows.  On the minimal occasions where I find myself perusing the cereal aisle, all those corporate wizards have to do is brand a cereal with a movie theme and all of the sudden I stop dead in my tracks.  I stare, investigate and hesitantly poke at it like I’m a paleontologist discovering a new breed of dinosaur bone.  Halt!  What is this?  I’ve never seen anything like it before – what a discovery!  Most of the time, I’m not only tempted to buy a box and rush home to try it, I’m also compelled to keep the empty box so that one day, I can recall the creative partnership between movie studio and cereal manufacturer.  Yes, layered deep inside a sacred plastic storage container in my closet you will find flattened remembrances of Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bill & Ted’s Excellent cereals.  I wish I’d been more diligent through the years and made myself travel down the oats and grains filled aisle at Kroger or Ralph’s.  I’ve know I’ve missed quite a few cereal partnerships like Gremlins, Addams Family or even, and I’m amazed I missed this one, Avengers cereal.  Luckily, I’m sure I’ll capture a few more themed boxes before my life draws to a close.  You know, just to bring me joy when looking back at the years behind me.

Yes, I will keep trying to be a cereal girl, but I think my favorite breakfast will remain oatmeal with fresh berries and a bagel with cream cheese; but, that doesn’t mean I won’t continue to be captured by the possibility of a hook that will lure me into the cereal aisle.  I wonder what they will come up with next?  #50WeeksTo50

*As much as I don’t care for the extra fruit flavors of Fruity Pebbles, I have to give them big kudos for somehow being the longest manufactured cereal based on characters from a television show or movie.  Though, I wonder if some of those kids today even know who Fred Flintstone is…yet, there he remains on the box since 1971.  Nice work.