The new Cinnamon Toast Crunch favors, ranked
If you've ever longed for a new Cinnamon Toast Crunch flavor, you're in luck. Starting this summer, you'll be able to find Apple Cinnamon Toast Crunch on grocery store shelves across the country. The new offering from General Mills is flavored with "real apples, cinnamon, and other natural flavors," according to a press release. But that's not the only new flavor that's joining the Cinnamon French Toast family. Remember Tiny Toast, the strawberry- and blueberry-flavored cereal Chance the Rapper rapped about on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last summer? Well, it's being rebranded as Strawberry Toast Crunch and Blueberry Toast Crunch, respectively, and those two flavors will be rolling out this summer, as well.
The folks at General Mills very kindly sent us boxes of cereal from the full Cinnamon Toast Crunch line. They package also included French Toast Crunch, the once-discontinued cereal that made a triumphant comeback in 2014, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, the OG crispy, crunchy cereal with real cinnamon swirls. So we did what any reasonable breakfast publication would do in this situation. We tasted all of the cereals, including the newest Cinnamon Toast Crunch flavors, and rated them, from our least favorite to the best. Here's how our cereal rankings shook out.
5. Apple Cinnamon Toast Crunch
The newest offering from General Mills was the least favorite among our team, in large part because the fruit flavor was kind of hard to pin down unless you knew what it was in advance. One staffer even thought this was a banana-flavored cereal for a minute. And somehow, even though this cereal ostensibly has the same shape as the Strawberry or Blueberry or even the French Toast Crunch, it tasted a little less like crispy toast and a little more like thick-cut bread.
4. Strawberry Toast Crunch
The Strawberry Toast Crunch, a.k.a. the cereal formerly known as Tiny Toast, was polarizing. Some people loved the tang of the strawberry, which really tastes like dehydrated strawberries, while others thought it was too acidic for a breakfast cereal. If the ruler against which we're measuring is whether or not this cereal tastes like strawberries, the answer is basically yes. But it's one of those cereals that would taste better in a bowl of milk, since that helps offset the brighter fruit flavor.
3. Blueberry Toast Crunch
Really, the trick with both the Blueberry Toast Crunch and the aforementioned Strawberry is that how much fruit flavor you taste really depends on the piece of cereal you're eating. Some pieces are really covered in fruit flavor while others are more bare, and we found that, in general, the Blueberry Toast Crunch was a bit more balanced than the Strawberry, with slightly less acid and tang in every bite but a good amount of berry-flavor. That's why it's ranked higher than its red compatriot, though it was a close call.
2. French Toast Crunch
When you look at the photos on the box, it seems like the pieces of original French Toast Crunch cereal are exactly the same shape as the flavored cereals. But when you actually pour them out into bowls, you realize the texture is completely different. The pieces of French Toast Crunch are generally thinner and crispier than the pieces of Apple Cinnamon or Blueberry or Strawberry Toast Crunch, which means the French Toast Crunch is actually crunchier when you take a bite. Plus, it tastes exactly like you think it might, with cinnamon and maple syrup.
1. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
There wasn't even any debate as to which cereal took the top spot. Classic Cinnamon Toast Crush was our favorite, hands down. Unlike the other toast-shaped cereals that claim to be crunchy, only the Cinnamon Toast Crunch has an actual crunch to it. It's a little salty, mostly sweet, and totally delicious, and, if I'm being totally frank, I wish that all of the flavors came on this same cracklin' cereal instead of showing up as tiny pieces of cereal toast.
