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Monster Cereals

At the grocery store I recently saw an endcap display that had all three varieties of monster cereals: Count Chocula, FrankenBerry, and BooBerry. I was very excited because these are cereals that evoke strong childhood memories. Cereal with marshmallows was not normally allowed in our house, but every once in a while, we would get to splurge. When I was choosing from among the monster cereals, I almost always got BooBerry. Not because it was the best tasting, but because in the commercial, the other two were mean to the BooBerry ghost and I felt sorry for him.

This time around, I got BooBerry (for old-times’ sake), and FrankenBerry (because it’s so good). I passed on Count Chocula. It used to be my favorite, but since they changed the formulas of all three cereals, it has become my least favorite. In fact, they all taste less good. Why must companies change the formulas of their cereals? To remove dangerous, unhealthy chemicals? Pshaw! That’s what used to make them taste so much better. Why do they always remove the tastiest chemicals?

I chose to eat BooBerry last night.

17 Comments

  1. Lauren

    Ha! I wonder if Boo Berry appreciated your childhood pity purchases or was slightly offended?

    Those box graphics startled me. Those aren’t our cute cartoons from days of yore, are they? “When I was a kid they didn’t have ‘computers’ – it you wanted a picture, you drew it with a burnt stick. That’s the way it was and you liked it!” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1_NhnXMCKw)

  2. Peggy

    I saw that cereal this past week too….but I didn’t get any. I’ve never had Boo or Frankenberry. Your ghost reminds me of one of my favorite Dick Van Dyke episodes:

    http://splicd.com/w9bXr87gJAg/716/767

    Happy 50th Anniversary Dick Van Dyke Show!

    • Carol

      Thanks, Peggy – I’d completely forgotten that one! Nice trip down memory lane there…

  3. Lloyd

    I read recently about how our taste buds actually change during puberty, so things no longer taste the same.

    • Carol

      Definitely some truth there. Hubby is getting more and more into “hot” foods…I’m still not there and probably never will be, but now I can stomach some nasty vegetables I never could tolerate when I was young. If only I stopped enjoying chocolate…

      • Peggy

        But chocolate is essentially a fruit, right?

  4. L. Davis

    The new version of Count Chocula is so different, and so bad, and to actually make one mad. It tastes nothing like it supposed to, it doesn’t turn your milk into chocolate milk, and the marshmellows seem to use aspartame or something. I was extremely disappointed.

  5. chris

    BooBerry was always my favorite because it was so hard to find. Frankenberry was my usual choice, even had Yummy Mummy on occasion, never liked chocolate cereals. I dont think its a lack of chemicals, its that they are cheapening out on the cereal part, its all puffed now and immediately gets soggy, they used to be more like lucky charms only fruit flavored.

    • Brad

      Yummy Mummy? I don’t remember that variety… Did you ever have KaBoom?

      I think you’re right about the cereal part. The new formulation seems less dense. Less ingredients = lower cost to them. I wish there were some way to get the old formula.

  6. GarE

    I am a self-appointed sugar cereal aficionado, and have been eating the Monster cereals since I was a kid (and I remember Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy too).

    They’ve changed the flavor and texture radically since we were kids (I’m in my early 40s), and not for the better. They were dense oat cereals then, and now they’re a puffy corn cereal.

    And why do they have pink and brown marshmallows in the Boo Berry, for cryin’ out loud??

    They’ve changed most of our kids’ cereals to try to make them more healthy. It’s an industry-wide conspiracy, I am convinced. I have the right to rot my teeth and mind any way I want to! Darn it.

    Oddly enough, I like Count Chocula the best of the 3 in their current form. But they’re all shadows of the monsters they used to be.

    • Brad

      Yes GarE, I think you’re right: a change from oat cereal to corn cereal. They used to have the consistency of Alpha-Bits. Of course, Alpha-Bits are now disgustingly different too. They took out all the sugar.

  7. Eric Pereira

    I haven’t had count chocula in years since it was removed from store shelves in Canada.
    I never knew why, but I recently became glad they did.

    I heard about a promotion that it was coming back to Canada until Halloween.
    So just two days ago I found a store that sold them, went and picked up FIVE boxes.

    I assumed the taste would be exactly as I remember.
    And I don’t just mean nostalgic ‘good’.
    I can still remember how this cereal tasted, truly.
    I poured a bowl of 2014 count chocula and I was IMMEDIATELY disappointed.
    I seriously couldn’t even believe how underwhelming it tasted. Nothing like before.

    I forced myself to finish off 90% of my bowl and discarded the rest. It took me about half a day of thought to realize my mistake and I honestly opened every remaining box and put them all into a garbage bag and took it out with my garbage, which was that morning coincidentally.
    It even cost me a $2 tag because I was one bag over my limit, but I didn’t even want these boxes in my house anymore to remind me how much time and money I wasted trying to get this once great cereal.

    • Brad

      I feel your pain, Eric. I recently got some Cocoa Pebbles. The formula had changed to make the milk turn a darker brown. The cereal is almost black now. It tasted different. Bad. I couldn’t even finish one bowl of it. The rest of it went in the trash. I guess I can at least be comforted by the fact that it was only one box and not five.

  8. Martin Rosendhal

    I had suspected it was not just my ‘taste buds’ or nostalgic childhood memories of the Monsters distorting my perception – the cereals just didn’t taste as good. I wondered if they’d been reformulated. knew they had cut some sugar and I had a distinct memory the main grain was not corn or only corn – didn’t remember it was oats. The puffed corn definitely is inferior. Count Chocula was easily the best chocolate cereal (the only one I liked). Now it tastes like Cocoa Puffs with marshmallows. And the marshmallows used to be chocolatey too and now are just flavorless and there seems to be less of them. However Count Chocula is edible – reformulated Frankenberry is the worst of the ‘New Breed.’ No real strawberry flavor – just bad corn pops with citric acid. The new formula cereal pieces also are harder on the roof of my mouth. Go back to the original recipe.

    • Brad

      Hi Martin. I wish there were some way to acquire the cereal made with the old recipe. I would pay extra for such a thing. They make ‘throwback’ versions of soft drinks, so it’s not unheard of.

  9. Dennis

    As an 80’s kid I feel all of your pain. A few years back I was doing some shopping and found retro boxes of the monster cereals so I happily bought one of each. After 2 underwhelming bites of Frankenberry my heart was broken. The oats were long gone and replaced with cheap hardened styrofoam. My wife had me convinced that it was ME who changed but glad I found this post. Kids today will never know what they missed. tragic…

    • Brad

      Hey Dennis. I’m glad I could confirm your assertion that it was the cereal that changed, and not you. I have several childhood foods that I’ve been curious about, but can’t find any more. Would my adult taste buds still think they are good? I still like watermelon. I still like grilled cheese. I still like peanut butter and jelly. Wouldn’t I also still like unaltered Frankenberry? I like to think I would.

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