How often do we see someone really pave a new path in the cereal world? For the most part, I would say that it's just variations on the same. This time it's rice. This time it's corn. This time it's rice on one side, corn on the other (but really, how does Crispix do it?) This time it tastes like apples (or doesn't. Apple jacks--possibly the biggest ploy of cereal advertising). So, honestly, I was really nervous about the idea of putting fruit directly into the cereal box when special K first created special K with strawberries. I know it's actually called special K with "red berries" but red berries could be so many things. Rasp, boysen, strawb. The term red berry seems so much more broad than it has to be.
1. How could they really make a fruit last in a cardboard box traveling around the country all the way from Battle Creek, Michigan (the factory of special K) to WesShop, CT? They must have to do something really unnatural to fresh strawberries to make them not real food or something.
2. Would it taste like a fresh, real strawberry once it eventually makes it to my bowl or would it just be a milky damp dried strawberry?
Obviously, I'm a big proponent of fruit in cereal. I think a bowl of cereal is almost always improved by some chopped up bananas or strawberries, or some sprinkled in blueberries. I even went through a phase where I would put frozen chocolate chips into my Life cereal. That was a weird time in my life.
Perishables just never seemed like they had a place inside the box. Until this, I think it was exclusively grains, nuts, and sometimes chocoalte...and marshmellows...and chocolate chip cookies. I guess if they can make cereal out of chocolate chip cooooooookies [crisp], they should be able to figure out how to put strawberries in cereal. And really, how far of a stretch is it from raisins to dried strawberries? Why should the way that a fruit is dried (either sun or freeze) totally change the way it's perceived. So, I had a change of heart. Maybe this freeze dried strawberry craze is something to look into.
Apparently, I was not the only one to subscribe to the freeze-dried revolution. Special K with "red berries" (SKwRB) was here to stay. I got the inside scoop from a woman at Usdan (Wesleyan dining hall) who apparently said that SKwRB goes about 5 times as fast as any other cereal. In addition to hungry Wesleyan students, other cereal companies seem really interested in the power of switching strawberries from DIY to prepackaged. Honey Bunches of Oats (HBOO) also has recently come out with a HBOO with strawberries. However, it seems like HBOO, a cereal that I thought could do no wrong, only managed to get the name of the berry (at least they don't call them "red berries" or sliced berries or "good berries" or something else nondescript like that) right with this new creation. The cereal doesn't support the berry in the same way that special K does. It just seems like a strange, forced pairing (kind of like Wesleyan and football. HUZZAH) unlike the way that SKwRB feels much more natural. Furthermore, the strawberries are inferior to "red berries" of Special K. They basically validated all the fears that I had for freeze-dried fruit. They don't really have any bite, or any of the taste of fresh strawberries. I would compare them more to thin crisps of styrofoam with the strawberry taste of a jolly rancher as opposed to anything natural.
I guess the prepackaged fruit craze, as with any revolution, needs to be done right. Don't just go freeze-drying fruit left and right. Think twice, do it right, keep it realeal.
okay i have a few things to say, which will reveal that i like cereal way too much -
ReplyDeletefirst of all, i propose a new rule that HBOO should just be referred to as BOO, because that's how i feel when i remember how disappointing it is. the flavor is good, but the cereal itself doesn't hold a dam against milk; it's practically gruel by the time you dip your spoon in. so call it HGOO (honey gruel of oats) if BOO is too mean.
second - freeze dried fruit in cereal is the shiznittlebamsnipsnapsnip. i used to be skepticle of it too, in fact im still skepticle of it, because the whole idea about strawberries and peaches etc. is that they should be fresh, right? wrong. i was at whole foods and saw containers of just freeze dried fruit for sale (everything from pineapples to cranberries) and advertized as a cereal topper. i bought rasberries and peaches. the rasberries were ok - a bit tart - and worked better mixed in with cottge cheese and left to sit over night (don't hate) but the peaches - after soaking up the milk - were pretty effin good and hit the neglected peach-spot in this dreary time of winter.
lastly (more out of embarassment than lack of things to say), i want to give a high five to special k. saying that feels girly, though, because there's a femenine association with the brand. i had a friend over the other day when my dad called from the store and asked what kind of cereal to get - i told him my sister liked special k blueberry - get that. but lo... it was for me! my friend turned to me and said he just had some specK that morning and love it, and i confessed that i did too. so - i propose abandoning all gender biases involving cereal, especially but not limited to specK! and while the red berries are good and the have special clout as the original, everyone should do themselves a favor and pour themselves a bowl of specK blueberry with a handful of fresh blueberries on top and dig in. the vanilla almond ain't bad either.
over and out