There's no doubt that one of the best parts of childhood was the never ending array of breakfast cereal options. Of course, there was the standard "healthy" options, like granola, but everyone's favorite were the sugary sweet cereals like Trix, Golden Grahams or Cookie Crisp.
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General Mills produces some of the most well-known cereals, like Honey Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and of course, Cookie Crisp. While many may think that Kelloggs would be their biggest competitor, it may actually be Post. Post Cereal makes a Chips Ahoy cereal, which also mimics chocolate chip cookies.
With the cereal companies competing for shelf space, it's crucial they have more than just a catchy name. They also need delicious taste and great ingredients. In this day and age it might also be useful to have gluten free options, avoiding wheat ingredients entirely. But the most important part of a cookie cereal, of course, is the great taste of chocolate chip cookies.
Cookies or Just Cereal?
Contrary to the name, Cookie Crisp does not actually contain mini chocolate chip cookies.
It does however, have many of the same ingredients that go into a cookie. On the ingredient list, you'll find corn flour, corn meal, canola oil, brown sugar syrup, cocoa processed with alkali, and baking soda. Like in most cereal brands, Cookie Crisp is fortified with mineral nutrients like riboflavin, potassium, folic acid, iron, and many other vitamins. Oddly enough, you won't find high fructose corn syrup. General Mills tries to keep as much natural flavor as possible when creating their cereals.
The most important part is always how it tastes. Consumers want to take a bite and be transported back to their grandmother's chocolate chip cookies.
General Mills' disclaimer lets consumers know that Cookie Crisp chocolate chip cookie flavored cereal is just meant to taste like cookies, without actually being made from cookies. This should be near the UPC on any box of the cereal, probably in the fine print.
Cookie Crisp Nutritional Ingredients
Parents are typically the ones purchasing the cereal, so General Mills is wise to include some nutritious ingredients in their cereal. Shockingly, the first ingredient is whole grain corn, which contains 10g of whole grains. The recommended daily dose of whole grains is 48g, so one serving size of cereal and you're almost a third of the way there. Pretty impressive for a cereal with cookie in the title.
According to the General Mills website, "Cereals contain no high fructose corn syrup, colors from artificial sources, and no artificial flavors (added)."
While many argue that kids cereal isn't the healthiest thing on the planet, Cookie Crisp only has 12 grams of total sugar, 1.5g of total fat, and 2g of dietary fiber. For the health conscious and weight conscious, Cookie Crisp has 0% cholesterol and only 11% of your daily carbohydrates.
Under their nutrition facts they note that each serving contains 10% of your daily values of Vitamin C, Vitamin D, a b vitamin, and calcium. While it doesn't contain Vitamin B1 or vitamin B2, it does contain a whopping 20% of your daily Vitamin B6, iron and zinc.
Next time you or your kids are hankering for some Cookie Crisp, go ahead and reach for the family size box. You know you'll be taking a bite!
