Previously: Dead Man's Party
Fifty years of bowl after bowl of monstrously fruity (and chocolatey) breakfasts have led us here: the Golden Anniversary of General Mills' Monster Cereals! Initially, a year-round phenomena, now Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Boo Berry and the gang are currently relegated to a once-a-year appearance during the Halloween season. Since this year is the 50th anniversary of the OG morning monsters, it was decided that they'd get the band back together...the entire band.
The big three: Count Chocula, Frankenberry, and Boo Berry are joined by their lesser known compatriots, Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy, for an all-star jam known as "Monster Mash." The once in a lifetime breakfast treat is a mix of all the cereals together in the ultimate mash-up.
Here's the lineup of what actually ends up in your bowl. You've got the Boo Berry and Frankenberry crunchy parts of the cereal and what appears to be Count Chocula inspired Bat & Swirl marshmallows. You'll notice the orange and yellow marshmallows representing Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy in some nondescript shape. There's also a pink version of that marshmallow and when you see it, you might think the shape is Frankeberry's head. But if that's the case, what's with that shape being in the other colors? A mystery for another time, perhaps.
As for the taste, eh...modern Monster Cereals get a lot of grief for forgoing the original oat-based recipe for the current, cheaper corn-based brew. I normally don't notice those types of things but this time I picked up on the "Cheese Puff" type of texture. It has an overall fruity taste and if there's meant to be any notes of chocolate (or "Chocula"), it's too subtle for me to pick up on.
But this isn't the kind of cereal you buy for taste. This is an event! And it's not just confined to the cereal aisle. Say hello to Monster Mash fruit snacks.
The gang has their trick-or-treat buckets with them to invoke thoughts of Halloween hijinks and possibly to encourage folks to give these beauties out to youngsters on the Halloween candy hunt. Looks like there was another attempt to prevent throwing a chocolate monkey wrench into the fruity flavors, so the official flavor is "Spooky Berry" and the Count is represented in "grape purple" instead of his usual "cocoa brown."
The whole gang is here along with "Fruit Castle" in green on the left. The quality of the likenesses vary from character to character but they're all there in spirit, if not in flavor. If you're not handing out full-sized Snickers on the 31st then these may be the next big thing.
Congrats to the Monster Squad on 50 years of chills, thrills, and the occasional milk spills. I'm looking forward to the next 50!
