"Monster Cereals" make a return

Once a year the elusive Franken Berry, Boo Berry, and Count Chocula cereals come out of hiding to brighten our October mornings and midnight snacking. General Mills' "Monster Cereals" have been around since the early 1970s, and while the ingredients may have changed, I would like to think they have remained delicious through the decades. After seeing them year after year, and learning of their limited edition novelty, I decided to buy all three and try them out in the spirit of Halloween.

First in the bowl was Boo Berry, mainly because he looks the coolest, donning a hat and bow tie on the cereal box. The blue cereal puffs are in a fun ghost shape, and combined with the bat shaped marshmallows, the overall appearance is quite pleasing. While the cereal is purple, the berry taste isn't grape or blueberry. It's that lovely mix of artificial berry flavor that you can tell is from a blue-ish berry, but can't quite place it to anything found naturally. About half way through my bowl, I noticed the milk was already turning a nice shade of purple, and knew it would taste pretty good by the time I was finished. And it did; the sugar of the marshmallows had soaked into the berry-milk and was a sweet end to my spooky snack.

Mandarin Chinese major (and apparent cereal poet) Josh Jarman felt similar when asked about Boo Berry: "The Boo Berry marshmallows and cereal combine to form a berry euphoria, made only better by the berry heaven that overwhelms your senses as you drain the milk from your bowl."

To keep in berry theme, the next day I had Franken Berry, which turned out to be my favorite of the three. It has the same ghost and marshmallow shapes as Boo Berry, but has a strawberry-like flavor. There is a good ratio of crunchy puffs to marshmallows, and the strawberry taste is a bit easier to handle after just waking up, or if you're in a hurry. The left over milk was a solid shade of pink and tasted like a strawberry milkshake. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Science major Natalie Thorpe is also a fan: "I enjoy Franken Berry because it tastes like Crunch Berries without sacrificing the roof of your mouth, maintains its crunch factor in milk, and the marshmallows don't taste like chalk."

Last up was Count Chocula, and boy does he stay true to his name. The ghost shaped puffs are a nice deep brown color, and even the marshmallows come in a chocolate swirl. My first thought after taking a spoonful was that it tasted just like hot cocoa, and the added marshmallows sealed the deal. The milk turned to chocolate much quicker than with the Berry cereals, and when drinking the remainder, I found that it was legitimate chocolate milk-- you would think you were drinking NesQuik rather than cereal leftovers. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate for breakfast, but mid-afternoon or late at night the Count is your guy.

While they aren't the most amazing cereals on the planet, it's nice to be able to add a little holiday spirit to your day in the form of, according to the boxes, "artificially flavored cereal with spooky-fun marshmallows." And since Boo Berry, Franken Berry and Count Chocula only come out for the Halloween season, hurry and have your spooky-fun before they disappear.