Kids review General Mills’ three Halloween cereals

Halloween is almost here, and what better time for children to get their sweet teeth primed and ready than at breakfast?

Local grocery stores have been filling shelves lately with a trio of sweet Halloween cereals that parents of today’s kids remember from their youth: Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry.

General Mills introduced the three cereals in the early 1970s, which is when I was born, and they’re still seasonal favorites. The company sent a three-pack to the Wichita Eagle for review, so I decided to see how they’d hold up with today’s youngsters.

I enlisted the help of my 9-year-old daughter, Alexis, and my 4-year-old stepdaughter, Helen. They were eager to issue their professional opinions and even more eager to dive into the marshmallow-studded, neon-colored bowls of sugar-fied cereal, which they don’t get to eat on a regular basis.

All three cereals have Pac-Man ghost-shaped bits of cereal with tiny, Lucky Charms-like marshmallows. They come in shades of brown, purplish blue and neon pink.

My 9-year-old taster was most impressed by the Count, who she said provided an extra chocolaty flavor. The blueberry-flavored Boo Berry was nasty and tasted chemical-y, she said.

My 4-year-old reviewer mainly wanted to fish out all the marshmallows from all three bowls and eat them only. She claimed to prefer the Count Chocula but was magnetically drawn to the bright pink of the Franken Berry.

That goes to show how kids’ and parents’ palates differ. I didn’t detect much chocolate flavor at all in Count Chocula and preferred the Boo Berry mainly because it was the only one that had a distinct flavor. Two bites of each was more than enough for me, though.

We will return to our regularly scheduled Cherrios and Rice Krispies.

This story was originally published October 15, 2014 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Kids review General Mills’ three Halloween cereals."