Cinnamon cereal is the best of the best! Sure, you can make a case for nostalgic favorites like Lucky Charms or Crunch Berries or, if you’re a health nut, keep pretending that some muesli that tastes like hay is the best, but at the end of the day, no other cereal represents breakfast (which is designed to be indulgent) better than cinnamon cereal. It’s got enough sugar to satisfy a sweet tooth with a flavor profile that reminds the taste buds of classic morning indulgences like French toast.
Cinnamon and breakfast work! Why else would there be so many different variations of cinnamon cereal out there?
I’m not just talking about those budget bags that sell you cereal without the box, either. I’m talking about big names: Life, Chex, Magic Spoon, and Trader Joe’s — they all have a flavor that is designed to compete with the flavor’s most popular iteration, General Mills Cinnamon Toast Crunch. So who makes the best? We found out by putting all the cinnamon cereals we could find to the blind taste test.
PART I — Methodology
For this blind taste test, I went to three different grocery stores in my area: Ralph’s, Trader Joe’s, and two different Targets and picked up every cinnamon cereal on the shelves. Here is today’s tasting class:
- Cascadian Farm — Organic Cinnamon Crunch
- General Mills — Chex Cinnamon
- General Mills — Cinnamon Toast Crunch
- Kellogg’s — Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll
- Magic Spoon — Cinnamon
- Malt O Meal — Cinnamon Toasters
- Market Pantry — Cinnamon Oat Bites
- Trader Joe’s — Crunchy Cinnamon Squares
- Quaker — Life Cinnamon
I had my girlfriend pour me a small bowl of each at random with whole milk, and wore a blindfold since we were dealing with various shapes. If you’re wondering if eating nine different textures of cereal absolutely tore up the roof of my mouth, the answer is “yes, it did.” But we do these things for science! Let’s dive in.
PART II — The Tasting
Taste 1:
An initial great spicy cinnamon-forward flavor! It doesn’t taste like it’s too strongly cut with sugar, but… it has a very stale aftertaste. Overall the dusting of cinnamon is a bit too light here, it starts off tasty but quickly devolves into bland territory.
Taste 2:
Very crispy texture with a strong dark cinnamon flavor. It’s earthy and a bit spicy, but something about the texture of this cereal ended up sticking to every crevice of my teeth. It got so bad that I had to give my mouth a thorough rinse. You shouldn’t need a toothpick to eat cereal.
The aftertaste is also pretty bad, very stale.
Taste 3:
Very sugary with a dose of cinnamon spice that appears on the aftertaste. The mouthfeel is sharp and crispy, with a nice audible crunch. The cereal soaks up milk very well and comes across as very flavorful despite being submerged in milk.
Delicious. This must be the real Cinnamon Toast Crunch, right?
Taste 4:
A great flavor with a perfect balance of sugar and cinnamon and a toasted rice aftertaste. It has a nice and snappy texture. The cinnamon sugar flavor here is a lot more subtle than Taste 3 — it tastes like a health-conscious alternative but doesn’t sacrifice flavor in the process.
Taste 5:
A rich and dark cinnamon flavor. A great crispy texture that soaks up milk excellently. There is a weird sugary aftertaste that I don’t like here though. It’s almost as if it gets sweeter between bites. Good but not my favorite.
Taste 6:
Great flavor, it’s spicy and sweet, leaning a bit harder on cinnamon than sugar, but the texture is horrible. It’s way too crunchy and it doesn’t really soak up milk at all. I dipped my spoon in this one a few times just to get it a bit more bathed but it still came across as too dry.
Taste 7:
Almost totally flavorless. I’m really struggling to get anything out of this one, I’m getting the slightest hint of cinnamon. This is definitely some sort of healthy cereal. It’s all crunchy texture with not nearly enough flavor to justify its dryness.
Taste 8:
Very similar to Taste 7 in texture but with a way better execution in terms of flavor. It’s dry and crunchy, but the cinnamon sugar is prominent without tasting like you’re eating cereal packed with sugar. Just enough flavor to satisfy. I’m also tasting a hint of oat in there, which is a nice surprise.
Taste 9:
This one is obviously a wheat cereal, it has that dark and earthy naturally sweet flavor. This cinnamon is also very nice, it leans more toward the natural flavor of cinnamon with just a hint of sugar to keep it from being too dry. It’s natural tasting, but not at all off-putting. But the dominant flavor here is wheat, not cinnamon, so while I like this one, it’s not number one.
Part 2: The Ranking
9. Market Pantry — Cinnamon Oats Bites (Taste 7)
Price: $2.89
Market Pantry, Target’s brand that isn’t Good & Gather, makes some fine products… but this Cinnamon Oats cereal is not one of them. This is by far the blandest cereal I’ve ever had, and yes, I’ve had cornflakes. This is an oat-based cereal but unfortunately, you can’t even taste the oats.
The cereal sports 24g of whole grains per serving, which is great, but it’s an absolute chore to eat and for that, it gets the bottom spot.
The Bottom Line:
I’d call it the worst-tasting cinnamon-flavored cereal your money could buy if it tasted like anything at all.
8. Magic Spoon — Cinnamon Roll (Taste 2)
Price: $9.99
Magic Spoon’s whole thing is that it’s a healthy grain-free cereal for adults with high protein content and no sugar. That’s a noble goal, but we’d be lying if we said this compares to the real thing. It doesn’t — the flavors taste suspiciously artificial and the texture is some of the worst I’ve ever encountered. Seriously, this stuff will stick to your teeth like you’re chewing wet styrofoam.
How do I know what wet styrofoam tastes like? Because I’ve had Magic Spoon.
The Bottom Line:
It’s cereal for adults if cereal tasted weird and got stuck in your teeth all the time. The only cereal you need to eat with a toothpick in tow.
7. Cascadian Farm — Organic Cinnamon Crunch (Taste 1)
Price: $4.19
Cascadian Farm is so close to being good! This organic cereal has a delicious cinnamon flavor at the forefront, but its stale and bland aftertaste hurts it, significantly. It’s just not a pleasure to eat.
It’s made with some great ingredients, including cane sugar, and whole-grain wheat, and sports three grams of fiber and 15 grams of whole grains, but that all takes a backseat to flavor, and considering this leaves you with a cardboard flavor in your mouth, we can’t cosign it.
The Bottom Line:
Starts off delicious, but ends up tasting too bland to really win us over.
6. Quaker — Life Cinnamon (Taste 8)
Price: $3.10
Quaker’s cinnamon version of Life is fine, it’s healthy, made with whole grains, and without artificial flavors or preservatives, but it tastes like a healthy cereal. That’s fine if that’s what you’re into, but if we’re comparing it to sugar-packed competitors in search of what tastes better, I’m sorry but this just doesn’t cut it.
If you love the sugary-packed cereals that this is brand hopes to imitate but are trying to cut back on the massive amounts of sugar, you’re going to like this, But we can’t pretend it actually tastes better.
The Bottom Line:
A nice healthy option if you’re trying to cut back on sugar, but if you aren’t, there is better-tasting cereal out there.
5. Kellogg’s — Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll (Taste 5)
Price: $7.17
This flavor attempts to capture the magic of Cinnabon in cereal form and… it doesn’t really do that. Don’t get me wrong, it tastes good, and I really like the crispy texture that soaks up milk very nicely, but this is a far cry from that magic that is Cinnabon. It seems like the public agrees too because Kellogg’s is always discontinuing and bringing back this cereal.
The Bottom Line:
It’s good but Kellogg’s can’t seem to decide if it wants to keep this cereal around. Unfortunately, if they discontinue it again, it’s not good enough to be mad about.
4. Malt-O-Meal Cinnamon Toasters (Taste 6)
Price: $1.95
Malt-O-Meal is one of those budget brands that sell you the cereal in a bag, box free. Let me just say, I don’t have a problem with these brands. I think for the most part they are great alternatives to the big brands and considering cereal is already in a plastic bag inside the box, I don’t need the extra waste. That said, Malt-O-Meal is good but it’s not great.
The thing that holds this cereal back is the texture, it’s so hard and crispy that it totally blocks out the milk. You could use this stuff as a bulletproof shield if you wanted to.
The Bottom Line:
A great flavor, and if you like crunchy cereal this is a fine option. But it doesn’t soak up milk at all, so if you like your cereal a bit wet, this isn’t your brand.
3. Trader Joe’s — Crunchy Cinnamon Squares (Taste 9)
Price: $2.99
I have to hand it to Trader Joe’s, they not only make a damn good cinnamon cereal, but they manage to give you that familiar flavor while still bringing something different to the table. This cereal is made with whole grain wheat, making it a healthier alternative to the competition, but it doesn’t sacrifice flavor in the process. In fact, the wheat flavor is pretty tasty itself!
That gives this cereal an interesting problem though, it doesn’t actually taste all that much like cinnamon. Cinnamon is there, but the dominant flavor is wheat, and that’s fine if that’s what you’re after, but that’s not what we’re after. So for that, it gets the third-place spot.
The Bottom Line:
A delicious wheat-flavored cereal with just a hint of cinnamon.
2. General Mills — Cinnamon Chex (Taste 4)
Price: $3.99
Cinnamon Chex is great! Well-balanced with just the right level of sugar and cinnamon, Cinnamon Chex uses 100% real cinnamon in its recipe and alternates between seasoned Chex and plain whole grain rice Chex. That keeps it from being too sweet, while still providing enough flavor to come across like you’re missing out on something.
Each serving is only 8 grams of sugar which is higher than the healthy brands, but lower than our number one choice.
The Bottom Line:
Healthier and less sweet than the competition without sacrificing flavor.
1. General Mills — Cinnamon Toast Crunch (Taste 3)
Price: $3.79
Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the quintessential cinnamon cereal, that is undeniable. I wanted desperately for another cereal to take the top spot, it’s the reason we put each to a blind taste test, to remove any and all biases, but this one still came out on top. It just offers the most delicious experience. Is it the 12 grams of sugar per serving? Yes, probably. Actually, most definitely. This is the sugariest cereal out of the whole lot.
In terms of flavor, nothing beats it, and considering every other cereal is trying desperately to be this one (you can tell by what they are named), it’s almost like other brand knows this is the best as well. The mouthfeel is perfect, it’s light, crispy, and crunchy, and soaks up milk well without ruining the structural integrity of the cereal. The flavor perfectly mixes sweet sugar with spicy earthy cinnamon that retains its flavor no matter how long it sits in the milk. It’s perfect.
The Bottom Line:
The quintessential cinnamon-flavored cereal. It has the most sugar, which makes it less healthy than some of the other brands, but in terms of flavor, nothing even comes close to the experience this one offers.
