Have you ever anticipated doing something, but not in a good way? For instance, you know you have to deep clean the bathroom, but it doesn’t make you any more excited for that day to come.Well, the day has come for me to meet the latest concoction by Post Cereals (they also brought us Hostess donettes powdered mini donut cereal, Honey Buns cereal and who can forget, Sour Patch Kids cereal.

They couldn’t leave bad enough alone. There’s chocolate Twinkies, pumpkin spice Twinkies, strawberry Twinkies, key lime slime Twinkies and of course every state fair goer’s favorite: the fried Twinkie. Well if that wasn’t enough for you, you can eat Twinkies in a bowl – sort of.Aesthetics

Before even looking at the images on the packaging, you realize that this cereal box is a commitment. While it doesn’t say “family-sized” on it, it might as well be. The design on the box is consistent with the previous Post Cereals x Hostess collaborations – bright, wholesome Americana colors of obesity.

As for the cereal itself, instead of spongy diabetes golden snack cake, it’s a crunchy piece of cereal. If you look closely, you can see a light dusting of powdered coating, similar to what can be found on donettes cereal.

I liken it to looking like a bowl of golden Mike and Ike’s candies. I will admit that they do look like miniature Twinkies though, however the Twinkie shape isn’t exactly a hard one to replicate. Nevertheless, I appreciate the consistency in the box packaging and the look of the morsels.

Snackability

Here’s one area where Twinkies cereal shines, much like its peer, donettes cereal. There’s a satisfying crunch to the cereal. It’s important to note the difference between crunch and crisp. I tend to think of a crispy dry cereal being Chex, Corn Pops, Fruit Loops, or any similar cereal that seems to be less dense. Where I can’t snack on an actual Twinkie due to the fact I can’t stand the texture of the spongy cake and mushy creme-filled center, the Twinkies cereal is a stark contrast in textures. This cereal is a good snack to eat dry during that mid-afternoon workday where you hit the wall and need a jolt of sugar.

Structural Integrity

Due to the shape and the fact it’s more dense, the structural integrity of Twinkies cereal is pretty solid. I can’t stress how much I appreciate the fact there is no cream/frosting filling in the middle of the pieces of cereal. However, after a while (during a normal time of eating a bowl of cereal), the cereal does begin to absorb some of the milk. When this happens, instead of making it mushy like Frosted Flakes or Apple Jacks, it makes Twinkies cereal tastes more like stale cereal. Instead of a hearty crunch, it’s more like a dull crunch, if that makes sense to anyone else who doesn’t live inside my head.

Cereal Concept

I’m grading this a little harder nowadays, since these novelty cereals of “whacky concepts” are becoming more commonplace. Considering all the snacks that are in the Hostess catalog, they could continue to pump out these type of cereals. I have to believe that Post Hostess Snowballs cereal is in the works, and if people are scared off from Twinkie cereal, then Snowballs will be a nightmare come to life. 

Flavor

Without even tasting the cereal, you get an idea of the flavor by just opening the package. Upon opening the cereal bag, it smells like Strawberry Shortcake’s kitchen, if she was baking something vanilla-flavored childhood memories. The taste/flavor is somewhere between those generic vanilla wafer cookies you used to get in Sunday school for a snack, donettes cereal and “birthday cake” baked treats. Overall, it provides a sweet, vanilla flavor, which is what you’d expect from a Twinkie.

Final Thoughts

I’m not a fan of the Twinkies, so I was hesitant to try this cereal. However, don’t be scared by the brand name. While it tries to mimic the shape, color and flavor of the Twinkie, it’s nothing like that spongy, golden log filled of regret. I guess you could say it’s the same, but different? I was beyond pleasantly surprised by Twinkies cereal. As I have noted multiple times in this review, it’s similar to the donettes cereal, which I was also surprised by. I almost hate to admit it, but I think I actually like Twinkies cereal more than donettes. It’s still very sweet and probably not something you are wanting to eat more than one bowl at a time, or one handful of it dry, but to me it doesn’t taste like how a normal Twinkie and that’s a good thing.