Kellogg’s continues to pump out novelty cereals. This time, it’s a berry-flavored cereal inspired by the childhood classic cool beverage, the ICEE. So, is this cereal everything we love about ICEE minus the brain freeze and brightly red or blue tongue? In short, sort of.

But before we dive into the cereal review, let’s take a look at the history of ICEE. (don’t say you never learned anything by reading these reviews)

The ICEE company was started in 1967 in Los Angeles and after some acquisitions and expansion, it has since grown to be the No. 1 frozen beverage brand worldwide.

Good question. I don’t know, but I figured it’d stretch this review out a little longer. Now, let’s grab our spoons and dig into this cereal.

Aesthetics

Upon opening the bag, you definitely will get a strong whiff of the cherry and blue raspberry, the OG ICEE flavors. As you can see from the photo, the cereal is more pink and pale blue than red and blue raspberry. Otherwise, just your typical bag of small puff cereal. The packaging did make me want to go to a movie theater and settle in with an ICEE though.

Snackability

I was pleasantly surprised that I think I enjoy this cereal dry than in milk. The small puffs easily fill the palm of your hand so you can toss them back in your mouth hole. It’s certainly sweet though, so it’s good for a quick sweet fix, but I wouldn’t do more than a couple scoops.

Structural Integrity

The pieces were not as airy as I expected, as if you were eating Kix, but at the same time they were not as crunchy as a Crunchberry. I’d describe the ICEE cereal as more like a Cocoa Puff in structure but with a berry flavor.

Because of this, after a minute, you will find the morsels starting to get soggy. After about 5 minutes, the exterior of the cereal was a little mushy, like an outer layer while the center of the cereal still had a slight crunch.

Flavor

You will certainly taste the cherry and blue raspberry as promised on the box, but the strength of those flavors dissipates once milk is added, compared to eating the cereal dry.

The cereal box also has the written claims that you will “feel the freeze” and that it “cools your mouth as you eat.” I thought to myself, “Of course, it cools your mouth as you eat because you’re using cold milk. Only an animal would use room-temperature milk.”

After first trying the cereal dry, I did feel a unique sensation coating my tongue. It’s hard to explain, but maybe it has to do with the ingredient that is supposed to help cool your mouth with each bite. According to the ICEE promotional copy, the new cereal utilizes an innovative ingredient that cools your mouth as you eat, imitating the familiar sip of a cold ICEE beverage.

Cereal Concept

I will always be a fan of trying to make cereal out of something nostalgic. It does prove a point that if you can make cereal based on a foamy beverage, we can easily make cereal based on other drinks. What about a LaCroix cereal or Jarritos cereal? The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I didn’t hate ICEE cereal. It’s not something I’d buy or eat regularly, given so many other options. However, I do tend to lean more toward sweet and berry-flavored cereal over chocolate ones.

While the cereal is supposed to cool your mouth with each bite, it just doesn’t satisfy the missing feeling of the rush you get when not knowing when that brain freeze is going to hit you when drinking an actual ICEE. I just don’t recommend an ICEE with a bowl of ICEE cereal though, unless you really are feeling frisky. Then by all means you do you and please report back, because I want to know what that combination tasted like and I also want to make sure you’re okay.