At crunch time, cinnamon cereal has bite

The third and final week of our cereal series highlights a bit of a generation gap. Although General Mills’ Cinnamon Toast Crunchwas one of my favorite cereals growing up, none of our panelists had eaten it as a kid — it didn’t hit the market until the mid-1980s.

Nowadays, at least six brands of the cinnamonand sugar-sweetened cereal squares are available. And our Taster’s Choice panelists were surprisingly in sync about which they like best.

Safeway Kitchens Cinnamon Crunch ($2.99 for 12.8 ounces at Safeway) won for its “wellbalanced,” if a little “mild,” cinnamon flavor. “Not too sweet,” tasters cheered, while its “crisp” and “hearty texture” pleased all but one panelist. Two would buy and three might.

Lagging well behind in second place was Three Sisters Cinnamon Sweets ($4.39 for 12.5 ounces at Whole Foods). Marketed as using “all natural” ingredients, this cereal was “very sweet” “with a good, pure cinnamon flavor.” Several panelists also praised the “good crunch.” Three would buy, one might and one would not.

Fresh & Easy house brand Mother’s Joy ($1.99 for 12 ounces at Fresh & Easy) finished third. While these squares were “definitely crunchy,” the taste was a turnoff to some. It was simultaneously “too sweet,” “too salty” and had “too much cinnamon.” As one panelist summarized: “Not a good balance.” While two might buy, three would not.

Finishing in a tie for fourth place was the original General Mills Cinnamon Toast Crunch ($2.50 for 12.8 ounces at Fresh & Easy) and the organic Cascadian Farm Cinnamon Crunch ($5.09 for 10.3 ounces at Rainbow).

The Cinnamon Toast Crunch was coated in “lots of sugar,” leading a few panelists exclaiming that it was “too sweet.” A bigger problem for some panelists, though, was that the flakes seemed stale. Only one taster might buy this brand, the rest would not.

Meanwhile, the “denser” Cinnamon Crunch from Cascadian Farm had “a lot of tooth,” or, as one unimpressed taster described, a seemingly stale cornmeal texture. “Has a mild but odd cinnamon flavor,” another added. One would buy, one might, and three wouldn’t.