A Cereal Treats & Oat Bar Ranking, Including Release Dates and History

As someone who thinks Cheerios is a boring cereal, I think this wasn’t a boring bar. It’s essentially crushed-up Cheerios that are a ton sweeter due to the layer of light brown, super sweet Cheerio-flavored tasting crème at the bottom and drizzles on the top—it really elevates this bar into a whole other realm! That aside, the texture is soft and pleasant, with the occasional small crunch of the Cheerios.

Released January 2020.

Ground up Reese’s Puffs put together to form a semi-thick, soft, slightly crunchy bar. It’s just a hint sweeter than regular Reese’s Puffs due to the creamy drizzle at the top and the layer of it at the bottom. More specifically, this smooth and soft peanut-tasting cream at the bottom is a nice touch for texture and gives it some additional sweetness and flavor that takes it a step higher.

Likely released sometime around 2014.

A little chunky and thick. These are a bit oaty and crumbly with a fairly sweet cinnamon and sugar taste. This taste, however, is just slightly different than what it’s supposed to represent (Cinnamon Toast Crunch) and not as strong as the Cinnamon Toast Crunch, either. Notably, the bars are super small.

Released sometime around April 2023 alongside various other new General Mills items. Found at Walmart.

Crushed Trix is intertwined with a soft, almost white chocolate-tasting creme and marshmallow. It’s got the Trix flavor, but it’s even sweeter due to this flavorful creme. The texture is mostly soft, with the occasional small crunches from the Trix cereal, making it an interesting and pleasant dynamic.

Released around March 2021.

Sweeter than regular Lucky Charms, these come with more of a pronounced sweet vanilla and marshmallow taste. The bars are fairly thick with a soft-chewy granola bar texture, with marshmallows mixed in throughout. A thin bottom layer of cream adds a slight, white chocolate-like sweetness.

Not sure when these were released, although some reviews date back to 2018.

Chopped-up Crunch Berries glued together by a sticky substance. It’s less crunchy than dry Crunch Berries, although there is still a light, soft crunch. It falls at about the same level of sweetness and taste as Crunch Berries overall.

Released in April 2021 alongside a Peanut version.

Reminds me of a chocolate chip granola bar in terms of texture. They also almost taste like them but are slightly different, as the chocolate and marshmallow aren’t really too noticeable. The golden graham flavor itself is at least appreciable. Overall, the bar is fairly sweet with mostly a graham cracker taste and just a little bit of chocolate and marshmallow alongside it.

Not sure when these were released, although reviews date back several years.

A soft, almost crumbly, and slightly moist (not dry) oaty-tasting bar with bits of chocolate throughout that don’t seem to add too much to taste and texture. It’s semi-sweet overall. It’s kind of lackluster and comes out a bit plain, and I also do wish there were marshmallows in it, as advertised by the picture on the package. The bars are also very small.

Released sometime around April 2023 alongside various other new General Mills items. Found at Walmart.

A bit like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I guess, but it feels like the cinnamon and sugar taste is a bit less, making the bar less sweet and having less flavor than the cereal. It also meant there was more of the graham cracker, toast-like taste, if that makes sense. The texture is soft-chewy, like a granola bar. At the very least, a thin bottom layer of cream adds a slight, white chocolate-like sweetness and further adds a smooth, soft texture.

Not sure when these were released, but some reviews date back to 2014.

A chocolate cereal bar, nothing more, nothing less. It has a milk chocolate flavor despite looking like it would be on the darker side, and it’s also reasonably sweet. The texture is soft-chewy, and noticeably, the embedded marshmallows don’t add anything to the feel and taste the same as the cereal itself. A thin layer of chocolate sits at the bottom but doesn’t do much in terms of flavor, as it’s identical to the treat itself.

It may have been released around October 2012. They have come back every year around the same time.

This is definitely a milk chocolate bar, nothing more, unfortunately. It’s moderately sweet and comes across as a little plain despite the embedded marshmallows and layer of chocolate at the bottom. The texture is uniform — the marshmallows and everything else are all equal, forming a slightly chewy and crunchy, soft bar. This could have been so much more!

Not sure when this was released. Found November 2024.

Whatever they mixed in with the Cocoa Puffs really brings it down. There’s a sticky substance embedded throughout the bar that makes it all taste more fake and less flavorless overall. It really feels like a toned-down, artificial version of Cocoa Puffs. The texture is alright, sporting your traditional soft-crunchy cereal bar, and frankly, it’s the only decent thing about this. Overall, I really think General Mills needs to remake this, especially considering this cereal is so popular!

Released June 2021.

A much less tasteful version of the cereal. The flavor of these is the Cap’n Crunch Peanut Butter cereal, but it’s a little weaker and not nearly as sweet. The texture is a bit thick and soft-chewy and lacks the creamy bottom like some of the other treats, which is a huge letdown. The small drizzle of chocolate on top is at least slightly noticeable and provides a nice addition to the flavor.

Released in April 2021 alongside a Berries version. Found at Dollar General, I haven’t seen them elsewhere.

What’s really weird is the color. Cap’n Crunch cereal is orange, while these treats are bits of ground-up Cap’n Crunch with little white crispy-crunchy balls that look like Rice Krispies but are thicker—basically, where in the actual cereal do you find Rice Krispies?! The taste of the bars is also a little different, almost like someone made a replica but didn’t quite hit the mark—still, it’s fairly similar to the cereal overall. What I do notice is that the corn flavor is more noticeable in these treats, although the sweetness level is about the same as the cereal. The texture of these is fairly thick, soft, a little crunchy, and easy to bite through.

Not sure when these were released, although it was likely several years ago.

A bit sweeter version of Apple Jacks, these have a slightly more pronounced apple and cinnamon. The bar feels a little thinner than other cereal bars, and it’s also smaller. It just kind of feels flimsy and poorly put together. The texture is like a granola bar, soft and chewy. A thin bottom layer of cream adds a slight, white chocolate-like sweetness and a hint of creaminess to the taste and texture.

I’m not sure when this was released, although the reviews date back to early 2023.

It’s kind of thin and falls apart easily, as it’s just a few loose Froot Loops cobbled not-so-tightly together. The ingredients in these bars make them come across as slightly sweeter than regular Froot Loops, primarily due to the sweet creme at the bottom and whatever edible glue is making them stick together. Unfortunately, the bar is quite sticky and small, and coupled with it falling apart, it gets quite annoying to eat and feels cheap!

Released December 2020.

The taste and texture are like if you got a bit of crushed Fruity Pebbles and squished it into some very artificial-tasting marshmallow. The bar itself is sweet and tastes like Fruity Pebbles, but the fairly strong artificial marshmallow makeup really hinders it and brings the entire bar down. The texture is fairly soft and thick and has a light crispy crunch here and there from the pebbles.

It was released several years ago, likely in the early 2010s.