Growing up, ICEEs were a regular part of my visits to the Sunrise Rollerland skating rink, Not to mention convenience stores, carnivals or any other places that the red cherry and blue raspberry frozen concoction could be found.
Originally I had no interest or intention of reviewing this new cereal. Sure, it seemed to be an odd tie-in, as I don't think anyone associates ICEEs with breakfast cereals. Even so, I imagined that the red and blue cereal pieces were simply cherry and raspberry flavored, and we've already got Captain Crunch All-Berries for that, thank you very much.
But then I spied some text on the box that caught my attention. "Feel The Freeze," it says. "Cools your mouth as you eat," it says. Surely they must have provided steps on the back of the box for putting this cereal in the freezer to accomplish such a task! They did not...and I won't call you Shirley again.
Intrigued, I purchased a box so that you wouldn't have to. It smelled just about the way I expected it to. Sickly sweet, like the drink...and nothing like real fruit. Pouring it into the bowl I noticed that there were red, blue and purple cereal pieces. Was that supposed to be the "mixed" flavor? Who knows? I was fixated solely on getting to the bottom of whether the cereal cooled my mouth as I ate it...and, if not, whether a class action lawsuit might be in order.
And...darned if it didn't actually cool my mouth! But not in a "this is a cold ICEE on a hot day which I had better drink slow or else I'll end up with brainfreeze" way. More of an "I just sprayed Chloraseptic sore throat spray into my mouth and now I've got a cherry cough drop taste in my mouth" way. And while that latter sensation is perfectly fine if I actually had a sore throat, it is quite definitely not the taste I wanted or expected from a cereal.
I'm still not exactly sure what combination of natural or unnatural ingredients Kellogg's used to pull off such a feat. "Menthol" is not listed on the box, for example, and a doctor's prescription wasn't required to purchase. ICEE cereal is available over the counter. But do yourself a favor and avoid at all costs...even if your insurance covers it.
RATING: 1/5
