by: -RoG-

We've been very lucky in recent years when it comes to Halloween editions of our favorite breakfast cereals. For starters, we saw all of the classic Monster Cereals make a return, complete with their retro 70s & 80s box design, and this year they even got some fantastic modern designs by artists from DC Comics. We've also seen the likes of Cap'n Crunch hold his ship steady to consistently deliver us "Halloween Crunch" every year as well, so there's plenty to be happy about.

The one thing that's been missing for quite some time, however, is candy corn flavored cereal. Granted, just by mentioning the phrase "candy corn", you run the risk of instantly polarizing large groups of friends into factions ready to draw blood from one another. Still, there's no denying that candy corn is the official candy of Halloween, and while candy companies seemingly have no problem flavoring a wide variety of their confections after it, cereal companies are far more hesitant.

The last time we saw candy corn flavored cereal was way back in 2001 when Kellogg's released Candy Corn Pops cereal, which mimicked the flavor nicely, and had one of my all-time favorite cereal box designs. Seriously, it's one of the greatest cereal boxes you'll ever see, and it still graces my shelf to this day. I seriously hope they bring it back in the future.

In the meantime, I'm happy to report that Post has decided to give candy corn flavoring a try with a limited edition version of their Pebbles cereal. If you were around here last December, you'll probably recall that they released a Pebbles cereal flavor based on Sugar Cookies, and while the taste left plenty to be desired, it was a great presentation. So Pebbles appears to be their official guinea pig cereal when it comes to trying out strange new flavors.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at the brand new Post Limited Edition Candy Corn Flavor Pebbles Cereal. Behold!

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Alright, first impression right off the bat is that they really captured the spirit of Halloween perfectly with this box, and it's definitely one I'll be happy to display next to my old Candy Corn Pops cereal box. You have Pebbles dressed up in a witch hat, ready to dig in, while Bamm-Bamm is dressed up like a vampire, but he clearly can't go against his natural instincts to smash anything within his reach. So, here we see him clubbing the ever-living hell out of a jack-o-lantern, causing it to explode with candy corn pops cereal and blood milk. Combine all that with an old iron fence, fall leaves dropping from the sky in the background, along with a perfect color scheme, and you have yourself a Halloween cereal box that instantly removes "Hmm, should I really buy this?" from the equation.

Now boxes are fine and dandy, but what about the cereal itself? Well, let's crack it open and see if it matches the box.

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Excellent! The orange, yellow, and white rice cereal colors are about spot on with actual candy corn as anyone could hope for. If you were desperate, you could easily sprinkle these all over your floors if you wanted to give your home a more festive Halloweeny atmosphere. Of course, that's probably a really bad idea, since you'd soon have crushed cereal crumbs and rats all over your house. But hey, rats are kinda spooky too, so maybe you could look at them as a Halloween bonus.

Now here's the weird part - if you're like me, the first thing you do when you crack open a box of cereal with an unusual flavor, is you inhale a big whiff of it to see if it matches the advertised flavor. When I inhaled these, I was expecting to smell pure candy corn, but that's not what I was smelling. I was so confused at first, I had to keep smelling, and then it hit me... Candy Corn Pebbles cereal smells like maple syrup! Seriously. If it smelled like honey, that would at least make more sense, since a lot of companies like Brach's promote honey as one of their main ingredients in candy corn.

I tried to brush off the scent as just a weird coincidence, but then when I tasted the cereal itself, I was hit with a solid maple flavor as well. Look, I like maple syrup... no, scratch that... I love maple syrup, but I was looking for candy corn flavored cereal, and instead, I find myself sitting here craving a waffle. Maybe I'll make a waffle later on, and carve it into a Halloween design of some sort. A "waff-o-lantern" if you will.

Despite the name, I assure you there is nothing here that even remotely tastes like candy corn, so that's a disappointment, because nobody wants to eat lies for breakfast. We eat enough of those throughout the rest of the day as it is. On the plus side, the maple flavor actually works really well for the cereal and doesn't linger around with any bad aftertaste. So this is a cereal I'd gladly eat more of, which is a lot more than I can say about the Sugar Cookie Pebbles from last year.

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Another bonus is they provide you with a recipe for Candy Corn Pebbles Whoopie Pies on the back of the box, and I there's no denying that they do look pretty amazing. The main ingredients, other than the cereal, being marshmallow fluff and sugar cookies. When it comes to marshmallows, I've never been a huge fan of eating 'em, and mainly enjoy looking at them when they're molded into festive shapes for the holidays like Peeps are well known for doing.

So, I was sitting here torn: I wanted to make these, but the cereal doesn't taste like candy corn and I'm not a big fan of marshmallows, so how could I turn this recipe into something better? Then it hit me. Since the cereal taste like maple syrup, it would surely compliment chocolate chip cookies with walnuts in them and vanilla ice cream! Oh yes, my friends... today would be the day that I would make Candy Corn Pebbles Cereal Whoopie Ice Cream Sandwiches!

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With two freshly baked chocolate chip walnut cookies on my plate, I poured a bunch of the Candy Corn Pebbles cereal into a sandwich bag. Unfortunately, I didn't have Bamm-Bamm's giant club handy, because the recipe calls for you to crush the pebbles cereal up into tiny bits. So, I decided to just crush them in my hands while pretending I was Superman when he crushed a lump of coal to turn it into a diamond for Lana in Superman III. I'm sad to report that my cereal did not turn into a diamond, despite the fact that Superman and I are obviously equal in strength. The good news is, I did a fine job of mashing the cereal into little bits.

Next, I plopped a hearty scoop of vanilla ice cream in between the two cookies to make it a sandwich ready to be rolled across the crushed cereal. And the end result?

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It worked out really well! Sure, it may not appear as visually spectacular as the whoopie pies on the back of the box, but I'll bet you anything it tastes far better. There's only one way to know for sure.

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Delicious! I made sure to snap one photo after taking a bite, because I woofed this thing down almost immediately afterwards. The cereal blended perfectly with the ice cream and the cookies, giving you nice subtle hits of maple flavoring with every bite. It's messy, it's fun, it's tasty, and you can keep dipping your ice cream sandwich in the leftover granules of cereal as you make your way to the center of it.

Overall, I'm very happy to see a new candy corn flavor cereal on the market after all these years, but it would've been nice if it actually tasted like candy corn in any way whatsoever. Still, the box design is absolutely killer, the cereal itself looks great, and you can make some seriously delicious Halloweeny ice cream sandwiches with it. Just don't expect 'em to last long.

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