With the holiday season coming up, all that’s been on my mind has been the excellent food that’ll make its way onto my plate at the family celebrations. A staple of those celebrations was my grandmother’s homemade apple pie that I used to indulge in as a young child. Apparently, the people over at General Mills share similar holiday traditions as they’ve just dropped a new flavor of Toast Crunch aptly named Apple Pie Toast Crunch.
The Toast Crunch brand, whose most popular flavor is Cinnamon Toast Crunch, has been on a tirade of releasing new flavors recently with the new Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch and even a spicy CinnaFuego Toast Crunch.
The overall presentation can be described as on theme for the holidays. The box is a nice seasonal green with the little Toast Crunch mascots all dressed in hats and scarves like they’re ready to face the harsh winter weather that is just around the corner.
After cracking the bag open, I was immediately knocked in the nose with a blast of apple with light cinnamon, reminiscent of mild cinnamon applesauce. I genuinely didn’t expect it to be that strong, but it’s a pleasant aroma.
As expected, it tastes different from its sibling cereals, with a definite focus on the apple as opposed to the cinnamon. The cinnamon is definitely still there though. It is almost as if you took a McDonald’s apple pie, squeezed the filling out of it, and handed me the crust with the remnants of the apple filling still stuck to the sides.
As for the milk, I decided to use both a classic 2% milk, along with almond milk. In order to get the feeling of just waking up in the morning to a bowl of cereal, I decided to try them with different kinds of milk on separate days.
Starting with the 2% milk, I noticed particles of the sugar coating started to float off of the cereal and into the milk. After diving my plastic spoon right in and raising a hefty bite into my mouth, I immediately understood why General Mills would release such a product because it is just amazing.
I’m not one for soggy cereal, especially if it is grain-based like this one, but even after the milk saturated each flake, I would still shovel spoonfuls and be very content with the cinnamon dust that coated my mouth. The apple flavor is very pleasant. It goes for more of a cooked apple flavor rather than a flavor akin to Apple Jacks, which is what you’d want from a cereal calling itself Apple Pie Toast Crunch.
The 2% milk is easily the better out of the two when it comes to how well the cereal mixes with them. The bits of cinnamon sugar floated all around perfectly and even after I ate all the cereal, I could still smell the cinnamon flavor throughout the bowl. It’s like you put a few drops of hot apple cider in a nice cold glass of milk.
As someone who truly enjoys a nice cup of almond milk, it sadly disappointed me here. The cereal tasted just fine, but the almond milk didn’t seem to add anything that extraordinary to the cereal. The nutty touch that the milk gives to the cereal is pleasant, but I personally believe that the slight creaminess of the 2% milk works better with the apple pie theme.
Overall, I think Apple Pie Toast Crunch is a great addition to the Toast Crunch flavor lineup that they have in stores right now. I would say that if you are to eat this, definitely pair it with a creamy milk, as I believe that the creaminess is what takes this cereal to the next level. This is certainly something that I will continue to start my mornings with until I’m left with a dry box.
