*Updated: General Mills Pumpkin Spice Cheerios are back on shelves for 2017! This review was originally prepared on August 16, 2016 when the cereal first debuted. Please find our review republished below.
Cheerio, pumpkin bitches! Pumpkin Spice Cheerios are here!
General Mills Pumpkin Spice Cheerios
Cheerios were once a cereal reserved for babies and Grandpa. With the new Pumpkin Spice Cheerios, the target demographics have expanded to include white girls and fatass food bloggers with pumpkin fetishes named Junk Banter. Where were Pumpkin Spice Cheerios when I was a kid? Can you imagine little baby Junk Banter, eating Pumpkin Spice Cheerios and pumpkin spice paint chips while getting dangerously close to an electrical outlet with the wrong end of a spoon? Cute!
Pumpkin Spice Cheerios were subtly announced when General Mills released Strawberry Cheerios. They’re the latest in an onslaught of pumpkin spice cereals we’ll see this year, to include Pumpkin Spice Life Cereal and Special K Pumpkin Spice Crunch. I like to consume at least a little bit of pumpkin at every meal from August through November. It’s nice to have some new pumpkin breakfast options other than Pop Tarts and Oreos and Cookie Butter this year.
Pumpkin Spice Cheerios are made with whole grains oats and are gluten free and are pumpkin spice! I opened the box hoping the pumpkin would wallop me like a Glade plug-in. This wasn’t the case. But when I shoved a handful into my mouth, it instantly felt like it was November. Pumpkin Spice Cheerios are LOADED with pumpkin spices.
For one and a half seconds, Pumpkin Spice Cheerios taste exactly like Honey Nut Cheerios. Perfectly sweet but still oats. Soon after, the pumpkin spice bottom drops out. Holy cloves! I tasted a some serious cloves first, followed by a strong burst of nutmeg. It’s refreshing to see cloves featured so prominently since so many commercial PS products omit it entirely. The result is a deeply satisfying, definitely pumpkin cereal designed exclusively for pumpkinheads. It’s surprising that cinnamon is only a minor player here, but cinnamon is featured in a million other cereals. I like these ratio a lot!
Milk mellows the pumpkin spices only a bit, and I feel this will be a good thing for most palates. Cloves are pretty aggressive in general. The spice blend becomes more balanced in milk. Full disclosure: I used vanilla almond milk which imparted some additional flavor here. This took it from Pumpkin Spice Cheerios to Pumpkin Pie Cheerios. I tasted more pumpkin puree, and the slightly softened floury oats began to remind of pie crust. Tis the season indeed. We made it.
Pumpkin Spice Cheerios are an AWESOME addition to the General Mills lineup. These need to return every year. They blow Trader Joe’s Pumpkin O’s out of the water. Sorry Trader Joe.
In summary, Honey Nut Cheerios meets Pumpkin Pie.
Pumpkin Spice Paint Chips Rating: 5 out of 10
Cloves Rating: For Days out of 10
Overall Rating: 9 out of 10
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can’t wait to swoop these up – hopefully make it to a Target this weekend – no dice on Sunday in the bay
I found them yesterday at Walmart in the Family Size if you strike out at Target.
felt really betrayed when I went to the Target closest to me today and found they have about 50 variations of cheerios on their shelves, but no pumpkin spice 🙁 had to settle for sprinkled donut crunch.
That’s not the worst consolation prize. Some Targets have put it out faster than others, and I’ve also seen it fly off the shelf at the Target closest to me. The Walmart near me has Pumpkin Spice Cheerios in Family Size, if that helps!
Just found your site thanks to TheImpulsiveBuy. Love your writing style and you have me intrigued on these Cheerios as well. Not enough to chase them down, but perhaps a buy if I stumble into them.
Thanks so much, and welcome to the site! Luckily you shouldn’t have a problem finding these at Walmart or Target once the pumpkin swing hits full throttle.
This is definitely a matter of taste. I hated the Cheerios. The Pumpkin O’s were bigger, crunchier, had more flavor. The Cheerios were tiny and borderline stale. No thanks.
Haha well I agree with your first part, that this is all a matter of taste preferences. But if yours tasted stale, something was wrong. My Pumpkin Cheerios have been crisp and crunchy every time I bought them. I reviewed the Pumpkin O’s too and just didn’t get enough spice.
We purchased Family size at Walmart (4.99) was so anxious & excited to try them. The flavor started off wonderful but then the after taste was like such a let down. All I could experience was the chemical flavoring.
Definitely a huge let down.
However I did discover Vanilla Chai Tea from Bolthouse Farms which had a vanilla spice taste {very similar to pumpkin with a milk base}… so delicious. However it didn’t even resemble tea 🙁 But will definitely buy again 🙂
I wished I hadn’t drank all 11 ounces last night (1.94) I would’ve liked to try it in the Cheerios
You are correct that the milk lowers the stongness of the flavors . (I used Unsweetened Almond Milk)
and again it left a bad taste afterwards.