The Cereal Report is a column in which PCFG conducts various cereal reviews, of new or limited products, as well as providing brief backgrounds on the cereal. Cereal is delicious and fairly cheap as far as meals go. Everyone should eat cereal!

Fall is on the way, everyone! And with every Autumnal equinox comes a plethora of limited edition pumpkin spice variants of foods. We’ve seen cookies, coffee, drinks, etc… but someone new is taking a crack at the annual craze. This year, we saw the arrival of Pumpkin Spice Cheerios, which if I recall correctly is the first time a cereal brand has harnessed the power of pumpkin pie spice. As always, I’m always a little skeptical of almost all pumpkin spice editions of foods and drinks because it’s such a quick and dirty cash-in, and frequently isn’t even that good.

That said, let’s give Cheerios the benefit of the doubt. Afterall, they’re a venerable cereal that puts on a persona of wholesomeness and doesn’t typically use wacky gimmicks to rope people into buying it.

One thing I’ll compliment Pumpkin Spice Cheerios on right off the bat is that unlike a lot of Fall varieties, it actually contains pumpkin. Many companies get away with just using pumpkin pie spice in their foods, which tastes fine enough but also makes the idea of “pumpkin spice” a bit homogenous. In this case fortunately, General Mills went the extra mile and added real-ass pumpkin puree to the ingredients, alongside a few of the aforementioned pumpkin pie spices. I guess it makes sense since Cheerios is somewhat on the more adult end of cereals and is vaguely healthy for you. Either way, it’s a welcome change.

Actually, speaking of adult cereals, I’m gonna put this out there right now: Pumpkin Spice Cheerios is absolutely a grown-ups cereal. It’s not sweet, it’s pretty dry, and the flavor is subtle. I actually didn’t even really like it the first time I had some since I’ve been eating Honey Nut Cheerios lately for breakfast, and the difference was apocalyptic. I will hand it to GM though, this cereal legitimately tastes like pumpkin, which is actually really admirable considering how pumpkins get left out of a lot of foods that are supposed to be “Fall-y”.

While I didn’t like them the first time, next time I had a bowl I knew what I was in for. And actually I enjoyed them a lot more, in doing so. Again, I was expecting something more akin to Honey Nut Cheerios and other sweeter varieties, but to put it frankly, Pumpkin Spice Cheerios tastes very similar to plain Cheerios, but with a bit of pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice flavor in the background. Like I said earlier, it is subtle as hell. And that’s not a bad thing either! It’s not in your face the way that things like Pumpkin Spice Oreos are, and it’s actually refreshing. It feels a lot more natural, like a legit flavor of Cheerio that could exist even after Fall is over. (Which unfortunately I doubt will happen since it states on the box that they’re limited edition).

I would say if you’re someone who enjoys subtlety in foods, then by all means Pumpkin Spice Cheerios is a nice little treat to have as we enter the Fall. Its not the greatest cereal I’ve ever eaten, but it’s definitely a respectable cereal worth checking out. And don’t get me wrong, I compared it to original Cheerios instead of honey nut, but there is a tiny, tiny bit of sweetness to them. I actually can’t bring myself to eat plain Cheerios, which is why I didn’t like these at first. But if you’re in the same boat, these might still be alright to eat if you’re at least a fan of pumpkin pie flavor.

Should you eat Pumpkin Spice Cheerios?

Yes

(unless you really dislike plain cereals)