Limited Edition Foods

Earlier this month at Walmart I spotted the Limited Edition Cap’n Crunch’s Home Run Crunch. Normally I do not buy cereal, but I could not pass this one up because it is baseball themed and we are on a baseball road trip all summer. Limited Edition Cap’n Crunch’s Home Run Crunch has a fun box design, but inside it is not as cool as the box makes it seem.

The box has the Cap’n ready to bat a baseball that says Crunch-a-tize Me Cap’n on the front with a baseball diamond in the background and a bowl of Limited Edition Cap’n Crunch’s Home Run Crunch in the foreground. The back of the box has some baseball themed games to play. This includes a word search with baseball terms, a fill in the missing letters game also using baseball terms, and follow the path game to see which kid hit the baseball the farthest.

The cereal inside the box is supposed to be special because it has baseball themed shapes. However, the shapes are rather disappointing. There are supposed to be baseball bats and baseball shapes inside. While there definitely are red and blue shapes they really do not look much different than Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries other than the fact their is not all the colors that variety has. The baseball shapes are fine, as Crunch Berries are circular, but the baseball bats are rather sad looking. Most of the baseball bat shapes just do not look that much like bats, especially when compared to the nice cover art of the cereal box. Anyways the cereal tastes the same as Crunch Berries, which are not too bad in my opinion. Just the baseball theme is not that great other than perhaps the box as a collectible, but that is not a possibility when the box has to travel over 10,000 miles in our car before we get home.

In honor of Valentine’s Day coming up the custom mixed cereal company mymuesli in the United Kingdom has made a special mix called Love Crunch. The Love Crunch cereal mix includes pine nuts, apple bits, apricots, strawberries, figs, amaranth pops, and their crunchy oat and wheat base. All the ingredients their products, such as the Love Crunch cereal, are organic. The cereal comes in a special “I Love You” packaging. The product can be purchased from their website here for £6.65 for 1 can or £33.25 for six cans. Each can has 575 grams of the cereal. Their shipping is a reasonable flat rate of £3.90 no matter how much you order. It sounds like an interesting cereal for breakfast on Valentine’s Day. I assume they only ship to United Kingdom addresses, although their website does not clearly say one way or the other.

Michael Phelps has made history with his 8 Gold Medals in one Olympics this past week at the Beijing Olympics. Usually you think of Wheaties when you think of athletes on the cover of cereal boxes, but this time it is something different. Michael Phelps will instead be appearing on Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes boxes in a limited edition run. The boxes are expected to hit grocery store shelves in September 2008. By the way he already has appeared on Wheaties boxes, so I guess they do not want to do that again, but still want to honor his accomplishment on a cereal box.

Personally, though, do they have to put him on the Frosted Flakes box. At least the Corn Flakes variety is somewhat healthier than Frosted Flakes. Do we really need to promote the less healthier cereals with unnecessary added sugar by putting athletes on them? Anyways as someone who likes to collect Olympic stuff, I might pick up one of these boxes if I see the cereal on sale or have a coupon when they come out.

What are you thought on him appearing on Frosted Flakes? Do you think he should appear on another kind of cereal by Kelloggs and what would be more appropriate if you think so? Lastly, do you think they should do more with the less publicized Olympians that have had success at the Beijing 2008 Olympics? On this last one I would not be surprised if we see more of the Olympians from Beijing 2008 on cereal boxes like Wheaties, but I doubt they will do it as a Frosted Flakes series.

Of the many holiday products on the market this holiday season, one of the most portable is the limited edition gingerbread PopTart from Kelloggs.  Made "soft and chewy" and filled with white icing, these new PopTarts are coming to a grocery store near you in boxes of 12 count tarts.

Reviewers report that these limited edition Pop Tarts smell amazing when placed in a toaster, and the icing inside reminds them of the icing found on cinnamon rolls.  The front of each tart features one of a large variety of winter gingerbread images, which Kellogg claims are of fifty in number … a claim made easier by the lack of clarity of the image on the average tart. 

The whole concept of gingerbread PopTarts seems to have inspired purchasing excitement from a variety of folks, including people who don’t usually like PopTarts.  While not everyone is a fan, there is no doubt that gingerbread is popular in December … it even made an appearance as an aphrodisiac on last night’s episode of October Road.

Ohio State University fans are actually fanatics, so maybe they will be scooping up these Ohio Buckeye cereal boxes by the supermarket cart-fuls. The cereal, a fall favorite, is back again but this season it can boast that it was named “Buckeye Heroes” before NBC’s Heroes was the worldwide phenom it is now.

OSU, Buckeye, Heroes, cereal, seasonal foods

Florida Gators fans can show their love at breakfast for a limited time only. The cereal is produced in partnership with the state’s dairy farmers, and will only be available at Publix supermarkets for a short time. This is the fourth season that Florida fans have had the opportunity to consume the flakes, but the first time they will have had a chance to eat them while cheering on a team that is defending both the national football and national basketball championships.

Frosted Flakes, Florida Gators, football, basketball, sports, milk, dairy

Krusty O’s, the famous cereal from The Simpsons, are now available as a limited edition food. Convenience store chain 7-11 has joined forces with the movie and turned several locations nationwide into Kwik-E-Marts, a reference to the local convenience store in the cartoon that is owned by fan-favorite Abu.

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Rumors are rampant this week that 7-11 may be converting up to a dozen stores nationwide into “Kwik-E-Mart”s where Abu fans can buy Krusty O’s and other Simpsons themed merchandise in what may be one of the most ambitious move tie-ins of all time.

Time is limited for confirmation, because the Simpsons movie opens July 26. 7-11 is refusing to confirm the plan, but fans are hopeful. Personally I am hopeful that they remove that Jagged Metal O that Krusty promises before those boxes hit the shelves, whether they are sold at Kwik-E-Mart or not.

Simpsons, 7-11, Krusty, Abu, Kwik-E-Mart, movie