Sweet Cereal Commercials Used To Be Weird

While I do enjoy watching these old sugary cereal commercials, I don't think they make me want to eat cereal.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Lucky Charms Marshmallows

If you had told me when I was a child that as an adult I would have the ability to purchase a bag of Luck Charms without the cereal bits, I probably would have skipped my depressed punk rock phase and just looked at the future as the greatest thing that was ever going to happen.

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Candy In The Media - Making Your Own Candy Only Better

I really love Bon Appetit's series of videos with Claire Saffitz where she attempts to make gormet versions of popular treats. These are treats that we eat all the time, but she wants to give them a gourmet twist.

Click here to check out her attempt at Kit Kat bars and Lucky Charms.

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My Candy/Junk Food Chrsitmas Wishlist - Lucky Charms

Lucky Charms has been the cereal that has managed to get away from me for my entire life. I went from being a kid with a mother that  refused to buy it for me. To being a teenager who thought that I was too cool for Lucky Charms (they were also way out of my poor teenager budget). Now I'm old enough to buy them myself, and I'm married to a woman that insists that I stay alive, so she keeps them away from me.  I'm hoping on my death bed I'm given a giant bowl of Lucky Charms, then I can die happy.

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The Origins Of Lucky Charms or Circus Peanuts Cereal

A few months ago I was doing research for Snack Facts (our Instagram feed). I was researching sugary cereals, in particular I was reading about Lucky Charms. Lucky Charms are the king of sugar cereals, and in my house were always the example of a cereal that isn't healthy. I'm pretty sure my mother never once bought us a box. Fortunately my grandfather had a different perspective and when we would visit him there would always be a box waiting for us.

While researching the cereal that proves grandparent’s love their children more than their parents, I came across an interesting fact. When the creator of Lucky Charms wanted to find out if marshmallows would work in a cereal, he took a bowl of Cheerios, cut up Circus Peanuts, mixed them together, and added his milk.  So that means technically if someone asks what was the original marshmallow in Lucky Charms, you could say chopped up Circus Peanuts.

Seeing as I am still not allowed to have Lucky Charms in my house (I'm sure it's some kind of wife/mother conspiracy), I decided to take matters into my own hands.  You see, Cheerios are perfectly acceptable in my house, and I managed to acquire a large amount of Circus Peanuts.  So I decided that it would make perfect sense to make my own, old school, Luck Charms.  Although I don't know if you can really call them "Lucky Charms" since I don't believed sliced bright orange peanut can be found in any leprechaun fables.

The first thing I did for this experiment, after photographing Circus Peanuts in various set-ups with Cheerios, is slice up the Circus Peanuts.  When I read this history there weren't any specifications as to how the Circus Peanuts should be included with the Cheerios.  My best guess was to slice them up to roughly the same thickness as I remember the Lucky Charms Marshmallows.  This was a little difficult because I did not have any Lucky Charms as reference because as mentioned before, my wife cares a great deal about my health.

I was also unsure about how many Circus Peanuts to chop up.  The bowl I was using is rather large, it holds about two servings of cereal, and it looks really cool.  I have a long story about why this is the best cereal bowl in the world, but I'll get into that on another blog post sometime.  For two portions of cereal, I started with four Circus Peanuts, it seemed like it needed a few more, so I added three more Circus Peanuts to a total of seven.  I stirred the cereal and Circus Peanuts together before adding the milk.  If not all of the "marshmallows" would have floated to the surface, and what fun would that be.

After mixing them up, I loaded up an old episode of one of my favourite Super Hero cartoons (Super Friends), sat in the living room, and prepared to be brought back to days at my grandfather’s house.  The cartoon was awesome, but the cereal was the real surprise.

My thoughts before doing this was that the "marshmallow" Circus Peanuts might just melt into oblivion the minute the milk hit them.  I assumed this because they kind of melt on your tong when you're eating them.  I wasn't sure if that was because of the heat of my mouth or the saliva.  If these were in fact quickly water soluble, I was expecting a bowl of Cheerios in orange coloured overly sweet milk.  Fortunately I was wrong, as it turns out Circus Peanuts are not really water-soluble. In fact they stayed fairly dry for a long time while floating in my milk.  That information was both pleasant and disturbing.

Flavour wise I was a little worried about how well the orange, yet banana flavoured, Circus Peanuts might go with the Cheerios.  Surprisingly again, it was actually very pleasant.  The milk and cereal really watered down the banana flavour of the Circus Peanuts.  Instantly I was surprised at how similar this combination was to regular Lucky Charms.

After my first bowl, I have to say there was only one "gross" part of this experience.  The milk afterwards had gone fairly orange, and it was super sweet.  Some people like the sweet milk left after a bowl of sugary cereal, but I really don't like it at all.  I actually dislike it so much that I will often eat my sugar cereals with no milk in the bowl, just a glass on the side.

My suggestion to any fan of Lucky Charms, or anybody who's not allowed to have sugary cereals, is to give this a try.  It's not that bad, and it's pretty close to the Lucky Charms experience. I would even say that this is probably the best experience I've ever had with Circus Peanuts.  I'm normally not a big fan, but the additional texture of the cereal, and the fact that this knocks the strong flavour of banana out of the Circus Peanuts, makes them fairly tasty.

I'm not saying that I'm a creative genius or anything, but I think if anybody making Circus Peanuts is listening, making a Circus Peanuts cereal might be something to look into.  And for those of us that aren't allowed to have sugar cereals, this might be a way to get around this rule.

This Week In Candy

I was at a bulk store that specializes in nuts and I came across these little nuggets (pictured above).  The package said "Chocolate Covered Peans", and I'm not really sure what a "Pean" is.  I can tell you that they're not peanuts, and I don't think they're peas either.  Covered in chocolate I would describe the taste as a cross between a dried pea, and a stale Count Chocula cereal bit.  If you happen to have any idea what I just ate, please let me know.

This week we'll be posting the first article we have planned on the subject of Circus Peanuts.  I got so many of them a few weeks ago that my mind has come up with hundreds of ideas for projects that I can do with them.  This week's article is going to look at the origins of Lucky Charms, and origin that is actually tied very closely to Circus Peanuts.  That article should be up later this week.  I'm also writing a future article that will probably go online in March all about the many flavours of Jelly Bellies.  Originally it was going to be just one article, but now I think it may turn into a five part series.

This week we're also posting another episode of the Junk Fud podacst, called Junk Fud in the News.  This is one of the more challenging episodes that we have to record, and we hope to record it tomorrow.  So far the new podcast has proven to be fairly successful, and it just keeps getting better.  So make sure to click here, and check out what we've been up to, and what we have coming up.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at whipped cream.  Probably the most decadent topping one can put on any cake or ice cream sundae.  This week we'll look at the science and history of this fluffy white whipped fat.  You can check out Snack Facts on our Instagram feed, Facebook page, or Twitter feed for a new whipped cream fact every day this week.

This week's new candy review is a Japanese snack that makes one of the worst flavoured Japanes drinks seem somewhat edible.  Matcha is a green tea that's often used in ceremonies, but also commonly found in many Japanese sweets.  Find out why Milky managed to make this work (sort of), but clicking here.

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Candy In The Media

"Yo Lucky Chaaaaaarms!"

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A Lucky Candy Thing

What leprechauns use to keep their lips from chapping.

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Candy In the Media

There are two reasons I looked up this commercial the other day.  First of all I discovered (while doing some research for our Instagram feed Snack Facts) that the inventor of Lucky Charms designed his cereal by cutting up Circus Peanuts into a bowl of cereal.  I thought I'd check an old school commercials for fun.  The second reason I'm posting this particular commercial is because it listed some of the more traditional marshmallows from Luck Charms.  Allison and I were talking about Lucky Charms and we thought about buying a box.  Then Allison saw all of the "new" marshmallows now available and she was blown away (in a bad way).  She felt that the new marshmallows were confusing, and she couldn't really figure out what a balloon had to do with a leprechaun.  So do you miss the classic marshmallows in Luck Charms, or are you OK with the new ones?

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Candy News

What's your favorite marshmallow in Lucky Charms?  How about Rudolph heads?

Candy is starting to make a scene in high class restaurants, what treat would you like to see in a 5 star eatery?

I don't really like spicy food, but now I understand it a little better.

Did you know that they first started selling Girl Scout cookies in 1917?  Here's some more facts about these awesome cookies.

According to a recent study, peanuts are really a good thing to eat, even if they're covered in candy.

OREO cookies and 3D print technology equals the future of cookies, and it looks fantastic.

The Huffington Post claims that there are "16 Reasons Chocolate Is Obviously Superior To Vanilla", I disagree.

If you want to keep up with all of the daily candy news that we come across as it happens, follow us on Twitter.

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Candy News

That 20 year old Twinkie you're eating, you might want to stop. Learn more about that, and other sad food truths.

Luck Charms is turning 50, and they're planning all kinds of fun stuff to celebrate, all I need is a box and a bowl myself.

A few years back I had to give up two jars of peanut butter that I had in some carry on luggage because they defined it as a liquid. This guy figured a way around this.

CNN has been researching the cocoa industry for a few years now, unfortunately what they've found isn't that nice, but it could be fixed.

I've always wondered how many candycritic.org readers are pot heads, according to this article it could be quite a few.

If you want to keep up with all of the daily candy news that we come across as it happens, follow us on Twitter.

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Friday Candy Video

While I'm not really a big fan of food companies having political opinions outside of food issues, I really like this commercial General Mills did for Pride week using Lucky Charms.  It only makes sense that a cereal that features a rainbow marshmallow would be the perfect representative for Pride awareness.

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Tuesday's Candy Links

The new ultimate goal in the candy industry is to develop a chocolate that tastes and acts like regular chocolate, yet it contains less chocolate and fat.  I'm convinced it can't be done.

If you head over to your local M&M's World stores this holiday season, you'll enjoy a winter wonder land filled with multi-coloured treats.

The folks that make Luck Charms are starting to market it towards adults, the thing is, adults already like it the way it is, so why change your marketing plan?

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Candy Art - Cereal Scenes

I love the idea of mixing cereal with real life to create magical worlds that require milk.

In particular I love this Shredded Wheat scene because I often call bails of hay giant Shredded Wheats.

Click here to see more shots from this series.

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Thursday's Candy Links

In what I can only describe as bizzare, "Skittles sales up after Trayvon Martin shooting".

When you crack open a peanut and it's salty, doesn't that amaze you?

The makers of Hot Tamales are looking for "Hotties", seriously they are.

I don't normally like to post recipes on this site, but how to make your own Lucky Charms marshmallows is too good to pass up.

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