The Cereal Renaissance

If you've wandered the aisles of a grocery store recently, it's not difficult to see that breakfast cereals are making a comeback. Quite a few of the brightly colored sugary cereals we enjoyed as children are hitting the shelves as reboots, and you may find that you recognize the colors, shapes, and flavors being marketed. These cereals may be a great way to make a connection with people of all walks of life because we all were kids once. While everyone might not had the cool parents, we all have POP ROC now. 

Throwback kids cereals

A lot of us have fond memories of sitting around the breakfast table, enjoying our favorite kids' cereal. We may have gone to the grocery store to pick them out with our parents, asked for a specific cereal each week, or argued with our siblings over who got the last bowl of a specific cereal. Now, many of our favorites are either back in their original forms or being recreated with a healthy touch of nostalgia. Our kids may have never seen Trix with actual fruit shapes, for example, but now they're back on the shelves. Each fall, we can purchase a limited supply of Frankenberry cereal and Count Chocula. And chances are, it's not the kids at the breakfast table who are looking for these favorites, it's the parents who remember them fondly as well. So whether it's breakfast time or snack time, gather around the table for a bowl of fun with your favorite child. You're sure to enjoy the nostalgia that's being served up by cereal manufacturers as they throw back to previous decades.

Artificial colors and flavors

In an age where artificial colors and flavors are being stripped from many children's foods, they're actually being put back into a lot of children's cereals, especially those that need to boost the warm fuzzy factor. Brightly colored foods were incredibly popular in the 1980s and 1990s, so these throwback cereals are recreating the same colors that were used then, which means that the colors and flavors are bigger and brighter than ever. The goal is less "healthy" and more "just like it used to be", so it's important to recreate the look, mouthfeel, and flavor that people remember fondly about their favorite cereal.

Toys are back

If there's one thing that 80s and 90s kids remember fondly about breakfast cereal, it's the tiny toys that came inside the packages. Often, these came in a series of collectibles, paving the way for sibling fights that would last for decades. Now, an entirely new generation of children can enjoy the fun of ripping open a box of cereal and digging around for the prize inside, or of frantically trying to collect each toy in the series before their brother, sister, or cousin beats them to it. The artificial scarcity of these toys is what makes them popular, as they'll be collectible and have value for generations to come.

Leave "healthy" by the wayside

When it comes to recreations of vintage breakfast cereal, it's important to keep in mind that "healthy" isn't really the goal. While most of the cereals are vitamin fortified, they're also quite high in sugar, artificially colored and flavored, and may have additional candy bits or marshmallows included. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but the goal was more to get something, anything, into a child's stomach before sending them off to school. Cereal commercials from the era touted that it was "part of a balanced breakfast" and featured small bowls of brightly colored cereal being served beside bacon, eggs, and orange juice, but for many people who grew up in the era, cereal alone was served for breakfast.

Bridging generational gaps

These fun cereals are a great way for modern parents, aunts, uncles and even grandparent  to show kids a bit of their childhoods, bringing back some of what they enjoyed in the process. They're a great way to introduce an interesting snack, a bit of vintage charm, and show children just what you liked to eat for breakfast before heading off to school. Kids may be pleasantly surprised - or even amused - to learn that you ate fruit flavored flakes of corn with marshmallow bits for breakfast every day of your childhood and lived to tell the tale. Or you may even have a cereal toy or two kicking around that you can show them. Either way, it makes for a good story and an interesting lesson about how food changes over time. 

Cereal is one of those foods that brings up nostalgia. Good times and bad. Late nights or Saturday mornings. It’s part of who we are. If you need a minute to shut it all off and just sit down to enjoy a memory with a side of cereal, POP ROC has a seat for you.