I wanted to share a review of a new food find today! The Cereal School low carb, high protein cereal!!
Update 7/29/19
Three things!
First, a HUGE thank you to Laura G. who sent me a bag of the new formulation of the fruity flavor to try—at her own shipping cost! Seriously, that was beyond thoughtful and generous Laura and I owe you one!
Second, my review. Holy yuck. Smelled great, but did not live up to the smell. Compared to the previous version, it barely had any fruit flavor. The texture started of nice with a very nice, light crunch, but as it dissolved, it kind of got, I don’t know… chewy maybe I guess is the best way to describe it. If you have not tried it and would like to imagine what I mean, think about that pop corn type packaging that melts when you put water on it, but then think about that process happening in your mouth and the cereal getting stuck in your teeth. That is what it made me think of. Probably tastes similar too. The very faint fruity taste you do get fades almost instantly as the cereal dissolves. I literally only ate 5 pieces. It is not even worth using as a topping on a protein smoothie bowl or in a yogurt jell-o bowl. DO NOT BUY.
Third and finally, I emailed the company and let them know (in a polite way and for their own good) the amount of negative complaints I got and feedback on this post and invted them to read though it. I made sure they knew on both on a customer service and product standpoint, people were not happy. They have yet to respond…
Update 6/7/19
I have continued to receive comments on the terrible reformulation of this product as well as horrible customer service complaints. Readers have let me know that their negative comments are removed from social media posts by the company and their email inquiries and complaints are completely ignored. I have debated whether to remove this post because I don’t want people to purchase the product based on my initial positive review, however I feel it would be a disservice to take it down as it has captured lots of comments on the current situation with the company. Please, make sure you read all the comments from readers at the end of the post and know that I have not tried the new formulation based on feedback. I’m curious to know how terrible it is, but I also don’t want to waste my money! Please make sure to leave any comments or thoughts you have regarding your experiences with this product on the comments section or message me if you prefer that. I have also debated on contacting the company and letting them know how disappointed my readers have been. I was not sent the product by the company and have no affiliation with them. I do however have a loyalty to deliver accurate information and feel a responsibility to my readers on their behalf in light of the fact that I reviewed this product. I am sincerely sorry if you purchased based on my review and were disappointed getting the new formulation. My interactions with them are very limited, but when I emailed saying I was sad that they had changed it, they were warm and positive.
Update: 6/1/19
I’m sorry to say that there have been many terrible reviews of both flavors of the cereal since they changed the formula. I would not recommend purchasing it at this time. I have not tried the new formula (the new ones are round, rather than cheerio shaped). I reached out to the company when they sent an email announcing the product “relaunch” to see why they changed it, and they were just vague in response saying they thought it would be even better. Since they changed the sweeteners used, I feel like that is why so many have found the aftertaste to be unpleasant. I am particular about stevia especially, and one of the main reasons I liked the original version is that it used a combination of erythritol, Stevia, and Monk fruit, so none of the sweeteners was overpowering. The new formula removed the stevia and the erythritol and I guess the monk fruit they use isn’t enough. They also changed the pea protein (which I happen to like the taste of to lactose free milk protein). Too bad they had to mess with something that was good as it was. 😕
Here’s the email info on what changed for those wondering:
End of updated info….
Start of the original post…
My friend and former co-worker, Chasity was kind enough to share a bag of each flavor with me to try before I ordered. Can I just say how much I miss having a work buddy to swap new healthy food finds with!? Besides being the best MA you could ask for, she is also someone who enjoys my love of lifting and healthy protein treats. But, despite losing my work buddy, I am happy she found a new job she is enjoying!
OK, enough reminiscing, I’ll get to the deets!
It comes in two flavors: Cinnamon Bun and Fruity. It is gluten free and soy free, and uses stevia, monk fruit, and erythritol to sweeten. This means 0 sugar and only 5 net carbs!
We will start with the obvious thing everyone will be wondering—is there a stevia taste/aftertaste? Nope! Not at all! There is no bitter taste with the kind of stevia they use, and I am very particular about stevia.
Nutritionals/Ingredients:
A serving has 8g of protein and only 70 calories. It is made with pea protein and I’m actually very happily surprised that they used pea fiber instead of some other questionable fibers that you will find in many protein products. I also appreciate that the package contained the amount of the product it listed—my Cinnamon Bun and Fruity both contained 29g and was listed as 28g. I like to know I’m getting what is listed. i measured package volume by weight with my kitchen scale. Other products I have checked for accuracy have under or over-delivered and this is either disappointing in the case of too little, or while a great value, still dangerous in the case of too much as you can over consume calories without knowing it. See this post for info on how inaccurate labels and nutrition stats can be.
Flavor:
- Cinnamon Bun:
10/10 for sure. Could not believe how good it was. Totally exceeded my expectations. Strong cinnamon sugar flavor with the melt-in-your-mouth effect that I remember getting with buttered cinnamon sugar toast. Wonderful crunch. They cereal-ously nailed it with the sweetener combo 😂
- Fruity:
7/10 on this one. I think I expected more flavor from the way everyone raved that it tasted like fruit loops. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but not as strong of flavor as I hoped. Still a great crunch and sweetness.
Price:
Price is a tad high, but when you consider that most protein bars are $2-4/bar and this is just a different form of a protein bar, it is comparable. My real hope is that local stores will start carrying them so people can buy them without having to buy in bulk. If you buy 24 bags or more, shipping is free.
Freshness:
They were not set to expire for almost a year on the label, so no worry about shelf life.
Bottom line:
IT WAS AMAZING and I highly recommend it! I ordered 2 boxes of the Cinnamon Bun 😉
I am hoping they expand with more flavors and can’t wait to see what is next! I have been enjoying mine as a treat after lunch or a snack.
P.S. If you are interested in getting a custom set of macros, I have you covered!
Need help with streamlining the meal plan process? Not sure how to eat for your goals? I have a variety of ways you can work with me to help you get traction on your goals without becoming overwhelmed! Whether you need 1:1 personalized coaching, have questions to tackle via phone or email.
If you just want to stick your toe in the water and see what it’s like, then my Meal Mastery Nutrition Audit has a 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee! So no excuses!!! Find out about it at this link.
Also, feel free to contact me via email if you have questions!
Are you ready? Let’s get growing!
|Kaci
What Can Be Gained | «Small Wins Create Massive Success» 
I already have a thing for cereal!! Must try. 😋
You’ll love it!
I just got my variety bundle….they had been out of stock for like a few months and they are made the new and improved way….well I hated both flavors, the stevia aftertaste is too much and I feel like Iam chewing on hard styrofoam…its money back guarantee so I have already emailed them asking for refund….do not recommend and will not try again, they should definitely have sample packs before we spend $50 on 24 bags..
I was so worried when I saw they changed the cereal. It seems like any time a company does that the product only goes downhill. I am so glad you share this feedback with me, because at the price they are per box, I was hesitant to re-order. It really bums me out to know that they are not good anymore, but I’m glad for your sake that they have the money back guarantee. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with the new version! I still have half of a box of cinnamon left and will be savoring them until they are gone 😂
Tried the cereal school for the first time today and could not swallow the first spoonful it tasted disgusting!
I hate that they changed it. I haven’t ordered since the original kind because everyone keeps saying the new version is terrible!
I was so excited to have cereal again, but the after taste is awful. I bought the cinnamon bun and it left a chemical type taste on the back of my tongue…dieappointed.
This seems to be the general consensus on the new version 😕
Gonna update the review post today to note this feedback! I’m definitely not ordering again based on how many have said the new version is terrible. I just wish I knew why companies do this! If it good, don’t go changing things!
This cereal is so bitter- it’s awful. The packs are tiny which makes the cereal ridiculously expensive. They refuse to respond to my emails whatsoever and continually remove my posts so that others can’t see my remarks.
They haven’t responded??! Wow. Things seem to have gone from bad to worse. With as many people who have said the new formula is bad on this post, it must be bad!
You are correct that they were and are pricy. The first formula was good enough that it was worth it, but if it’s gross now then I would have been emailing them too. I still can’t believe they didn’t respond! And the deleted comments, was that on their social media or like you trying to leave a review on their site?
I feel like contacting them to let them know how many complaints people have made on my post since they changed things. I doubt they’d care (they didn’t know I did the review or send me the stuff to try) but I mean geez. I hate that people are paying that much and getting treated badly.
If you notice, they only leave positive reviews on their Facebook account and their website. They remove all bad reviews so that people will buy, if only once. It’s so expensive, one purchase is all they need from millions of people. They will not respond to my emails at all, nor my posts. The bags are tiny and expensive. But thank goodness they’re small because IT IS HORRIBLE! So bitter and disgusting you will spit it out.
You can contact them, but if negative they will ignore you. On FB they will delete your comment if negative. They only respond to the positive comments which I really wonder if they are real. It’s weird.
That’s crazy. If I were a company with a product I was trying to sell, regardless of the feedback, I would want honest opinion so that I could continue to sell a product of people enjoyed!
I’m glad you followed up from my reply to your first comment. I agree that the cereal is pricey. When it was good, it was worth it because it was about the price of a protein bar.
I’ve had companies blow me off when products were bad and I just kept emailing and eventually got a response. This is just terrible customer service and bad business. Won’t take too long for people to figure it out. Even if they delete comments, people can still put in their Facebook status how they feel about the products.
Also, I feel bad about leaving this review up since it was a positive review of the old formula, but I definitely don’t want to take it down because I feel like it would be a disservice to people who want to know about the cereal before they buy it. All the comments on the post are helpful to keep them from purchasing so I don’t think I should remove the post!
Honestly I had such high hopes…they utterly failed me. After 6 weeks of waiting, they give me tiny little bags of cereal. Think a layz chip bag but smaller. Ok whatever I’ll deal with it if it tastes good. Nope…just nope. The cereal itself has a stronger sent to it, which gives you the impression that there would be some sort of flavor. The flavor never came. Think if a cocopuff with no flavor added and an odd chemical taste at the end. You’re basically just eating styrofoam. I’d absolutely never recommend this product unless they completely revamped their recipes.
Thanks for leaving your review Brendan! Another vote for a thumbs down on the “new and improved” version. I think I have enough people weighing in that I am going to send this post to the owners and have them read the comments. Everyone who tries to leave reviews on their site or social media gets deleted if it’s negative in anyway from what I hear. No good.
So many things to say about this company…
Signed up for a monthly subscription, had to wait an entire month to receive anything from them and by that point I had been charged for my second monthly subscription. First shipment came in an Amazon package that was ripped open and unsealed.
Initial reaction on opening the box is that the bags are tiny, you’d have to eat two to get a normal serving. Tried both flavors with no milk; fruity literally tastes and feels like you sprayed lemon Endust on your tongue ( chemical taste and waxy feeling, cinnamon was ok at best but tasted highly processed. Had both with whole milk and taste improved just slightly but you have to eat them quickly as the milk seems to remove any sort of flavor. Ends up being like your chewing on unflavored cereal.
Left plenty of comments on their Instagram, nothing inappropriate and just stated the facts. They deleted just about all of my comments and have now completely blocked me from seeing any of their posts. I screenshot several of my comments on their posts that they deleted.
In summary, they’re good at Instagram marketing but terrible at customer service, shipment, and the product is sub par. In my opinion just indulge and get the cereal you really want, don’t overeat, and get some exercise in when you can.
Bene thank you so much for sharing your feedback! I can’t believe they blocked you!! That’s ridiculous!! 😧
Smart to screenshot.
I am giving my friends/family free bags so they can see for themselves how horrible this cereal is. I don’t want anyone to buy from this company ever again.
The company is terrible. Not accepting returns/refunds is what they have to do, though, because they’d be bankrupt with everyone clamoring to get their money back.
I’m happy to mail you a bag of the apparently reformulated cereal, Kaci! If you’re comfortable sending me your mailing address I’ll pop it in the mail. I know you don’t want to spend $30 on something that assaults your senses and then not be able to get a refund.
Thank you for your feedback Laura!
I’m so curious to compare I would definitely want to try them! Shoot me an email at kaci@dashingdish.com! If we can figure out a way for me to cover shipping I will! But you are right I don’t want to buy a whole box if they aren’t worth it!! Or “assault my senses!!” 😂
I actually emailed the company last night to direct them to this post because I felt like they needed to read this. We shall we what happens!
I recently ordered a 12 pack of the fruity flavor. Very disappointed. It smells exactly like Trix, but doesnt have enough sweetness or flavor. Then, after chewing a few times it turns gritty instead of melting in your mouth like normal cereal. I have had 3 bowls now with almond milk and find that topping it with a packet of Truvia and drinking the milk helps. Also, once it turns gritty you have to just get it down because more chewing doesn’t make it better. One positive I can say is that it keeps you satisfied for hours, I guess because there is a lot of protein. I will probably finish the case, but definitely won’t reorder.
Hi Debbie! Thank you for leaving your experience here! Seems we are collecting a lot of feedback. I emailed the company about all the reader reviews I have received and never heard back 🤔
One of the other readers, Laura sent me a pack of the fruity in the mail to try! I will be braving the experience this evening 😂
My pleasure, Kaci! You don’t owe me anything. Just glad you were able to re-try it.
I think your new review is very accurate, and much more diplomatic than I. Lol
I’ve been hearing so much talk about protein cereal! Thank you for the report! I’ll have to try the cinnamon bun. Yum
I’ve heard good reviews on others. Try this brand at your own risk 😬
The new formula was terrible on the fruity one!
This is my third order and my husband and son love this cereal. The is great for the benefits that you get. This definately won’t be my last order
Hey Wanda! Good to know someone liked the new formulation! Which flavor did they try??