There was a time when cereal companies were willing to turn anything into breakfast—whether we asked for it or not. Throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, American grocery stores were filled with some questionable creations, and unlucky children were subjected to everything from grape-flavored oats to cereal with actual ice cream. Basically, if an executive thought that a flavor sounded remotely appealing to kids, chances are someone put it in a box.
Naturally, not every experiment deserved a permanent place on supermarket shelves. Some disappeared within months, while others survived just long enough to become nostalgic memories. But looking back, it's amazing that any of these flavors made it past the testing stage.
Fruit-Flavored Cereal Got Completely Out of Hand
Grape-flavored cereal might sound reasonable until you remember that you're supposed to eat it with milk. That didn’t stop General Mills, though, the company that introduced Sir Grapefellow in 1972. It combined grape-flavored oat pieces with little grape-flavored marshmallow stars, complete with an accompanying British fighter pilot mascot who competed against another cereal character named Baron Von Redberry. It was a mess, and Sir Grapefellow disappeared by the mid-1970s, taking his unusual flavor with him.
Say what you want about grapes with milk, at least it wasn’t orange juice! Apparently, somebody at Kellogg's thought that drinking OJ wasn’t good enough, and in 1985, the company introduced what was literally called OJ's—a cereal with actual juice that promised vitamin C. The little orange rings and puffs even had a cowboy mascot named OJ Joe, who was responsible for rounding up oranges. As you can probably imagine, the combo of citrus cereal and cold milk wasn't destined for widespread success, and OJ's disappeared a year later.
If grape and orange cereals weren't strange enough, Ralston decided to bring Nerds candy into American bowls in 1985. Much like the original packaging, the cereal offered two distinct flavors: strawberry and grape or orange and cherry. Kids could choose which combo they wanted first, although mixing everything together was certainly an option. Thankfully, this monstrosity vanished within about a year.
The Strange Obsession With Dessert For Breakfast
If you thought muffins were bad for breakfast, just wait until you hear what they tried to stuff into cereal. Kellogg's was once bold enough to introduce Kream Krunch in 1965—an option that added actual freeze-dried ice cream pieces to a mixture of grains. You could choose strawberry, vanilla, or orange varieties, although chocolate was surprisingly absent from the lineup. The unusual creation lasted about a year, which is actually longer than we would’ve guessed.
General Mills isn’t innocent here, either; it revisited the dessert-for-breakfast idea in 1986 with Rocky Road cereal, inspired by the popular ice cream flavor. Its combo of chocolate-coated pieces, marshmallows, and nutty cereal puffs tried to capture the familiar dessert without requiring a freezer. Try as they may, their overzealous idea eventually disappeared before the decade ended.
Let’s also not forget that that wasn’t the first time they tried something like that. Another unusual experiment arrived in 1981, when General Mills introduced Strawberry Shortcake cereal to capitalize on the popular children's character. These sweetened corn puffs were designed to deliver a distinctly strawberry-flavored breakfast, complete with colorful packaging featuring the familiar red-haired mascot. They also experimented with cereals inspired by other characters, including Orange Blossom and Blueberry Muffin. But by 1985, Strawberry Shortcake cereal had disappeared.
Breakfast Finally Went Too Far
Now, we hate to be the ones to tell you this, but we’re going to fast-forward to 2019… a time when Post decided Americans needed Sour Patch Kids cereal. Yes, that’s right. Instead of simply borrowing the candy's colorful appearance, the company recreated its signature sour-then-sweet flavor using crunchy, candy-shaped cereal pieces. Sour cereal didn’t vibe well with cold milk, however (surprise), and the product eventually disappeared from American shelves, leaving behind one of the stranger collaborations in cereal history.
That same year, Post was up to even more cockamamie ideas by introducing a particularly questionable combination through its limited-edition Chicken & Waffles cereal. This wasn't just maple-flavored cereal with a clever name, either—it had both waffle-shaped pieces and little drumstick-shaped pieces with a savory chicken-inspired seasoning. The idea was to recreate the beloved Southern dish in a convenient breakfast, but the results divided curious customers, and it didn’t stick around.
Finally, who could forget the time that Nickelodeon released its so-called Green Slime cereal? General Mills released it in 2003 to coincide with the Kids' Choice Awards, and it was inspired by the television network's famous green slime. It also had strangely shaped corn puffs alongside marshmallow pieces resembling Nickelodeon's logo. We’ll admit that it was a clever way to attract young viewers, but the connection between television slime and breakfast food wasn't exactly appetizing. As a limited-edition promotion, it disappeared, leaving parents everywhere with one less bizarre cereal request to handle.
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