Halloweener #5 - Boo Berry and Frankenberry Fruit Roll-Ups!

For the past few years now, any cereal fan has been privy to a certain fact: Every year, General Mills will bring back their monster themed breakfast foods. Count Chocula is the year-round regular, but every Halloween, the cereal giant puts two of their best loved monsters back in production. I'm talking, of course, about Boo Berry and Frankenberry. Now, everyone has their favorites among these (Go Boo Berry! Whoo whoo whoo!), but the fact that they brought them back speaks volumes about their shared fandom. This is also evident in the fact that the characters are branching out into other media, and now, other food.

Introduced last year (I think, I can't be bothered to check), Boo Berry and Frankenberry versions of Betty Crocker's Fruit Roll-Ups hit store shelves. Their boxes don't reveal much about them, as they look nearly identical to the cereal boxes, save for the Fruit Roll-Ups logo and a batch of the rolls themselves in the corner. I noticed that there are nutrition facts on the front of the box, trumpeting the fact that they're full of vitamin C. This is obviously to make parents feel better that they're giving their children what amounts to flavored strips of vinyl. Tasty, but plastic.

One of the first things I noticed about the candy is the lack of cut-out shapes. Pull-out shapes where one of the main selling points when I was a kid, and I'd love to have a candy Boo Berry cut out to stick on my window and forget about, letting it bake to the glass in the sun. Instead, we're presented with retro designs of the titular characters printed in some kind of edible ink. Interesting, and the original depictions are a nice touch, but next year, go with the cut-outs, Betty.

As for taste, we're presented with two different sides of the spectrum. The Frankenberry's strawberry flavor is delicious, like little slices off heaven's vinyl car seats. That's a good thing, I promise you. It tastes and smells not unlike the frosted coating on Pocky, and had this been wrapped around a breadstick, I may not have been able to tell the difference. Okay, I probably would, but give me a break. It's good.

Boo Berry is another story. While still very good (BERRY good hahahahaha), it's more of a blue raspberry flavor than a straight up blueberry. This, of course, eschews the traditional Boo Berry flavor. This may be for the best, as I can't remember the last time I ate a blueberry candy that didn't taste like dishsoap. This is tasty, though I'll have to give the crown to Frankenberry.

No I don't. It's my damn blog. BOO BERRY WINS!

As a fan of these cereals from way back, I can't tell you how happy I am that they're back in production. These candies are a neat and unexpected bonus. I highly recommend them both. Go get 'em before they're gone!

By the way, I've got about 22 Fruit Roll-Ups I don't need. Want one?