I’m Pretty Sure Hershey Made the Perfect Chocolaty Cereal

I bet you’re wondering what you’re doing here, reading a cereal review on a tech site. Well, dear friend, you are living your best life. Because everyone loves cereal. I’ve been talking about starting a cereal review site for many months now, and after some encouragement from the boss, it was clear that I didn’t need to start a separate site for cereal reviews. Because they can live right here.

I eat a lot of cereal. Like, a lot. Not even for breakfast—cereal is a snack. And since I’m a cyclist, carbs are an inherent part of my life. I’m talking, like, 60+ percent of my daily intake is carbs. At this point I’m not sure if I eat cereal to fuel my cycling or if I keep riding to support my cereal habit. Either way, they go hand-in-hand, which works well for me.

But I digress. We’re here to talk about cereal. And I wanted to start this whole series of cereal reviews (yeah, this is a thing now. You’re welcome.) with my new favorite: Hershey’s Kisses Cereal. I’ll admit that I was pretty unsure of what this was going to be like, but being the cereal fiend that I am, I had to try it.

And dammit I’m glad I did. Because I’ve eaten like ten boxes of this crap in the last six weeks. Maybe that’s an exaggeration—I can’t be sure. I don’t keep up with how much cereal I actually eat; I just make sure I always have plenty on hand.

First, the Nutrition—It’s Not Bad!

While I eat a lot of cereal and try all the new ones I can, I still pay close attention to the nutritional info. I try to stay away from most cereal that has sugar in the double-digits per serving (mostly because I know I’m going to eat two or three servings at a time), but I’ll make exceptions from time to time. Hershey’s Cereal is one of those exceptions—it clocks in at 12 grams of sugar per serving. That’s a lot, but considering I don’t have much sugar elsewhere in my diet, I’m good with it.

Otherwise, it has 31 grams of life-affirming carbs per serving, along with a measly 2 grams of protein. On the upside, it only has 1.5 grams of fat per serving, which is a bonus. A single serving contains just 140 calories—relatively low for a single serving compared to similar cereals— and is a plentiful 36 grams, which also leads itself to a pretty decent bowl compared to a lot of other cereals. I generally eat two servings at a time, which is mighty filling. That gives me 62 grams of carbs (24 grams of sugar), 4 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fat.

All in all, it’s not bad. The sugar content is on the high side, but what can you do—it’s literally a cereal based around chocolate candy.

Taste and Texture: Delicious and Crunchy from Start to Finish

Like literally every human being on Earth who eats cereal, I had a dry taste as soon as I cracked open the first box. To be honest, it’s not great without milk. It’s pretty crunchy and just tastes sort of… boring. But in my experience most chocolate cereals aren’t great on their own.

Dump it in a bowl and add some milk, though, and it’s great. I eat all my cereals with regular almond milk, mostly just because I prefer it to cow’s milk. It’s lower in calories and fat, plus offers a touch of extra sweetness to otherwise bland cereal (like Cheerios). I love it. And it’s great in Hershey’s Kisses cereal.

Once the little Kisses-shaped cereals—which honestly sort look like dog food and that’s just weird—start to soak up the milk, they soften up a bit, but not too much. This makes for a better overall cereal-eating experience, especially since the texture remains largely the same throughout the rest of the bowl. The pieces soak up just enough to milk to take away some of the hardness to the dry crunch, but at no point during my two-serving bowl does it ever get soggy. This is the best cereal-eating experience.

As for taste, if you’ve had chocolate cereal before—Coco Puff, Cocoa Pebbles, etc.—then you’re already familiar with Kisses cereal. It’s not exactly the same, mind you, but it’s close enough that if you like the others, then you’ll almost certainly like Kisses, too. The standout feature of Kisses cereal is the desirably crunch until the last bite—not the taste.

Try it If You Like Crunchy, Delicious Cereal and Don’t Mind the Sugar Content

Like I said earlier, I usually put a hard stop on cereal that has double-digit sugar content, but I’m willing to try almost anything. I just don’t usually buy box-after-box of the sugary crap. Hershey’s Kisses Cereal is one of the few that has made its way into my staple cereal collection, because despite its 12 grams of sugar per serving, it’s just damn good.

It is delicious, stays crunchy in milk, and the 36 gram serving size is more than you’ll get from most other cereals (by volume—not weight) . Pair that with just 140 calories per serving, and you have a winning combo. I highly recommend it.