Chocolate Madness

June 3, 2005

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	#1 Seed

So I originally planned to put this up during March Madness but laziness coupled with severe depression after the Illinois loss in the championship game delayed this by a couple months. Inspired by the NCAA tournament, I decided to have my own March (now June) Madness tournment using cereals. I love cereal and all types of cereal so I thought it'd be interesting to see which cereal would win in single elimination head-to-head battles with other cereals. So being very bored, that's what I've done. I picked 16 types of chocolate or peanut butter cereals. Similar to a division in the NCAA, there will be one winner. There is rumor that I may have three more divisions (fruit, honey/cinnamon, cheerio) in addition to the Choco/PB division but before I commit I want to see how this goes.

	"Your love of Reese's Pieces does not change the way I admire you."

I thought it may be a bit difficult to find 16 cereals in the Chocolate/Peanut Butter family, but it really wasn't that hard. An hour or so at Cubs Foods is all that it took. Suprisingly, there are only three generic cereals in the sixteen and there are even two organic cereals. I wasn't happy about having three generics though; I could have lived with two but now there were two Cocoa Pebbles generic. What really pissed me off was that peapod.com was advertising Oreo Os for sale so I knew they existed, but apparently not at Cubs Foods, Jewel, or Dominicks (three grocery store chains in Chicago).

On a sidenote, I was extremely disappointed in the number of glances and comments I received while waiting in line to check out with all this cereal and two gallons of milk. In fact, the only real comment I got was from the bagger, who just exclaimed, "Cuckoo for cocoa puffs." Clearly the 9pm shift at Cubs Foods is not the most animated or observant (but they were extremely nice which is really all I expect from anyone in any service industry).

Weeks later...SUCCESS!! I was in Champaign this weekend and a trip to Meijer resulted in two boxes of Oreo Os. Good-bye generic Cocoa Pebbles #2, hello Oreo Os!

	#R.I.P. S'mores Crunch

A couple things to note, I did some research online and there are quite a few cereals that are no longer made which would have made the contest far more interesting and may have even pushed Count Chocula down to a #2 seed. Three cereals particularly stood out, two of which are no longer made and one I could not find anywhere.

#1 - S'Mores Crunch: This is perhaps my favorite cereal of all time. Basically, it was golden grahams with chocolate swirls and marshmellows. So simple yet so evolved. I never expected this cereal to ever be discontinued, but here were are. It's probably been anywhere from five to seven years since my last bowl. Rest in peace S'Mores Crunch.

#2 - E.T. Cereal: I don't even remember this cereal, but while I was doing research I came across it. This was the original Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs. It made perfect sense, it was the closest thing to Reese's Pieces cereal. I can only imagine it tasted exactly like Reese's Puffs except it had a better spokesperson.

	Cap'n Crunch is a slut

#3 - Cap'n Crunch's Choco Donuts: I have never heard of this cereal but it's on the Cap'n Crunch website so I assume it's still being made today. Although, I feel like the Cap'n is being stretched a little too thin with his regular Crunch, PB Crunch, and all his assortment of Berry Crunches. I don't have high expectations for this cereal if I do try it.

So that's it. After weeks of sadness and more weeks of trying to track down Oreo Os, the Chocolate (and Peanut Butter) Cereal Madness has begun. Now I sit here, staring at sixteen boxes of cereal, wondering how in Hell I am going to eat all this. The actual tournament may take a few weeks (and therefore updates) to get through, but mark my words, I will get through it. I even have my own custome spoon, carved from an even bigger spoon.

So without further ado, here's what the first round looks like...

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	Enter Thunderdome

First Round
#1	Count Chocula
#16	Lilo & Stitch
#8	Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch
#9	Peanut Butter Toast Crunch
#5	Chocolate Lucky Charms
#12	Cocoa Krispies
#4	Cocoa Puffs
#13	Coco Roos
#6	Smorz
#11	Koala Crisp
#3	Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs
#14	Peanut Butter Bumpers
#7	Cookie Crisp
#10	Oreo Os
#2	Cocoa Pebbles
#15	Cocoa-Rageous

If you're really bored, here a couple good sites:
Cereal Guide
Cereal Limbo

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