Cinnamon Toast Crunch facts for kids
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Cinnamon Toast Crunch breakfast cereal. "Crispy, Sweetened Whole Wheat & Rice Cereal"
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| Type | Breakfast cereal |
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| Owner | General Mills |
| Country | U.S. |
| Introduced | March 5, 1984 |
| Tagline | "Crave Those Crazy Squares", "The Taste You Can See", "Unlock the Cinnaverse", "Blasted With Cinna-Dust" |
Cinnamon Toast Crunch (often called CTC) is a super popular breakfast cereal. It's known as Croque-Cannelle in French Canada. In the UK, it's called Curiously Cinnamon. Other places in Europe and Latin America know it as Cini Minis.
This yummy cereal is made by General Mills in the United States. Outside the U.S., it's made by Cereal Partners under the Nestlé brand. It first came out in 1984. The idea was to make a crunchy cereal that tastes like cinnamon toast.
The cereal pieces are small squares or rectangles. They are made from wheat and rice. Each piece is covered with tasty cinnamon and sugar. When you pour milk on it, the cereal makes a fun "snap" sound. This is similar to Rice Krispies.
In most places, you can buy Cinnamon Toast Crunch in boxes. But in countries like Poland, Slovakia, and Russia, it comes in bags. The cereal used to have a friendly baker named Wendell as its mascot. Later, the "Crazy Squares" took over. These are cartoon cereal squares that sometimes eat each other in commercials! In the U.S., the Crazy Squares were replaced by 2D "Cinnamojis" in 2020. However, the Crazy Squares are still used in the United Kingdom.
Contents
The Story of Cinnamon Toast Crunch
How it Started in the U.S.
When Cinnamon Toast Crunch first came out, the squares were plain. Now, they have cool cinnamon swirls on each piece. A scientist named John Mendesh helped invent it. He worked with Elisabeth Trach, a product manager at General Mills.
They got the idea from a child. General Mills held a radio contest asking for cereal ideas. The child won some Hot Wheels toys for their great idea!
In 1985, three animated bakers became the cereal's mascots. One of them was Wendell. The other two bakers were named Bob and Quello. They looked younger than Wendell. By 1991, Bob and Quello were no longer mascots. Wendell was the only mascot for many years, until 2013.
Its Journey to the United Kingdom
The cereal arrived in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 1998. It was first called Cinnamon Toast Crunch, just like in North America. Later, its name changed to Cinnamon Grahams. This was similar to Golden Grahams, another Nestlé cereal.
The name changed again to its current name, Curiously Cinnamon. Cereal Partners still makes it under the Nestlé brand.
What's in Cinnamon Toast Crunch?
Cinnamon Toast Crunch is made with whole grain wheat and rice squares. These squares are coated with a mix of cinnamon and sugar. The cereal also has important vitamins and minerals added to it.
A typical serving of Cinnamon Toast Crunch is about 3/4 of a cup. This serving has 130 calories. If you add 1/2 cup of skim milk, it becomes about 170 calories. Each serving has 3 grams of fat and 9 grams of sugar. The amount of sugar was slightly reduced in 2012.
How Cinnamon Toast Crunch is Advertised
At first, the three bakers were the mascots. The cereal didn't have a special saying or slogan. In 1995, it got the slogan, "The taste you can see." In 2009, the slogan became "Crave those crazy squares." More recently, slogans like "Unlock the Cinnaverse" and "Blasted With Cinna-Dust" have been used.
In 1997, there was a campaign for adults. It used the slogan "The adult thing to do." These ads showed adult things changing into kid-like things, including cereal. For example, a boring "Health Pellets" cereal would turn into Cinnamon Toast Crunch. In 2009, this changed back to "Crave those crazy squares."
Other Kinds of Toast Crunch Cereals
Cinnamon Toast Crunch has inspired many other cereals! Here are some of them:
- Chocolate Toast Crunch
- French Toast Crunch (came back in 2015 after being gone for a while)
- Peanut Butter Toast Crunch
- Frosted Toast Crunch
- Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch (a special holiday cereal)
- Dulce de Leche Toast Crunch
- Apple Pie Toast Crunch
- Lucky Charms Cinnamon Toast Crunch Mix
- Tres Leches Toast Crunch
French Toast Crunch pieces look like tiny French toast slices. Peanut Butter Toast Crunch had darker flakes. Frosted Toast Crunch was like Cinnamon Toast Crunch but with a vanilla coating.
Monopoly Cereal was a special limited edition cereal. It came out in 2003. It was like Cinnamon Toast Crunch but had marshmallows shaped like pieces from the Monopoly board game.
In some countries like Germany and Poland, the cereal is called Cini Minis. They even have a strawberry flavored version called Erdbeer Minis or Strawberry Minis. This strawberry flavor also came to the UK as Curiously Strawberry.
In 2018, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Churros were released. This cereal has the same cinnamon sugar taste but is shaped like mini churros. A chocolate version of the churros cereal came out in 2021.
A Cereal Surprise
In March 2021, a writer named Jensen Karp found some unexpected items in his Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. He shared his discovery online, and it became a big news story. He also found a piece of string and some small black pieces in the cereal.
General Mills, the company that makes the cereal, said they were looking into it. They stated that the items were likely just clumps of cinnamon sugar. They also said the contamination did not happen at their factory. Many news outlets around the world reported on the incident.
See also
