I Tried It: Magic Spoon Fruity Cereal
High protein! Gluten-Free! Keto-Friendly... What could possibly go wrong?!
One of my [many] rules to live by: If they sell it at Costco, it’s probably pretty good.
Which is why last month, I finally purchased Magic Spoon cereal.
I’d noticed these boxes at our local grocery stores. They’re hard not to notice. Fun design, magical flavors, the promise of running faster and jumping higher— everything that drew me to Cap’n Crunch and Frosted Flakes as a kid (minus the toy and commercials). I also noticed the price: something like $10-12 a pop for a seven ounce box. Wow, don’t tell the Kellogg’s CEO… cereal is supposed to be cheap!
I’m not a big cereal person, so $12 to try something I probably couldn’t get my kids to eat (though… maybe!) felt steep.
But then I saw a 14-ounce box of their Fruity flavor at Costco for $12.49. Prices and sizes and awareness of I will actually use in my life scrambles the minute I walk into that glorious warehouse. The Magic Spoon (twice the size of the box I didn’t think I’d finish, but for the same price!) landed in the cart.
What makes Magic Spoon so special (aside from the packaging which has a "I’m microdosing on mushrooms! Weeeee isn’t this fun!” vibe) are the nutrition facts:
Gluten-free!
Grain-free!
Zero sugar (monk fruit extract and Allulose… whatever the F that is)
4g net carbs
13g of protein
150 calories
No artificial ingredients/colors
So what you’re telling me is that I get the Froot Loops experience WHILE building muscle AND managing inflammation AND managin my blood sugar AND can keep my ketones churning out bad breath… all in one bowl?
Sounded too good to be true.
After spending about 12 hours unloading my car and trying to Tetris the fridge/freezer and our minimal kitchen storage areas to fit all the Costco-sized things I absolutely needed (yes, I needed three boxes of Starbucks sous vide egg bites), I treated myself to an afternoon snack.
I opened up the Magic Spoon box to reveal two very festive bags of red, yellow and blue Os. These absolutely looked like something you should not eat, which is to say: Nailed it!
Like any person with a pulse, I opened the bag and ate a few dry before filling up a bowl.
Texture? Good!
Flavor? Pretty good, actually! Very Froot Loopy (and I would know since I am the kind of terrible parent who sometimes buys Froot Loops), but alllll natural baby.
As I opened the cupboard for a bowl, I noticed something funny happening in my mouth. I’d describe it as a blooming. What started as a delicious frooty punch of yum morphed into a scummy coating on the inside of my cheeks, tongue and roof of my mouth. The after-taste turned a little bitter. And it lingered. If you’ve ever tried a protein shake, you may be familiar with culinary concept of tastes like a dessert in the front, but like a flowy mullet of chemicals in the back.
Soldiering on, I poured the colorful Os into a bowl and added 2 percent cow’s milk (can you imagine telling someone in the 1980s that one day you’d have to specify what species your milk came from!). Adding the milk mellowed the protein powder after-burn. My first bite was great. The second? Still pretty good. The third, forth and fifth quickly followed, and I realized it wasn’t so much that I loved this cereal. You know when you’re eating something spicy and you’re afraid to stop because somehow eating more staves off the burn? It was that, but with the scummy aftertaste. If I never stopped eating the Fruity Magic Spoons, I could out-run it forever!
But alas, I eventually stopped. The slimy aftertaste returned. I could only harness the magic for so long.
I didn’t brush my teeth after, and honestly felt/tasted the fruity flavor for hours. Even after drinking and swishing water. Maybe it was more psychological, maybe it was real, maybe it’s Maybeline.
So… is Magic Spoon for you? It’s a YES! if…
You long for sugary, fun cereal and can’t eat it for whatever reason
You want to hit that protein goal while also eating like a child (you do you!)
You want cereal, but don’t like all the added dyes and artificial ingredients
You’re watching your sugar intake (this uses a “sweetener blend” that, according to one article I hastily found via google, does not raise blood sugar or insulin levels due to the presence of monk fruit extract and Allulose)
You like a gimmick!
Hey, the ingredients are probably better than what’s in regular Froot Loops.
The eating experience gave me a notable hit of dopamine, followed by a gross and long-lasting aftertaste. I will admit to being more sensitive to flavors, smells, and sounds than most. As a person who tries to avoid gluten, I fully understand how a someone with dietary restrictions might opt for a less-than-great version of the real thing. It’s a trade-off. For me, it’s a pass.
We tried these when they came out and agree. They weren’t good enough in my book and our chickens eventually got the stale boxes. To be fair I don’t love cereal either but I’d take a hard boiled egg or protein shake over this for sure.