Kids Cuisine

This week while perusing the cereal aisle, a new product caught the eye of my six-year-old daughter. Kellogg’s Cereal Straws called to her — she had to have these edible cookie-like straws to slurp up her milk. I looked over the box, rolled my eyes, and placed it in the cart. My children already like to drink milk, but perhaps this would be a fun treat for them.

Our choice was the Cocoa Krispies version of the Cereal Straws, although they come in a Froot Loop flavor as well. I assumed that these straws would impart the flavor of Cocoa Krispies to the milk as you drank your milk through the straw. My daughter assumed the same thing and grabbed at her glass of milk with gusto. She placed the straw in the milk, slurped, and gave a thumbs up, signaling to her younger brother that these were good. About five minutes later, the shiny moment was gone, as the Cereal Straws sort of fell apart in the milk, leaving the slurper with a glass of rather unappealing milky straw chunks. While the straws were mostly eaten, the milk was left behind, and since the whole point of this product was the enjoyment of milk, I was disappointed.

My own trial with a glass of milk showed me that the flavor of chocolate does not, in fact, work itself into the milk as it travels up the straw. The milk tasted like milk. The straws by themselves were pretty tasty- they reminded me of a chocolate coated ice cream cone. I could see this in an application to dress up a bowl of plain ice cream or to garnish a milk shake with, but as a milk delivery device, the Cereal Straws simply fall short.

**Photo courtesy Kellogg’s.com