Rant #2,257: Eat To the Beat

Good morning.

It is before 4:30 a.m. that I am typing today's Rant out, and I just started typing after having breakfast.

During the week, as I have spoken about before, I always have cereal for my first meal of the day.

It sets me off on the right pace for the day ahead of me, and it is something that I have enjoyed eating seemingly since childhood.

What cereal did I have today?

I really mix up my cereals. I used to eat Cheerios--or some derivative of that oat cereal--every morning, but in recent years, I have mixed it up, eating other cereals like Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops and Cocoa Puffs--and their knockoffs--depending on the week and what we had in the house.

Today, I ate Cocoa Krispies, simply because we had a big box in the cupboard, and it needs to be eaten before it gets stale.

It will probably take me at least a month to ingest all of it, so even though I have been eating Cocoa Krispies for the past month, the box is now half full, and thus, will probably last me until at least the first full week of December.

Cocoa Krispies, another one of the stable of cereals produced by Kellogg's Company, is almost as old as I am.

The cereal debuted in 1958, so it celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.

It has actually gone under two names: Cocoa Krispies and, starting in 2003 and lasting until 2006, Cocoa Rice Krispies, which united all the Rice Krispies variations under one banner.

But today, it is simply Cocoa Krispies, the chocolate variation of Rice Krispies.

Outside the U.S., in Spanish countries, it is actually known as Choco Krispis in places like Mexico and Venezuela, and Choco Krispies in non-Spanish speaking countries like Switzerland and Austria.

But it is also known as Choco Krispies in Spain, so go figure.

In England, it was introduced as Coco Pops in 1961, and has had that name off and on since then. It has also gone under the Cocoa Krispies name there at various times.

Finally, the cereal was never a big seller in Canada, and it was discontinued there about 25 years ago or so, and was replaced by Rice Krispies Cocoa, which is simply Rice Kripsies with a faint chocolate taste.

And, of course, Cocoa Krispies has been available as a breakfast bar and even in some countries as a porridge, but at least in the U.S., when we think of chocolate Rice Krispies, we think of Cocoa Krispies.

And along with the name differences by country also goes differences in the mascot of the cereal, which was often used in commercials run on kids' TV shows to generate sales.

Here, although numerous mascots have been used, Snap, Crackle and Pop herald the cereal. In other countries, various monkeys and elephants and other animals push the cereal,

Advertising slogans have also been used to push the cereal, in particular in England, including "With every taste so chocolately, everybody wants my Cocoa Krispies!"

Personally, I just like Cocoa Krispies for what it is, a good morning cereal.

However, as I get older, the little rice pellets that make up the cereal do often get caught in between my teeth, but a flick of the tongue can usually get them out.

And since I love chocolate milk, I simply drink up the remaining milk after I am done with a bowl of the cereal, so when I put the bowl in the dishwasher, nothing is left of the cereal or the chocolate milk--it is all gone.

So while I am not pushing the cereal to anyone because of its sugary content, for me, it is simply one of those cereals that bring me back to childhood, and gets me ready for today, all at the same time.

That is all I can ask for in a cereal--and, of course, it snaps, crackles and pops as it gets saturated with milk as an added bonus.

Not bad for a cereal that is almost as old as I am, not bad at all.