Kit Kat Cereal is hitting US shelves

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

Who wants a big bowl of “chocolatey crispy deliciousness” for breakfast?

General Mills is betting a lot of people do, as it is launching Kit Kat Cereal nationwide beginning this month at $5.69 for a standard-size box. The cereal, whose squares resemble the classic wafer-covered chocolate bar from Hershey’s, launched in Europe in March.

Like the candy bar, the cereal has a creamy coating and distinct crunch, the company said. The box also shares the look of the candy’s distinct red wrapper.

It’s just one of the many cereals General Mills is launching this spring. There’s Cinnamon Toast Crunch Tres Leches, available at Walmart and other retailers, and new flavor of Cheerios, Vanilla Spice, which sells for $6.88 for a standard box of about 10 ounces and $7.17 for family size.

A limited edition Spider-Verse Cereal — red “spiderberry” puffs with blue and white marshmallows — will be selling for a less expensive $2.99 in stores.

General Mills is also launching miniature Lucky Charms and Cocoa Puffs, adding to its miniature Trix, both of which are priced at $5.69.

Other companies are innovating their cereals, too. Last September, Kellogg announced “instabowls,” which are little tubs of cereal that contain milk powder. They could either be eaten dry or be mixed in with cold water to create instant milk and cereal.

The moves come as cereal demand softens somewhat from earlier in the pandemic.

Cereal sales surged to over $9 billion in 2020 or up 9% from 2019, as millions worked from home, according to data from NielsenIQ. However, by 2021, sales eased to $8.4 billion, but still above 2019 sales.

Prices for the staple breakfast food have also been rising. Over the full year ending in March, the price for cereal products rose 13.6%, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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CNN’s Danielle Wiener-Bronner contributed to this report.