Quipu

Trix

Overall Rating: 95

One of the two or three best-looking of all sweetened breakfast cereals on the market today, and one of the tastiest, too. Could it be that the champ, Froot Loops, is about to be dethroned?

Image from the Institute collection

Appearance

You can make kids cereal look good without having to resort to cheap and shoddy anthropomorphism. Of course, you have to be willing to go to town with artificial colouring, but hey, those negative side-effects haven’t been conclusively proved yet, have they? The new [in 1993] Trix is a blinding day-glo bowl o’ fruit, with each different flavour represented by a unique and recognizable shape. There are raspberries and orange slices and bunches of grapes and whole limes and (somewhat incongruously) bananas. Some of these shapes are actually represented (more or less) by flavours. Good as the stuff looks dry, it’s even more blindingly bright when the milk’s added.

Taste and Texture, Dry

The multitude of different shapes actually makes Trix a little difficult to pick up out of the box, but that’s just about the only knock against the stuff as a snack. Oh, it doesn’t quite have the sugar-coated, upfront blast of Froot Loops, but it’s pretty darned close, and because the sugar is more subdued, the individual flavours are actually more discernable.

Taste and Texture With Milk

Who cares about discernable flavours at this point? A bowl of Trix with milk is just a rush of a sweet-sour citric sugarbomb. Tastes great, who gives a &@#! about how filling it is? The texture is a bit of a disappointment; the product begins to mush out rather quickly, and this kind of cereal really needs that crunch to go with the sweetness. But all things considered, this is a minor complaint.

Conclusion

It may well be that the terrific look of this product will be lost on most consumers. But to we at the Institute, it’s all part of a truly awe-inspiring breakfast experience. We now know what that stupid rabbit is always going on about. But we’re equally convinced there’s no way he’s going to get his paws on our Trix. this sugar rush is too good for bunnies; anybody got a Valium? [February 1993]