Nutty Buddy Cereal: History, Packaging & Brands

Snack History Nostalgia Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

You might be wondering if Nutty Buddies can even be made into a cereal. The answer is that they definitely can! The Nutty Buddy cereal that Kellogg’s has come up with doesn’t look anything like a Nutty Buddy, but it promises fans the same great taste profile as the candy bar. While this is not the most attractive-looking cereal, people who love it will tell you that it still tastes great.

Candy bars don’t always turn into good cereals, and the jury is still out about whether or not this candy and cereal pairing is going to make it for the long haul. For those who love sweet cereals, the enjoyment of a candy-based cereal is worth all the small annoyances that are often part of the experience of eating them. Whether you think that the Nutty Buddy Cereal pairing has created a cereal that is pretty to look at or not, there are many people who love both products enough to be loyal to this cereal item.

History

Kellogg’s has tried and failed a few times to create yet another sugary and sweet cereal that will compete with some of the giants in this niche market. Their incredibly successful Frosted Flakes is hard to top, but the cereal giant rolls out new products all the time. There are various sweet cereals in the Kellogg’s family already, but the company can certainly afford to speculate on yet another.

Enter the pairing of a classic candy product and Kellogg’s cereal company! The Nutty Buddy cereal product is clearly aimed at people who feel nostalgic about the products of their youth. While this product might not be aimed at new consumers, it certainly is meant to be appealing to kids of the 80s and 90s as well as kids of today. For those who grew up during the peak of the fun foods for kids era, this cereal speaks to everything that made the grocery store fun and exciting back then.

Certainly, if the goal was to make an attractive cereal, Kellogg’s didn’t achieve their objective. Nutty Buddy cereal is basically comprised of chunky rectangles that are a vague brown color. However, people who like the cereal, claim that the taste is good even if the appearance of the cereal is not. Nearly any cereal with large pieces is likely to be less popular than those that are made with smaller, more flavorful cereal bits. However, not every cereal can be made without large pieces in order to create the flavor profile that is desired.

The boxes of this new cereal are colorful, vibrant, and totally charming. The checkered yellow background is a great contrast to the big, red lettering of the logo. The boxes also show images of the candy bar itself and a bowl of cereal. The Little Debbie logo is right in the center of the box, right beneath Kellogg’s logo. You really can’t miss these cereal boxes even if you don’t pay much attention in the cereal aisle.

The back of the boxes offers classic cereal box games and fun things to do, which is awesome for those who grew up eating breakfast cereal every day. The cereal market as a whole had moved away from marketing to kids alone. This is due to the shift of the consumer market away from sugary products as a whole. Sugar-conscious parents no longer want to feed sugar-bomb products to their kids. This makes cereal options less colorful and fun overall, which is a bit sad for those among us who grew up loving how colorful the cereal aisle was.

Kellogg’s has been making cereal since the early 1900s. The original cereal product was created to try to help take care of the elderly and those who were struggling to get good nutrition on a tight budget. Over time, the company evolved, looking for new ways to provide healthy and delicious food to consumers. Kellogg’s has taken on new products like cookies and granola over the years, so the sweet cereal market always seemed like a logical next step.

Chocolate Corn Flakes, Coco Pops, And Coca Flakes are still part of the Kellogg’s family. Products like Cinnabon and Cinnamon Mini Buns are also still in the lineup, but these are not the mainstay of the Kellogg’s brand. Cereals like Trix and Smacks are still much more well-known than most of Kellogg’s cereal in the sweet treats market. Except for Frosted Flakes, most people don’t think of Kellogg’s as a sweet cereal maker.

The Nutty Buddy is a classic after-school snack that Little Debbie has been selling since the 60s. This wafer and chocolate bar has been one of the mainstays of the Little Debbie product family for a very long time. In fact, the Little Debbie brand only exists because of the Nutty Buddy bar. 

It seems like an excellent pairing to mix together two classic products to make one ideal cereal that offers everything that consumers love. And it is true that there is brand recognition on both sides for this product. One of the problems with mixing together two classic products in the sweet cereal market, however, is that the audience for both of these products is fairly narrow. Kids are not familiar with either product these days, and the sweet cereal market is becoming less and less popular over time as health-conscious consumers move away from sugary products.

It remains to be seen if the Nutty Buddy cereal combination will have a lasting place in the cereal market. Little Debbie and Kellogg’s will surely continue on unharmed if this cereal doesn’t maintain its popularity over the long run. Many consumers say that they would actually rather have had a Little Debbie Tree snack cereal instead, but maybe that is something that Kellogg’s can create in the future.

Marketing

The Americana-styled boxes of Nutty Buddy cereal certainly bring back memories for kids who grew up during the peak of products marketed right to them. From the Little Debbie logo to the slightly retro lettering and color palette, there is nothing not to love about this cereal’s marketing style. The box offers fun games and lots of pretty things to look at, and it really stands out from the crowd.

For those among us who used to look for the brightest box of cereal to beg their mom to buy, the packaging of this product is nostalgic and really enjoyable. Since Little Debbie hasn’t changed their styling much in generations, the Little Debbie tie-in also leads to these feelings of yesteryear in a really enjoyable way.

What do Nutty Buddy Bars Taste Like?

The Nutty Buddy bar is smooth and creamy and offers a bit of peanut butter smoothness as well as the crunchiness of wafers at the heart of the bar. This is a classic candy bar that offers all of the things that you expect from a classic candy bar snack. Little Debbie makes many products that are very similar to this one, but this is the classic bar that the entire company was built upon.

If you love wafer-filled candy bars, this is likely to be one of your favorite candy bars. This kind of bar doesn’t usually convert well into a cereal product, however. The texture has a lot to do with what people love about this candy bar, and the texture will, of course, be missing from a cereal product. 

Taste Reviews

Many people who love Nutty Buddies will tell you that Nutty Buddy cereal actually tastes a lot more like a Butterfinger bar than a Nutty Buddy. Lovers of peanut-flavored snacks usually don’t mind being treated to the flavor of a Butterfinger bar, but for those looking for the classic Nutty Buddy bar, the flavor of the cereal might not be precisely what they were hoping for.

The texture of this cereal has not been super popular with consumers, and many people also complain about how large the cereal pieces are. It is apparently a bit difficult to consume this cereal due to the size and shape of each piece. Many other sugary cereals have also suffered from this problem in the past.

Sweet cereals also often tend to get mushy a little bit faster than might be ideal, and this cereal also seems to be the same. This is often a small price to pay for enjoying a sugary treat, and many sweet cereal lovers don’t worry about this too much. Especially when the cereal is connected with a memorable childhood treat, mushy cereal bits is not a very steep price to have to pay. 

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Ingredients

• Whole Wheat Flour
• Sugar
• Whole Grain Oat Flour
• Rice Flour
• Fructose
• Vegetable Oil (Soybean, High Oleic Soybean And Palm)
• Contains 2% Or Less Of Nonfat Milk, Cocoa Processed With Alkali, Salt, Caramel Color, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Soy Lecithin, Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Yellow 6, BHT For Freshness

Nutrition

Serving Size:	1.3 cup (41g)	% Daily Value*
Amount Per Serving
Calories	170
Total Fat	3g	4%
Saturated Fat	0.5g	3%
Trans Fat	0g
Polyunsaturated Fat	1.5g
Monounsaturated Fat	1g
Cholesterol	0mg	0%
Sodium	125mg	5%
Total Carbohydrates	33g	12%
Dietary Fiber	2g	7%
Sugars	16g
Added Sugars	16g	32%
Protein	2g
Vitamin D	2mcg	10%
Calcium	10mg	1%
Iron	4.6mg	26%
Potassium	90mg	2%

• The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Pictures

Ads:

A taste test of Nutty Buddy Cereal:

A collection of Kellogg’s ads:

A classic Nutty Buddy commercial: