The Gluten-Free Cereal That Tastes Like a Grown-Up Version of My Favorite Childhood Breakfast

When I was a kid, I remember always eating one of two breakfast options: cereal or pancakes, which certainly provides an origin story for my undying sweet tooth. But as I got older, I fell out of love with pancakes and haven’t had a bowl of cereal in years, since college at the absolute latest. Plus, as someone with celiac disease, the potential of munching on my favorite childhood cereals is now nixed (RIP to all the Cheerios I loved — and ate — before).

Mostly, though, I miss cozying up with a bowl of crunchy munchies as a late-night snack or on weekend mornings. To me, there’s something so satisfying about a spoonful of sweet, crispy cereal followed by a big ol’ slurp of milk. So when I saw Three Wishes’ Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cereal pop up on my social media feeds as soon as February started, well, I thought it was too good to be true. With 2.5 times the amount of protein and 70 percent less sugar than your average bowl of chocolate-strawberry cereal, it seemed well worth a try. Plus, it’s gluten-free!

When I say this stuff is good, I mean it is goooood. But when I received the box and read through the ingredients on the back, I was a little skeptical. Chickpea, pea protein, and vegetable juice …. in cereal? This was certainly not the cereal I grew up eating, but apparently there’s no obstacle that the geniuses over at the Three Wishes can’t handle.

Imagine if your favorite cereal, chocolate milk, and strawberry milk all came together for a totally new creation. (Three Wishes, I don’t know what sort of deal you made with three of my childhood loves, but I want the deets.) The cereal is sweet without being cloyingly saccharine, with a deep Dutch cocoa-like flavor and a berry note that tastes more like the actual fruit than a synthetic version. The little morsels are packed full of delicious flavor, and are gluten-free, vegan, and full of protein. There’s a little bit of cane sugar, although most of the sweetness comes from monk fruit. Don’t worry — it doesn’t have an aftertaste that’s so common with sugar alternatives.

I was also blown away by the texture of these little perfect bites. Even after minutes bathing in milk, they retained their superb crunch (although I can’t claim to have been able to resist eating a bowl in less than five minutes). Oh, and if you were wondering, yes, the milk will turn pink — a colorful feature I always cherished as a youngin’.

The Chocolate Covered Strawberry cereal is a limited-edition creation for Valentine’s Day, so I definitely suggest ordering it ahead of the Hallmark holiday. If you’re not a chocolate or strawberry fan, Three Wishes has a ton of other flavors that you can shop à la carte or subscribe to for a slight discount (Groceries Editor, Mara Weinraub, loves the Frosted version!). But as for me, I plan on luxuriating in my bed on Valentine’s morning, chowing down on a bowl of this scrumptious cereal.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go place my second order — pronto.

Buy: Three Wishes’ Limited Edition Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cereal, $26.99 for Pack of 3