The Chex Mix Flavor That Should Stay Out Of Your Cart

Few snacks boast Chex Mix's textural variation, keeping it interesting from the start of the bag till the end. In recent years, Chex Mix has expanded its talent for interesting options by rolling out an array of different flavors — but, by our count, there's one flavor that isn't worth adding to your grocery cart. In our definitive ranking of every Chex Mix flavor, Strawberry Créme Simply Chex fell to the dreaded last place.

Chex Mix describes its Strawberry Créme Simply Chex as "a unique mix of Chex cereal pieces with irresistible strawberry flavor and creme coating." We certainly agree with the "unique" factor, but in execution, we found Strawberry Créme's flavor to be very resistible. For starters, a strawberry-flavored snack that doesn't include freeze-dried strawberries has already set itself up to taste a little "off." As our reviewer noted, "The flavor of this Chex Mix wasn't as artificial as I anticipated, but it didn't scream 'strawberry patch on a Sunday morning,' either. It was clear that this [was] a product that the brand didn't spend too much time thinking about or designing."

Multiple Amazon reviews similarly docked points for lackluster flavor. "I love strawberry flavored anything[,] but I do not love this[.] I do not even like it," wrote one unimpressed foodie, and another agreed, "Not good in taste. My kids didn't [even] like it." As far as the snacks' artificiality goes, the words "strawberry" or "fruit" don't appear on the ingredients label at all (yikes).

Its fake strawberry taste wasn't the snack's only transgression, either. Strawberry Créme Simply Chex was also texturally weird and inconsistent, with an inescapable, unpleasant mouthfeel that low-key made a mess during our taste-test. "This Chex Mix, if you could call it that, was disappointingly gritty," wrote our reviewer. "Some of the strawberry cereal pieces were covered in a yogurt-like blanket, while others were doused in granulated, strawberry-infused sugar."

Overall, there's something about dessert-forward Chex Mix flavors that seems to be pretty hit or miss. The Turtle Chex Mix flavor and the Funfetti Muddy Buddies also fell low in our ranking — not because of their sweetness (we thought the Turtle flavor could actually use more chocolate), but because of their lack of balance. This was a similar criticism that surfaced in our ranking of Goldfish cracker flavors; the dessert-forward, one-note Cinnamon Roll Grahams and the Strawberry Shortcake Grahams fell to the bottom of the pack. Indeed, lack of balance features heavily in Strawberry Créme Simply Chex. Quoth our review, "I wish there had been more variety in this mix than just the strawberry-coated cereal pieces — though I doubt a couple of pretzels or cookies could save it." Our advice? Chex Mix is arguably the best store-bought snack of all time for a reason, but stick to Cheesy Pizza Remix (the Chex Mix flavor that won first place in our ranking) and leave the strawberries to the produce aisle.