The Old-School Cinnamon Cereal We Desperately Wish Would Make A Comeback

Millennials, this one's for you. '90s babies won't soon forget the decade's trove of since-retired breakfast cereals. One iconic 1990s cereal made a splash not for a technicolor hue or a color-changing-milk gimmick, but for its deep cinnamon flavor. The year was 1991. "Tom's Diner" topped the music charts, $1 had the purchasing power of $2.37 today (ouch), and Kellogg's Cinnamon Mini Buns made their market debut. 

In due fashion, a playful ad campaign befitting youth-audience-targeted fare of the '90s dominated television airways. A 1993 commercial for the cereal depicts a kid in a laboratory infusing Kellogg's Cinnamon Mini Buns with the scientifically-maximum amount of cinnamon-sugar flavor using a gargantuan ray gun ("And they said it couldn't be done!"). Another 90s commercial explains the cereal's apparent origin story, in which a young teen is driving a delivery truck loaded with cinnamon rolls, when all of a sudden the truck is magically shrunken down, and (gasp) the teen and buns alongside. To salvage the miniature rolls, the cereal's invention was born ("True story!"). Bonus points for the era-specific nod to the then-recently-released flick "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" (1989).

A printed advertisement for the cereal promised that Kellogg's Cinnamon Mini Buns didn't contain any added fat or artificial flavors, "Just corn and whole grain oats and plenty of the cinnamon crunchy taste they love." The early-90s ad is titled, "Eating 70 cinnamon buns can be nutritious." Although the factual merit of these claims is dicey at best. According to retro-minded epicurean outlet Mr. Breakfast, the cereal's original ingredients list consisted of corn, whole oat flour, sugar, corn syrup, salt, cinnamon, and caramel color, plus "vitamins and minerals." So, not necessarily a nutrition-forward offering.

It's also worth mentioning that whether or not the original 1990s cereal was actually any good has been the subject of some debate. A Reddit thread in r/nostalgia dedicated to Kellogg's Cinnamon Mini Buns shares less-than-stellar testimonials, such as "I remember trying for months to convince my mother to buy this and when she finally caved I thought it was totally disgusting. Complete letdown," and "I finally got them and they were way too sweet and didn't taste good at all." Distance (and time) may make the heart (and palate) grow fonder, after all.

Elsewhere online, retro-minded foodies in a Facebook post rave, "Oh man! I loved this cereal!" and "these were great, still chasing that cinnamon flavor to no avail." Over the years, discussions of a comeback have been many and momentary. Kellogg's cinnamon bun cereal concept has reemerged under new faces more than a few times, but none have lasted. In 1993, Kellogg's launched a similar Mini Swirlz Cinnamon Bun cereal, but pulled the product by 2009. Then, the company launched a rebrand in partnership with Cinnabon that ran from 2010 to 2018. Kellogg's Cinnabon cereal once again made a comeback in 2022. After the four-year hiatus, Kellogg's director of brand marketing, Sadie Garcia, stated, "Kellogg's Cinnabon Bakery Inspired Cereal has an incredibly devoted fanbase, and it was our number one requested cereal the year it was discontinued," in an official press release. 

Alas, despite the apparent onslaught of fan requests, the cereal's comeback was short-lived. An internet search of Kellogg's Cinnabon cereal doesn't pull up any results later than 2022. Kellogg's Cinnamon Toast Crunch Rolls cereal was also a thing at one point, but no longer. Some once-retired breakfast table jewels have managed to make a lasting comeback in recent years (here's lookin' at you, French Toast Crunch). But Kellogg's Cinnamon Mini Rolls doesn't seem to be one such offering. Either way, we've rounded up nine more discontinued cereals from the '90s that we want to bring back for keeps.