The Budget Cereal Brand Some Shoppers Swear Tastes Better Than The Original

You may have recently found yourself standing in the cereal aisle, completely confused by a box of your favorite cinnamon sugar squares. You're experiencing a severe case of sticker shock while staring at an $8 price tag, which has become increasingly common as the cost of groceries continues to rise. It's also a particularly hard blow knowing that shrinkflation also means we've been getting less cereal in our boxes. But then you spot a huge bag of more budget-friendly Malt-O-Meal Cinnamon Toasters on the bottom shelf and put it in your cart, only to later find yourself thinking, "These may be better than the original."

For years, Malt-O-Meal has been providing a great price per unit alternative to its name-brand competitors. Plus, the company has offerings inspired by everything from Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries to America's favorite cereal, Honey Nut Cheerios, as part of its line-up of 29 products. However, Reddit threads prove that folks gravitate toward Malt-O-Meal cereals for more than just budgetary reasons, as one Redditor wrote that these versions are "better than most of the cereal they're imitating."

Some of the most mentioned cereals include Cinnamon Toasters and Marshmallow Mateys, with a Redditor praising the latter's oat morsels for being "so toasty" and having the "perfect hint of saltiness to them." Meanwhile, a commenter in a thread dedicated to Cocoa Dyno-Bites said it has "a stronger chocolate flavor" than Cocoa Pebbles and doesn't "get soggy quickly," before noting it was the same with Malt-O-Meal's Coco-Roos, which "stay crunchy and have a stronger chocolate flavored [sic] than the name-brand." That said, a particular standout was the Fruity Dyno-Bites, which were mentioned numerous times, likely due to having what one person said was a texture that's "slightly more toothsome than Fruity Pebbles" and a flavor that's "a little more 'fruity' and a little less 'lemon.'"

Interestingly enough though, some threads also feature comments from people pointing out that Post — the cereal giant behind brands like Fruity Pebbles and Honey Bunches of Oats — actually owns Malt-O-Meal after buying its parent company, MOM Brands, in 2015. This has led some to speculate that there's very little difference between Malt-O-Meal and some of the name-brand cereals it supposedly copies, though the brand has never publicly addressed the speculation. And just to add to the intrigue, MOM is also suspected to produce Aldi's Millville cereal brand, the true facts of which remain a bit of a mystery.