Cocoa Puffs

Cocoa buffs

A Cocoa Puffs box, 2001.
Origin
Place of origin	United States
Dish details
Main ingredient(s)	Whole grain corn Sugar corn Syrup Corn Meal Canola and or Rice Bran Oil Cocoa processed with Alkali
Variations	multiple

Cocoa Puffs is a brand of chocolate-flavored puffed grain breakfast cereal, manufactured by General Mills.^[1] Introduced in 1958, the cereal consists of small orbs of corn, oats and rice that have been flavored with coco. Essentially, Cocoa Puffs are Kix cereal with added chocolate flavoring. (Similarly, Trix was, for most of its existence, Kix plus fruit flavoring and coloring.) Kix cereal is produced at the same factories as Cocoa Puffs, but differs in both density and circumference.

The mascot of Cocoa Puffs is Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, whose catchphrase is "I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!". Sonny originally wore a striped pink and white shirt, but this has been removed since 1993.^{[citation needed]}

On several occasions, Cocoa Puffs boxes have stated that they are made with real Hershey's chocolate.^[2] Cocoa Puffs are sold in Latin America, Mexico and Europe under the Nesquik brand thanks to a partnership between Nestlé and General Mills; Nestlé and Hershey are major competitors in the chocolate business.

A cereal bar of Cocoa Puffs has also been made. A layer of dried, sweetened condensed milk is added to the bottom of it, and marketed as a substitute for a bowl of milk and cereal.

The newest addition was introduced in the summer of 2008, Cocoa Puffs Combos, which consists of the recognizable chocolate puffs as well as vanilla puffs. Unlike the original Cocoa Puffs, the Combos cereal does not contain any real cocoa. Instead, it contains artificial, imitation cocoa.

In December 2009, General Mills announced that it would cut the sugar in 10 cereals including Cocoa Puffs to less than 10 grams of sugar per serving. This could represent a 25% decline in the sugar content from the original level and 18% from the current level of 11 grams per serving.^[3]

References

1. ^ Cocoa Puffs information
2. ^ "Business week". Business Week (McGraw-Hill) (Issues 2105–2113): 32. 1970. http://books.google.com/?id=dDY7AAAAMAAJ&dq. 
3. ^ General Mills Will Reduce Sugar in Kids' Cereal

External links

• Official website
• First Cocoa Puffs box
• Old Cocoa Puffs box with train promotional offer
• Old Cocoa Puffs box with contest to win a car
• Old Cocoa Puffs box with the "Sonny" mascot
• Old Cocoa Puffs box with the "Sonny" mascot 2