Review: Marshmallows and Stars By Millville

The other day my lovely wife was shopping at Aldi and was so impressed by the box art for their Marshmallows and Stars cereal that she had to bring it home to show me.  The creature that they thought would most likely get a parent to buy the cereal, or a child to demand it, is a paper thin, hyper colored star fish with a giant gap-toothed grin and crazed eyes that stare off into the middle distance. If I’m going to rip off Lucky Charms, that would probably be my first choice too.

What makes the star fish choice even stranger is that Aldi is normally fine with ripping off other brand’s design’s. A trip down their aisles is a voyage into the grocery shadow world. I can’t think of any other store’s generic brands that are such blatant design rip-offs of the originals. From their Duncan Hines inspired frosting (Bakers Corner) to their version of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter (You’d Butter Believe It!), they pretty much copy every design element down to the logo. To top it off, they often throw in a few name brand items into the shelf mix so you are constantly doing double takes as you attempt to buy a cheap can of beans and some marzipan.

Now don’t get me wrong, the Millville cereals are happy to indulge in these creative licenses as well, but I applaud their effort to make all of their kids cereals animal themed with a unique (and weird) design set to match.

Cracking open the box it looks like you get pretty good value for the money. Around $2 nets you 11.5 oz. of quality Lucky Charms like flavor. The cereal bits are star shaped, and the marshmallows are pretty much indecipherable blobs. The yellow ones are moons, and the red ones seem to be squares, but beyond that it’s anyone's guess.  I have to hand it to them on matching the flavor. Both wet and dry these are very similar to Lucky Charms, and in some ways a little better. They don’t seem to be quite as sweet, which can be a good thing sometimes, and the marshmallows don’t feel nearly as squeaky when you bite into them. The one area that Lucky Charms wins out in is the cereal bits. The name brand seems to be a little heartier and a little more flavorful.

If you like Lucky Charms, would like to save some money, and you don’t mind a deranged starfish nightmare or two, then I’d recommend you grab a box and chow down.