The Best Cinnamon Toast Crunch Dupes, Ranked and Compared to Real CTC

Cinnamon Toast Crunch is a cereal aisle icon. It’s cinnamony. It’s crispy. It turns your milk into Cinnamilk, a substance so delicious General Mills cut out the middleman and started marketing it on its own. Naturally, there are a lot of imposters on grocery store shelves. A few rows down from the genuine article you’re sure to find at least one generic Cinnamon Toast Crunch, if not more. The box’s coloring will be suspiciously similar and the cereal will be called something like “Cinnamon Toaster Crisp.” These boxes tend to get people’s attention for one good reason: Store brand cereal is usually cheaper than name brand cereal. But do any of the CTC dupes taste good enough to make saving a few bucks worthwhile? We tasted them to find out.

Best Organic

Cascadian Farm Organic Cinnamon Crunch

Target

Cascadian Farms isn’t a generic Cinnamon Toast Crunch—it’s an organic Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Price-wise, it’s about the same as Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but if eating non GMO foods is important to you, I’m pleased to report that Cinnamon Crunch (just cut the Toast) is a very good cereal. Many Cinnamon Toast Crunch dupes are crunchier than actual CTC, but this one really captures the cereal’s light crispness. If you’re seeking out an organic cereal but you still want something pretty fun for breakfast, this a great option.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Celeb Owned

Snoop Cereal Cinnamon Toasteez

Target

This cereal and the next cereal on this list (Malt-O-Meal Cinnamon Toasters) are basically the same. They look identical—same little swirly pattern imprinted on the squares. I tried them side by side and they taste the same, too—same distinct crunch that makes both stand apart from Cinnamon Toast Crunch. But there is one very obvious difference between these two cereals: One is made by Snoop Dogg. I’m sure that gives it an edge in a lot of households!

Credit: Merc / Target 

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Crunchy

Malt-O-Meal Cinnamon Toasters

Target

Much like Snoop’s Cinnamon Toasteez, Malt-O-Meal’s generic Cinnamon Toast Crunch is an excellent cereal. While other CTC dupes look a little sad and pale, these look nice and toasted. That might be why they have a little more crunch. Anyway, if you’ve always wished Cinnamon Toast Crunch was a little crunchier and just a touch less cinnamony, this is the dupe for you. It’s also super cheap—about four bucks for a 32-ounce bag.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Walmart

There are plenty of delicious dupes on this list, but it probably isn’t surprising that Cinnamon Toast Crunch makes the best version of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It’s so light and crispy—the texture almost reminds me of cinnamon twists at Taco Bell, but less crackly and not fried (obviously). It’s so sweet and tastes so good in milk. One of these days a dupe is going to be better than its source material, and I can’t wait for that day!

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other Cinnamon Toast Crunch dupes we tried: Millville Cinnamon Crunch Squares, Kroger Cinnamon Crunch