Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Let's Quisp!

I love breakfast cereals. I really do. Not that I eat them very much, but the idea of cereal gets me giddy, and I especially love to think about cereal mascots - where they've been, where they are, where they're going.

Now for the past several weeks/months, I've noticed Quisp for sale at my local supermarket. Oddly enough, it's in a special place, not in the cereal aisle, but in the final aisle, in its own little island, surrounded by a wall o' frozen food and organic stuff.

I've never eaten Quisp, it's before my time. But every time I'd eye the boxes and think, "Should I try it?" And even though it was on sale for $2.99, I wouldn't dare.

Thoughts would go to the uneaten cereals in my cupboard (Fruity Pebbles, Count Chocula and Franken Berry). "Do I really need to buy yet another shitty cereal?" I'd ask myself, and think that those boxes might be old or something (why else would they be isolated in such a way?).

And besides... I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a cereal that fully lived up to my hopes and dreams (Smurf Berry Crunch, Donkey Kong Jr. Cereal, original formula Count Chocula, Rocky Road Cereal, Urkel-Os and Addams Family Cereal). So NO. Or, as the Cow Who Laughs might say, FAIL.

Then a few weeks ago, the Quisp disappeared. I thought, "Shit! It was a summer promotion! It's gone! The box didn't say for a limited time! Damn it! No! Ugh!" And I resigned myself to a Quisp-less life.

And time passed, as it always does.

Yesterday I went to get some Fentimans Ginger Beer, and I saw it... Quisp, now placed at the front of an aisle in the spot of honor. We don't get many second chances in life, and almost no one gets a third, so of course I bought a box.

And I should say, it's a pretty box.


- I love the old-timey aspect of it, how it's a solid blue background and it bleeds to the edge.
- I like the quirky font, and then the plain arial font that reads "Crunchy Corn Cereal."
- The cartoon mascot is simple and stupid.
- The photo of the cereal juxtaposes perfectly with the rest of the design. This is solid cereal, not today's junk. I really love the box.

This morning, unable to sleep because I couldn't wait for breakfast, I got out the Quisp. Within a single bite, I was inspired and called to Sarah to take dictation (a la Max Fischer) as I slowly enjoyed my cereal (which, apparently, is the same recipe as Mr. T Cereal). Here, verbatim, is what Quisp inspired me to say:

- Similar to Cap'n Crunch in taste, without the unpleasant side effect of cutting the roof of your mouth.
- Mildly sweet.
- Fun to eat.
- Quisp is the perfect breakfast treat.
- It's "Quisp-y."
- It's a breakfast cereal that's [sung] out of this world.
- I'm going to kill myself tomorrow.

3 comments:

  1. the Calf who CoughsAugust 5, 2009 at 11:58 AM

    A friend of mine in college loved Quisp so much, she had a Quisp character cartoon tattoo.

    Speaking of cartoon:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bUSt-JQdPg

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  2. Quisp was designed by Jay Ward Studios, who also did Cap'n Crunch and Bullwinkle.

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  3. I love Quisp, and wished all the stores would keep it on their shelfs. I do not like most of the other cearelas they sale these days. They just don't taste the same as they did several years ago.
    I see hundreds of boxes of close to a hundred different cereals, and nobody is seling out. Wise up, and sell what the people want.
    Prices are too high to waste on breakfast cerals that don't even taste good. Quips has a great mild taste and I will buy it whenever I see it. Problems is, nobody wants to carry it.

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