every now and again some weird product comes by the trixareforkids offices that we just aren’t sure what to do with besides eat. i’ve reviewed quite a few odd products but i have to say that i was surprised by this one. for those of you who don’t know, a group which included me up until about an hour ago, quisp is the ‘quazy energy cereal’ from quaker oats company (read: loaded with sugar). originally introduced in 1965, he had a brother named quake (get it?, quisp and quake) who had his own cereal. after 5 years of sibling rivalry the feud had to end. in 1970 quaker held a contest to see which was the more popular cereal and quisp won.

in a bit of what we would now call bad marketing, the quisp character was a pink alien with a ray gun, or at least back then had a ray gun. you can find more deets about this whole saga online somewhere. all in all the cereal is in very, very limited distribution and you really can’t find it anywhere. i was most apprehensive because the box looked as though not much changed since the 1970 introduction so i was worried this was a really old box. alas, it was not and thus began my tasting journey.

the shape: like little ears. you know how orecchiette pasta looks? kinda like that. it’s puffed corn and it’s about 1/4″ thick . the surface texture is smooth with the typical orange-yellow hue that we’ve come to expect from cereal.

the taste: sweet. super-sweet. however, it’s really familiar. there’s a brown sugar/vanilla flavor that unmistakable. and then it dawned on me: cap’n crunch. the flavor is dead on for an exact copy of cap’n crunch. oddly enough, both are made by quaker. what gives? but then after about half the bowl i realized why this cereal has it’s own place in the market: the roof of my mouth isn’t scratched up. yep, that’s right. i love cap’n crunch but only my dentist likes the overload of sugar and the fact that it tears the roof of my mouth apart. this was a solid hit for me.

the fallout: after a couple of bowls i was a bit thirsty. turns out that my serving (4 cups of cereal and the required milk) provided me with 40% of the rda of sodium or 800mg however you want to look at it. on the plus side, my mouth wasn’t sore, and that’s big for me.

quisp stayed crunchy for the standard 3-4 minutes and then went soft quickly thereafter. as i said this cereal is in limited production runs, but i did learn a little tidbit about it. soon, i.e. this month, you can find it at some dollar general stores throughout the country. i dug further to try and figure out why it would skip the traditional grocery store and go to dollar general (besides volume). turns out this is one of a handful of cereals that’s approved for purchase using food stamps (or the modern day equivalent). so yeah, if you happen upon a dollar general or see it in stores, pick up a box.  i think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, like i was.