March 27, 2023, 9:20 PM UTC

By Stephanie Gravalese

When the going gets tough, the tough get cereal… Well, maybe that’s just me.

As my family and I have been preparing for an upcoming move, we've been packing up our kitchen. Naturally, we couldn’t do our usual from-scratch cooking while everything is packed away, meaning it was time to go back to the basics. I found that during busy times, I turn to the childhood favorite of cereal, and the past couple of weeks have been no different. After all, I didn’t have a pan to cook in — it’s in one of these boxes, but I can’t remember which one!

This fall, I connected with the team at Crunch Cup and thought that trying their flagship portable cereal cup while moving (and without full access to our kitchen) was the kind of convenience I needed.

The Crunch Cup

CRUNCHCUP A Portable Cereal Cup - No Spoon. No Bowl. It's Cereal On The Go, XL Blue

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The CrunchCup

A Kickstarter darling, the Crunch Cup claims to ensure that we can have soggy-free cereal and milk on the go. I was intrigued by the idea of convenience with a dish that typically doesn’t allow portability. So, does the Crunch Cup come in for a pinch? Is it creatively convenient or conventionally messy? Luckily, I had a chance to try it out and answer all of my questions on my own.

Getting the perfect cereal-to-milk ratio is easy

The Crunch Cup is a plastic tumbler-shaped bowl with an insertable chamber that separates the milk and cereal. When you take a sip (or gulp!) from the opening, you get what the brand calls the “perfect milk to cereal ratio." Instead of adding cereal and milk to a travel mug or portable bowl, this ingeniously designed cup is made for convenience and ensures your cereal stays nice and crispy.

After removing the unit from the box, I saw the packaging featured instructions on how and where to add your cereal and milk. The three-stage diagram was needed — I would have barely noticed the milk fill line.

The Crunch Cup comes in several pieces: the large outer cup that holds the milk, the smaller inner cup that holds the cereal, the sipping top, the cover with a small hole to sip the milk and an oversized cap that funnels the cereal into your mouth when you tip it back.

After heading down the cereal aisle and picking my favorite childhood cereal, I followed the directions as described: filled milk to the appropriate fill line, added cereal to the inner cereal cup portion, screwed the inner cup to the lid, put that portion into the larger cup and finally — yes, finally — it was time to experience that perfect ratio of cereal to milk.

It's perfect for on-the-go breakfast

To use the Crunch Cup, you have to think about how to eat the cereal and milk at the same time. While the product feels like a coffee cup, the loose cereal means you have to tip it back far enough to get some of both, all without making a mess.

It took some practice to figure out how far to tip back the cup and open my mouth without looking silly. It’s slightly similar to taking a sip out of a water bottle but not quite, as you need to open your mouth just enough so that the cereal and milk come in simultaneously but not so much that it’s uncomfortable.

Once I got into the flow of it, I really had fun with it, and it really does do what it says it does. Your cereal doesn’t get soggy, you get just a little bit of cereal and milk at the same time and the cup is easy to grip. I also found the Crunch Cup to be simple to clean, with the pieces coming apart easy enough to quickly wash and dry.

And whether you're commuting by car or public transportation, I can see this being a super easy way to get in some breakfast. And for one of the Shop TODAY staffers who took it with her to the playground with her son, it also turns out to be a great snack for kids, fitting perfectly in a stroller.

While it took a bit for me to get the hang of using this, once I figured out how to eat with a Crunch Cup, I found it to be a fun way to single-handedly enjoy cereal and milk while packing up the last boxes in my apartment. I'll definitely be recommending this to friends and family!