Guest Author - Deborah Markus

Children have been starting their day with chocolate cereal for years. Now their parents are being targeted as consumers in every sense of the word.

Life cereal is, perhaps, technically a children's breakfast product. But its emphasis on whole grains and heart health speaks to its adult buyers, as does its mildly sweet flavor.

Life is now available in Chocolate Oat Crunch flavor. Odd as it may sound, it's actually quite good. As anyone who's made chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies knows, oats and chocolate make a wonderful pair.

This new flavor is basically the old one -- oaty little rough-woven squares -- with some chocolate-granola clusters tossed in. These crunchy nuggets are hardly sweet at all, leaning toward a dark chocolate flavor. The box brags that this cereal is made with real chocolate, and both the list of ingredients and the taste bear this claim out.

I've never been a Life fan, so I wasn't expecting to be wowed by their latest offering. But this is something I could imagine having for breakfast now and then, and even giving to my son, who isn't allowed to have sugary cereals.

I had higher hopes for Kellogg's Special K Chocolatey Delight, because I've always rather liked Special K. My first clue that all was not as it should be was that word "chocolatey." That sounds like they didn't want to make any claims to just plain "chocolate" that the product couldn't support.

Ironically, Special K is the most grownup-sounding of the cereals I tried, and it's basically a bowl full of chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chip cookies made with really mediocre chips.

The distinctively whole-grain taste of Special K flakes is sealed over with a coating of sugar spray. Tossed liberally through this already too-sweet concoction are little wedges of "chocolatey chunks," as the ingredient list refers to them. These have no body or bite; they're already mushy even before the milk hits them.

Though I don't recommend it, and won't be buying it again, I must admit that there is something weirdly addictive about eating this strange cereal once the milk settles in. I'd save it for a surreal snack rather than starting my day off with it, though.

The last chocolate cereal I tried was Chocolate Chex. I found the entire concept shocking. I thought that once the company had burned through all the basic grains, they were done coming out with new products unless they wanted to take a stab at something more exotic in the plant department. But Chex lovers are too solid and down-to-earth to ever be interested in buying a box of, say, Quinoa Chex.

And the Chex cereals aren't sweet at all, which means that they're marketed toward people who want something that doesn't taste like a bowl of sugar or turn the milk purple. So how could the company have thought that Chocolate Chex was worth a try?

Maybe they figured that everyone else is jumping on the chocolate bandwagon, so why not them. At any rate, at least there's nothing over-sweet or glossy about Chocolate Chex.

Each box is divided up evenly. Half the squares are plain -- no chocolate, no sweetness. They're midway between Rice Chex and Corn Chex in flavor. The remainder of the crunchy pillows are cocoa colored and flavored. They're a little strong by themselves, especially eaten straight out of hand. Sweeter than they look, or than they need to be. They're not too bad blended in with their plain pals and doused in some milk, but the sweetness tastes annoyingly artificial.

The verdict: the best chocolate cereal is the one you make yourself, by cooking up some oatmeal or whatever whole-grain porridge you enjoy most and then sprinkling a bit of cocoa, a handful of cacao nibs, or some grated bittersweet chocolate over it. But if it's absolutely too hot to cook and you really want to start your day by eating chocolate, have some Life Chocolate Oat Crunch and a cup of strong tea.