The Untold Truth Of Count Chocula

There's a lot to love when fall rolls around: the changing of the leaves from green to orange, the refreshingly cooler air after a long hot summer, and of course, the food. While pumpkin spice lattes might be the first product people think about every autumn, when Halloween comes closer, another popular and much spookier food can be found in the breakfast aisles of grocery stores. If you aren't hoping to make yourself a stack of pumpkin spice pancakes, then you might enjoy the sweet, scary treats inside boxes of General Mills Monster Cereals.

Boo Berry, Franken Berry, and Count Chocula are all ghoulish breakfast cereals that are released to celebrate Halloween every year. Boo and Franken Berry are both fruity cereals, while Count Chocula is the chocolate choice. With his cartoonish fangs and grin, the chocolate vampire has become a legend for cereal lovers. Count Chocula doesn't just have a rich, chocolatey flavor — it also has an equally rich history, with many fun facts that lie under the coffin. Grab your cereal spoons, because we're going to dive into the untold truth of Count Chocula.

The Count has undergone some pretty interesting changes over the course of his life. We all know and love the original Count Chocula design: a tired-looking vampire with chocolate-colored robes, a long chin and nose, and two buck teeth instead of fangs. The look is pretty iconic at this point, and though the art style on the cereal boxes has changed over the years, the chocolate vampire's look has remained pretty consistent. He's certainly a lot more goofy-looking than scary, but his friendly appearance is something we love about the Count.

The art style used for the cereal boxes is usually very cartoonish and silly, though there was a time when the Count's design was less goofy and more like what you'd see in a superhero comic book. Back in 2014, General Mills teamed up with DC Comics to create limited-edition boxes that featured the Monsters Cereal characters, including the Count, in an art style similar to what you might find in a DC comic. Though Count Chocula and his spooky associates might not be your typical superheroes, they are certainly lifesavers when breakfast rolls around in the fall.

In 1979, General Mills released three records that featured the characters from the company's Monster Cereals. Each box of cereal contained one of the three records, which were printed on flexi discs, a type of thin, flexible vinyl. Even though one of the records was called "The Monsters Go Disco," they weren't songs. Instead, they were spoken-word comedy albums with short skits performed by voice actors. The other records included "Monster Adventures in Outer Space," and, with the Count as the central protagonist, "Count Chocula Goes to Hollywood." 

Each record featured the monsters going on wacky different adventures. You can still find the audio from the Monsters Adventures records on YouTube. While the records might not make everyone at your party rush for the dance floor, they are still super fun to listen to and make a perfect soundtrack to get you in the spirit of Halloween.

It's a well-worn cliche that you eat with your eyes first (via Eatnorth). The way food is presented affects how enjoyable it is. Would you rather have a marshmallow covered in sprinkles, or an adorable little chick-shaped Peep? Would you rather have a chicken nugget or a dinosaur chicken nugget? We think you get the point. We love it when breakfast cereal has fun shapes. While many are more ring-like, such as Froot Loops, others have a bit more character. Count Chocula and the other monster-themed cereals have fun, creative shapes, but it hasn't always been that way.

We all know Count Chocula as a chocolatey ghost-shaped cereal with marshmallow bits. When the monster cereals were first released, however, they had a more boring shape: They were circular with a cross in the center. According to the General Mills history page on the cereal, Count Chocula became ghost-shaped in 1985 and remains in that form to this day. The marshmallows have changed shape and size over the years, but the cereal itself has remained consistently ghostly and perfect for the spooky season.

Rice Krispie Treats may be the most iconic cereal bar, but any kind of cereal can be held together with sugary goo and pressed into bar form. This next Count Chocula product is just as spooky and fun as the normal cereal, but it's perfect for snacking on the go.

When Halloween season rolls around, keep your eyes peeled for Count Chocula cereal bars. They are made out of the chocolate-flavored cereal the Count is the mascot for, along with marshmallows, chocolate chips, a rich chocolate drizzle, and a chocolate coating (via Cerealously). That is to say, they are very chocolatey. Count Chocula cereal is already sweet enough to almost be classified as a dessert, and all the other additions in Count Chocula Treats push them over the edge into candy territory. In 2021, General Mills also released a mini version of this sticky-sweet treat, according to Foodsided. 

When you can't have something all of the time, it makes it all the more special when you manage to get your hands on said thing. Count Chocula is only around during the spookiest part of the year and fans of the ghoulish cereal are quick to try to get their hands on these breakfast boxes before they leave shelves.

It hasn't always been this way for the Count, though. Up until pretty recently, Count Chocula was like most other cereals you'd see in the cereal aisle — that is to say, it wasn't offered for just two months a year. You were able to purchase a box of Count Chocula year-round up until 2009, according to the General Mills page. Today, however, the chocolate, strawberry, and blueberry cereals that feature the Count and his friends only pop up around Halloween. Though this is fitting for monster-themed cereals, we do wish we didn't have to wait until Halloween to get a bite of Count Chocula.