Is Cereal a Soup?

You can have a dozen reasons why cereal isn’t a soup, but once you read what we have to say, we think you’ll see the truth. The only thing separating cereals from soups is the distance between their aisles in the grocery store. 

Why is cereal a soup?

Much like the question of “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” we run into a small hiccup: “cereal” is the word we use for the meal as well as dry ingredients added to a liquid to create the meal. It might be a nice snack, but dry cereal is not a soup any more than a packet of Lipton soup mix is a soup or a bag of beans is a chili. 

Once you add a liquid (typically milk, though we’ve seen water and even orange juice), you have solid ingredients floating in a liquid and eaten with a spoon. That sounds an awful lot like soup. 

So, is cereal considered a soup? Yes, cereal is a soup. All cereals are soups. 

Check Your “Breakfast Soup” Offers

We have the receipts

Speaking of receipts, have you snapped your last one yet? It’s one of the easiest ways to save money on grocery shopping! The Fetch app lets you earn rewards with every box of soup or can of cereal, turning your receipts into gift cards.

We think it’s an open and shut case, but we see a lot of receipts and have some data for you. Did you know that shoppers who purchase milk tend to also buy common soup ingredients as often as they buy cereal? It’s actually more common to see milk and soup ingredients than milk and cereal, and before you say it’s a coincidence, many traditional soups use a milk base.

Which then has us asking, if there are soups using a milk base, is soup a cereal?

Is soup a cereal?

Having established that all cereals are soups, you should be unsurprised by our conclusion here: not only is soup a cereal, all soups are cereals. While most cereals are cold and most soups are hot, exceptions like gazpacho (eaten cold) and oatmeal (eaten hot) prove cereal is just a synonym for soup. 

Types of soups and types of cereals may differ, but at the end of the day, they’re both just solids suspended in liquids (for the more adventurous eaters out there, yes, this means Oobleck is a cereal). 

What is the most popular cereal?

The most popular cereal in your house might be different from the most popular in your state, but there are some of the most searched cereals on Google:

• Rice Krispies
• Cheerios
• Chex
• Special K
• Lucky Charms
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch
• Kellogg’s Froot Loops
• Post Raisin Bran Cereal
• Cocoa Pebbles
• Count Chocula

Is your favorite on the list? Should we have asked, “What is the most popular soup for breakfast?” instead?

What is the most popular soup?

Or should we be asking, “What is the most popular savory cereal?” These are some popular soups, both American comfort food classics and unique flavors:

• Chicken Noodle Soup
• Clam Chowder
• Potato Soup
• Minestrone
• Tomato Soup
• Ramen
• Broccoli Cheddar
• Gazpacho
• Miso
• Chili

You can’t go wrong with a homemade soup, but if you want a lot of variety, start with Progresso soups.

Get rewarded by Fetch and General Mills for all your “breakfast soup” purchases

Some of the most popular cereals, er, breakfast soups come from General Mills, and Fetch makes it even easier to save as part of the General Mills Good Rewards program. Snap your next receipt and get started on saving today.