Midnight Snack

Hershey’s Fillows Review From The Dollar Tree

A Hershey’s Fillows review was bound to happen at some point for Midnight Snack.

Subscribe to our food YouTube channel!!

Either way, I was wandering around my local Dollar Tree looking for some non-stick spray (used up all my roommate’s Pam) when I discovered that they sell food there. Name brand food at that.

When everything’s a dollar, it’s pretty difficult to pass up over a pound of chocolate cereal. I know what you’re thinking, “It’s food from a dollar store! That’s probably close to expiring!”

Wrong.

The expiration date on these Fillows was many months from the time of purchase. Checking it against a box of Special K that one of my roommates bought from Target, the shelf life on that was one year.

Considering most cereal gets eaten soon after getting home, I was okay with losing a few months of shelf life if it only cost a buck.

Onward

Even though I’m a health nut, I still like a cheat treat once a week or so. These looked like the perfect thing to have for a midnight snack (probs would pass on these for breakfast, it’s chocolate and creme, I mean c’mon).

hershey's fillows
CHOCOLATE!!!

That image above exaggerates the amount of creme in the average Fillow, but there was still a noticeable chunk in each bite. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, though. Let’s look into the probably-not-great nutrition facts first.

Hershey's filllows nutrition facts
Hello sugar my old friend.

Should the sub-par nutrition in these deter you from picking a box off your local Dollar Tree? Absolutely not. But 19 grams of sugar per serving, yikes. At least there’s some good iron in there.

hershey's fillows nutrition facts

If you need a replacement for that trisodium phosphate, just head to your local Menards where they have a great substitute.

When will we learn the dangers of genetic engineering?

The cereal hasn’t talked to me….yet.

Okay, let’s actually take a look at it up close.

hershey's fillows
The open

Almost forgot, this came in an aluminum foil bag. This Hershey’s Fillows review just got interesting.

aluminum foil bag
You could put that thing on your head to ward off aliens

The picture above verifies that six month shelf life, too.

aluminum foil cereal bag without much air in it
There also isn’t a lot of air in there, impressive work, General Mills.

Okay, time to stop messing around and actually get to the cereal.

Hershey's Fillows
But first, back of the box
Hershey's Fillows
Lil’ monster
Hershey's Fillows
Yum
Hershey's Fillows
Okay actually it’s cereal time now

At first pour, the cereal definitely looks as promised on the front of the box. If we zoom in, it even looks like a similar size:

Hershey's Fillows
Up close and personal
Hershey's Fillows
‘nother angle

One thing we did notice was that a lot of the Fillows were actually stuck together. Not that big of a deal, but the person in charge of pinching these micro-loaves must have been zoned out in the factory.

Hershey's Fillows
Double trouble
Hershey's Fillows stuck together
Isn’t there a movie called Stuck On You or something?

Mmmmm texture.

Hershey's Fillows
The in-bowl action shot
Hershey's Fillows
In the bowl that someone brought home from a Chinese restaurant

The Hershey’s Fillows Review

These sort of look like that cereal Krave, except inside out. The first bite we took was pre-milk and tasted very chocolately. They must really use Hershey’s. There was also a good taste to the inside creme filling, even though that part felt a bit hollow biting into it.

Hershey's Fillows
Reunited and it feels so good.

These were almost like miniature pop tarts in composition (being a rectangular shape with filling inside). The cereal also tasted almost identical to Cocoa Puffs if we ignored the creme filling, and that’s not a complaint either.

General Mills probably just took the same recipe for the Cocoa Puff’s and fed it through a different mold or however industrial cereal making works.

You know what the REALLY best part about these was? It wasn’t the pillows filled with creme, the chocolately goodness (well kinda) or the fact that this was $1 for over a pound. It was the fact that when all was said and done, we were left with some really legit chocolate milk in the bowl after eating this.

The other thing was that I ate most of this at a normal pace, so the Fillows didn’t need to steep in the milk like a bunch of chocolate milk tea bags.

Packaging: Above Average

Nutrition Facts: Below Average

Ingredients: Average

Taste: Average

Preparation: Above Average

I wouldn’t want to eat these for breakfast since they’re so sugary, but they make for a great snack at any other time of the day. If you can find a box at the local Dollar Tree, it’s a good substitute for your usual $3.29 grocery chain cereal.

Midnight Snack Rating: 7.98/10

Recommend? Yes

Bob Buckley

Bob Buckley writes about food and business.