Was new Chex green onion flavor worth South Koreans’ 16-year wait?

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — There are a lot of flavored cereals out there, chocolate, honey oat, apple-cinnamon or Oreo. But green onion? That’s what’s happening in South Korea — and it’s a flavor that is 16 years in the making. Back in 2004, Kellogg’s launched a competition in which it asked South Koreans to pick a new flavor of Chex: chocolate- or green-onion flavored. The green-onion flavor won by a wide margin — but there was talk of election chicanery and chocolate was declared the winner.

Many South Koreans were outraged and now, Kellogg’s has made it right by producing the green-onion flavor — and introducing it with a celebrity-fueled ad campaign. That green-onion Chex has now arrived — and people have been excitedly posting pictures of themselves and their newly acquired boxes on social media.

So, was the taste worth waiting for? Some South Koreans use the savory cereal as a garnish on meals like kimchi and spicy ramen noodles. But, like most Americans, South Koreans eat cereal in a bowl with milk.

At least one person among the first to try it says it has an “artificial onion background taste.”