Fruity Pebbles vs Cocoa Pebbles: What’s Your Favorite?

Here we compare Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles in regard to their appearance, nutrition, ingredients, and more. Be sure to vote for your favorite in our poll.

Fruity Pebbles vs Cocoa Pebbles

Taste

Most readers have likely tried both of these iconic cereals and are very familiar with their taste. Therefore, we didn’t do our usual taste test to see which one we preferred. Frankly, these cereals are too recognizable that most people already have a firm opinion about them.

Instead, we have provided the below poll to let readers decide which one is best. Please vote for your favorite between the two:

Appearance

Fruity Pebbles feature multiple colors of sweetened rice cereal. The various colors are blue, yellow, green, red, orange, and purple. We were unable to determine a taste difference between the colors.

Cocoa Pebbles lack the color and excitement of Fruity Pebbles. However, as the front of its box informs us, one of the benefits of this chocolate-flavored rice cereal is that it turns the milk chocolatey.

Nutrition

It’s no surprise that these two cereals are extremely similar in nutrition facts. There are minimal differences in sodium, protein, and some vitamins & minerals between Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles.

Fruity PebblesCocoa Pebbles
Serving Size1 Cup (36g)1 Cup (36g)
Calories140140
Total Fat1.5g1.5g
Saturated Fat0g0g
Trans Fat0g0g
Cholesterol0mg0mg
Sodium190mg220mg
Total Carbohydrate31g31g
Dietary Fiber0gless than 1g
Total Sugars12g12g
Protein1g2g
Vitamin D2mcg, 10%2mcg, 10%
Calcium0mg, 0%0mg, 0%
Iron1mg, 6%2.7mg, 15%
Potassium20mg, 0%60mg, 0%
Vitamin A50%50%
Vitamin C10%
Thiamin35%30%
Riboflavin40%40%
Niacin40%30%
Vitamin B625%25%
Folate 200mcg DFE (120mcg folic acid)50%
Folate 240mcg DFE (140mcg folic acid)60%
Vitamin B1280%80%
Phosphorus2%
Zinc15%15%

Ingredients

Fruity Pebbles – Rice, Sugar, Canola and/or Soybean Oil, Salt, Contains 1% or less of: Natural and Artificial Flavor, Red 40, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Turmeric Oleoresin (Color), BHT and BHA added to preserve freshness

Vitamins and Minerals: Sodium Ascorbate and Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Niacinamide (Vitamin B3), Reduced Iron, Zinc Oxide, Vitamin A Palmitate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid, Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12

Cocoa Pebbles – Rice, Sugar, Canola And/or Soybean Oil, Cocoa (Processed With Alkali), Salt, Contains 1% Or Less Of: Caramel Color, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Bht Added To Preserve Freshness.

Vitamins And Minerals: Niacinamide (Vitamin B3), Reduced Iron, Zinc Oxide, Vitamin A Palmitate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid, Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12.

Introduction Year

Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles were both introduced in October 1971 by Post. Pebbles took the place of Rice Krinkles cereal that was last made in 1969. It featured mascots that likely would do a horrible job at selling cereal today.

Take, for example, this creepy clown called Krinkles:

Or how about this racially insensitive Asian mascot selling rice cereal:

Hanna-Barbera’s popular cartoon characters, The Flintstones, helped pitch the cereal to consumers from the beginning. Here is one of the first commercials used to promote this new cereal brand in 1971:

Prices

We checked the prices of these cereals at about half a dozen stores. Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles had the same prices for the same package sizes at all stores.

For reference, we paid $3.79 at Target for 19.5-ounce boxes of each cereal. Keep in mind that the normal price is $4.29 for both but we received a 50-cent promotional discount on each box.