How Two Minnesota Companies Teamed Up to Create Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bacon

Like many food trends these days, the genesis was TikTok.

“I was looking at homemade hacks people were doing to amplify their bacon, and I came across a few people frying it up with Cinnamon Toast Crunch ‘Cinnadust,’” said Aly Sill, senior brand manager for Hormel’s Black Label bacon. “And I thought, ‘That would actually be delicious.’”

Nearly a year later, the breakfast table mashup is hitting shelves nationwide and already resonating with consumers hungry for sweet-and-savory indulgences. It also marks a rare team-up between two iconic Minnesota companies — Golden Valley-based General Mills and Austin-based Hormel — that checks a lot of boxes for both brands.

Sill knew “flavor infusions” have been popular in grocery stores for a while, but even she was surprised at “the level of consumer excitement” for the collab. Melissa Wildermuth, director of creative brand partnerships at General Mills, said even as she talks about the sweetly spiced pork, “my mouth is watering.”

Wildermuth added that Cinnamon Toast Crunch as a brand leans into “absurd and playful things that taste really good.” The company also generally aims the cereal at a younger audience, something Sill said Hormel was interested in doing for one of its signature brands to “boldly push the boundaries of bacon.”
“We want to establish Black Label as the innovator in the category,” Sill said.

After agreeing on a partnership late last year, research and development teams at both companies worked on figuring out how to take the home-kitchen hack to scale. It’s a little more complicated than simply sprinkling cinnamon sugar on bacon and sealing it in a package.

“Both companies said, ‘We’re not going to do this until we really get it right,’” Wildermuth said. “Getting it right means it being so craveable: tasting it and just wanting more.”