The Cereal Dialogues

Is Cereal a Soup?

NERD: Random question, do you think cereal is a soup?

EGG: Heck no. Cereal is its own thing.

NERD: True, very true. Now, allow me to take your brain for a twisty ride real quick with two sentences.

EGG: I'm excited.

NERD: Wikipedia says a soup is primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot.

EGG: Mhm.

NERD: This means cereal could most certainly be a soup. Remember, it says "generally."

EGG: Cereal is never served warm I'm sorry.

NERD: Specifically.

EGG: If it was ever a soup it would be accidental. I don't think unintentional soup counts.

NERD: I mean, but doesn't it tho? A thing such as cold soup does exist. So cereal wouldn't be accidental. And general would include the few cases that don't involve hot or warmth.

EGG: Soup is never done with just milk. It's always a broth of some kind.

NERD: Or iS iT? Well, what about tomato soup?

EGG: No it's not.

NERD: There are a few soups that have no broth. And even a few with one liquid entirely.

EGG: Yeah but that's still not milk. I'm not backing down on this.

NERD: Hey, why kick out milk tho?

NERD: Neither am I.

EGG: Also there's never sweet soups. Cereal is sweet a lot of the time.

NERD: True.

EGG: Also when you eat cereal dry, it's definitely cereal. Why would it become soup when you added milk? Especially when that's what's recommended to put in it?

NERD: Okay, now that is a good point.

NERD: BUT for the sweetness argument, sweet soups do exist. And they are all cold too.

EGG: Heck yeah it is.

EGG: Yeah but cereal is still its own thing. Also cereal is crunchy and soup is almost never crunchy.

NERD: As for dry cereal, while it would still share the name of cereal in soup version and non-soup version, it would be like chicken noodle soup. You can eat chicken noodle soup without the broth, which then becomes chicken noodles.

NERD: AH, but you said almost never crunchy. Therefore there are some that bypass that rule.

EGG: But cereal is marketed to be served with milk. Why would they market cereal as cereal if it loses its identity when you add milk? It is globally associated with being paired with milk. And also I can't think of any crunchy soups.

NERD: Hmm, you make a valid point.

NERD: But, to refute your arguments, crunchy soups do exist, while most do rely on topping to gain their crunchiness. However, even if they do, cereal after allowing the milk to seep in would then be soup, as it would no longer be crunchy.

EGG: Cereal still has a separate identity, even with milk. And you have to keep global identities in mind as well. Would the majority of people look at a bowl of soggy rice Krispies and say, "that's soup"?

NERD: This is true, but have you ever considered that might just be because people preferred it with milk so much?

EGG: And anyway, it was once crunchy in its purest form, so it can't just take on a new existence because of the addition of something else.