Me first: in the early 80s, I remember the Vons supermarket chain had their own brand of sour cream dip for potato chips, one flavor that people I know loved was fresh pismo clam, it still had chunks of clam meat in there. One day it got yanked from the shelves and I’ve never seen it again.
More recently, about a decade ago, Trader Joe’s carried cheddar-and-horseradish potato chips, then one day they were gone.
I would love… LOVE… to dip those horseradish chips into that clam dip… sigh.
Bring them back
At one point in the very early 90’s, the Keebler elves stopped making cookies for a few minutes and made the best fucking pizza flavored chips to ever grace this planet. The crafty little shits figured out how to make chips from actual pizza dough, and they called them Pizzerias. It’s been over 30 years and I can still taste them now.
Altoid sours
There’s a company that makes knock-off versions of them. They are called retro sours
In Colorado there was a burger chain called Red Top and by god, it was amazing. The burgers were the size of plates and they’d use shredded lettuce and the perfect cheese that was always so wonderfully melty.
And then they disappeared.
Similarly, there used to be a candy shop called Michelle’s that has the best truffles and the best sundaes. But womp womp, they didn’t pay some taxes and were shut down. No more candy. No more magic. No more perfect ice cream.
Sobe. I really liked the pink juice that looked like bubblegum cough syrup. It apparently still exists… somewhere. The website is still around. But I haven’t seen any Sobe anywhere in the US for years
Mentadent toothpaste. I enjoyed how the dispenser combined the white and blue gels as you applied it to your toothbrush. I liked the taste too.
Also Cremo men’s face moisturizer. I haven’t found another that suits my skin so perfectly before or since.
In both cases I wrote to the companies about bringing back the products, and both wrote back to blow me off.
I forgot about Mentadent! I used it for so long! I held on to the dispenser base for a long time hoping one day it would come back, but I threw in the towel at some point.
These are the things I miss most snack-wise from childhood. Especially those Fruit Wrinkles. They had the best flavor and texture of any fruit snacks ever.
We are of the same time. Those images are visceral. I need to take a nostalgia nap.
The cookies have the same taste as regular cookies now, it was pretty much just amazing to 8 year old me, or however old I was, that cookies could have multiple fillings and a face! It just seemed so intricate and impossible at the time. So that excitement I don’t think could be recaptured now.
But those other 2, you nailed it with visceral! I feel the salt scratching my tongue and the unique concave and teardrop shape of the chips and I can exact chewiness of those fruit snacks these 30ish years later.
The fruit snacks I think would legit still be good today. The chips, perhaps. There are a lot of good chips these days. But I’m surprised no one ever brought those things back, if not just to use the actual skins. What have they been doing with all the skin all these years?!
The other one that hit me in this thread was cheez waffies. The sharp cheddar powdery goo in between stale waffle-textured hard tack crackers. Not even sure if I’m actually into it, but I’m INTO it.
I didn’t recall ever seeing those, but I wasn’t into cheez flavor as a kid. My little brother was though. They look fun though, like little stroopwafles, but savory.
The nostalgia taste many times can overpower the actual taste! Looking at you, Elio’s slices! 😆
Do any of you remember Orbitz? It was a clear drink with little gel balls that were floating in it. I don’t know if actually miss it, but I just really want to try it again.
Jolt Cola, “All the sugar, twice the caffeine!”
5th Avenue chocolate bars. I don’t know if they still exist or not but I’ve only ever found em in the checkout lines of one grocery store.
also Murry’s chicken nuggets. they were cheap and good, but they disappeared by the time I was in high school
You know which chocolate disappeared then came back?
Cup O Gold, it has a creamy coconut center.
I went for something like two decades without it, imagine my surprise at suddenly eyeing it at the Fry’s Electronics checkout line!
To this day, I find it at the Smart & Final market chain.
Dr Pepper made with real sugar, the taste with HFCS is just not the same.
SteakEze had these microwave angus burgers that you could get at BJs that basically mimicked McDs flavor. Whenever one of us was craving fast food, we could pop it in the microwave and it scratched that itch and was much cheaper, easier and faster. Sadly haven’t seen them for sale anymore and they got taken off the website.
The thing I miss the absolute most is some fruit nectars I used to get that came in big glass bottles, by Fruit of the Nile. They had mango, strawberry guava, guava and orange mango and they were all so incredibly good. My favorite was the mango, it was rich and thick and luxurious, almost just a fruit puree. They made the best mixers. I still use the bottles around the house. I don’t think the company made it through Covid 😫
Oh, you just reminded me of one.
Back in the 90s and up until the early 00s, at diners I used to ask for a Dr Pepper and when the waitress said - “is Mr Pibb okay?”, I’d answer - “even better!”
Then they changed the formula and name to Pibb Xtra or some stupid thing like that.
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Josta soda
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The Arby’s “triple cheese and bacon” sandwich, specifically the sliced roasted chicken version
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“Po’ Folks,” later “Folks Southern Kitchen,” a local restaurant chain in Metro Atlanta. It’s been out of business for over a decade and I still rue the fact that I never got the recipes for their chicken tenders, fried green tomatoes, squash casserole, or ranch dressing
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- Philadelphia cheesecake bars
- squeezits
- tiny toons fruit snacks
- life saver popsicles
- mickey and friends popsicles
- string thing
Crystal Pepsi.
