Throwback: 13 of the Most Rad Foods From the 90's/2000's!

Photo by Sarah Takforyan on Unsplash

I don’t know about you, but right now in life seems like a good time for a trip down memory lane!

Remember when Trix cereal was still shaped like fruit? Those were the days! Sometimes I miss being a 90’s kid. Not necessarily for the 90’s component of fashion or trends (we don’t need the Bedazzler to make a comeback), but for those carefree times of being a kid. When all you did was go to school, then play and eat and drink all the sugariest snacks known to mankind while watching Saturday morning cartoons! The 90’s were just really a special, glucose and corn syrup-centric time, and an artificially colored world, without all of these fancy-schmancy organic and all natural snacks for kids now. (Which is wonderful, but let’s not forget to treat the little ones to candy or sugary snacks every once in a while so they know what taste is!) And yes, while the 90’s have had a resurgence (French Toast Crunch is back and so are scrunchies and mom jeans, and apparently Dunkaroos??? Which I honestly don’t remember ever eating, but I must have, right?? Then what kind of 90's kid was I??), some of these foods I’m going to list have gone away and are probably never coming back! I am literally still in mourning over some of these snacks. Especially the last one. Bring it back to the U.S., Coca-Cola! I know you still sell it in other parts of the world! I know it…

So 90’s kids (and other young whippersnappers!), please enjoy this total nostalgia trip of 90’s kid’s food!

Also, disclaimer: I know some of these foods are still available in stores even now, but to me, they really encompass the taste of my childhood in the 90’s, so I apologize for them not being 90’s exclusive! But even if they still make them today, their essence is still oh so 90’s/2000’s.

If you haven’t read my latest throwback post about my favorite toys from the 90’s/2000’s, click here to read it! It’s a total blast from the past!

Fruit By the Foot and Fruit Roll Ups

Yes, you can still buy these, but they definitely don’t have the same feel and nostalgia as they used to when we were kids. Trust me. But the big question as a kid was: were you more a Fruit By the Foot kid, or a Fruit Roll Up kid? I personally loved Fruit Roll Ups. You got to unroll them, plus, a lot of them had multi-flavored and multi-colored parts (for that fun tie-dye effect!), and you could punch out different shapes! (My favorite were the ones that were pizza shaped, and you could punch out all the toppings/slices, to make a fruity pizza sticky snack that was possibly even more unhealthy than actually pizza) So much more fun than just unrolling a sticky Fruit by the Foot that probably wasn’t even an actual foot in length! Lame! (I’d still eat it if given the chance though!)

Fruit Gushers

Oh man, Fruit Gushers were so awesome! They were fruit snacks, but with some weird, liquid-y corn syrup flavoring in the middle. Did they gush when bit into them? No. Did they all stick together when you tried to take one out of the pack? Well, yes. And no, they didn’t turn your head into different fruits like in the commercial, but honestly, that was terrifying, so I’m glad they didn’t. But talk about currency in the cafeteria! If you had one of these in your lunchbox, your mom was super cool!

Lunchables

Oh, Lunchables. How I lusted after you! Back when I was younger, they only had the turkey and cheese with crackers kind, but that didn’t matter. The fact that you could put your own little lunch together and it came with a drink and dessert? It was the perfect meal! You were basically a gourmet chef when putting your lunch together! Then they branched out into Lunchables pizzas (which you ate cold, so eww) and Lunchables nachos (again, cheese that you can heat up? Yuck), but that siren call of a drink and a dessert while you masterfully prepare your own lunch was such a siren call to a kid and such a status symbol in the school cafeteria!

Handisnacks

Okay, I know this one is gross, but hear me out. I used to love these things! (Which is ironic because I hate most processed cheese products now). Whether it was the little cracker breadsticks with the cheese dip or the crackers and the red stick to spread the cheese-like concoction on the crackers that came in those little divided clear plastic containers, I found these oh so yummy! I literally used to ration the cheese spread so I could eat that last. I know, I know. I’m disgusted just at the memory, but that’s how good I thought they were! I saw that they still sell them at the store and I was tempted to try one for old time’s sake, but maybe it’s just better to leave some memories- and tastes- in the past.

Otterpops

If you didn’t have Otterpops in the summertime, did you even do summer right as a kid? I have no idea why their little mascots were otters, but I loved how they had cute punny names (“Little Orphan Orange” for the orange one though everyone went after the blue raspberry flavor, let’s be honest) and there was nothing better than cooling down on a hot day with one of these sugary frozen ice pops. Sure, the knockoffs were pretty good too, but nothing could beat the real Otterpops! (Not an ad, just a fan!)

Amazing Fruit Gummy Bears

We all know Haribo and Black Forest gummy bears (and other shapes they produce) are the kings of gummies, but do you remember Amazing Fruit Gummy Bears? Because I do! They came in a blue rectangular bag and had the cutest gummy bear mascots! Were they the best gummy bears out there? I honestly don’t remember, but they were so iconic for the times that I kind of wish they would come back so I could taste them and see if they were really as good as I thought they were! (Though no one is coming for Haribo!)

Hi-C Ecto Cooler Juice Boxes

For some reason, this flavor of juice box was so, so popular. And for a good reason. It obviously came out when Ghostbusters or Ghostbusters 2 came out (because it had Slimer on the box and also the Ecto thing in the name), but this flavor really stuck around for a long while after the movies were released. And I can see why: it was so delicious! It was a citrus-y orange flavor that was so addicting, that you just had to have it with your lunch at school. I remember sucking these boxes dry and being so sad when all of the juice was gone. I actually used to blow into the empty juice box and then squeeze it to pretend like I was putting on Ecto Cooler flavored perfume. Yes, I was a weird kid and am still a weird person.

Creme Savers

You guys. Creme Savers! Do any of you remember these??? They were hard candies that were either orange creme or strawberry creme flavored and they tasted so, so good! Literally the perfect mix of creamy and fruitiness! Plus, the swirl design on them was so much fun. They were like a younger, hipper butterscotch hard candy for the youth, and I loved them for it, so watching them be discontinued was like a knife in my young gut. Can we start a petition to bring them back, please??

EZ Squirt Colored Ketchup

There was this time back in the late 90’s/2000’s where some corporate exec thought they knew exactly what kids wanted and thought, “what if we took something normal colored...and changed it to a DIFFERENT color???” And guess what? They were right! Kids like me where super into it...until they actually got it and then had to eat it. I remember wanting the EZ Squirt Colored Ketchup so badly and then when I actually got it (purple, of course), I was so weirded out by it! It tasted exactly the same but the fact that it was purple (and I think it also came in blue and maybe green...?) was just so...icky! It just goes to show that kids think they know what they want and then when they actually get it… they change their minds real fast! (Also, does anyone else remember colored sunscreen? It would be blue or purple and then when you rubbed it onto your skin the color would vanish! We really loved different colored things in the 90’s/2000’s!)

3-D Doritos

What with personal computers and the internet and the new millennium being all the rage in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, 3-D was also big! We had 3-D animated movies like Pixar and video games now had 3-D, not 2-D graphic designs. So why not take a flat, practically two dimensional boring chip and make it...3-D?? And that’s exactly what Doritos did! Pretty much a puff (aka the 3-D part) with three sides to represent a Dorito chip, these came in plastic canisters (sooo much cooler and more high tech than a bag!) for easy snackage (I mean, you’re always on AOL so you need a snack that’s handy and quick to eat while you ask A/S/L in chatrooms). Did these taste better than regular Doritos? No, but the shape made them novel and made us feel like we were in the future! And that was kind of all that mattered back in the day!

Orbitz

My questions for this drink are: Why? How? Who? What gave you the right? And why did we think this was so cool? Now we all know boba with its tapioca balls is a pretty popping (no pun intended) drink. But Orbitz was on a whole other level! It must have been because of the nearing year 2000, where we imagined either the world was going to end or technology was going to be so advanced that it was going to affect our food and drink. Enter, Orbitz! The weirdest, most random drink ever known to man. It was basically a fruit flavored drink, non-carbonated, with these odd, small floating colored balls inside. It pretty much looked like a drinkable lava lamp (which did have a resurgence in the 90’s/2000’s!). They were the hippest thing when they came out and I remember someone let me have a sip of theirs, and it was honestly the most confusing thing I’ve ever tasted. All I can think of is that we thought it was kind of space-y and futuristic, and this being the new millennium, we were all for it! Not surprisingly though, it was discontinued. I guess it’s just boba for us millennials now!

Berry Berry Kix

You guys, I really miss this cereal! Every time I go to the cereal aisle at the store and see the regular Kix cereal, I always remember Berry Berry Kix. Not only did it taste yummy and berry-ish, but the berry cereal was just colored Kix all stuck together to look like a group of berries! So adorable! Kix is an okay cereal, a bit boring and plain, but Berry Berry Kix really elevated that mild flavor with some sweet tartness that was just perfection. Am I starting multiple petitions now to bring some of these foods back?

Fruitopia

And I saved the best for last. If I were to wish anything on this list to come back it would be Fruitopia. In case you never had the pleasure or honor to delight in these delicious drinks (if so, I feel so, so sad for you), they were made by Coca-Cola and were fruit flavored beverages packed with Vitamin C (aka the easiest vitamin to put into any food or drink) and they were so so so so good! I seriously cannot tell you how yummy these drinks were! They came in so many different flavors, but my favorite one was green. Which after doing much research, I figured out that that flavor was called Kiwiberry Ruckus. These drinks were so popular back in the day, that they had vending machines of it everywhere! I remember visiting Disneyland and getting a Fruitopia drink! I remember visiting a farm somewhere in Amish country and stumbling upon a Fruitopia vending machine! I remember there’s even a shot in the movie Independence Day in the very beginning where you can actually see a Fruitopia vending machine! (Seriously, look out for it next time you watch that American 4th of July classic!) I was so sad when these drinks were discontinued back in 2003, but I heard a rumor that they still sell them somewhere in Asia, and one day, I want to find out if that’s true. Because these drinks need to come back and I know I was joking about petitions, but I will literally make one and have people sign it and send it off to Coca-Cola to make this happen! Who’s with me??

The best flavor EVER! Don't at me.

Those were just some of my favorite foods, snacks, and drinks from the 90’s and 2000’s! I know I probably missed a bunch of them, but these were the ones that stood out most in my mind and reminded me most of my childhood. Ah, I wish I could go back and eat and drink these foods without that knowledge of what all of the ingredients are doing to my insides. Those truly were the days!

Let me know what foods from your childhood were your favorites or if you recognized or liked any of the foods on my list! And what classic 90’s foods/snacks/drinks did I miss?? Also, should I do a part two list?? Because as I was looking for the images for all of these foods, I came across so many more foods from back in the day that I could have included! Oh, the memories!

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