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.
Man, that’s a pretty long list, and I’d have to dig back to my childhood to see what I could remember…. One of them was an in-store bakery product, a jalapeño cheese bread at Food-4-less. They quit making it, but man was that stuff good.
Now, if you’d asked what favorites have gotten worse…that’s almost everything. Cheapening of ingredients and flavorings have wrecked the majority of stuff like sweets and drinks, and even food products.
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.
Diet Sunkist lemonade soda
Nabisco Ideal bars
- Philadelphia cheesecake bars
- squeezits
- tiny toons fruit snacks
- life saver popsicles
- mickey and friends popsicles
- string thing
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! 😆
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.
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.
That and Beep are on my list.
I suspect that I wouldn’t actually like Orbitz now that I’m an adult and not impressed by little colorful blobs in my drink
Agreed. Definitely a novelty as a kid! I had to look up Beep. I hadn’t heard of that one!
It was great. Kinda like sunny D, but less cloyingly sweet and more refreshing iirc (it’s been a long long time). A mix of fruit juices, but mostly orange.
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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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When I was in college they came out with a bunch of different “pieces” candies. They were just like Reese’s pieces, but for different candies, like Heath and Almond Joy. I loved them, and I loved the fact that you could mix them together to make different flavors. They didn’t last too long, though. I was disappointed when I couldn’t find them anymore after a few years.
Then later I found a new favorite candy in the Butterfinger cups. They were like Reese’s peanut butter cups, but softer and with little Butterfinger pieces in them! I loved them, but they also disappeared in a few years. That’s the issue with gravitating toward new things - so many of the ones I find myself enjoying end up failing since most people just like to stick with what they know.
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.
Jello Pudding Pops.
Lan Chi Chili paste, I miss that stuff so much.
OP, Cabot makes a horseradish cheddar, make some cheese fries?
Schweppes had a great root beer that I haven’t seen since sarsaparilla was outlawed.
Sarsaparilla was outlawed?
