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.
Schweppes had a great root beer that I haven’t seen since sarsaparilla was outlawed.
Taco Bell Enchirito’s around 10+ years ago were amazing. I think they temporarily bring similar things back, but it’s never the same.
Count Chocula cereal used to taste much better. I think it was made with oat flour but then they changed to corn.
They were practically a drug for kids. Some other companies copied the format, but they weren’t as good (and I haven’t even been able to find those, lately).
They also had chips cut like this…:
… which were delicious, but I can’t find a picture of a bag. 😭
Waffle fries aren’t that uncommon are they?
In the 1980s, Frito Lay test marketed a new extruded Cheeto-like product that was filled with an easy cheese filling. There was even a pbs documentary about it centered around how new snacks are made.
I wish I could remember the name of the snack and/or find the documentary online. They were yummy but they didn’t last long. I think there were like three different flavors and they were cut at an angle.
https://www.thedailymeal.com/1317712/discontinued-cheetos/
Not sure if those ever made an official release
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! 😆
- Philadelphia cheesecake bars
- squeezits
- tiny toons fruit snacks
- life saver popsicles
- mickey and friends popsicles
- string thing
Rice crispies treat cereal
Omg I have one. Sara Lee chocolate gateaux. It was this triple layer cake of delight, and my parents would buy it for every party back in the 90s. This was before chocolate got shit, so it was alllllll of the good stuff. Probably some cocaine in there too, who knows. I fucking miss that cake.
Dem Bones, my favorite trick or treat candy
Fanta green apple. I loved it, but Fanta killed it. Now I don’t drink Fanta.
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
Altoid sours
There’s a company that makes knock-off versions of them. They are called retro sours
