13 Foods From The '90s We Need To Bring Back

While it may feel like it was just yesterday to some of us, the start of the '90s brought about an electric decade of pop culture, colorful fashion, and, of course, magical snacks. It was no doubt a pivotal time for millennials, and even Gen-Z caught the end of the decade and carried the torch into the early 2000s. Needless to say, there are a variety of childhood snacks that haunt our memories from over 30 years ago. (Sorry if we're making you feel old.)

Questionable ingredients and outlandish product concepts aside, a lot of these snacks are sorely missed. The select few that have made a brief reappearance over the years fueled a sense of nostalgia, but what if they made a more permanent comeback? This walk down memory lane aims to not only stir up snack flashbacks from the long-term memory of readers, but to voice our desire for these snacks to return to the market. It's time to shake up those memory banks and cater to your inner child with these foods from the '90s that need to be brought back. 

Is there truly anything as wondrous as the Wonder Ball? Originally called Nestle "Magic Balls" each milk chocolate sphere was completely hollow inside, making room for a surprise in the form of a small toy — often Disney figurines from new movies coming out at the time, like "Hercules," "Aladdin," "101 Dalmatians," or "The Lion King." You had to just crack it open to find out what you got and enjoy the chocolate fragments thereafter. But while there was a lot of celebration around this popular candy, there was also just as much criticism. According to the LA Times, Magic Balls were pulled by Nestle in the late '90s because the small toy posed a choking hazard and conflicted with a 1938 federal law about inedible items placed in food.

All hope was not lost for the Magic Ball, though. While it started behind the metaphorical chocolate eight ball, Nestle reinvented and rebranded Magic Ball into Wonder Ball in the early 2000s. The new version entailed the same hollow chocolate design, but the balls were filled with candy. Philadelphia-based Frankford Candy & Chocolate Company acquired Wonder Ball in 2004 and revitalized the product by bringing it back for fans in 2016.

Before there was Nike's "Just do it," there was Squeezit's "Just squeeze it" slogan that beckoned you to crack open a cold one –– a cold fruit drink, that is. On hot summer days, nothing beat twisting the top off of a Squeezit and sipping on the icy, sickly sweet "juice." If nothing else, these fruit drinks could be easily recognized with their unique twist-and-tear-off tops, squeezable design, and the cheery variety of rainbow of liquids offered. Squeezit came onto the scene in 1985 with "unbreakable" plastic bottles perfect for throwing into a lunchbox before heading to school. These bottles were eventually redesigned to feature characters related to the flavors, like Smarty Arty Orange and Silly Billy Strawberry.

The '90s were prime time for Squeezit Fruit Drinks, but the drink didn't make it past the turn of the century. General Mills, the parent brand behind the company, decided to close up shop and thus, Squeezeit's chapter came to a close in 2001. There was a glimmer of hope when Squeezits reappeared for a short time in 2006, but they were ultimately discontinued the following year.

Tongue Splashers Bubble Gum was one surefire way to paint the town bright colors. In this case, "the town" serves as a metaphor for your tongue. Complete with a package that resembled a paint can, this unnaturally bright candy required a bit of chewing to dye your tongue bright red, blue, purple, orange, or green. While the taste was probably more sugary than fruity, it was a smash hit amongst kids –– so much so that it was often banned in schools. Nonetheless, it surged in popularity with its kitschy cool branding and of course, "painting" abilities. As one Reddit user reminisces, "Maaaaaan does this bring back some memories. I always wanted this because of how cool the paint container was, great child marketing."

Tongue Splashers were produced by Concord Confections, the same company behind another infamous gum brand — Dubble Bubble. While Tongue Splashers has become more of a collector's item, Dubble Bubble now produces a similar product called Painterz. While not quite the same, it's better than nothing. If you're dead set on finding the original, there are eBay listings aplenty selling these distinguished candy paint cans. Just don't eat them. 

Remember when you arrived at school lunch eager to see what today's pre-packed menu had to offer in your lunchbox? One of the most exciting snacks of the day was brightly hued spherical fruit snacks that came in a variety of flavors like Island Explosion, Strawberry Slam, Watermelon Burst, Crazy Berries, and Berry-Berry Banana. Kellogg's Yogos involved yogurt-covered "fruit flavored bits" offering a creamy texture that coated your mouth with an artificial berry aftertaste, and it was absolutely delicious.

The snack's run was relatively short-lived as it was shuttered in 2010. The demise of the snack could be equated to a number of possible factors, like high amounts of sugar (a whopping 15 grams per serving) and money for production costs. Whatever the reason might've been, there hasn't been another yogurt fruit snack able to achieve what Yogos did for consumers. And while fans are pleading for the company to yield Yogos once more, Kellogg's has stated via social media that the snack isn't going to be making a comeback in the foreseeable future.

Hershey's Kisses are a candy staple — instantly recognizable with their teardrop shape, silver aluminum foil wrap, and labeled paper sticking out of the top. The original underwent a remix in the '90s with Hershey's Kissables, a much more miniature and colorful version of its predecessor. The design involved the same teardrop shape and signature Hershey's chocolate, but these chocolate drops came in a rainbow candy coating, plus they were smaller. Were Kissables simply candy-coated chocolate chips? Pretty much. But for a time, Hershey's had fans eating these out of their hands.

Why didn't they stick around longer if they were so popular? According to Fast Company, a reformulation of the candy proved to be its downfall. To save a chunk of change, Hershey's opted to use fillers other than cocoa butter, which ended up changing the taste. Customers weren't fooled, and by 2009, the time of the Kissables had come to a close. But with petitions to call for a return surfacing, maybe the prodigal candy will return sooner rather than later.

Gripz Snacks were "mighty tiny" renditions of other popular baked snacks like Cheez-Its and Chips Ahoy cookies. While small, these bite-sized renditions of Cheez-Its were spot on with their cheesy flavor and orange hue, and the buttery-sweet vibes you got from Gripz Chips Ahoy made it hard to believe you were eating a bunch of downsized cookies. Even the Gripz packaging design was purposeful, as it was made to be portable and easily opened with a rip-away corner. Given the smaller snack size, one pouch could range between 120 to 150 calories. 

There's good news and some bad news. Starting with the good news — the Gripz are back, believe it or not, and have been back for a minute. While there has been some confusion among customers if it was truly still around, the brand is once again available online. Bad news: Expect either a difficult time tracking down some flavors (namely, Chips Deluxe) or ludicrous prices like this 24-count box going for over $28 on Amazon –– $1.18 per bag is kind of a lot to pay for Gripz, y'all.

As the Trix slogan goes, "Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids!" For those who are still kids at heart, the good news is that Trix yogurts have been revived. As you probably remember from back in the day, these colorful, sugary treats always hit the spot when you raided your fridge for a snack. One of Trix's premier products, these bright, dual-tone yogurts featured a visual "swirl" that promised refreshing sweetness, especially with the original flavors that varied from cotton candy to strawberry banana bash. As time would tell, these Trix Swirl yogurts were ultimately discontinued in 1999.

This pattern of on-and-off-again discontinuing continued through the early 2000s, as parent company General Mills did not push production of Trix yogurts forward. However, in 2021, Yoplait, who had taken the helm of Trix, announced the return of Trix Yogurts on social media to the delight of fans. However, there's a catch. The triumphant return of the Trix Yogurt was kind of a letdown, as it doesn't include the original flavors many remember. Instead, you get two flavor options –– strawberry and berry –– which is still better than no Trix yogurt options at all. But for those that miss the original flavors, alas, they must still wait for its return.

When you think of beverages that contain tiny, chewy pearls, the first thing that comes to mind is bubble tea, right? But there was another spherical beverage the '90s offered consumers –– the Orbitz. Tiny multicolored gel droplets hovered in a mix of sweetened, fruit-flavored, gellan gum-laden water, complete with outer space branding. The drink that supposedly came straight from "Planet Orbitz" had its own unique taste and texture with flavors like pineapple banana cherry coconut and vanilla orange. However, according to some accounts, Orbitz didn't exactly nail its flavors, and ended up with drinks more reminiscent of cough syrup than flavored natural spring water.

In the end, Orbitz had a pretty short run. The drink was introduced to the market in 1996 by Clearly Canadian and subsequently pulled from the market in 1999 due to lackluster performance.  Even though its initial appearance was brief, it still was enough time to create a fan following. And as the saying goes, if at first, you don't succeed, try, try again ... and it might be high time to try Orbitz again.

These gummies were truly "Sodalicious" and General Mills was putting out banger after banger during the '90s and early 2000s. One of the superstar products was Sodalicious gummies, formulated to taste just like your favorite soda. Flavors included cherry cola, root beer, and lemon-lime, providing an alternative, chewier iteration of classic soda flavors. The various flavors came in shapes like soda bottles and mugs. What made them truly "pop" stars was the specialized coating meant to mimic the individual flavors' unique texture and as General Mills puts it, "[a] tingling sensation similar to what [people] would experience drinking a soda pop."    

Sodalicious made its market entry in 1991 and had guest appearances from brands like 7Up to add their distinct soda flavors to the gummies. But by 1998 the product had "fizzled out" and retired from the parent brand's snack lineup. For the '90s kids that are now adults and love a soda for a little treat, bringing these back truly would be the treat.

It's a fruit snack but it's also a ... string? The '90s was a time of out-of-the-box ideas, and the Fruit String Things were no different. Among the gummy gushers, rollups, and stackers, it's not shocking that Betty Crocker decided to launch this simplified string snack in 1994. Depending on the box you got, the Fruit String Thing could be laid out in a design or rolled up for you to create your own artistic interpretation ... or consumption, if such was your preference. Because it was formulated to be malleable, General Mills stated that the snack "could also be twisted, braided, tied in knots, or played with in any number of ways" before eating. Parents were surely thrilled with the sticky residue kids left behind on cars and furniture after gobbling up Fruit String Things. 

Fruit String Things did not stand the test of time the same way General Mills and Betty Crocker's other fruit snack products did, as it was put on the high shelf for good in the early 2000s. While there are some candies out today like Haribo's Sour S'ghetti or red licorice laces, they don't have the elaborate presentation or distinct fruity taste Fruit String Thing did.

Butterfinger BB's were the baby, bite-sized version of the popular candy bar. From 1992 to 2006, Butterfinger BB's let fans get a literal single bite of chocolate with the flaky, buttery wafer interior the candy is known for. Instead of going to town on a full-sized candy bar or even the more miniature fun-sized versions often distributed to trick-or-treaters, these chocolate-enrobed crunchies let you get the whole experience. They were perfect with ice cream, baked into desserts, or enjoyed straight out of the box. Nestlé was on the receiving end of a lot of uproar over discontinuing the BB's, so in 2009 the Butterfinger bites were relaunched ... sort of. The new Butterfinger BB's were just another miniature version of the candy, but still not quite the original BB's fans were asking for.

These days, Butterfinger is now owned by Ferrero North America, which has made various recipe and packaging improvements to the brand. As fans continue to petition for this beloved candy to reappear, maybe it's one more change Ferrero can take into account.

General Mills was a, if not the, kingpin behind some of the most popular snacks of the '90s–– particularly of the fruit snack variety. Scooby Snack fruit snacks were one of the most popular options available within General Mills' subsidiary company, Betty Crocker. Each gummy resembled cartoon characters from the show, including Shaggy, Scooby, Velma, Fred, and Daphne. And, yes, each gummy's color coordinated with the character's outfit from the show –– a nice detail on Betty Crocker's part. Arguably the best gummy of the pack was the bright blue Scooby Doo, with a slightly creamy berry taste to it.

No good thing lasts forever, though, and after a long run with the iconic bright blue formulation, General Mills announced in 2015 that it was doing away with the original formula. This was in an effort to eliminate artificial flavors and colors in favor of healthier alternatives. While the change was made with consumer health in mind, needless to say, the overall taste of Scooby-Doo! Gummies were changed forever, and the legendary blue gummy retired. Even with petitions from fans to revert back to the old ways (despite potentially unhealthy ingredients in the original recipe), it's unlikely that Betty Crocker will change course. 

A little bit of sprinkles seems to make everything better, so adding it to breakfast cereal really was the best way to start the day for kids in the early '90s. On top of their other fruit gummies, snacks, and cereal creations, General Mills also had Sprinkle Spangles cereal in their arsenal. According to the brand, this star-shaped corn-puffed cereal mimicked a sugar cookie dusted with circular rainbow sprinkles and was the first cereal to include sprinkles at the time. The cereal was only a wish-come-true for a moment and may be a distant memory for some, as it launched in 1993 and was taken off the market nine months later in mid-1994. Since the cereal's motto was, "You wish it, I dish it," as promised by its purple Sprinkle Genie mascot, perhaps fans can wish upon a star (a Sprinkle Spangle star, that is) once more for it to return.