# snacks/beverages you DONT miss from childhood **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2018, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427 "2018-12-02T01:31:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/21 "2018-12-03T02:28:00Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Necco wafers. Yuk! Dry wall compound, flavored and colored by the chalk from school art rooms. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/22 "2018-12-03T05:16:03Z")
I remember as a little kid, I thought that a nice little treat was just a slice of Kraft American “Cheese”. I would unwrap it and chow down on it, plain. The thought is nearly nauseating to me now. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/23 "2018-12-03T05:35:46Z")
Has anybody tried Postum? I did. Once. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/24 "2018-12-03T05:41:29Z")
> [@Alpha\_Twit](#): > > I remember as a little kid, I thought that a nice little treat was just a slice of Kraft American “Cheese”. I would unwrap it and chow down on it, plain. The thought is nearly nauseating to me now. Yeah, especially because I know now what REAL cheese is supposed to look, smell, taste, and even feel like. I love Necco wafers, especially the dark gray ones. I thought they were licorice-flavored but have since found out that it’s actually clove. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/25 "2018-12-03T09:39:25Z")
‘Orange [squash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_(drink))’. I presume the ‘orange’ came from the colour, it had nothing to do with the taste, which was like battery acid with a touch of artificial sweetener. I will point out there are nice brands, some of which have even encountered an actual fruit, but not this stuff. My mother used to buy 4l bottles of concentrate of this rank fluid from some wholesalers, which approximates to 5 or 6 months worth of disappointment for two children. I was given a flask of it daily for school, which the school insisted I had to drink. I would rather have had plain tap water, but school rules said you had to eat and drink what your parents had sent. Because the bottle was so huge and took so long to get through, my mother would apparently forget how much me and my brother (who treacherously went to big school before me, leaving me to face it by myself after a while) hated it by the time it was nearly empty. She’d then buy another, and when faced with my horror, would declare ‘Well, you need to drink this one before I buy anything else, I’m not wasting it’… Repeat every 6 months. It wouldn’t have been wasting it to pour it down the drain. Its very existence was a waste. This torment only stopped when they started serving it to customers as a kids’ drink at their business and everyone complained, at which point she asked me why I never said anything about how bad it was :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/26 "2018-12-03T10:50:06Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I don’t miss Kool-Aid or that green Hi-C. Hi-C was alright. But I remember seeing a commercial for [Yabba Dabba Dew](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPWQ3u5ZjjQ) and begging my folks to get it. It was disgusting. I was about 10 and after 1 glass of it I wouldn’t drink any more. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/27 "2018-12-03T11:48:00Z")
There was some fizzing concoction that didn’t really have a flavour, it just went crackly-bang on my tongue. It made me feel unwell. Also M&Ms and anything similar (we had versions called both Smarties and Pebbles before M&Ms were available) give me a godawful terrible headache. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/28 "2018-12-03T12:13:20Z")
Growing up in a mostly Jewish neighborhood, my friends’ moms were always offering Halvah, an incredibly rich sesame based candy. A tiny bite was delicious, but they’d give me a three year supply as an afternoon treat. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/29 "2018-12-03T13:36:37Z")
Frozen concentrated orange juice, which had to be mixed with water in a pitcher. Fresh squeezed orange juice was a very rare luxury, only a few times a year, until as an adult I just bought a damn juicer. Now I haven’t drank concentrated orange juice in many years, or even the modern “not from concentrate stuff” in a few years. Fresh squeezed is worth the effort. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/30 "2018-12-03T14:56:22Z")
I can’t remember the name of the product, but in the late ’80s there was a gum that came in cute little pillow-shaped portions. At some point, the manufacturer starting filling them with nasty goo. I didn’t want to tell my Mom about this change for some reason (I think the gum itself was still really good?), so I would try to spit as much of the goo as possible into a tissue. She caught me and yelled at me for making a mess, thinking that I was just playing with the gum. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I love Necco wafers, especially the dark gray ones. I thought they were licorice-flavored but have since found out that it’s actually clove. The gray ones are licorice…the purple ones are clove. If there’s too much powder (corn starch?) in the roll, the clove can look very gray though. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/31 "2018-12-03T15:44:53Z")
-Necco Wafers -Smarties -Peanut butter kisses (orange and black wrapped crappy Halloween candy) -Christmas candy - the round white disc with red and white stripes on the edge and a green Christmas tree in the middle. Some kind of chewy maybe spearmint flavored crap. -Twinkies -Any chocolate cereal -We were another family that had to TRY powdered milk for a while to save money. Did milk get really expensive at some point in the 60s or early 70s? It was horrible. I can still smell and taste it. My mom was defeated on that front. No one would drink it. Sugar-coated cereal didn’t even mask the taste. -ang - I tried to like it -Spumoni - my Italian grandma always had a carton of it in the freezer. She was very disappointed that I wouldn’t eat it. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/32 "2018-12-03T18:06:12Z")
I wasn’t big on sweets as a kid, but didn’t really dislike them with the exception of two: circus peanuts and marshmallow peeps. Poor texture, poor taste; one too unnatural, the other way way too sweet. To this day I would rather have a piece of nice ripe fruit (except for ice cream!) ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/33 "2018-12-03T19:08:41Z")
Most of the really cheap candies already mentioned: (marshmallow) peanuts, peeps, those waxy bottle pops and wax lips (I mean, wtf?). I’ll add candy corns to the list, as well as cheap, waxy caramels. I thought that I hated actual coconut (not the flavor itself, but the shavings that sometimes topped cakes/confections), until I tasted halfway-decent to good quality products made with coconut. Love a good macaroon. So no, never liked Sno Balls. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/34 "2018-12-03T19:42:43Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I don’t miss Kool-Aid or that green Hi-C. Ecto Cooler! No! How dare you! I do agree it’s got a weird flavor. Always thought that about SunnyD as well. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/35 "2018-12-03T19:55:02Z")
I don’t miss Funny Face Drinks > **[Funny Face (drink mix)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Face_(drink_mix))** > > Funny Face was a brand of powdered drink mix originally made and publicly sold by the Pillsbury Company\[A\] from 1964 to 1994, and in limited productions (mainly in the Midwestern and New England regions of the U.S.A.) from 1994 to 2001. The brand was introduced as competition to the similar (and more familiar and better-selling) Kool-Aid made by Kraft Foods. The product came in assorted flavors sweetened with artificial sweetener,\[B\] and was mixed with water to make a beverage. > The product name... These competitors to Kool Aid were from Pillsbury. as the Wikipedia article points out, two of them were quickly seen as kinda racist – Chinese Cherry and Injun Orange (they were quickly replaced by Choo Choo Cherry and Jolly Olly Orange), but that’s not the reason I hated them. They were made with artificial sweeteners, and I hated the aftertaste of those. I’m sure the reason they used artificial sweetener was because it was less bulky than packaging it with sugar – compare equal-sized portions of Jello with sugar and Jello with artificial sweetener – the sugar-containing package is HUGE compared to the diet one. That’s the reason that Kool-Aid insisted you add your own sugar. (For a brief time, Funny Face drink mix DID contain sugar, but that didn’t last long). They weren’t worried about kids drinking too much sugar – they were concerned about paying for shipping it. I guess they figured that if they already contained sweetener, even artificial sweetener, that gave them a convenience advantage over Kool aid. But I hated the stuff. I wasn’t fond of Fizzies, either. And Fizzies used artificial sweetener for the same reason – the tablets would’ve been a lot bigger if required to hold the needed sugar. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/36 "2018-12-03T20:06:46Z")
I never liked Kool-Aid. My mom made Country Time lemonade from a mix instead. She kept cans of Hawaiian Punch in the fridge too. Tried Horehound candy one time. Never again! ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/37 "2018-12-03T20:12:40Z")
For a while in the 80’s every old person had a bowl of sugar-free hard candy. It was really just a bowl of disappointment to a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/38 "2018-12-03T20:34:16Z")
Sugar Daddy: concrete on a stick and cheap tooth extractor. Sugar Babies were marginally better. Walnettos Necco Wafers Malted Milk Balls Big Hunk candy bars, followed by Look candy bars, which were just Big Hunks coated with chocolate. Also good for tooth extraction. Pez ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/39 "2018-12-03T20:41:14Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > For a while in the 80’s every old person had a bowl of sugar-free hard candy. It was really just a bowl of disappointment to a kid. I suffered through this because I have problems that were just thought to be hyperactivity so no candy with sugar in it ……told grandma just not to bother…… and koolaid wit h sweet n low …yuck They sell pre sweetened Kool-Aid in plastic jars with scoops so you have enough for a month and can measure out how much you want But anyone remember the old 2 quart "sugar added " koolaid packet? that thing was huge and weighed a pound and actually cost a dollar or more … (in 1983 a kool-aid packet normally costs 15 cents or less ) they only did it for about 4 or 5 flavors mom decided I could just learn to measure because buying it that way cost more than a 5 pound bag of sugar ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427/40 "2018-12-03T20:44:05Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I don’t miss Funny Face Drinks > > [Funny Face (drink mix) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Face_(drink_mix)) > > These competitors to Kool Aid were from Pillsbury. as the Wikipedia article points out, two of them were quickly seen as kinda racist – Chinese Cherry and Injun Orange (they were quickly replaced by Choo Choo Cherry and Jolly Olly Orange), but that’s not the reason I hated them. They were made with artificial sweeteners, and I hated the aftertaste of those. > I’m sure the reason they used artificial sweetener was because it was less bulky than packaging it with sugar – compare equal-sized portions of Jello with sugar and Jello with artificial sweetener – the sugar-containing package is HUGE compared to the diet one. That’s the reason that Kool-Aid insisted you add your own sugar. (For a brief time, Funny Face drink mix DID contain sugar, but that didn’t last long). They weren’t worried about kids drinking too much sugar – they were concerned about paying for shipping it. I guess they figured that if they already contained sweetener, even artificial sweetener, that gave them a convenience advantage over Kool aid. But I hated the stuff. > I wasn’t fond of Fizzies, either. And Fizzies used artificial sweetener for the same reason – the tablets would’ve been a lot bigger if required to hold the needed sugar. Artificial sweeteners were used because, unlike sugar, they didn’t rot teeth and make people fat. Funny Face and Fizzies originally used cyclamate as their artificial sweetener until it was banned by the FDA in 1970 for causing cancer. As a replacement, the manufacturers turned to saccharine which has a bitter gag-inducing aftertaste. I’m guessing that probably why you didn’t like Funny Face and Fizzies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snacks-beverages-you-dont-miss-from-childhood/825427.md?page=3)