13 Foods And Drinks From The '90s That We Don't Miss

If you grew up in the '70s, '80s, or even the '90s, there are likely so many snacks and foods from that decade that you're nostalgic for. The '90s in particular was packed with weird and wonderful foods.

Sadly, not every food from the '90s was memorable for the right reasons. From gum in a packet shaped like a pager (we don't know why either) to cereal with sprinkles and juice with floating gel spheres, there were some strange creations doing the rounds, that's for sure. For every one of the foods we miss from the decade, there are plenty of foods from the '90s that we wouldn't be sad if we never saw it again. Most of these have long since been discontinued, and you'll find Facebook pages and petitions dedicated to bringing some of them back. 

All of these foods have something in common, though — they're foods we don't miss. We've rounded up some of the long-gone foods from the '90s that we don't feel nostalgic for, from drinks to cereals and sweet and savory snacks.

This starry breakfast cereal from General Mills enjoyed a short-lived success on shelves in the 1990s. The star-shaped corn puffs, packed with sugar and coated in multicolored sprinkles hit stores in the early '90s and should have been an instant hit with kids. They weren't. In-fact, many people complained the cereal was just too sweet.

Sprinkle Spangles are perhaps best remembered for their mascot, the Sprinkles Genie, voiced by comedian Dom DeLuise, with his iconic catchphrase, "You wish it, I dish it." Many will remember the 1994 commercial marketing the cereal as "Every kids' wish come true." Sadly, despite their genie-inspired magic, Sprinkle Spangles were no more by 1998.

Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, and combining sweetened cereal with sugary sprinkles resulted in a bit too much sugar, even for those with a sweet tooth. We don't miss this cereal, and there are plenty of better options out there today, thankfully with less added sugar.

Before bubble tea was a thing, there was Orbitz, because who doesn't want a drink that looks like a lava lamp? Most people, it turns out. The whole concept of Orbitz was doomed from the start. It was a clear, still fruity drink, with floating, gravity-defying gel balls that made it look really unappealing. It might have seemed like a novelty to kids, but Orbitz was never a best-seller, launching in 1997 and being discontinued just a year later in 1998.

The fruit "orbs" made of food dye, gelatin, and artificial flavoring probably played a huge part in the demise of this '90s drink. People began to look for healthier alternatives, seeking out snacks and drinks without artificial flavorings or colorings thought to contribute to the risk of food hypersensitivity and allergies. 

The bizarre flavors may also have led to the drink being discontinued. Adding pineapple, coconut, banana, and cherry to one flavor was never going to be a success, and the strange ad campaigns proclaiming Orbitz as "the drink with balls" weren't exactly popular either. We don't miss this soft drink, and we'd be surprised if anybody else does either.

There may be a petition with over 45,000 signatures to bring Philadelphia Cheesecake Bars back, but this is one '90s food that we don't miss at all. Cake bars were a particularly popular trend, but cheesecake in a bar? It doesn't really work.

Snack bars are designed to be portable, but if the Philadelphia Cheesecake Bars got squashed or warm in a bag, they didn't look or taste particularly appetizing. Nevertheless, these bars were around for a fairly impressive four years from 1999 to 2003, and gathered their fair share of fans during that time. Apparently, production issues were the reason these were discontinued.

You could pick up these little snack bars in various flavors, but Strawberry Cheesecake was by far the most popular. These snack bars weren't even a particularly healthy choice, with each bar of the Strawberry Cheesecake variety packing a whopping 11 grams of fat, 15 grams of sugar, and 190 calories. We'd rather have a slice of home-made no-bake strawberry cheesecake, to be honest. Most of us aren't dreaming nostalgically of the day these bars make a comeback. But since the petition has so many signatures, never say never.

Cheetos Cracker Trax were a paw-shaped snack that was part cracker, part chip, and they came in two flavors: spicy cheddar and cheesy cheddar. While many people loved them when they first hit shelves in the early '90s, the paws themselves were pretty plain, with cheese seasoning on the top, rather than incorporated into the cracker itself.

Cracker Trax were discontinued in the mid-2000s, but that same year, Cheetos launched Paws, a new cheesy snack in, you guessed it, the same paw shapes as the original crackers. Unlike the original crackers, these new snacks used corn instead of wheat, so they're more like a chip than a cracker. A review on Amazon compares Cheetos Paws to old Planter's Cheese Balls, more of a cheese puff style snack, while another reviewer criticized the snacks for their lighter than air texture that made them "almost intangible."

We don't miss these bright orange cheesy paw-shaped cracker snacks one bit. Even if we did, there are loads of excellent alternatives out there. We'd sooner run out and grab a bag of Cheez-Its to satisfy our cheesy cracker craving than wish for these to return.

Fruit String Thing was one of the many fun fruit snacks for kids that popped up in the '90s, but its fruit content was debatable. Part of its charm was in the ways you could eat it. Kids loved to eat it like a noodle, slurping up the fruit flavor, or peel off the backing it came on and break bits off.

This questionably healthy snack came in Cherry, Strawberry, and Berry Blue flavors, and we can't deny that it was fun for kids to eat. That's about where the appeal ended though, as it packed some nasty additions like high fructose corn syrup into its long list of ingredients. This artificial sugar is linked to increased risk of fatty liver disease, as well as increasing the risk of weight gain and obesity, according to Healthline. It has since been removed from many popular products across the U.S.

Fruit String Thing vanished from store shelves in the early 2000s, and since then we haven't really thought about it, until now. Nowadays, we're lucky there are many more healthy snacks available to choose from that don't include high fructose corn syrup and other artificial additives.

Clear cola? That doesn't sound right, but Pepsi obviously thought removing both the color and the caffeine — and, some might say, the flavor — from this drink was a genius idea. 

Sadly, the company was wrong. Crystal Pepsi was one of the '90s biggest flops, and it didn't stick around for long. Introduced in 1992 as the world's first clear cola, it vanished two years later in 1994. Some people loved the clear drink, and we can't deny that the slogan, "You've never seen a taste like this," was both memorable and catchy. However, we're used to cola being a brown color, and taking out both the color and the caffeine was a bit of a shock.

The drink has had a couple of brief comebacks, once in 2016, and later in 2022, for its 30th-anniversary celebrations. The limited-edition release was actually part of a contest where Pepsi asked people to submit photos showing what they looked like in the '90s, with 300 winners receiving six bottles of Crystal Pepsi each. Today, there are several Facebook pages to bring back Crystal Pepsi, one with over 7,000 followers. You'll even find an Instagram account dedicated to the clear drink's revival.

So will we see Crystal Pepsi on store shelves again in future? We'll have to wait and see, but hopefully if it's re-released, Pepsi will improve the flavor first.

Kids have a long history of enjoying snacks that adults find gross, and Nestle's bug pops were no exception. These Disney-themed pops were released in 1995 alongside The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa spin-off show. A key part of the appeal of these popsicles was the packaging featuring Disney characters Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog, but inside the box you also got Lion King-themed cards. The popsicles themselves were definitely aimed at kids, with little bug-shaped gummies frozen inside each treat.

This wasn't the only bug-themed ice pop Nestle offered, as you could also buy Bugz popsicles around the same time. Just what was the obsession with eating bugs in the '90s? It seems like there are people out there who remember these fondly, with plenty of comments on Reddit reminiscing about the bug gummies being frozen hard inside the popsicles. Perhaps that made them tastier? We'd rather have a regular popsicle, minus the bugs, personally.

From bugs to slime, the '90s definitely was a unique time to be alive. Nickelodeon's Green Slime Icepops were "a deliciously goopy glob of frozen ooze" beloved by kids of the decade, but something we're more than happy to pass on as adults.

Available in a variety of flavors, from blue raspberry to watermelon and strawberry, these had a sour lemon and lime center that was admittedly quite delicious. Introduced in the late '90s, they were discontinued shortly afterwards. That wasn't the last we saw of slime-themed ice pops, though. In 2019, Walmart brought back a similar treat: Nickelodeon Slime ice cream cups and frozen bars. The ice cream cups featured vanilla ice cream with green "slime" swirls of icing, while the frozen bars came in creamy orange and lemon lime flavors. Fans of the original slime-y popsicles were probably delighted at this sort-of comeback. We're still not convinced that anybody really needs to eat food that involves slime in any form, though.

"I know what I need, a jug of bubble gum," said no kid ever. Yet Hubba Bubba's Bubble Jug was exactly that. A surprise hit when it first came out, probably due to its iconic neon pink container, which automatically ensured your status as the coolest kid in school. Kids loved the concept, too: little pieces of bubble gum mixed with fruity powdered candy.

Bubble Jug was first introduced in the '90s, but was discontinued before the decade was out. The brand itself, Hubba Bubba, was discontinued in the '90s in the U.S., though it made a comeback in 2004. The "Shake and chug" slogan from the front of Bubble Jug's packaging wasn't exactly the most appetizing idea around. Nevertheless, a number of petitions have sprung up online to bring back one of the decade's most bizarre creations, one with over 850 signatures.

Available in various fruity flavors like watermelon or tropical fruit, there are definitely plenty of weirder gum flavors out there. Still, we wouldn't mind if this never showed itself on store shelves again.

Remember Squeezit? If you grew up in the '90s, these colorful soft drinks in flavors like Chucklin' Cherry and Tropical Punch were sure to be packed in your lunchbox. Actually introduced in 1985, Squeezit stuck around until the early 2000s, and will always be an iconic part of the decade.

These fruity drinks came in a brightly colored, hourglass shaped plastic bottle, with a top you twisted and squeezed to remove. Squeezits weren't all bad. They didn't contain any artificial colors or flavors, and it's true that they did pack in real fruit juice, even if it was only 10%, with the rest of the drink made up of sugar and other ingredients. 

One of the reasons kids loved the Squeezit packaging so much was because an empty bottle doubled up as a makeshift squirt gun for water fights with friends and siblings. There are several Reddit posts where people reminisce about using the drink bottles as squirt guns.

With each bottle containing around 16 grams of sugar, as well as a preservative known as sodium benzoate, Squeezits may have been discontinued as healthier options came to market. Or it could simply be that the fruit drinks had lost popularity. Over the years there have been calls to bring back Squeezit, though most petitions out there seem to only have a handful of supporters. 

Bubble Beeper Gum was the gum every '90s kid wanted to be seen with. That had nothing to do with the gum itself and everything to do with the packaging it came in, which was designed to look like a beeper.

If you had this gum, you were automatically the coolest kid on the block, but Bubble Beeper was also steeped in controversy. In the '90s, beepers were commonly used by doctors and lawyers, or anybody who wanted to appear affluent and successful. Unfortunately, they were also the communication tool of choice for neighborhood drug dealers.

When kids finished the gum, many clipped the Bubble Beeper packaging to their belts as makeshift coin purses. What might have seemed like a harmless good idea at the time could actually have had the potential to go badly wrong. Luckily, there were no stories of kids being suspected of drug dealing for carrying a Bubble Beeper, that we could find, anyway.

Bubble Beeper beeped its last beep in the mid-90s, and we haven't seen it since. Okay, so the packaging was admittedly unique and memorable, but with all the controversy surrounding it — and the fact that the gum itself wasn't anything special — we can safely say we don't miss it at all.

What looks kind of gross, is kind of gross, and divided folks in the '90s? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) Pies. Was it their shiny bright green sugary pie crust that disturbed us most? Or their oozy "mutagen goo" vanilla pudding center? We can't decide, but we weren't shouting "Cowabunga!" over this "Fresh from the sewers" treat at all.

Not only did these little pies, which, yes, did resemble our heroes in a half shell look pretty unappealing, but they didn't taste all that amazing, either. The vanilla pudding center was dangerously sweet, and with the sugary pie shell, it was a bit much even if you had a sweet tooth. That might explain why TMNT Pies weren't around all that long, arriving on shelves in 1991 and vanishing for good in 1993. Some people clearly miss them though, with various petitions and social media pages begging Hostess for the pies to be resurrected.

The artificial colorings in TMNT pies may also have had something to do with the demise of this snack. However, it could just be that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' popularity died down after the three movies in the '90s. Whatever the reason these treats vanished from shelves, we definitely don't miss them. We can't really see them making a comeback today, either. That would require the recipe to be reformulated in order to remove some of the sugar and artificial additives.

First introduced in the 1980s, Giggles Cookies were shortbread cookies with cut-out smiley faces, sandwiched with fudge and vanilla creme. They tasted good, but their smiley faces were undeniably a bit creepy. Not as creepy as the 1987 commercial, though, in which a boy and his brother giggle uncontrollably at the laughing faces on the cookies.

Giggles Cookies vanished sometime around the early 1990s, but they live on through social media sites and forums, with plenty of nostalgic posts about them on Reddit. In the U.K., Similar cookies, known as Happy Faces, were around until 2020, though where the American cookies packed two types of cream filling, the U.K. variety was filled with raspberry jam and vanilla cream and was manufactured by United Biscuits. 

These cookies might have been inspired by another popular U.K. biscuit known as Jammie Dodgers, which first landed on supermarket shelves over 60 years ago. These shortbread cookies didn't have smiley faces though — they were simply sandwiched with jam, with a cut out heart. With the popularity of emojis today, the time seems ripe for Giggles cookies to reappear. But will we ever see the originals return to shelves? We're not too bothered either way.