Fruitopia: The Discontinued '90s Drink That Headlined The Hippie Revival

Today, 1990s nostalgia is creeping into music, fashion, and food (although there are certainly some foods we wish would stay in their '90s graves). But travel back to that decade, and it was the spirit of the '60s that held people's hearts, exemplified by not one, but two attempts to relive the glory of 1969's Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Hippie nostalgia also took over the beverage world with the launch of a product that simultaneously captured a sense of flower power and voracious capitalism — the strange drink known as Fruitopia.

Fruitopia, a name that took the simple concept of juice and elevated it with the peace-and-love ideal for society, was unlike any other beverage on the market. Every flavor bore a surreal name, like Tangerine Wavelength, Citrus Consciousness, and Strawberry Passion Awareness. Commercials for the drink featured phrases ranging from the new-agey "Peace and love" and "Refresh your soul" to the more bizarre "Apples and pineapples don't fight in fruit integration. People could learn a lot from fruit." 

Much like the hippie revival of the '90s, Fruitopia was a fleeting thing, now absent from our shelves. Well, mostly. The drink survives in certain corners of the world, and it maintains an ardent fandom. So what exactly was Fruitopia, and where did it go?

The culinary world of the 1990s dovetailed neatly with new-age ideals thanks to a growing focus on healthy, natural foods. As people turned a critical eye towards heavily-processed, sugary products, soda lost its longstanding appeal and options that were healthier (or at least perceived that way) gained favor. The most notable of these brands was Snapple, whose marketing declared it was "made from the best stuff on earth." Snapple was a huge success, with its sales rapidly rising throughout the early '90s at the same time that cola sales were falling. This didn't sit well with the Coca-Cola Company, whose executives decided that they needed a new product to keep up with the competition.

By 1994, Snapple was the centerpiece of what the New York Times called the "'alternative' or 'new-age,' beverage market," but in March of that year, Coca-Cola announced that it too would join the space with Fruitopia. Wary of the public's growing aversion to soda, Coke executives released Fruitopia under their Minute Maid subsidiary, which already had credit in the juice world. But calling Fruitopia "juice" is pretty generous. Each flavor ranged from just 10-25% actual fruit juice, while the bulk of the beverage was composed of water, sugar, and high-fructose corn syrup. Nevertheless, Fruitopia projected healthful ideals through its advertising, including a series of commerical jingles performed by Kate Bush, one of which simply declared "Hey! Hey! Juice!" But as with all utopian dreams, this one couldn't last.

Fruitopia's marketing was handled by Sergio Zyman, most famous for his role in the abject failure that was New Coke. Zyman brought in a creative ad agency called Chiat/Day, who'd made commercials for Apple. It was under this team that Fruitopia adopted its quirky flavor names, new-age slogans, and Kate Bush jingles. By packing Fruitopia into vending machines at schools and recreation centers, they cornered the youth market, and before the decade was out, the drink had earned pop culture references from "The Simpsons" and a biography of Leonardo DiCaprio, which identified it as the young star's favorite beverage.

However, in 1995, Chiat/Day was acquired by Omnicom, a firm that already worked with Coke's bitter rival Pepsi. Fruitopia was handed to a different ad agency, Leo Burnett, which unveiled a new slogan — "find your own Fruitopia" — and promptly earned a complaint from Saab, which felt its "find your own road" tagline had been ripped off. Fruitopia's follow-ups — "Fruit unite. Refreshment happens" and "Fruitopia. We just want to make you feel good" — felt bland compared to the original tone. 

As the '90s came to a close, the branding switched in an ill-fated attempt to capture extreme sports fans, introducing Beachside Blast as a flavor and changing Citrus Consciousness to Citrus Excursion. In 2003, Coca-Cola gave up, discontinuing Fruitopia in the U.S. You can still find it in Canada, or order it online, although a single liter on Amazon goes for as much as $60.