The ’80s had no shortage of weird and memorable snacks. Some were everywhere for a few years and then completely disappeared, while others stuck around long enough to become childhood favorites. From oversized cookies to sugary cereals and candy bars, plenty of them are still missed today. A trip through the discontinued snacks of the decade brings back some seriously nostalgic favorites.
Jell-O Pudding Pops
Jell-O Pudding Pops were literally frozen pudding on a stick, and people loved them for exactly that reason. They were thicker and creamier than a regular ice pop, especially the chocolate version.
Planters Cheez Balls
Planters Cheez Balls came in that big can with the yellow lid, which is probably just as memorable as the snack itself. Inside were little crunchy cheese balls that left your hands completely orange. Planters discontinued them in 2006 and later brought them back for a limited run.
Squeeze-It
Squeeze-It was basically brightly colored sugar water in a plastic bottle you had to squeeze to drink. The bottle was a huge part of why kids wanted it in the first place. Fruit juice was definitely not the main attraction.
Choco Taco
The Choco Taco took everything you’d normally put in an ice cream cone and rearranged it into a taco. It had vanilla ice cream, fudge, peanuts, chocolate, and a waffle shell. It came out in 1983 and lasted until 2022, so clearly the idea worked.
Pudding Roll-Ups
Pudding Roll-Ups took regular pudding and turned it into a thin, chewy sheet. Kids could peel it apart or just eat the whole thing straight from the wrapper. They didn’t stick around long, but anyone who had them seems to remember them.
Garbage Can-dy
Garbage Can-dy made eating trash part of the fun. The fruit-flavored candies came shaped like fish bones, shoes, bottles, and cans, all packed inside a tiny plastic garbage can. The little container was just as memorable as the candy itself.
Hostess Pudding Pie
Most handheld pies had fruit inside, but Hostess decided to fill these with pudding instead. Chocolate and vanilla were wrapped in pastry and covered with a sugary glaze. You’d bite through the firm coating and pastry before getting to the soft pudding in the middle.
Banana Frosted Flakes
Banana Frosted Flakes added crunchy banana pieces to the classic sugary cereal. The banana bits gave each bowl a little extra flavor and texture without changing the Frosted Flakes too much. The cereal had a short run, lasting from 1981 to 1984.
Oreo Big Stuf
Oreo Big Stuf took the classic cookie and made it several times bigger. Each oversized Oreo came individually wrapped and packed about 300 calories. The cookies were so large that dunking them in a regular glass of milk wasn’t exactly easy.
Giggles
Giggles stood out for the smiling faces stamped into every sandwich cookie. Each one had both vanilla and fudge creme inside, with chocolate, vanilla, and later peanut butter varieties available. The cookies disappeared from shelves by the end of the ’80s.
Peanut Butter Boppers
Peanut Butter Boppers had a creamy peanut butter center rolled in a crunchy coating. Nature Valley introduced them in 1985 in flavors like Fudge Chip, Honey Crisp, and Peanut Crunch. The individually wrapped bars were an easy snack to toss into a lunchbox.
Keebler Magic Middles
Magic Middles looked like regular shortbread cookies until you bit into one. Each cookie had a soft filling hidden inside, with chocolate fudge and peanut butter among the options.
Nerds Cereal
Nerds Cereal copied one of the best parts of the candy: the divided box. Each side held a different fruity flavor, so you could eat them separately or dump both into the same bowl. The cereal debuted in 1985 but was off shelves by the following year.
Rocky Road Cereal
Rocky Road Cereal turned the ice cream flavor into breakfast. The cereal mixed chocolate-covered corn pieces with nuts and marshmallows for a combination that was much closer to dessert than a sensible morning meal. General Mills sold it for only a few years in the late ’80s.
Nabisco Swiss Cheese Crackers
Nabisco Swiss Cheese Crackers were shaped like tiny slices of Swiss cheese, complete with holes. They had a crispy texture and plenty of cheesy flavor packed into each little square. Nabisco eventually discontinued them, leaving fans wishing they could grab another box.
Gatorgum
Gatorgum took the lemon-lime flavor associated with Gatorade and put it into chewing gum. It was tart, slightly salty, and marketed as a gum you could chew when you were thirsty. The flavor didn’t last particularly long, but it was definitely different from the usual fruit and mint gums.
Pepsi A.M.
Pepsi A.M. was introduced in 1989 with more caffeine than regular Pepsi. The idea was to give morning soda drinkers an alternative to their usual cup of coffee. It never really took off and disappeared from shelves not long after its debut.
Sunkist Fun Fruits
Fun Fruits were small, chewy fruit snacks that came in bright colors and different shapes. Sunkist sold them in individual packets that were easy to throw into a lunchbox. They were introduced in the 1980s and eventually disappeared as other fruit snacks took over.
Hershey’s Golden Almond Bar
Hershey’s Golden Almond Bar paired milk chocolate with whole roasted almonds. It came wrapped in shiny gold packaging that made it stand out from the company’s regular chocolate bars.
Alpine White
Nestlé Alpine White was a white chocolate bar filled with almonds. It arrived in 1986 and became recognizable for its fancy-looking wrapper and equally memorable commercials. By the early ’90s, it had disappeared from stores.
New York Seltzer
Original New York Seltzer came in small glass bottles with flavors like Vanilla Cream, Raspberry, Root Beer, and Black Cherry. The clear sodas had plenty of flavor without the usual artificial coloring. The brand was everywhere during the ’80s before fading in the following decade.
Golden Yangles
Golden Yangles were a rare Girl Scout snack that wasn’t actually a cookie. Introduced in 1981, they were puffed cheddar crackers with a slightly unusual ridged shape. They lasted until 1992 before disappearing from the Girl Scout lineup.
Jell-O 1-2-3
Jell-O 1-2-3 turned one simple mix into a three-layer dessert. As it chilled, it separated into layers with different textures, making it look much more complicated than it actually was. The dessert stuck around into the 1990s before eventually disappearing from stores.
Tato Skins
Keebler’s Tato Skins arrived in the mid-1980s with chips designed to capture the flavor of loaded potato skins. Varieties included flavors such as cheddar cheese, sour cream and chives, and barbecue, giving shoppers something a little different from an ordinary potato chip. The original Keebler version eventually disappeared after the product changed hands.
PB Max
For peanut butter fans, PB Max packed a lot into one candy bar: peanut butter, a cookie base, crunchy pieces, and a milk chocolate coating. Mars introduced the bar around the end of the 1980s, and it developed a following despite its relatively short existence.
Fruit Wrinkles
Fruit Wrinkles gave the decade’s growing fruit-snack category a strange but memorable twist. Rather than looking smooth and shiny, the little fruit pieces were intentionally wrinkled, making them resemble tiny dried fruits even though they were a packaged kids’ snack. They became a familiar lunchbox treat before ultimately disappearing from stores.
Carnation Breakfast Bars
Long before protein bars took over grocery store shelves, Carnation Breakfast Bars offered a convenient chocolate-coated morning snack. The bars combined crunchy ingredients with a chewy texture and were marketed as a quick alternative to sitting down for breakfast.
Slice
PepsiCo launched Slice in 1984 with an unusual selling point for soda: some varieties contained a small amount of real fruit juice. Orange Slice was the flagship, but the line expanded into flavors including lemon-lime, apple, cherry cola, and fruit punch.
Oatmeal Swirlers
General Mills tried making oatmeal a little more entertaining with Oatmeal Swirlers in 1988. Packages came with flavored jelly that kids could squeeze and swirl over the oatmeal themselves, turning breakfast into a tiny art project. The idea continued into the 1990s before the product was discontinued.
Kudos
Part granola bar and part candy bar, Kudos arrived in 1986 as a considerably more exciting alternative to plain granola. Different versions incorporated chocolate, candy pieces, nuts, and other sweet toppings, giving the bars a dessert-like edge despite their snack-bar format. Mars kept Kudos around for decades before eventually discontinuing the brand.
