Tired of trying to eat healthy during quarantine? Why not go the complete opposite way and have a pig-out day, where you indulge in the snacks of your childhood, when times were inarguably simpler and easier (and you were able to leave your house). Yes, those times we’re talking about the 1990s, which was a truly magical time if you ask us.
Think about it: Michael Jordan was unstoppable, a little bit of Erica was by everyone’s side, and there was only one major scandal coming out of the White House. The biggest question people were plagued by was, what did it mean to really live la vida loca?
The best part of the ’90s, though? If you were a kid, the answer is definitely snacks. It didn’t matter if you loved sugar or really loved sugar, in the ’90s, you were golden.
As with everything in life, though, things fade away, relegated to the dusty, cobwebbed minds of people now attempting to figure out what it means to “adult.” Gone is the purple ketchup (thankfully, in that case) and the Fruit String Things, but some of the best ’90s snacks are still available in this day and age — and we’re not talking about packages that were produced in the ’90s and have just spent the last the decades sitting on eBay lists, either).
In order to get a jolt of nostalgia, we searched for these snacks and found many of them online. Our suggestion? Put on your favorite one-hit wonder from the 1990s (How Bizarre works, or Butterfly by Crazy Town will do), order every snack below, and get ready for a blast to the past.
A quick note on Dunkaroos: While they’ve been available in Canada, they are officially coming back Stateside this summer. You can read the release about it here.
Gushers
Who didn’t love fruit snacks as a kid, especially when they were Gushers? Sure, you could have regular fruit snacks, but these exploded in your mouth when you ate them. Not only were you getting a sugar rush from the “elongated hexagonal bipyramids” (yes, that is their actual shape), but then you got even more sugar as soon as you bit down. How did parents deal the amount of sugar kids took in? By not helicoptering, that’s how.
Fruit By The Foot
1991 was a good year for fruit snacks. Not only did the world get Gushers, but it also got Fruit By The Foot. Clocking in at approximately three feet long and offered in a variety of flavors (as well as some editions that featured two flavors and tongue tattoos), you could do everything with it, from rolling it up in a ball and sticking it in your cheek to wrapping it around another snack for a double dose of flavored sugar at once. If you wanted to annoy friends, you could always hit them with it, but then you’d probably get cooties on your snack and no one wants that.
Ritz Handi-Snacks Crackers and Cheez
Like Dunkaroos, these Handi-Snacks had two basic camps: One made sandwiches and one pounded the crackers before, again, spooning the dip into your mouth. This time, at least spooners had the added benefit of the little red stick to help out. Either way, this mix of fake cheese and buttery Ritz crackers could not be beat at snack time.
Reptar Bars
The real question when it comes to Reptar bars is: “Who didn’t want a Reptar Bar” in the 1990s? (Okay, if you didn’t watch Rugrats you probably didn’t care, but c’est la vie.) The bar that was named after the Rugrats Godzilla knockoff and turned your mouth green wasn’t exactly a widespread commodity back in the 90s, but thanks to music chain FYE (never thought we’d say that in a sentence), the Reptar Bar lives.
These, obviously, weren’t the only popular snacks in the ’90s, but the snacks above all have one thing in common: They were first produced in the 1990s. The following snacks are all amazing and equally enjoyed in the 1990s; they simply came out before the decade started.
Oatmeal Crème Pies
By the time the 1990s hit, Oatmeal Crème Pies were already in their 30s. Who cares, though, when they’re so damn delicious? You may not know how to pronounce most of the ingredients, but that shouldn’t stop you from stacking two pies on top of each other and going to town.
Bugles
Another old-timer, Bugles have been giving people witch fingers since the 1960s. Produced in a variety of flavors, these are incredibly hard to put down once you start eating. Not that we know from experience …
Pop Rocks
Is there really anything we can say that can improve on Pop Rocks? They’re made of sugar, they’re brightly colored, they make noise, and there’s an urban legend that says mixing them with Coca Cola will kill you. That’s basically the ’90s in a nutshell.
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