90s Snacks We Want Back

Growing up in the 1990s meant surfing the internet on those AOL discs

watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Saved by the Bell, and playing GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64

And when it came to snacking, it meant having some of the greatest choices ever known to human children

If, that is, you could convince your parents to buy them. So today, we're unwrapping some 90s snack foods we want back

Okay, somebody throw on some Oasis. Released in 1990, Nestle's push-up pops were basically just sherbet and a cardboard tube

that came equipped with something akin to a built-in plunger, which was used to push the

sherbet up. And they were yabba-dabba delicious, by which we mean they were bedazzled with Flintstones

characters. Flintstones' push-ups seemed to disappear from the shelves at the end of the

decade, but in reality, Nestle had simply ended its branding deal with the cartoon's producers

Push-ups are actually still out there in your grocer's freezer just without Fred's smiling face on them

First released in 1988, Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape, a variation on the Hubba Bubba Gum brand, exploded in the 1990s

Uh, not literally. It just got really popular. Apparently, kids were really into measuring things

But whatever the reason, the popularity of bubble tape was probably more related to its famous marketing campaign, which told kids

It's six feet of bubble gum for you, not them. Them, in this case, is meant to refer to adults

So the slogan was basically saying, this gum is going to piss off your parents. It worked like the Pied Piper's flute

and the manufacturer found themselves making a million packages of the stuff a week

at the height of its popularity. Although the idea of so-called fruit leather actually goes back at least back to the turn of the 20th century

General Mills didn't introduce the world to fruit roll-ups until 1983. Once they did, though, the snack, which was basically just fruit-flavored corn syrup

dried in a flat circular shape on a piece of cellophane, could quickly be found in almost every supermarket in America

For a brief time, between 1994 and 1996, General Mills partnered up with Nickelodeon to make fruit roll-ups

that were branded with animated characters from shows like Doug, Rocco's Modern Life, and Ah! Real Monsters

There was even a limited-edition slimy-grimy green flavor celebrating the network's infamous green slime

The end result looked like chowing down on a square of Shrek's pelt. Who wouldn't want to eat that

Manufactured by the Topps Company who have primarily made baseball cards packaged with inedible gum for most of human history Push Pops were a staple snack of 90s kids Housed in a plastic tube that had a plunger device allowing consumers to push the treat up as they ate it Push Pops were fairly similar to Nestle Push Ups although Tops apparently

couldn't snack an endorsement from Fled Flintstone. But if Push Pops were your jam

we're happy to report you can still get them in many of their classic flavors. The hyperactive brainchild of General Mills, Squeeze-Its were a juice-like drink that came

in a plastic bottle, and in order to drink it, you had to, well, squeeze it. Although they were

actually introduced in the 1980s, Squeeze-Its rose to popularity in the 90s, thanks to a weird

series of commercials in which kids chase down terrified, anthropomorphized Squeeze-It bottles

to drink their delicious innards. The commercial ends with the encouraging slogan

Squeeze the Fun Out of It, which presumably hit the ears of every Squeeze-It bottle like a

terrifying prophecy. Squeeze-Its came in flavors like Chuckland Cherry, Rockin' Red Puncher

and Smarty Arty Orange, but the big squeeze came to an end when they were discontinued in 1991

Brought to you by the same people who brought you fruit roll-ups, Shark Bites first swam onto supermarket shelves in 1988

Shark Bites were famous for their so-called special pieces. Some packages included rare alternate shapes like Great Whites

Shark's Teeth, or Tiger Sharks. Because it's never too early to start teaching kids about gambling

The whole thing worked so well, the company released a companion snack called Berry Bears

aimed at girls who, for some reason, they assumed didn't like sharks

Shark bites are still out there today, but ye be warned, their flavors are vastly different

Hubba Bubba Ouch Bubblegum was sold in tin containers that were made to resemble

Band-Aid boxes for that weird kid in class who liked to eat Band-Aids

Also, each individual stick of gum was wrapped in paper, like a Band-Aid, to complete the illusion

And like actual Band-Aids, the gum was sugar-free. But unlike actual Band-Aids, it came in flavors like grape, watermelon, sugar, and bubble

If this was one of your favorites, however, we're sorry to report the bizarre gum was discontinued in the late 2000s

Lunchables were brought to you by Oscar Mayer, the first and last name in bologna

and first hit supermarket shelves in 1988, going nationwide in 1989. Conceived as a way to sell more bologna, and marketed as a way to help moms save time making lunch

Lunchables were a massive hit. They sold over 1.5 billion units in their first decade and proliferated into a variety of flavors

including the now legendary pizza. Introduced in 96, Pizza Lunchables were little snack packs

that came with a small piece of crust some sugary tomato sauce three slices of pepperoni some mozzarella cheese and a cool red wand to spread the sauce The wand is long gone but otherwise pizza lunchables are still available

Though they were created in Taiwan as early as 1975, Warheads weren't imported to the United

States until 1993. It makes sense that the candy king of schoolyard legend would have a vague

backstory like Rambo. Flavored with citric and malic acid, they have a pronounced sour taste

The flavor's intensity fades after 5 to 10 seconds, but most people had already spat them out by then

Despite, or more likely because of, a warning on the package that read, eating multiple pieces within a short time period may cause a temporary irritation to sensitive tongues and mouths

90s kids would often hold contests to see who could eat the most warheads at once

If you were one of those kids, we recommend getting back in fighting shape, because warheads are still around today

Debuting on supermarket shelves in 1990, Kid Cuisine was a line of frozen dinners made

exclusively for kids, which you could instantly tell because there was a cool-ass penguin

wearing sunglasses right on the front of every package. The idea was basically to combine frozen foods and McDonald's Happy Meals for a Voltron

of nutrition aimed squarely at latchkey kids. The TV dinner-like meals usually came with portions of kid-friendly meals like chicken

nuggets and mac and cheese, and as the brand became more popular, new varieties

like Pizza Painter Cheese Pizza and Rock and Roll Taco Roll-Ups were released

However, today you can only get three kinds, popcorn chicken, mini corn dogs, and all-star nuggets

They all come with a brownie, corn and fries, or mac and cheese, if you're looking to recreate a weekday afternoon in the 90s

Kids like to play with their food. It's one of the immutable laws of the universe put forth by Isaac Newton

General Mills sought to capitalize on that universal truth by releasing Fruit String Thing

which comes from the same general fruit goop family of snack foods that include fruit roll-ups

and shark bites. This time, the mixture was poured onto a paper backing in ropey tangles and swirls

that kids could peel off the card as a single long strand or in bits and pieces. In fact

commercials for string thing emphasize the creativity inherent in choosing how to eat one

While the standard form resembled string, the product also came in designs like rocket ships

and bicycles for kids with less imagination. But to the disappointment of kids everywhere

the product was discontinued sometime in the mid-2000s. Nestle's Butterfinger is a chocolate bar

with a weird flaky orange, peanut butter-flavored filling that, believe it or not, has been around since 1922

When a product is a 70-year bestseller, you don mess with a recipe but you do try a spinoff So in 1992 Nestle rolled out Butterfinger BBs Introduced to the world through a high advertising blitz starring The Simpsons Butterfinger BBs were marble nuggets of chocolate and peanut butter

presumably created to answer the question, what if Butterfingers were more of a choking hazard

The candy had a good run, but was discontinued in 2006, at which point we assume Bart finally had that cow

Nobody likes a flat Dorito That's apparently what the brand was thinking when Doritos 3D debuted in 1998

Likely created to compete with snacks like Bugles, this version of the popular tortilla chip was basically just a puffed-up Dorito

like it had an allergic reaction to nacho cheese. It came in three flavors, including Zesty Ranch, Jalapeno Cheddar

and the old Doritos mainstay, Nacho Cheese. The line was discontinued pretty much everywhere but Mexico in 2004

But if you're one of the people who just can't stand 2D Doritos, take heart

In 2021, the company brought the 3D version back in two flavors, chili cheese nacho and spicy ranch

Nestle's Bug Pops, popsicles with little gummy bugs in them, were created as a tie-in to the

animated cartoon Timon and Pumbaa, which starred the characters from Disney's 1994 animated classic

The Lion King, who were known to eat bugs. Despite looking for all the world-like popsicles that had

fallen under the refrigerator, the Bug Pops took off in 1995. They were available in cherry and

grape, and each box typically included some Timon and Pumba training cards. Like the cartoon they

were affiliated with, however, the product was relatively short-lived, disappearing from the

shelves in 1997. Dropping in the mid-1990s, Sprinkle Spangles Cereal from General Mills

star-shaped cereal covered in colorful sprinkles. Commercials for the product featured a purple

genie character called Sprinkle Genie, who was voiced by Mel Brooks' mainstay Dom DeLuise

The character would show up to grant the wishes of kids who wanted sprinkles on their cereal

with the catchphrase, you wish it, I dish it, while the commercial itself bragged that the

makers had spangled every angle with sprinkles. Despite all the rhymes, the brand was discontinued

in 1998, never to be seen again. Sonic the Hedgehog made his debut on Sega

gaming systems in 1991. By 1995, the character was famous enough to receive the highest award

American culture has to offer, his own brand of canned spaghetti and meatballs

Sonic the Hedgehog Pasta was manufactured by Franco-American, the maker of SpaghettiOs

who marketed the brand with a bizarre commercial that depicted a Robotnik-like kid plugging a can

of pasta into his gaming system. Sonic himself would go on to fame and fortune in the movies

but his branded pasta hit the wall in 2000