Hi-C Ecto Cooler
Hi-C’s Ecto Cooler was a bright green orange-flavored drink released in 1986 as a product tie-in to the cartoon “The Real Ghostbusters”, and honestly, nothing screamed eighties like getting a sugar rush while watching cartoons on Saturday morning. The drink had this supernatural neon green color that looked like someone had mixed orange juice with radioactive waste – and kids absolutely loved it.
What’s amazing is how it was so popular that it outlasted the cartoon series by six years, which was canceled in 1991. Think about that for a moment – a tie-in product that was supposed to disappear with the show ended up having more staying power than the actual show! The product was rebranded as “Shoutin’ Orange Tangergreen,” and later as “Crazy Citrus Cooler.” It was discontinued altogether in 2007. Today, you might spot it in nostalgic revival runs, but finding it on regular store shelves is like searching for actual ghosts.
Crystal Pepsi
If there was ever a drink that perfectly captured the weirdness of early nineties trying to be the eighties, Crystal Pepsi was it. It has been marketed in the United States and Canada initially from 1992 to 1994, and has had sporadic limited releases since 2016. The clear cola was supposed to represent purity and a healthier alternative, riding the wave of the “clear craze” that made everything transparent seem better.
It pushed consumer research to harness the clear craze and the New Age trend and to find a healthier recipe to stimulate the slowing cola market. After 1,000 product concepts and 3,000 formulations, it discovered a lighter flavor and appearance, with modified food starch instead of caramel color, and 20 fewer calories. But here’s the kicker – Coca-Cola actually sabotaged Crystal Pepsi by launching Tab Clear, knowing it would confuse consumers about whether these clear sodas were diet drinks. The formation and subsequent failure of Tab Clear was a deliberate move to destroy Crystal Pepsi, capitalizing on the public’s lack of understanding of Pepsi’s heavily marketed product… Within three or five months, Tab Clear was dead. And so was Crystal Pepsi.
New York Seltzer
Way before LaCroix became the hipster drink of choice, New York Seltzer was making flavored sparkling water cool in the eighties. One soda brand in the 1980s predicted the resurgence of tasty seltzer – New York Seltzer. This non-caffeinated beverage was very popular in the ’80s but was ultimately discontinued in 1994. However, New York Seltzer came back in 2015 and now sells 11 flavors of seltzer water for you to enjoy. The brand had this amazing success story that sounds almost too good to be true.
The product was a resounding success, reaching $100 million in sales in just three years, and becoming a quintessential touchstone of flamboyant 1980s pop culture. As a publicity (and actual) stunt, Randy Miller jumped off a 10-story hotel and onto a cushioned pad bearing the company logo. He was profiled on an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, with footage of the stunt, and clips of the bengal tiger he liked to bring to the office. Beverage giant Anheuser-Busch came calling with an offer to buy the company, but was turned down. After the novelty wore off (and perhaps as consumers realized that Original New York Seltzer still contained a not-insignificant 25 grams of sugar per 10-ounce bottle), the company entered a decline, and the Millers quietly discontinued production in the early ’90s. The fact that the CEO kept a bengal tiger in the office tells you everything about the wild energy of eighties business culture.
Jolt Cola
One drink helped pave the way for those beverages during the mid-1980s: Jolt Cola. The cola-flavored soda was released in 1985 to counteract the diet-centric trends that were on the rise at that time. Marketed as having “all the sugar and twice the caffeine,” Jolt Cola saw some success for many years. This was basically Red Bull before Red Bull existed – pure liquid energy in a can that looked like medicine.
Launched in 1985, Jolt Cola was the brainchild of a father and son team from Rochester, New York, that wanted to make a true vintage soda – one sweetened with real sugar, and with twice the caffeine of other, similar soft drinks. In 1986, Gay Mullins, a retired research associate from the University of Washington Medical School, was deeply and vocally dissatisfied by the then-newly released New Coke. He decided to publicly endorse the new beverage brand, and he was far from being the only one. Jolt Cola grew to become a major household brand until it went bankrupt in 2009 over a custom, and expensive, bottle design idea. The irony is that Jolt was ahead of its time – it predicted the energy drink market that would explode in the 2000s, but it couldn’t survive long enough to capitalize on it.
Tab Soda
Before Diet Coke took over the world, there was Tab – Coca-Cola’s pink-canned diet sensation that became a cultural phenomenon. When a drink giant decides to take a stab at diet drinks, it’s probably going to become the basis of one fad diet or other – and for many in the 1980s, Tab soda was a key component in their weight loss plan. Though it was not the first diet soda – that honor is reserved for No-Cal in 1952, the diet soda you’ve probably never heard of – when Coca Cola released Tab, as in, “keeping a tab on your weight,” the world listened.
It was extremely popular throughout the 1980s, when it was re-branded as pink and an hourglass-shaped glass was released as part of its promotional effort for women. However, Coca Cola shot itself in the foot in the ’80s by creating its direct competitor due to the idea that men needed a more “masculine” drink, Tab began rapidly losing popularity. It continued to slowly die over the next two decades, with a small but loyal fan base. Tab was discontinued in 2020 after being left far behind by Diet Coke’s sales. Over its decades of existence, Tab has become so popular, its impact still continues almost a generation after its discontinuation. A group of superfans has been calling for its comeback tour using the hashtag #SaveTabSoda, garnering thousands of views on Facebook and TikTok. The fact that people are still campaigning to bring back a drink that’s been gone for years shows just how much Tab meant to people.
Slice Soda
Slice Soda was first launched by PepsiCo in 1984 in direct competition to the massively popular lemon-lime flavored brands Sprite and 7UP. What was interesting and unique about the release was Slice’s use of real fruit juices. The public guzzled it up – by 1987, Slice lived up to its name to win a major slice of American the soft drink market. This was revolutionary stuff back then – a major soda company actually putting real fruit juice in their drinks instead of just artificial flavors.
But success breeds imitation, and the hype didn’t last long. Other competitors latched onto the real fruit juice trend and began releasing their own versions. Then, budget cuts meant Slice had less money to spend on advertising, which heretofore was one of its main modes of acquiring new fans. Slice Soda remained in production for over a decade, but its popularity never rebounded. Recently SujaLife bought the rights to the soda brand and announced its revamp as more a of a healthy probiotic fruit soda, but early tasters are sewing seeds of doubt on whether it will taste the same as the original. Sometimes being first to market isn’t enough if you can’t protect your turf.
Hubba Bubba Soda
You may not remember Hubba Bubba soda given its short shelf life. After all, this pink beverage (derived from the popular bubblegum) was released in 1988, but was discontinued in less than 5 years. Let that sink in for a moment – someone at a major beverage company thought, “You know what the world needs? Liquid bubble gum.” And somehow, it got approved and made it to store shelves.
The taste was rumored to come from a bubblegum-flavored snow cone syrup invented by a fan named Steve Roeder – who secured the rights from Wrigley – rather than the actual Hubba Bubba recipe. When Roeder blended club soda with a bubblegum-flavored syrup, he may have captured the taste of the original bubblegum – but he failed to win over the hearts of its fans. Despite Hubba Bubba releasing a diet version of its soda alongside the original flavor, this beverage simply wasn’t long for this world. Yes, it tasted like bubble gum, and yes, it was amazing. Hubba Bubba Soda was sweet, fizzy, and unapologetically fun, perfectly capturing the carefree spirit of the ’80s. Kids loved it, but parents were less enthused about giving their children a sugary drink that reminded them of gum.
Pepsi A.M.
Before coffee culture completely took over America, PepsiCo had the audacious idea to create a morning cola. According to some preliminary market research in the late 1980s, Pepsi pinpointed a specific subset of its customer base: those who drank a can of Pepsi for their morning pick-me-up beverage, rather than coffee. To go after that audience, Pepsi came up with Pepsi A.M. in 1989. Ads for the new soda, which had the same sugar content as original recipe Pepsi and twice as much caffeine, depicted the drink as a cool and contemporary alternative to coffee, represented by older men falling asleep.
The marketing strategy was both brilliant and fatally flawed at the same time. Pepsi managed to get Pepsi A.M. into the coffee section in some supermarket chains. But if customers were already drinking Pepsi first thing in the morning and were happy doing that, there was no real need for the manufacturer to produce an entirely different product. Plus, by naming the soda Pepsi A.M., PepsiCo subconsciously and inadvertently told customers when they should use the product – in the morning, and only in the morning. Designed for breakfast soda drinkers, Pepsi AM was an early attempt to replace coffee with cola. It had more caffeine than regular Pepsi and was marketed as a morning pick-me-up. While it didn’t last long, its concept feels surprisingly relevant today, when cold brew and energy drinks dominate morning routines. A rebranded Pepsi AM could be a hit with those who prefer fizz over foam.
Mello Yello
Mello Yello is a highly caffeinated, citrus-flavored soft drink produced, distributed and created by the Coca-Cola Company that was introduced on March 12, 1979, to compete with PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew. While it wasn’t technically discontinued, its popularity in the eighties was way higher than today, when Mello Yello was reintroduced across the United States but was largely distributed across Midwestern and Southeast states in particular. This may make it a little harder to find than a can of regular Pepsi, but not impossible… Although Mello Yello was not discontinued, production would now be “limited.” Despite this, you can still find Mello Yello at chains like Arby’s, Hardee’s, or Culver’s.
While Coca-Cola has remained the go-to cola over the decades, the company could never quite top Pepsi’s insanely popular citrus soda, Mountain Dew. In the late 1970s, Coca-Cola released Mello Yello as a contender, and while the brand has remained active (and well-loved), it never reached the same level as Mountain Dew. The drink had its moment in the spotlight thanks to the brand was front and center as a wrap on Tom Cruise’s race car in the 1990 film “Days of Thunder” and went on to become a real NASCAR sponsor for a time. When the brand was redesigned a decade ago, the Coca-Cola Company tried to bring back some of that good ol’ 80s nostalgia. But nostalgia can only take you so far when your main competitor owns the citrus soda market.
Aspen Soda
While everyone else was fighting over citrus flavors, PepsiCo took a completely different route with Aspen – an apple-flavored soda that tried to be sophisticated in an era of loud, neon everything. All of those sodas had a lemon and/or lime flavor (and orange Sunkist also debuted around the same time), but there was one product that took a different, non-citrus path: Aspen, a PepsiCo soda with “just a snap of apple.” The lifestyle that came with it? Elegant and active, in the snow, and on horseback.
Apple-flavored sodas are a rarity, but Aspen Soda pulled it off with style. Its crisp, clean flavor and sophisticated branding made it a favorite among adults in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Discontinued far too soon, Aspen’s unique appeal would pair perfectly with today’s demand for less sugary, more natural-tasting drinks. Unfortunately, Aspen didn’t last – PepsiCo discontinued it in 1982… consumers simply preferred citrus flavors, and sodas advertised with an air of sophistication just didn’t sell, as was also the case with Chelsea and Rondo, the latter of which was billed as “premium,” and both of which flopped quickly. Sometimes being classy doesn’t pay in the soda business.
Looking Back at Liquid Nostalgia
These ten drinks represent more than just discontinued beverages – they’re time capsules of American culture in the 1980s. Each one tells a story about what we thought the future would taste like, from clear colas that promised purity to energy drinks before we knew what energy drinks were. Some failed because they were too ahead of their time, others because they were perfectly of their time but couldn’t evolve.
What’s fascinating is how many of these drinks have found second lives through nostalgia marketing and limited rereleases. Companies have learned that sometimes the best way to create buzz around a new product is to bring back an old one. The question is: if you could bring back one of these drinks permanently, which would you choose?
