From Dunkaroos to Crystal Pepsi: The 10 Most Missed Snacks and Drinks From Your Childhood

You never forget your first love—or your favorite childhood snack. And if the latter was Dunkaroos, you’re in good company.

Spin Genie, a UK-based website for slots and other casino games, recently analyzed Google search data to find out which throwback snacks and drinks people are still looking up online. Dunkaroos took the top spot with an average search volume of nearly 478,000.

The survey is definitely geared toward ’90s kids, as most of the products were popular during that decade. That said, Oreo Cakesters didn’t hit shelves until 2007, and TaB soda, which debuted in 1963, had its heyday long before Millennials were around. In short, the products aren’t all united by which generation would have enjoyed them as kids. 

Nor are they united by availability status. Some have been discontinued seemingly for good (e.g. Orbitz drinks), others have returned after being discontinued (e.g. Dunkaroos), and still others have remained on the market since their launch (e.g. Bagel Bites, though they were discontinued in Canada). It’s worth pointing out that the top three most searched items on the list—Dunkaroos, Oreo Cakesters, and Bagel Bites—are all currently sold in stores. So it’s tough to draw definite conclusions about who’s searching for these items and whether nostalgia has anything to do with it.

In other words, the list is far from a scientific ranking of childhood snacks that a single generation misses the most. But it is a fun way to see which pantry fads have managed to stick around in our cultural consciousness at least enough for hundreds of thousands of people to still be googling them.

1. Dunkaroos // 477,600

Dunkaroos, discontinued in 2012, came back by popular demand about eight years later.

2. Oreo Cakesters // 469,000

Fluffy Oreo Cakesters could have gone the way of lemon meringue Oreos and other discontinued iterations of the sandwich cookie (which is older than you might think). Fortunately, after being conspicuously missing from shelves for about a decade, Cakesters made a triumphant return in 2022.

3. Bagel Bites // 361,200

The inspiration for these beloved bite-sized pizza bagels, which debuted in 1985, came from a suggestion on a Lender’s Bagels bag.

4. TaB // 281,100

Coca-Cola’s one-calorie soft drink “for beautiful people,” as the commercials claimed, started falling out of favor when Diet Coke came along in the early 1980s. But it managed to stay in production until 2020.

5. Fruitopia // 263,900

This hippie-ish line of fruit juices from Minute Maid (owned by Coca-Cola) had names like “Strawberry Passion Awareness,” “Citrus Consciousness,” and “Raspberry Psychic Lemonade.” Kate Bush and Cocteau Twins both composed music for Fruitopia ads.

6. Crystal Pepsi // 259,800

Crystal Pepsi was born of Americans’ love for all things see-through in the 1990s. It fared about as well in the U.S. as Pepsi Blue would a decade later (in other words, not well—both products barely lasted a few years). But it has made a couple brief reappearances in recent years.

7. Kudos Bars // 218,500

Kudos Bars, glorified candy bars positioned as a wholesome breakfast, made waves in the 1990s and stuck around for a while after that before being quietly discontinued around 2017.

8. Orbitz // 212,500

Orbitz was a non-carbonated ’90s drink filled with gelatinous balls. It looked like a lava lamp, tasted fruity, and didn’t last in the market for more than a couple years.

9. Waffle Crisp // 124,900

Post’s Waffle Crisp wasn’t the first tiny waffle–based cereal to come and go from shelves. Its retirement turned out to be just a hiatus, though: It was only gone from 2018 to 2021.

10. Rice Krispies Treats Cereal // 118,000

Original Rice Krispies were cool enough in the mid-20th century for the Rolling Stones to record a jingle for them, but ’90s kids preferred their breakfast cereals to be sugary straight from the box. So Kellogg’s created Rice Krispies Treats cereal: clusters of sweetened Krispies meant to mimic the marshmallow-y squares people knew and loved. The cereal is tough to come by these days, and more than 27,000 fans have signed a Change.org petition asking Kellogg’s to bring it back.