If you're a boomer and you still remember these 6 discontinued snacks (that taste like pure childhood), your memory is exceptional

There's something about the snacks we ate as kids that stays with us forever. Not just the memory of eating them, but the actual taste—that specific combination of artificial flavoring and processed sugar that somehow meant everything when you were eight years old. For boomers who grew up in the '60s and '70s, certain treats have taken on almost mythical status. They vanished from store shelves decades ago, yet mention them to anyone over 60 and watch their eyes light up with recognition.

The fact that you can still recall these foods—their exact texture, the way they stuck to your teeth, the specific shade of orange that stained your fingers—says something remarkable about how our brains encode childhood memories. These weren't just snacks. They were markers of an era when a quarter could buy happiness and Saturday morning cartoons came with a side of sugar cereal commercials that made everything seem possible.

1. Space Food Sticks

Before energy bars conquered gym bags everywhere, there were Space Food Sticks—those chewy, chocolate-covered cylinders that promised to deliver the same nutrition astronauts ate in orbit. Pillsbury launched them in 1969, riding the Apollo mission hype, and for a brief, glorious moment, every kid eating one felt like they were training for NASA.

The texture was unforgettable—somewhere between taffy and chalk, with a vaguely chocolate flavor that seemed scientifically engineered to be almost, but not quite, satisfying. They came in foil pouches that crinkled with importance. Peanut butter, chocolate, and caramel varieties lined the shelves, each one tasting mysteriously similar despite their different colors. By the 1980s, they'd disappeared, but that dense, slightly grainy texture remains burned into the memory of anyone who ever packed them in their Star Trek lunchbox.

2. Marathon Bars

The Marathon Bar was eight inches of braided caramel covered in chocolate, and eating one was basically a competitive sport. Mars introduced it in 1973 with a ruler printed on the wrapper, because apparently we needed proof of its absurd length. The commercials featured a cowboy named Quick Carl who could supposedly eat one in record time—a challenge every kid accepted and failed.

The real genius wasn't the length but the braided design. Those caramel lattices created perfect pockets for chocolate to pool, and the whole thing took forever to eat. You'd find strings of caramel stuck in your molars hours later, like delicious dental floss. When Mars discontinued it in 1981, they claimed it was too expensive to produce. More likely, dentists across America had finally organized an effective lobby.

3. Koogle Peanut Spread

Koogle wasn't just peanut butter—it was peanut butter that had given up all pretense of being healthy. Kraft's flavored peanut spread came in chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, and banana, each one sweetened to the point where calling it "peanut" anything felt like false advertising. Introduced in 1971, it featured a googly-eyed jar mascot with arms and legs, which in retrospect seems like something from a fever dream.

The chocolate version tasted like Nutella's hyperactive American cousin. Kids would eat it straight from the jar with a spoon, turning breakfast into dessert and lunch into a sugar crash waiting to happen. The banana flavor was particularly bizarre—artificial fruit mixed with peanuts in a combination that somehow worked when you were seven years old and had no concept of culinary boundaries. It vanished by the late 1970s, probably because parents finally read the ingredient list.

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4. Quisp Cereal

Quisp was the cereal that made Cap'n Crunch look subtle. Those flying saucer-shaped corn puffs came in a box featuring an alien with a propeller on his head, because the 1960s were weird and breakfast cereal marketing even weirder. Quaker launched it in 1965 alongside a companion cereal called Quake, and kids were expected to choose sides like it was some kind of breakfast civil war.

The taste was pure sugar-coated corn with a hint of something vaguely fruity—though identifying the actual fruit was impossible. What everyone remembers is how they stayed crunchy in milk longer than any cereal had a right to. You could eat a bowl, answer the phone, have a full conversation, and come back to find them still crispy. Quisp disappeared from most stores around 1979-80, though Quaker occasionally brings it back for limited runs, sending nostalgic boomers into hoarding mode.

5. Fruit Stripe Gum

Technically, Fruit Stripe existed until 2024, but finding it was like spotting a unicorn. The original version from 1961, with its zebra mascot named Yipes and those temporary tattoos wrapped around each stick, was a rite of passage for every kid in the '70s. The gum came in five fluorescent colors that looked like they could glow in the dark.

The flavor lasted exactly 3.7 seconds—just long enough for your taste buds to register paradise before it vanished into flavorless rubber. But those first few seconds were transcendent. Kids would shove three pieces in their mouths at once, chasing that intense fruit flavor hit like tiny addicts. The tattoos were equally temporary, washing off approximately eight minutes after application, but for those eight minutes, you were the coolest kid on the playground.

6. Fizzies Tablets

Fizzies were basically Alka-Seltzer for kids—tablets you dropped in water to create instant soda. Introduced in 1957, they came in root beer, orange, cherry, and grape, though they all tasted vaguely medicinal with an aggressive fizz that made your nose tingle. Parents loved them because they seemed healthier than actual soda. Kids loved them because watching something transform water into a bubbling, colored drink felt like conducting a science experiment.

The ritual was everything. You'd fill a glass with cold water, drop in the tablet, and watch it dissolve in a frenzy of bubbles. The resulting drink was never quite as good as real soda, but the process made up for it. When the original formula was banned in 1969 due to cyclamate content, they reformulated with saccharin. The new version tasted even more artificial, if that was possible. By the mid-'70s, Fizzies had fizzled out completely.

Final thoughts

The remarkable thing about these snacks isn't that we remember them—it's how vividly we remember them. Decades later, you can probably still taste that first explosive second of Fruit Stripe gum or feel the way Space Food Sticks stuck to your back teeth. These sensory memories  are stronger than almost anything else from childhood, encoded in our brains during those years when everything was new and intense.

Maybe that's why we chase these flavors so desperately, scouring specialty candy stores and eBay for reproductions that never quite match what we remember. It's not really about the snacks themselves. It's about tasting a time when the future meant flying cars and moon colonies, when Saturday mornings stretched forever, and a weird-flavored peanut butter could be the most exciting thing in your lunchbox. These foods are gone, but if you can still taste them—really taste them—then part of you is still eight years old, standing in the candy aisle with a quarter in your pocket, believing that everything sweet lasts forever.