The late 1960s and early 1970s marked an era where American corporations could successfully sell suburban parents virtually anything, provided it was wrapped in a shiny foil space suit or blessed with a casual nod from NASA. If it was high-tech enough to keep an Apollo astronaut alive during a lunar orbit, it was deemed … Read more
I have a confession painful confession to make for a food historian. I never got to try Koogle. Growing up in Mississippi, it wasn’t available. I never saw its trippy, many-eyed mascot on a grocery shelf, and I never got to experience what a generation of 1970s kids remember as the ultimate Saturday morning cartoon … Read more
If you have ever stood in the supermarket beverage aisle, bypassed the beer cases, and grabbed a brightly colored pack of hard lemonades, spiked teas, or fruit-infused bottles, you know exactly what the packaging promises. It sells the illusion of a breezy, crisp, distilled-spirit cocktail or a nostalgic soda-shop treat. But then you take a … Read more
Walk into any supermarket or liquor store today looking to scratch a specific, sun-drenched retro itch, and your eyes will likely lock onto a colorful display of Seagram’s Escapes. or similar bottled beverages. Packed with vibrant, neon liquids and boasting sweet, tropical flavors like peach, strawberry, and calypso colada, they look identical to the breezy, … Read more
If you grew up in the late twentieth century, the phrase “Weaver Batter Dipped Fried Chicken” likely triggers an immediate sensory flashback. For decades, it was the gold standard of the frozen food aisle, yielding a shattered, deeply crunched, golden crust that actual breaded nuggets or uniform frozen patties simply couldn’t replicate. Today, with the … Read more
In the spring of 1994, executives at Coca-Cola were still nursing a massive, decade-long psychological hangover from the 1985 New Coke disaster. Terrified of ever again risking the sacred global brand equity of their flagship product, they decided to treat an entire demographic as corporate guinea pigs. Enter OK Soda, a bizarre, short-lived alternative soft … Read more