From the Beverage Aisle: Gatorade Sunbolt

Product: Gatorade Sunbolt
Company: Quaker/Gatorade North America
Years: 1994

This product was brought to my attention by one of my favorite Podcasts, The Rad Years (check em out here, kids: https://radyears.com/ ). 

Imagine a time, long ago, when there were no energy drinks. No Rockstar. No Monster. No Red Bull.
There were only 2 options if you wanted to feel awake and alert in the mornings: Get a good night sleep (Ha!) or drink a cup (or 6) of coffee. Oh, and cocaine. So there's 3 options, but not really.

Anyway, Gatorade saw that people loved their regular Gatorade, and the non-coffee drinkers were drinking it in the mornings to get all the vitamins and electrolytes as a pick me up before their big day of slam dunking basketballs and/or sitting in the cubicle next to Carl (No, I didn't see the big game last night, Carl). So they thought to themselves "Hey? Why not make a caffeinated version of what these people already love???!! It's like Gatorade....mixed with coffee! But not really. But really."

And so Sunbolt was born. It was more of a citrus drink...think Sunny D mixed with gatorade, mixed with caffeine. They also made a non-caffeinated version of the drink, for those people who actually did get a good night sleep the night before, but still wanted something to drink and for some reason couldn't track down orange juice, or regular Gatorade, or Sunny D, or water, or milk, or really, a vast array of liquids that are readily available to everyone at literally all times.

"Sure, there's other things we can drink, but were hip 20something in the mid 90's,
dressing like extras from Friends. So for us, it's Sunbolt all the way, dude!!!
Unless you've got any of that cocaine....If so, we'll take that."

Sunbolt was test marketed in the Baltamore/Washington DC area as well as the Philadelphia area.
It was sure to be a huge success!
(In my best Morgan Freeman voice.....ahem....)
"It was not a huge success."

GLUG....GLUG.....GLUG......

Sunbolt was marketed for about 3 months but never really expanded nationally.
It fizzled out and was soon forgotten about. But like Zima, I think that Sunbolt was 20 years ahead of it's time. The market now is saturated with caffeinated "morning drinks" for the non coffee crowd.

I'd love to go back and try Sunbolt. As a kid, I bet it was a rush to know you were getting all looped up on caffeine drinking what essentially looked like a bottle of OJ. Heck, I'd love to try it now.
Because sometimes you need to switch it up a bit, and a refreshing bottle of Sunbolt would be a nice change of pace from the the daily cups of coffee.

At least I've still got my Cocaine. (I kid...I kid...... )

Just a friendly reminder that PLANTERS CHEEZ BALLS ARE BACK!!!!!

What a time to be alive.

Planters is jumping back into the retro/nostalgia market, bringing back Planters Cheese (I mean cheez) Balls and Planters Cheese (again, I mean cheez) Curls. Look for them in July wherever snacks are sold (so pretty much anywhere.....grocery stores, convenience stores, inconvenience stores (where they put stuff up on REALLY high shelves)).......

Are we seeing a retro revolution? Are companies finally realizing the amount of money they can make by tapping into our youth and our wallets? What other retro grocery items would you love to see return from the dead?

From the Snack Aisle: Nabisco Sooper Kookies

Sooper Kookies
Company: Nabisco
Years: 1973-???

Image from Dan Goodsell's - check him out!

Ah, Sooper Kookies.
Who duesn't reemembr thees wunderfull kookies from Nahbisko?
"I doent", I'm shure yore saing.

Whitch is funne, becuse I sayd the saim thing.

Alright, I can't do it. I can't keep spelling this article wrong on purpose.
You see, I had this whole bit I was going to do based on the purposeful misspelling of the words "Sooper Kookies", but I just can't do it. Between you, me and spellcheck, it's just really starting to hurt my head.

So instead I'm going to do some real hard research................................................

...researching...................

......................researching..........................


I got nothing.

Other then a few images from Dan Goodsell and poptartsbox on Flickr (check em both out!) I couldn't find much of anything. I did media searches over the last 50 years on newspapers, hoping to dig up an advert or something, but didn't find squat. Not a mention. All I know is they came in at least 3 flavors: Fudge Cream, Chocolate Cream, and Vanilla Cream. They were sort of a pop-tart, more or less. And that's about all I know.

They remynd me uv a cros beetween kookies and.......I can't do it. I just.....can't.....do it.

So I'm gonna pull the ol' "throw it back on the readers" trick, where I hope you can help me fill in the blanks.

Anyone remember these? Were there other flavors? Did they last more then one year?

Let me know in the comments below! Until then I'll file these under another mystery product without much history top be found.