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13 Failed Food Products That Will Take You Back In Time

Take a hilarious walk down memory lane.

Headshot of Shana LynchBy Shana Lynch
Frito Lay Wow - qz.com
Frito-Lay

21 Hilariously Failed Food Products

Coca-Cola Blak

Coca Cola Blak - FlickrCreativeCommons Buglugs

In the early 2000s, Coca-Cola released a product that was blend of regular Coke and coffee, leaving a lot of people to scratch their heads and wonder, "why?" It lasted only a short seventeen months on shelves.

Colgate Kitchen Entrees

Colgate - www.huffingtonpost.com
Colgate

Colgate: good to keep your teeth clean? Absolutely. Where you want your dinner to come from? Eh, probably not. Maybe they thought people would eat these meals, released in 1982, and then brush with Colgate toothpaste after...?

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Crystal Pepsi

Liquid, Product, Fluid, Drinkware, Bottle, Plastic bottle, Logo, Drink, Aqua, Bottle cap,
Pepsi Co

Sold on shelves from 1992-1993, Crystal Pepsi had the same cola taste as your favorite soda...it just lost its rich, brown color. After mystifying consumers everywhere, this soda imposer was taken off shelves, BUT it's officially returning to stores this summer.

Cosmopolitan Yogurt

Cosmo yogurt - www.mbaskool.com

Cosmopolitan is to your go-to for a lot of things: fashion advice, sex tips, horoscopes. For some reason, in 1999, Cosmo thought it would also be women's go-to yogurt choice ... which was where they were very, very wrong.

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Frito-Lay WOW Chips

Frito Lay Wow - qz.com
Frito-Lay

Well this was an admittedly good concept, it didn't work out the way Frito-Lay was hoping. Instead of using oil on their chips, the company decided to fry them in olestra, which people were pumped about ... until olestra started leaving some not-so-nice side effects in its wake. Think: stomach cramping, diarrhea, etc...

Keurig Kold

Product, Text, Red, Coca-cola, Liquid, Cola, Glass, Small appliance, Logo, Font,
Courtesy Keurig

Inspired by other soda-brewing machines like Soda Stream, Keurig released it's own seltzer machine in the fall of 2015. Unfortunately, people couldn't quite disassociated the Keurig name with coffee and these bad boys were discontinued in June 2016.

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Coors Rocky Mountain Sparkling Water

Coors - www.emaze.com

If you have something good working for you, don't mess with it. Coors, which has always advertised its beer as being, "cold brewed with pure rocky mountains spring water," decided in 1990 to take the beer out of the equation (always a bad choice) and release a line of sparkling water from the Rockies. Shockingly, people didn't want to buy water from a company they only associated with beer, and the line product was discontinued in 1997.

Frito-Lay Lemonade

Frito-Lay Lemonade - izvestnye-blyuda.ru

Thirst is always so real after snacking on a bag of Lay's potato chips and Frito-Lay decided to capitalize on this by releasing a lemonade for people to sip on. However, consumers still associated Frito-Lay with salty, crunchy snacks and didn't go for this idea. We can't say we blame them.

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Gerber Singles

Gerber's Singles - yeahwaitwhat.info

As a college student, I'm a little embarrassed that this strange invention was marketed towards my age group. Released in 1974, Gerber Singles were targeted towards college student and young adults living alone for the first time who needed an easy way to provide themselves with dinner. It came in flavors like Creamed Beef, Chicken Madeira, Mediterranean Vegetables, and Blueberry Delight. I'll stick to Ramen, thanks.

EZ Squirt Ketchup

Heinz ezsquirt - www.myjewishlearning.com

I have VERY strong memories from elementary school of coming home to find this absolute disgrace to ketchup in my cabinet. I, someone who loves covering a wide array of food products in ketchup, was disgusted. The fact that my mom thought I would enjoy dipping my chicken nuggets into purple or green goo was absurd, and it seems like a lot of people agreed with me, seeing as how this product was quickly discontinued.

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Kellogg's Breakfast Mates

Kellogg's Breakfast Mates - www.youtube.com

Another great idea in concept, in 1998 Kelloggs released a breakfast kit of sorts: a single-serving of cereal, a spoon, and single-serving of shelf-stable milk. What does "shelf-stable milk" even mean? Gross. These were off the shelves in two years time.

Life Savers Soda

lifesavers - content.time.com

While a lot of children's drinks have high sugar levels, this one really takes the cake. In the sweet days of the 1980s, Life Savers released a line of sodas with flavors reminiscent to their hard candies. The drinks tested well initially, but never made it to shelves. Hmm, wonder why ...

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Orbitz

Orbitz - 67.media.tumblr.com

Released in 1996, these intergalactic soft drink contained small, edible balls and were described as being a, "texturally enhanced alternative beverage." Whether it was the weird taste or the trippy appearance, these didn't last long of shelves—but are still available for upwards of $25 on eBay.

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