Hi-C Ecto Cooler

It's been a long time old friend. When we first met I was merely 10 years old and even though I didn't understand most of the jokes, I loved all things Ghostbusters. I don't remember if I saw the movie or the cartoon first (The Real Ghostbusters, not that other garbage one) and I don't care. All I need to know if that I was hooked. I was also hooked on “juice,” and when Hi-C combined both things it was a match made in heaven. Normally my mom would pack me a Ssips juice box in my lunch, but the times I could get her to splurge it was always for Ecto Cooler. I had no idea that this was actually a rebranding of their “Citrus Cooler” flavor and I still don't care. It was delicious and it had the cartoon version of Slimer on it. What 10 year old suburban white boy wouldn't love that?

Ecto Cooler was always such a specific flavor to me that as a youngster I could never quite put my finger on. It wasn't until the company yet again rebranded the flavor as “Shoutin' Orange Tangerine“ that I slapped my forehead and felt very dumb for not placing the flavor. At the time I had outgrown such drinks and with the lack of Slimer on the packaging it held little interest to someone in their early 20s. I later learned that in 2006 it was once again rebranded as “Crazy Citrus Cooler” and a year later it was completely discontinued.

There's something about your thirties that feeds off of nostalgia. I had never grown tired of the Ghostbusters movies and still watched them at least once a year. I longed for times when life was simpler and I missed things from my childhood that were no longer available. When we started thiersty Dudes, we named our “Trifecta” of discontinued drinks that we longed for. They were Crystal Pepsi, Orbits and or course Ecto Cooler. We bought a 14 years expired bottle of Orbits and it tasted like salad dressing. The other day a mysterious package showed up at my door and inside was a cardboard Muon Trap that contained Ecto Cooler. I knew it was returning to shelves along with the release of the new movie (which is the most hated movie that no one has seen yet), but I really have no recollection of giving anyone from Hi-C my address. It was a complete surprise and it made my day wonderful.

I'm sitting here now, sitting in the warm shining sun and I'm sipping on a juice box. If this were 25 years ago I would be sitting on a skateboard with my best friends planning what we would do when school ended for the summer in a few weeks. Instead I am taking a break between printing shirts and working on my deck. I wish I could say that I was talking about the deck of my skateboard, but I mean the deck of my house. I'm an adult with responsibilities, but for a few short minutes it's 1989 again and I'm drinking a tangerine/orange drink that I believe to be juice, but which only contains 10% juice. It's mostly citrus sugar water and I don't care. It tastes exactly like I remember and that's all that matters. If this drink were a new product now, I would care very little about it, but since it's something from my childhood I'm loving it. I'm not expecting this to stick around for very long. There will be a large nostalgia burst as soon as it hits shelves and then people will remember they are adults and these are the kinds of drinks you leave behind as you grow up. Who knows though? Maybe the new movie will resonate with a younger generation and they will eat (drink) it up. I may never buy it again, but I will smile every time I see it.