Do you know any lost or unpopular Aussie food and drink products?
For example, my mother tells me Portello was popular once upon a time as it was manufactured here. Ribena also seems to have lost relevance (at least from my perspective and people I know). What cuisine do you think has faded from the public consciousness?
O'Gradys chips is what I miss most. they were thick, ridged and full of flavour. Quite often in 500+ G packets.
Costco have some that are similar, under the Kirkland name?
Miss those as well. Not sure what flavour they were, some delicious combo of spices, best chips ever.
Paella to cook at home, came in a box. Might have been Continental.
Can't remember if came with rice or add your own
.
Rice-a-riso?
Anyone able identify a fizzy juice/soft drink they had in schools in the late 90's? Tasted like apple/strawberry mix and came in small cans.
For breakfast cereal, I used to love Kellogg's Blackcurrant Mini-Wheats.
I haven't seen them on the shelves since the early 2010's.
Bundaberg Two-Up Horehound Beer. I loved this stuff. As a kid, it was the closest thing to non-alcoholic beer you could get off the shelf… had a hoppy taste to it.
I always felt so grown up when I had a bottle haha!
Ribeena's decline may have had something to do with their false claims about Vitamin C content. Sugar + water pretending to be something else.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/27/schoolsworldwi…
https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/ribena-vitamin-c-claim…
Yeah, I remember when I was a kid ribena was supposed to be somewhat good for you. It was like the healthy but delicious drink
Now it's just overpriced sugar water.
Chokito chocolate bars, Kool mints and burger rings don't seem as big as they used to be. Think they all still exist though.
Furry friends still exist but are a pathetic version of themselves - it was all about the free tattoo built into the paper wrapper.
No idea if any of these still exist…
Sunny-boy frozen triangles.
Vice-versas (like big choc/white smarties)
Cadbury Whip bars (like a mars bar)
Chocolate Billabongs were delicious but seemed to get gritty and yuk like paddle pops at some point when they cheaped out on ingredients. Bulla fudge bars that you get now remind me of how they used to be.
My family owned a Milk Bar when I was a kid. I still remember having these all the time.. https://australianfoodtimeline.com.au/fags-become-fads/
Do Redskins still exist?
Redskins have been rebranded as Red Rippers 2 years ago. https://www.nestle.com.au/en/media/news/nestle-announces-new…
lucky!
One lost food I can never find proof of is Bacon Crisps. They came in a bright pink packet and I think were made by the same mob who did Burger Men back in the day. They were amazing.
A lost drink I also find no proof of existing is Good One flavoured milk, honey and malt flavoured goodness in a small carton.
Also miss the shit out of passionfruit calippos.
Also a mystery to me has always been Boost chocolate bars, who the hell actually eats them and why do they exist?
I like boost - i originally got them as a kid because they were the heaviest, most food for the money, but now I like em lol
oh my goodness yes! Bacon Crisps and Burger Men were the best chips ever created. I don't think they make them anymore unfortunately…. i have tasted some knockoff versions of the bacon crisps but nowhere near as good…
I was looking for honey malt good one (called feel good here in SA) recently.. didn't really dawn on me that its probably been 10-15 years since ive had one.
Coffee is still available
Egg Flip Big M's….at one stage you could get them heated up by a steam wand in the local milk bar
They brought them back recently as a "limited edition". Tasted exactly how I remembered them.
Burger Rings
Ovaltine chewables
Curly Wurly
Rolo
Chomp
Samboy
Just a list of what I ate as a kid. Not sure how much of it was imported vs made in AUS.
Samboy still exist! Amazingly, so does the tomato flavour. Rolo can be picked up as an import from the UK and they're better than the Rolo blog you get from the supermarket. The toffee is thicker in the UK Import Rolo. Burger rings are around too, but they're hard to find some great mentions.
Curly wurlys still around too, my office has a lolly cupboard and they are always first to go.
Vice Versas chocolates are another :)
What are they?
brown and white candy coated chocolate, I still remember the ads
I go back a long way, so top of my list comes:
Herbert Adams Rainbow Cake. Used to be delivered to shops in big slabs and they would slice off as much or little as you wanted. Was always a school holiday treat for us when Mum bought some.
In no particular order:
White Knights
Choo Choo Bars
Cobbers
Liquorice Blocks
Clinkers
and maybe a couple of others I can't remember now.
Not food as such but a supplier of food - Coles Cafeteria. That was our school holiday treat. A train trip into Melbourne and lunch at Coles. Pie and chips, then jelly and cream. Good hot food, and no mingy serves.
Back in the day when Colesworth used to have decent instore bakeries, Woolies used to make wonderful raspberry jam tarts, both small and family sized. They were just to die for. Nice crisp pastry and tons of jam. Sadly gone to God now like so many things. The rubbish they make and sell now is almost inedible. The worst is are the things they pack too hot, and sit sweating and going soggy in their plastic case.
Mate is a food technologist at a bakery supplying Colesworth, said they persistently pressure them to remove or change ingredients to lower cost. Even their good stuff eventually becomes a shadow of its former self I guess.
Choc Blocks! They were like a Chocolate Heart, but cheaper and Bigger?
Another Ice block that had red jelly in it. Monster themed?
Jelly Tip.
Thankfully we can still get those from Aldi, or go to NZ.
shark fin
kangaroo meat
crocodile meat
I have a blurry childhood memory of buying packets of chips that had the flavour in a separate sachet to be added and shaken in. Can't remember which brand but remember using it to over allocate the flavour to a memorable last quarter of the packet haha
oh man thats them! cheers
Push pops
Ah yes, what a sticky experience that was
High in waste and always messy for some reason. There was a similar one, round shaped hard candy which kinda flipped up.
Don’t push me, push a Push Pop!
Pint pots gummy sweets and cigarette candy sticks. Can't understand why they aren't still readily available to kids
Whatever happened to Sunny boys? - being left with a flavourless ice block after a minute or two. Or Bubble-o-bill with the teeth chipping bubblegum nose 😂
Still available, my 7 y.o. had one the other day, chewed on the nose for all of 3 seconds and swallowed it forgetting that t was actually bubblegum. It hasn't had a chance to soften yet.🤦♂️
Sanitarium used to sell muesli bars - I liked those
Toobs chips
Yeah I'm glad they're back; although it could just be more but they don't taste the same as the first release.
NQR currently have the party bags for $1
Healthier recipe?
nah theyre still unhealthy as (profanity)! taste alright..you dont want too many though
Horlicks
Moro
Not a food as such…. But all the desserts at Pizza Hut or sizzler buffets
Chocolate moose was my fav.
wow chocolate moose? why not a chocolate beef?
Chocolate beef would be those dry af brownies they used to have at Pizza Hut buffet.
redskins
They renamed. Still sold.
Portello is still popular in the albury/wodonga area, but it's hard to find in Sydney.
I still buy ribeena and portello lol. Add the ribeena to woolies lightly sparkling water. When I buy lunch at work I grab a portello to go with it.
Lloyds soft drinks that got delivered on the little truck.
Fountain Tomato Sauce 🍅
Who seriously eats that s***?
their spicy red is good….cope
I know they still exist, but I just want to say Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs.
Also just remembered Tex Mex flavoured Thins, basically thins with taco seasoning on them, freakin delicious.
And the 7 deadly sins Magnum ice creams. Those things were the best thing they ever did and never repeated it.
Oh and Death by Chocolate easter eggs, they were essentially cadbury cream eggs but filled with choc ganache.
Does anyone remember those chip multi-packs from Coles or Woolies, around the early to mid 2000s?
The packets were blue/white for Original, Green/white for Chicken, Purple/white for Salt & Vinegar.
I used to have them daily in primary and early high school, then they just disappeared.
What were they called?
Ruffles?
No, it was like a homebrand from either Coles or Woolies. Very simple no-frills packaging.
Yeah I have vague memories
Looks like Farmland was the homebrand of Coles back then, might have been them
Might have been Colvan - from memory there was 15 to a multipack vs 12 for other brands, lol
Oh I so miss bbq CC"s..
I used to buy these all the time on the way home from school in the 90s.
I wish they would bring them back.
Bonox (the meat drink)
I always offer 'tea, coffee, Bonox?'
Space Food Sticks from Nestle Starz ?
Never knew if they were real astronaut's food or not.
Sunny boys, Glugs, Raz, what was the green/lime one called?…
I think they still exist but less triangular and not as big.
I think there were also real fruit ones; including black current… called Royal Regency or something….
I miss them all.
Tyrrell's Chips Cheddar & Chives, specifically the ones from Woolworths (Coles ones are crinkle which don't taste the same)
Never seen them mentioned on Ozbargain but they're too good!
I wonder if Ribena went downhill after their false vitamin c claims
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ribena-maker-fined-217500-for-…
I certainly remember growing up on it.
Lift
Those 3D doritos that used to have those pokemon tazos inside. I know Doritos now have 3D chips again, but its not the same. Actually, not a food, but i want tazos in my chips again. If i open a pack of smiths chips and i find a Yugioh Metallic tazo inside again ill lose my mind.
Oh man, still got all my tazos lol, it all started with looney tunes for me, then cheetos ones, then simpsons, then star wars, batman, etc etc
Ovatine and 7up
Miss the pre made birthday cakes Coles and woolies used to sell with the thick icing.
I miss the space food snack things used to be able to get at Woolworths.
I don't think it's Aussie, but eff me I would give my left nut for a jar of Milky Way chocolate spread.
It was better than Nutella.
One of the main nostalgic things I miss - toys in cereal boxes
Choosing the flavour of cereal on what toy was in the box, and hoping you'd get the full set, was one of those small wins as a kid
It's a shame they got rid of them
Supermarkets must have hated me. Any of the boxes with 1/10 etc chance of a special prize/toy, I'd take a heap of boxes to the veggie area and weigh them, take the heaviest and dump the rest there.
Weren't the scales just analogue (even some current Coles are)? Hard to pick up a 30g difference
You underestimate the will of a broke young kid who desires a worthless toy.
There used to be a thing called 'Something to munch on while you're having a drink'. Haven't seen it for decades.
Tang
Does anyone remember Tasty Jacks chips? I think that's what they were called? I remember eating them in the 2000's
Crystal pepsi
Teenage mutant ninja turtles soft drinks
Warheads Hot
We were dumbass kids to continually keep buying them.
Jungle Chews - Tutti Frutti flavour
Mcoz burger
Pollywaffle
I still miss the Pollywaffle, it was my favourite chocolate bar.
It's supposed to be returning:
https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/articles/polly-waffle-release…
A mate of mine told me about it ages ago. Whenever I see him now, he grumbles about it not being back yet.
Ovaltine was developed in 1904 by Albert Wander in Bern, Switzerland, where it is known by its original name, Ovomaltine (from ovum, Latin for "egg", and malt, which were originally its key ingredients).
Source: Wikipedia.