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Ecto Cooler Returns…AGAIN!

Recapping: X-Entertainment loves Ecto-Cooler. A lot of people loved Ecto-Cooler. A lot of people cried green when they took Ecto-Cooler away; a terrible moment made all the more heart wrenching because even though Slimer and pals were cold as fuck by the mid '90s, Ecto-Cooler still prevailed. This lulled us into a happy sense of false security. Hi-C eventually replaced Slimer with various box-art imagery (sometimes symbols, sometimes moo cows), but when push came to shove and Hi-C had to look themselves in a mirror, they could no longer justify what was a cartoon tie-in for a cartoon that was by then almost a decade old and out of production. Ecto-Cooler went buhbye, and with it, a little piece of us.

And then, years later, Ecto Cooler came back to us. As detailed in X-E's Ecto Cooler Bible, Hi-C was using the exact same ingredients and formula in their Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen flavor, which tasted, smelled and looked just like Ecto Cooler. (Juiceboxes for both shared identical ingredients list, too.) During Tangergreen's reign, Hi-C slowly phased out the dyes from their juice box offerings, meaning that while the original Tangergreen bore the familiar green sheen of Ecto Cooler, later versions only smelled and tasted the same. It was a minor defeat, but barely a blip on the radar when contrasted with the holy idea that we could still drink Ecto Cooler.

Eventually, Tangergreen followed its master's footsteps and died off, leaving the world without ANY VIABLE SIMILE of Ecto Cooler. Still sporadically found at select retailers who don't give a shit about expiration dates, it's just as true that, eventually, there will be no Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen left in the world outside of the 84 12-packs I bought when I first heard about the Ecto Connection. Fortunately, none of this matters.

As several readers have e-mailed me all giddy about, Hi-C's continued faith in the little drink that could has once again been proven with the addition of their brand new flavor, "Crazy Citrus Cooler." It's the exact same formula as Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen. You know what that means, right? It's Ecto Cooler! Ecto Cooler lives!

Current Mood: Happy and slimy.

RELATED X-E ARTICLES:
1992's Fruity Bubble Yum Hi-C - Halloween Hi-C

Posted by Matt on 05/02/2006. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 106 comments

Jedoc – Eeew, I think I’d end up having some kind of … ecto shock, or something. :)

Maybe it needs a chaser.

Chestnuts roasted by Ryane @ 05/03/2006 10:48 AM


Matt, may I suggest some green food coloring?

Chestnuts roasted by rockasoo @ 05/03/2006 10:52 AM


From last blog

lugnutz I’ll give Limewire a trie. WinMx worked great for me for years, and I’m mostly looking for music more than anything else.

Norbert You should definately pickup the Takara reissue Soundwave or Sound Blaster. May not be original G1, but they’re just as great. Although, they may be a little pricier to find than when they were first released and harder to find.

Man, I loved Ecto Cooler. I need to buy me a case of this stuff and drink it with some Belvedere….

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 05/03/2006 11:23 AM


This makes me so happy. Kids today shouldn’t grow up in an Ecto-Cool-less world. Otherwise, the terrorists win.

Chestnuts roasted by Jeff Mack @ 05/03/2006 11:39 AM


I’ll definitely have to check this out…

Down here in suburban Philadelphia, there is a Shop Rite (in Eddystone, Delaware County) that sells Shoutin’ Orange Tangergreen…complete with "Ecto Cooler" on the receipts.

Creepy that this gets posted now…we had just bought some of the sacred juice this past weekend before a screening of "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" at my house. Good times.

Chestnuts roasted by Mike F @ 05/03/2006 12:23 PM


I’ve heard that the receipt trick still works with Crazy Citrus Cooler — if anyone can confirm, please, send in a pic!

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 05/03/2006 12:26 PM


I’m a bit confused, Matt. You seem to have had an affinity for Ecto Cooler for a long time, yet this is what you said about it in your Fruity Bubble-Gum Hi-C article:

"While Ecto-Cooler was certifiably disgusting, they could get away with it since they had Slimer on the packaging."

Guh? Did you used to hate it, and only develop a taste for it later on or what?

Chestnuts roasted by A-wel Cruiz @ 05/03/2006 12:51 PM


I have to be honest, I was never a big fan of Ecto Cooler as a drink. There was some mish mash of flavors that just didn’t sit right with me.

Incredibly, this did not stop me from buying it time and again simply because Slimer was on the package.

Chestnuts roasted by Wukong @ 05/03/2006 12:55 PM


A-Wel, that’s an old article, meaning I couldn’t describe anything without saying that it sucked.

Still, Ecto/Tanger/Citrus is more an idea than a flavor for me. I drink it for the same reason I’ll eat a MoonPie or sometimes choose Parmesan Goldfish over the obviously more awesome Cheddar. If that makes sense.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 05/03/2006 1:19 PM


*Spoodles*: GOAT stands for: Greatest Of All Time. Ecto Cooler is just that.

Chestnuts roasted by Geoffinsanity @ 05/03/2006 1:56 PM


I remember drinking Ecto Cooler as a kid. It was one of the few "junk foods" my mom would buy for me. I was practically the only kid at school who brought lunch from home, and I used to be jealous when my friends would sit down with their multi-compartmented trays filled with indistinguishable foodstuffs, but oh how the tables were turned when I would pull an Ecto Cooler out of my Barbie and the Rockers lunchbox.

Chestnuts roasted by violetdied @ 05/03/2006 1:57 PM


This is excellent news, now if they’d just make Amazing Fruit bears available again my childhood lunches would be complete.

Chestnuts roasted by Glitter Godzilla @ 05/03/2006 2:02 PM


I guess I was a little too old by the time the Amazing Fruit bears crawled out of their forest to be seen carrying them around at school, and I’m not entirely sure I ever even had the things. I pretty much don’t remember taking my lunch at all once junior high hit, though it was an everyday thing in elementary school.

The thing I need to make childhood lunch complete is those damn Garfield fruit snacks Matt covered once. I don’t know if it’s matured tastebuds, burned and dead tastebuds from smoking, or if the recipe changed somewhere over the years but I swear all those fruit snack things aren’t half as good as they used to be. And Garfield’s was the best of ‘em all.

Chestnuts roasted by lugnut @ 05/03/2006 2:39 PM


MMMMmmmm…. Slimer.
Maybe they harvest the juice from the Spud the way that Slurm is harvested.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/03/2006 3:15 PM


Oh man, Garfield fruit snacks. That takes me back. My mom rarely bought stuff like that, but my best friend always had them. I ALWAYS had trouble opening them and when I would finally get them open the precious little package burst forth fruit snacks all over the floor. Of course, as a 7 year old germophobe, I wouldn’t eat anything off the floor so my friend, so graciously, would pick mine up and trade hers with me. I will always love her if only for that reason.

Chestnuts roasted by Rebecca @ 05/03/2006 4:37 PM


Ecto Cooler! I love that drink. I was sad as all hell when I realized that Shouting Orange Tangergreen was no longer appearing on the shelves. I think I’m going to find myself some Crazy Citrus Cooler. Now all I need is to find is nostalgia Kool-Aid.

Chestnuts roasted by Eris @ 05/03/2006 5:32 PM


So Crazy Citrus Cooler isn’t green? What a rip. The box clearly implies fruit slices dancing in a jubilee of green liquid.

Chestnuts roasted by Welsh Rabbit @ 05/03/2006 5:36 PM


"I miss the days when you got a perfect 8.45 oz instead of an unsatisfying 6.75 oz. Also that little slimer needs to replace chucky."

I agree, dohopoki. The switch in Hi-C from the real fruit photographs to the ugly yellow boxes was already a turn off for me. But then they reduced the portions to just a few unsatisfying gulps! Since they charged the same price, my dad didn’t want to buy them anymore, and that was the end of my juice box days. For a while I went with Capri-Sun, but the slick metallic sheen and surfboarders just doesn’t have the same charm.

Does anyone know the years they changed the box and reduced the portions? I would like to regard them as points of death for my childhood.

Chestnuts roasted by Venison @ 05/03/2006 6:00 PM


Well drown the kids and shoot the neighbors, that’s good news!

Chestnuts roasted by Frostor @ 05/03/2006 6:03 PM


I’m not sure the Maragarita recipe is for use with the Hi-C. Then again, the juices they recommend sound like what would be in Crazy Citrus Cooler anyway. Can anyone verify this?

Chestnuts roasted by Kyle @ 05/03/2006 6:46 PM


Even better news for me, as I’ve procured all the leftover packs of Shoutin’ Orange Tangergreen on sale at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet. Still good til August!

Mmm… tangergreenie.

Chestnuts roasted by Mystie @ 05/03/2006 7:47 PM


Yes, Venison, a point I made only in silence: Besides being less, the boxes are incredibly ugly now. Even the tall shape of them makes me mad at them. I’m really mad at Hi-c, roar.

Chestnuts roasted by dohopoki @ 05/03/2006 8:09 PM


Oddly enough, Mike F, the only Shoutin’ Tangergreen I ever found in Cape May County was in the Rio Grande Shop Rite. Maybe they had the exclusive rights for the South Jersey/Philly area or something. (And it was on sale that day, too. Sweet.)

Now that I know the new name, I’ll have to look for it again. The Audubon Acme is one of the larger grocery stores in the area; they may just have it.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 05/03/2006 8:31 PM


YES YES YES YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I’m e-mailing Hi-C right now to thank them.

Chestnuts roasted by John F. @ 05/03/2006 8:33 PM


I’m still waiting for a sexy dame and the return of ALF to network television.

Aw, Spoodles. What am I, chopped liver? ;)

Chestnuts roasted by Mystie @ 05/03/2006 9:04 PM


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