Me first: in the early 80s, I remember the Vons supermarket chain had their own brand of sour cream dip for potato chips, one flavor that people I know loved was fresh pismo clam, it still had chunks of clam meat in there. One day it got yanked from the shelves and I’ve never seen it again.
More recently, about a decade ago, Trader Joe’s carried cheddar-and-horseradish potato chips, then one day they were gone.
I would love… LOVE… to dip those horseradish chips into that clam dip… sigh.
The cookies have the same taste as regular cookies now, it was pretty much just amazing to 8 year old me, or however old I was, that cookies could have multiple fillings and a face! It just seemed so intricate and impossible at the time. So that excitement I don’t think could be recaptured now.
But those other 2, you nailed it with visceral! I feel the salt scratching my tongue and the unique concave and teardrop shape of the chips and I can exact chewiness of those fruit snacks these 30ish years later.
The fruit snacks I think would legit still be good today. The chips, perhaps. There are a lot of good chips these days. But I’m surprised no one ever brought those things back, if not just to use the actual skins. What have they been doing with all the skin all these years?!
The other one that hit me in this thread was cheez waffies. The sharp cheddar powdery goo in between stale waffle-textured hard tack crackers. Not even sure if I’m actually into it, but I’m INTO it.
I didn’t recall ever seeing those, but I wasn’t into cheez flavor as a kid. My little brother was though. They look fun though, like little stroopwafles, but savory.
The nostalgia taste many times can overpower the actual taste! Looking at you, Elio’s slices! 😆