Is it a generational thing? Do kids still drink stuff like this? Seems absolutely nuts in retrospect! Build out your home bar by shopping the HTD Collection over at Curiada - bit.ly/makeit90sstyle - Use code Howtodrink for free shipping on orders over $199. *Watch the Podcast!* ru-vid.com Listen to the podcast! Bit.Ly/MidnightLocal Curiada: bit.ly/makeit90sstyle Cherry Blossom Syrup: amzn.to/3OZ6zTu Orange Blossom Water: amzn.to/3PhB9Z1 Boba Pearls: amzn.to/3WTT3mc Twitch: bit.ly/2VsOi3d H2D2: bit.ly/YTH2D2 twitter: bit.ly/H2DTwit instagram: bit.ly/H2dIG Blog: bit.ly/H2DBlog Patreon: bit.ly/H2DPatreon Gear: amzn.to/2LeQCbW
I got a Suggestion. For a Episode, make Smoothies from The Game "Grounded" I love the game I think its a bit underrated. Idk if you read comments. But I would like to hear your feedback about this idea
An American specific generational thing, I think. As a South African I only recognise Capri Sun and I think that maybe I saw Orbitz at a candy importer a few times in the late 90s but it would have been far too expensive for me because most things at those stores were. I'm fairly certain that companies were actively trying to kill kids in the 80s and 90s.
If you ever revisit this, I believe the Orbitz were suspended in the liquid by adjusting the density with xanthan gum--this was a common high school chemistry experiment in the early 2000s.
Boba certainly made me think of Orbitz when I first came upon it. I fondly recall my high school friend trying Orbitz for the first time and exclaiming in dismay, “It’s got chunks!”
@@Spade_FoxDerg Yeah the wiki page for Orbitz says just as much. They're very similar substances but gellan is derived from a different microorganism to xanthan.
I have fuzzy memories from college of pouring two shots of tequila in a glass with red Gatorade, squeezing a pouch of Capri Sun in, and dubbing it a "Capri-la sunrise". As is traditional in Italy, probably.
In college my friends and I would drink "Estus flasks" aka Sunny D topped off with the cheapest sparkling wine we could get and we THRIVED we we're living our worst lives and loving it
Reminds me of when I was 19 and my friend gifted me two very fancy bottles of red wine (for some reason). I was not a wine drinker at all, and there was a block party going on, so we mixed up a jug of cherry Crystal Light, poured the wine in, funnelled it back into a couple of empty pop bottles and called it "ghetto sangria". The blackout that this stuff induced in both of us - and the hangovers that followed - were truly one of a kind.
*Greg takes the koolaid * "I'm gonna put some vodka in this, because what else am I gonna put in this." I'm sensing a theme for this episode, and that is "drinks that I would have made when I was 17"
Pretty sure the whole deal with crystal pepsi is that its the same recipe as regular pepsi except they remove the caramel which makes it taste more like a citrus drink rather then a regular cola. You can still get it in Canada during the summer and I love it.
No, the original crystal Pepsi (and the reissue) was an attempt to hit the same flavor but clear... The flavor was just a slight variation of normal Pepsi When they discontinued crystal Pepsi they changed the formula to give it that citrus taste and simply called it "crystal" which is why many people confuse the two
@@SgtPnkks I was talking about the original / reissue. It does still taste a lot like regular pepsi but without the caramel I find its a lot closer to a citrus drink then like a classic cola, cola in the end is just a spiced citrus drink anyways. I've never tried the changed formula before, was it any good? (I assume no because they discontinued it not long after trying the change)
i’m so glad to hear that it’s still around in the summer in parts of Canada, because i have seen it around Québec but i was worried that the dépanneur i visited in Sherbrooke might have just not gotten rid of some very expired soda for a while 😭
I remember downing those Kool-aid bursts after helping with yard work at my grandma's. Flavor always reminded me of a mildly sad, melted, generic popsicle.
The 90s I think is when companies started realizing that if they flavor a product only mildly, then they can keep you coming back: looking for the almost-promised flavor, while never actually being satisfied, and that we'd just keep trying as long as we didn't think too hard about it 😅
As someone who loves cherry flavors, including artificial cherry, when you were talking about how there was nothing you could add that would enhance the mild flavor of a Kool-Aid Burst without overwhelming it, I was staring at the bottle of Luxardo in the top left of the frame and screaming internally.
The sunny d one kinda reminds me of my "famous" punch that I used to make. Equal parts sunny d and mango juice then every flavor of "tropical" vodka or rum you can get your hands on (pineapple, mango, orange, banana, etc. Not coconut though. Coconut ruins it.) I called it Sunday morning sunshine, or then eventually just Sunshine. It tastes delicious and you will get alcohol poisoning from it lol.
For April Fool's or even just any meaningfully special occasion you should try swapping places with Meredith for an episode, she makes the drinks and keeps up the chatter while you're on standby if needed and making sure things are recording right, etc.
I'm really, really glad I hadn't taken a sip of my coffee when "stuffed with D" showed up in the vid. All the 90s nostalgia going around makes me laugh a bit. I now know how my parents probably feel seeing 60s and 70s nostalgia where the nostalgia hits the main bits but misses the subtleties. All the little nuances that made the 90s the 90s tend to be missing. Not to mention that there's a fair bit overlap with mid-90s through the first half of the 00s. That or it's just all mixed up. I graduated high school in 06 and one of my coworkers informed that that's the year she was born. I sort of just stared at her and wondered where the hell the time has gone. The 90s still feel like 10 years ago to me, not more like the 30 they are...
@@blakksheep736 I work in my town's vet clinic. We have a boarding building/facility that is part of it, so we have teens that work there part-time. Usually weekends during the school yet and then a few more hours during the summer.
9:30 in the original drink they used Gellan gum, a water-soluble, to "suspend" the little orbs in their drink and it worked because it made the orbs and liquid equal density. PHYSICS!
What you're remembering, is the CITRUS crystal pepsi. which was even more limited of a run. OG crystal pepsi is just pepsi without caramel color. they did release a special Citrus flavored one which was only available for i want to say 6 months or so.
As someone who has watched Ashens consume A LOT of things as old as the Orbitz or older, I thank you for your service today Greg. Never seemed like anything a rational human being should do or watch, but its always entertaining.
Looking forward to the next batch of generational nostalgia cocktails like: Affording A Mortgage, Working In A Field You Love After University & Making A Real Difference.
I just bought some Clearly Canadian 2 weeks ago. It's horribly expensive compared to what it was in my youth. I remember it being a little more expensive than a can of soda but it was over $3 a bottle now. It was fun introducing my kids to a little of my 90s nostalgia and it tastes way better than any carbonated water/ seltzer IMHO. Also there use to be 100s of coolaid flavors and now there are 10 or so.
It wasn't even that sweet back then. I remember cos we celebrate Chinese New Year in my family, which involves lots of people dropping by to visit so you always need a cooler of drinks on standby, and Mom went out of her way to buy an industrial quantity of Clearly Canadian (a very fringe import in our country even then) because she tasted how un-sweet it was and wanted to be the "responsible one", not just stock with a bunch of Coke and Sprite like everyone else in our family did. I distinctly remember loving the apple one the most, followed by the blackberry. Oh and it's hilarious how Greg notes the difficulty with the cap, cos they were like that back then too. I've only ever cut myself on one drink bottle and it was opening a Clearly Canadian. Slashed my thumb right open!
Hundreds? The two blue ones were introduced and are still around. The had this pink one that had to do with a dinosaur. Maybe they had lime at one point. Strawberry is still in effect I believe. Hard to find orange now. But I don't think it went over how many flavors of jello or jolly ranchers they had at the time. There is a mango orange that is newer.
The music at the beginning of the Crystal Pepsi part, specifically the editing of the beats in the music with the cuts in the video when you're trying the vanilla vodka, really nicely done.
Oh god, Orbitz. Between those and these Elemental Cooler things that read like a Captain Planet lineup, they're vividly impressed in my brain as tasting like writing classes at UVa in the mid-90s. I can feel the texture in my mouth just sitting here. We're all ancient mariners now, look out for albatross.
Orbitz! I used to BEG my Mom to buy me one to try - the Pina Colada specifically. I remember it being freakishly syrupy but a big MEH on flavor. Sadly, that one drink informed my palette as to what a Pina Colada should taste like for the next 15 years!
I only discovered Clearly Canadian like 2 or 3 years ago and, after trying each flavor, Mountain Blackberry has become one of my favorite things to drink. 😂 I don't have it very often because it's expensive, but I was actually finishing up a bottle of it as I clicked on this video. 😂 This is the first time I've ever questioned the faith I had in Greg's judgment.
The strawberry one is my favorite! They have new lime and some other flavors now too including sugar free bottles with new flavors! Fr tho so expensive but so good.
I remember when those blue Kool-Aids were called, "The Great Bluedini". To me, they taste the exact same as they did 30 years ago. ...Yeah, I might have had one recently on purpose.
A group I used to hang with (Duckstock) had a signature mixed drink (Duck Juice) they made that used Sunny D as a primary ingredient. The other ingredients were three types of rum, pineapple juice, and maraschino cherry juice. I don't recall the proportions of it, unfortunately, but I could probably get ahold of the recipe if you wanted to know it.
@@saqwana25god, what a fucking crime. Artificial sweeteners all taste like metal and adding them to something that doesn't have much else going on is a Mistake.
I think you guys may be conflating the two different Crystal variants! The original Crystal Pepsi was supposed to be just Pepsi without any colorant - tasted largely like regular Pepsi to me without the extra vanilla or lemon you seemed to note - but then after that one was discontinued, they brought out "Crystal " which a lemon citrus soda, and looked the same. It was confusing at the time as well.
I think we're at a point where Greg could easily take the greatest hits of his on the fly makes and perfect them then have others do an a/b with the thing he was inspired by. Fun episode. Took me way back.
The original Crystal Pepsi was caffeine free and caramel color free. It still tasted like cola and was an excellent mixer. The creamy citrus thing was a different beverage called like Crystal From Pepsi. The reissue of Crystal Pepsi has caffeine and it doesn't mix nearly as well because of that.
I remember being so upset as a kid when Squeezits were discontinued and Kool-Aid Bursts were all that was left. Even as the kind of kid who couldn't tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi, I knew Bursts tasted like a phantom of what Squeezits were.
Australia had something similar to the kool-aid bursts. They were called Koola Bears and may still be around. My town has one specific shop that sold them, and it's still open so I might eventually check. They had the same kind of "chew it open like a savage since you're a kid with no scissors" top, and were shaped like sitting Koala Bears :) I'm a 2000s kid and they were my favourite lil treat
Aside from a walk down nostalgia lane this episode, I love watching your content. Especially the slow-mo pours, quite satisfying and occasionally educational for future drink making.
Have you guys heard of Super Juice? Pretty interesting food chemistry thing to get maximum juice out of just one, two citruses, using citric and malic acid to get a concentrate using peals & everything. Haven't tried it myself, yet, but it's supposed to taste basically just like fresh squeezed once topped up with water, but for a fraction of the ingredient costs. Not sure if its worth a full episode or anything like that, but reading about it reminded me of your syrup & grenadine episodes so thought it worth a mention.
i think the best way you could have made the Orbitz drink have the boba floating around would be hte same method you did with the Carbon Freeze in the Galaxys Edge video, using those cups that have the puck of dry ice at the bottom.
I was once at a hotel bar near Punxsutawney, PA on groundhogs day and they made tequila sunrises with Sunny D in place of orange juice. It was the greatest substitute of all time! My friend and I spent the whole night drinking those and watching Breaking Amish on the TV in the bar, definitely a great way to celebrate groundhogs day after going to gobblers knob!
With the exception of the orbitz, all of these are still available on the market, though sometimes limited runs. Crystal Pepsi was re-released for a short time in 2022 as its "30th anniversary," while Clearly Canadian, Hi-C, Kool-Aid, and Sunny Delight are all still regular market items. Even Orbitz may have been re-released a few times promotionally (I struggle to believe a bottle full of sugar and proteins would only have "some" mold in it after 30 years)
omg i used to drink blue kool aid bursts everyday at school in the early 2010s!! (i’m a zoomer lmao) i used to chew through the plastic on the bottom and drink it the wrong way. i was a strange child
Orange Hi-C always makes me think of my friends and I back in high school Frankensteining McChicken/McDouble sandwich abominations at McDonald's. I can still taste those memories 15 years later
This video was great,loved it!😀Orbits was one of my go to drinks back then. I remember Ecto Cooler too and Jolt Cola,wish they had some of this stuff back in stores
The first convention I ever went to like 8 or so years ago had a cocktail that was being passed around called the "Esther's flask" and it was basically just sunny d and fireball whiskey. I actually really liked it at the time. haven't had it since though.
Lord, I can't drink for lots of reasons however I have a ridiculous curiosity for tasting awful things and that's so devious it would be something I tried 😂😂😂😂❤
If any of these bottles are actually 24-33 years old rather than modern samples of the product then there is significant degradation from the water acting as solvent and potential sun damage. Still really fun to watch.
if you're looking for another video game inspired episode i'd recommend deep rock galactic. it has alot of drinks but no actual recipes so i would love to see what you can come up with.
Fun fact about Orbitz: it's just Clearly Canadian with funny bits in it, and the density adjusted with gellan gum so the bits float. It's the same drink, otherwise. Even the bottles are the same.
It’s amazing that nearly a quarter of a century later those little balls are still floating around like they did in the 90’s in those Orbits. I remember drinking a few of those back in the day and they were interesting. Like Boba and absolutely not at the same time.
Where did you find an orbitz???? I haven't had one of those in decades. I vaguely recall crystal Pepsi, and always made a mess trying to open the kool-aid ones 😅 Edit: I miss jasta too... that was such a different one compared to most mid to late 90s sugar bombs
Never had any of those drinks as a European guy born in '98 who never really drank much juices and sodas even compared to other kids my age but it still was a very interesting episode! We could see how inspired you were while recreating
The expiration dates on bottles isn't really for the drink inside... it for the plastic bottle itself which decomposes into the drink, I'm sure those microplastics tasted yummy. You're 20% plastic now.
Born in the nineties here it's really mind-blowing thirty years prior to the 90s was the 60s we were thinking about hippies thinking they were ancient, how the tables have turned. As millennials we brought back bell bottoms for a short period of time it is true what they say trends come in cycles over the years.
I love this content! For some reason I’m hearing the voice of Greg Universe from Steven Universe as a bartender who lets choice words fly all while recreating 90s and early 2000s kids drinks but with alcohol and I love it 😂🤙🏽🔥
My parents were hippies and we didn't ever have pop (soda), BUT when we would do a 24-hour Greyhound bus trip to visit my family we'd be able to get 1 or 2 Clearly Canadians. Just seeing the bottle I can smell them and it brings me right back to the uncomfortable nostalgia of those long trips.
I loved Clearly Canadian back in the 90s. I recently found it being sold at a World Market store and HAD to buy a few bottles out of nostalgia. And, turns out, still love it!! LOL it's better than other flavored seltzer drinks. Maybe cuz it's "all natural." Wish it was more readily available again!
Orbitz was my favorite drink growing up, never got to drink the last one I ever bought, because it came in a glass bottle and I dropped mine before I ever opened it.
Video Suggestion: Summer Cocktails. I know you’ve done a video on *coffee* summer cocktails, but what about something a bit more general? At the very least, if you’ve done that already, I’m struggling to find it.
Fun fact: you can use Capri-Suns to make liquid culture for growing mushrooms. Inject with spores, reseal, and it will feed off the sugar in the drink.
When I was a kid one of the day camps I went to would freeze the Kool-aid bursts. I remember love them. Also, squeezeits ( i think that was the name.) I'm 38 now and can still remember the non-existent taste of blue kool-aid.
Kool-Aid Bursts would probably make a great low-effort mixed drink for parties in the '90s. Just fill a shotglass halfway with whatever liquor and then the rest with Burst.
That tangy original sunny d... Reminded me of my junior/senior high school years. Wake up, get ready for school, mix 50/50 sunny d and potter's whiskey and head on my way...
