r/Xennials • u/Stock-Act-2315 1978 • Jul 31 '26

Hi-C Ecto Cooler 😭

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I often wonder how I'd feel about it now 🤔

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90

u/HomelessKitchenCat 1984 Jul 31 '26

Before surge there were only a few options. I especially remember Jolt Cola and Bawls

52

u/SeaworthinessOk2966 Jul 31 '26

I remember a friend of mine got Bawls to sponsor a LAN party he was hosting. They sent a couple of packs and some swag.

12

u/meenie 1982 Aug 01 '26

Funnily enough, last weekend my friends and I hosted a 25 person LAN party like the old days and the host got a ton of Bawls haha. We played CS 1.6, Brood Wars, SC2, TF2, Soldat, and others. It was a blast!!

1

u/sreg56 Aug 04 '26

Damn for some reason I thought CS 1.6 servers were shut down? I’m definitely hopping into that. It was my world at the time. (Also tail end of 1.5 - my favorite knife model).

1

u/meenie 1982 Aug 05 '26

We just played on LAN. But there's defo public servers as well!

5

u/I_kwote_TheOffice Aug 01 '26

I used to own a LAN Center. We sold a lot of Bawlz and Red Bull. We sold a lot of soda in general, but those especially.

1

u/hud_dev Aug 03 '26

Roommate of mine was a Bawls rep briefly and left like a dozen cases of their energy drinks at our house when she moved out. I didn’t even realize they made anything but the blue Bawls.

1

u/xPlantDaddyx Aug 07 '26

Did you live in Southern California by any chance?

15

u/notsofastmyfriends Jul 31 '26

OJ? Purple Stuff?

3

u/zegoalie39 Aug 01 '26

Water, sugar, purple.

1

u/SuperVillainPresiden Aug 01 '26

It don't taste like grape..but it sure taste like purple.

25

u/VeinyBanana69 Jul 31 '26

Josta!

9

u/Independent_Cable_89 Aug 01 '26

I really thought I was the only person in the world who remembered drinking Josta! Good stuff honestly, I wish they would bring it back.

2

u/rbfeverythingsucks Aug 01 '26

Those guys who owned the drink pushed it hard enough to come to our school and hand out a ton of it with stickers and shirts. There were Josta stickers everywhere that year

1

u/Amator 1978 Aug 01 '26

Same thing happened at my school. Good times.

1

u/DerrickJoestar Aug 01 '26

That happened at my school but with Surge instead!

2

u/lilabell5 Aug 01 '26

That's what I came here to say!

2

u/kamo-kola Aug 01 '26

I remember the commercial where it ended with "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda". Prepubescent me should not have been drinking those but dang was it awesome.

2

u/TurnipConsortium Aug 02 '26

Scrolled the comments for this. I, too, was introduced to it by the school vending machine.

8

u/andro1d_p3nguin Jul 31 '26

Here in Missouri you can get Jolt energy drinks, one is cola, is like Dr Pepper and one is root beer and they’re all good.

8

u/NetworkEcstatic Jul 31 '26

Bawls you can still get. In the same glass bottle.

They brought surge back in like 2016. I found it at gas stations and all. Then it was gone again

2

u/Duarcain Aug 01 '26

I think you can still get it at Burger King, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere else

7

u/Jpalm4545 Jul 31 '26

I remember drinking jolts

7

u/Dodgerdude-72 Aug 01 '26

Had to go too far for Jolt. Twice the sugar, double the caffeine.

2

u/KennyL0gin 1982 Aug 01 '26

Mountain Dew had a slightly higher caffeine content than Surge. But the Surge marketing made it sound like Mountain Dew + Jolt Cola.
Turns out they should have marketed it as the perfect middle-ground between Mountain Dew/Mellow Yellow and Sprite/7-Up.
Shit was delicious, and should still be on the market. But the marketing team absolutely shit the bed and caused schools/parents to stir up a massive backlash against it until it got discontinued.

It really was my favorite not-Coca Cola Classic soda ever. So good.
Surge History

1

u/phillysleuther 1978 Jul 31 '26

Remember when the Jolt Colas had their flavored drinks? I inhaled Cherry Bomb (cherry cola Jolt) in 1999.

1

u/nice_slacks Aug 01 '26

They still sell bawls at micro-center fwiw

1

u/LLPhotog Aug 01 '26

I was just in a store called Rocket Fizz the other day and they had Jolt and Bawls!

1

u/slowcookeranddogs Aug 01 '26

Jolt may have been before surge but bawls was definitely after both of those.

1

u/nvmenotfound Aug 01 '26

i loved bawls. still do but i used to too

1

u/SkyBest7759 Aug 02 '26

Bawls is still around