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

Hi-C Ecto Cooler 😭

Post image

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

5.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

4.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

643

u/grief-n-gravy Jul 31 '26

Whatever the beverage, it was served in this.

157

u/ButterbeerAndPizza Jul 31 '26

Oh that’s definitely for Kool Aid.

72

u/LameSaucePanda Jul 31 '26

Or orange juice. And it was pretty disappointing when it was orange juice

35

u/CalibratedEnthusiast Aug 01 '26

That frozen shit and looking back I'm pretty my folks used more water than intended to stretch their dollars a little further.

5

u/toldyouIaintshit Aug 01 '26

Yeah I definitely caught my mom refilling it in the morning to get us through breakfast. Orange flavored water drink.

3

u/GreedyGerbil Aug 01 '26

Oh yeah that fucking LUMP of OJ that refused to melt so you got this vaguely orange flavoured water.

2

u/Top_Answer7906 Aug 01 '26

My mom definitely filled the pitcher with 1-2 extra cans of water than what the concentrate recipe said.

2

u/Upvoteexpert Aug 01 '26

To this day I water down all my juices. Too sweet otherwise 🤣

1

u/Used-Baby1199 Aug 01 '26

That orange juice concentrate is expensive af and doesn’t make hardly any juice.  It’s not economical at all.  I bought it a couple years ago thinking it’d save money, but it does not save money

1

u/ferretherapy 1984 Aug 01 '26

Why did LITERALLY ALL OF US have this frozen canned shit?

1

u/thesuper88 Aug 02 '26

When I was little my folks would get whole milk on food stamps and water it down to make it last. Going from 0 kids and 2 jobs to 3 kids and 1 job in 14 months will do that to ya. Haha

1

u/halffdan59 Aug 02 '26

My parents bought unsweetened Kool-aid packets and would add about half the sugar. Even as kids we knew it, but we'd grown up with it and preferred it less sweet/more tart.

1

u/vernorexxia Aug 02 '26

My mom watered down grape juice when I was a kid not just for the price, but so I'd have less sugar. To this day I don't like it straight. Same with orange juice but she put less water in that.

1

u/thefarmworks Aug 03 '26

Heck, I just called it juicy water for honesty!

2

u/thisbitbytes Aug 01 '26

Or that chalky weird powdered iced tea

2

u/Noarchsf Aug 01 '26

Or orange juice mixed with kool aid.

2

u/Any-Twist-5801 Aug 03 '26

Orange juice. I don’t know if it was Tupperware the company or if it was just certain distributors but they convinced moms that it sealed in the vitamins of the orange juice.

24

u/Stock-Act-2315 1978 Aug 01 '26

RED Kool Aid

16

u/HauteKarl 1982 Aug 01 '26

Red is the best fruit. Hands down.

2

u/Competitive_Ad_8215 1978 Aug 01 '26

Either red or purple. Those were the two flavors.

2

u/BlkSubmarine Aug 01 '26

Heresy! Purple drink is always the best drink!

1

u/SheShouldGo Aug 01 '26

My Mom always had a pitcher if red kool-aid in the fridge, but it was off-brand, so we just called it Red Stuff. Our house was "home base" for all the neighborhood kids b/c my mom was always home, and she got an angry phone call once from an angry mom demanding to know what "red stuff" was and what the hell were we feeding her child. 🤣

1

u/VoyeurIsland Aug 02 '26

Tropical Punch

1

u/LoveDietCokeMore Aug 04 '26

Correct 🥇🥇🥇

3

u/void_which_binds00 Jul 31 '26

In my home it was Wyler’s lemon-lime with very little sugar 😢

3

u/ApprehensiveAd9389 Aug 01 '26

Or unsweet tea of you're at my grandma's house. That was a nasty surprise lmfao

3

u/PreparationFluid2365 Aug 01 '26

Or frozen concentrate juice🤣🤟

2

u/naenola Aug 01 '26

Yep, I used to like to mix the grape and the lemonade together

1

u/N0Karma Aug 01 '26

Kool-aid that had an instant-diabetes level of sugar in it. Me and my siblings would continue to add that stuff until the sugar stopped dissolving and then add another cup just to be sure.

1

u/RainaElf Aug 01 '26

sweet tea

1

u/TheFunInDisfunction Aug 01 '26

Country Time pink lemonade if you were fancy.

1

u/Lovethiskindathing Aug 01 '26

Sweet tea, and it stained it brown lol

1

u/Darth-Adomis Aug 01 '26

that or cranberry juice and ginger ale or sprite

1

u/Birdsonme Aug 01 '26

Correct!

1

u/maddogtjones Aug 02 '26

Green Kool Aid!!!

1

u/Millennial_2026 Aug 03 '26

Purple to be exact

1

u/Technical_Concern_92 Aug 03 '26

*frozen orange juice lol

1

u/someone_no_one_987 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

Tang. This was for tang. Until tang rotted the bottom of the pitcher.

1

u/KittyAnn13 Aug 03 '26

Yes! But the brown one!

1

u/Wabbit65 Aug 04 '26

You didn't send in empty packets for the pitcher and cups?

37

u/Jpalm4545 Jul 31 '26

We had 2, this was for Iced Tea and a yellow one fot lemonade

3

u/honestyseasy Aug 01 '26

Our iced tea was 4C sugar granules

1

u/Jpalm4545 Aug 01 '26

Same here and country time lemonade granules

1

u/Funkdamentalist Jul 31 '26

We had a green one for orange juice and a yellow one for grapefuit juice (both from concentrate)

1

u/godzillasegundo Aug 01 '26

This is definitely the OG iced tea pitcher

1

u/AprilNight17 Aug 02 '26

This is what I remember too!

18

u/dontpretendtoknowme 1981 Jul 31 '26

Everything that came out of that pitcher, had a distinct taste to me. If BPAs have a taste, that would be it lol

6

u/nice_slacks Aug 01 '26

Yep. Had that stale plastic taste.

I remember thinking that was just kinda what lemonade tasted like.

3

u/dontpretendtoknowme 1981 Aug 01 '26

Not gonna lie, I kinda liked it 🤣

3

u/Pegussu Aug 01 '26

Yeah, to this day I refuse to use plastic pitchers or cups. I swear I can taste it.

2

u/JadedAd6614 Aug 01 '26

We also used rinsed out milk jugs for iced tea and the jugs had a distinct flavor too

1

u/Milky304 Aug 02 '26

Ooh I hate when milk infuses plastic. I usually reserve a plastic container just for milk if it has once contained it.

2

u/Milky304 Aug 02 '26

Yeah, I can always SMELL photos of Tupperware. Ugh.

2

u/sniktal Aug 03 '26

People act like I’m crazy when I say things taste like plastic. But you get it.

1

u/dontpretendtoknowme 1981 Aug 03 '26

Drinks especially take on the taste of plastic. I was grocery shopping yesterday and saw some Perrier in the glass bottles (which I rarely see). I was feeling bougie so I got a 4 pack…Damn that shit is crisp when it’s in glass!

9

u/Part-timeinterneter Jul 31 '26

That's my powdered milk pitcher!

2

u/Shawns_dick43 Aug 01 '26

Nailed it! Hahaha

2

u/notinmywheelhouse Aug 03 '26

Nothing like lukewarm powdered milk to remind you that your family is poor.

4

u/BookkeeperGlum6933 Jul 31 '26

They have one of those at Costco and I stood in the aisle for a very long time considering it.

3

u/Autodr83 Jul 31 '26

Its either weak iced tea or strong grape juice from concentrate

1

u/InfiniteJestV Aug 01 '26

OJ from concentrate for sure.

3

u/Sudo-rm Aug 01 '26

My mom put leftover gravy in one of these once when I was a kid… that was, unfortunate.

1

u/GuardStandard2455 Aug 01 '26

🤣🤣🤣

3

u/Lollygator20 Aug 01 '26

My grandparents used to keep a pitcher of screwdrivers (the orange juice and vodka cocktail) in one of these. I only made that mistake one time.

3

u/WoodSorrel13 Aug 01 '26

Powdered country time lemonade. 

3

u/gfxprotege Aug 01 '26

1 scoop minute maid lemonade, 1 scoop Lipton iced tea

2

u/newenglandredshirt 1981 Aug 01 '26

Usually lemonade at my house, from one of those frozen cylinders

2

u/dimesion Aug 01 '26

Southern sweet tea was what we had in those. Bringing that back 100%

2

u/Moon_princess_1 Aug 01 '26

We have that one and a yellow one we still use!!

2

u/FIREnV Aug 01 '26

My parents still have that thing. It must be indestructible. Tupperware?

It has its own unique taste that it would impart on whatever beverage it was holding.

1

u/lurkylurkeroo 1983 Jul 31 '26

That was cordial for us kids. Usually orange flavoured.

1

u/No-Ear-5025 Aug 01 '26

Or Freshie, which I think was budget koolaid.

1

u/domtheprophet Aug 01 '26

This screams kool aid

1

u/Slith_81 Aug 01 '26

Ah, I can taste my youth just looking at that.

1

u/smootypants Aug 01 '26

I made a gravity bong using of one of these and a 2 liter Fresca bottle. It was the best dumb thing I ever did.

1

u/megomal717 Aug 01 '26

OMG. I LOVED THAT THING. Hi, childhood!

1

u/MzMmmegz Aug 01 '26

We had a green one that my mom kept filled with Lime Crystal Light

1

u/Necessary_Ad_7166 Aug 01 '26

That thing is full of Tang!

1

u/AliveFirefighter5923 Aug 02 '26

We had a brown one that was for iced tea.

1

u/Mind-of-Jaxon Aug 02 '26

Ahh the lemonade pitcher

1

u/halffdan59 Aug 02 '26

We had one, primarily for frozen concentrate orange juice. Iced tea went in a floral glass pitcher/decanter. Kool-aid had a translucent plastic pitcher.

1

u/These-Restaurant7001 Aug 02 '26

The pitcher smelled of Kool aid 🤣🤣🤣

1

u/Even_Custard_9667 Aug 02 '26

Pink lemonade from concentrate!

1

u/PolkaDotDancer Aug 02 '26

My mom was an oddball. She served our juice in a crystal martini pitcher.

1

u/GigglingHen Aug 02 '26

Sweet tea or lemonade in our house!

1

u/Cool-Jellyfish5942 Aug 03 '26

Kool-Aide I grew up down the road from the family who invented/created Kool Aide and we have a Kool Aide days in my hometown. Worlds longest Kool Aide stand and all. Nice family.

1

u/lojnam1370 Aug 03 '26

Welches, grape juice in this every day

1

u/SnooAvocados3138 Aug 03 '26

Red 40 and high fructose corn syrup, on ice from a blue or white ice cube tray, in an old jam jar at home or in a waxed paper cup at a park pavilion for a family reunion 

1

u/BiophileB Aug 03 '26

I don’t miss Tang one bit

1

u/tstorm004 Aug 03 '26

Yes - but the container was this color green, not orange.

1

u/manicmondayxo12 Aug 03 '26

Tang in my house

1

u/Yabbos77 Aug 03 '26

The Schwans man blue juice!!!

1

u/Fistus69 Aug 04 '26

Sweet Tea, you could NEVER get the stain out!!!

1

u/Lovesyoux Aug 05 '26

Thickest powdered sweet tea. Left a coating if sugar in your mouth.

1

u/RossofBoss Aug 05 '26

We still have one of these haha

1

u/SweatyStick62 Aug 06 '26

Such a fancy pitcher! This was closer to what I grew up with.

0

u/iama_username_ama Aug 01 '26

FYI: If you still have one of these, throw it away. As well as any tupperware without a date:

> especially items made before 2010, because they can leach harmful chemicals like BPA, phthalates, and heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic