A popular Minute Maid citrus drink that vanished from store shelves decades ago still lives on in the memories of kids who grew up drinking it in the 1980s.
Coca-Cola, Minute Maid’s parent company, quietly discontinued Five Alive around 1995.
But nostalgic social media posts keep wondering why.
“When did Five Alive fall off?” a person on Reddit wondered about a year ago.
Another post from the same time showing an ad for Five Alive from 1979, the year it launched, drew sentimental reactions.
“Honestly, I loved that stuff,” wrote one commenter.
“Why did it go away?” asked another.
“I miss this stuff so much,” someone else wrote.
“I could go for some Five Alive right now,” wrote a Redditor three years ago.
“Does anyone remember Five Alive?” asked another around the same time.
Both posts drew enthusiastic reactions from like-minded readers.
Some people even have fond memories of the less-expensive frozen concentrate version of the drink.
“Remember how it would slide slowly out of the can?” wrote a Redditor a year ago, drawing the response of, “SSHHHHHHHHHPLOP” from yet another commentator.
Five Alive faded from the US market in the mid ’90s when Coca-Cola introduced Fruitopia in 1994 in a bid to keep up with trends, Tasting Table reported.
Despite a $30-million marketing campaign, a spot in McDonald’s drink offerings and a shoutout from Stephen Hawking on “The Simpsons,” Fruitopia didn’t last either. Coca-Cola did away with it in 2003.
Coca-Cola announced earlier this year that Minute Maid is discontinuing its frozen juice concentrate products altogether “in response to shifting consumer preferences,” as Fox News Business reported.
Five Alive may have evaporated from American stores, but it isn’t fully extinct.
Coca-Cola advertises both Five Alive and Fruitopia for sale in Canada.
Five Alive is also available in Nigeria, according to Tasting Table.
On its website, Walmart touts Five Alive as “a nutritious blend of five fruit flavors” that has “the ‘citrus zing’ that makes you Feel Alive!”
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