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Kraft Heinz
Note: Many of these flavors had brief comebacks in 2014, and some continue to return as “Retro” limited editions.
Discontinued: Unknown (but no longer available)
The original discontinued Kool-Aid flavor.
This was one of Edwin Perkins’ six original flavors from 1927. Ironically, it was his personal favorite. Out of grape, lemon-lime, cherry, orange, strawberry, and raspberry, guess which one disappeared? The inventor’s own pick. It’s like losing your favorite childhood toy. Raspberry vanished somewhere along the decades, making it the only original flavor you can’t find today.
Discontinued: Early 1980s
Launched in the mid-70s, Candy Apple captured the magic of state fair candy apples in powdered form. Kids could taste that sticky-sweet carnival treat without the mess of caramel dripping down their fingers. It paved the way for the regular Apple flavor. But the new Apple flavor couldn’t match it.
Discontinued: Mid-1980s
Debuting in 1981, Apple Kool-Aid came in a green package but created a golden liquid. The marketing promised “great apple taste that’s crisp and light” with special ingredients to both provide and regulate tartness. It was a fraction of the cost of normal apple juice.
Discontinued: 1984
The bright spot that burned out too fast.
This orangey-tang flavor lasted just two years (1982-1984) but left a lasting impression. Advertised as containing “five fruity flavors in one,” it competed with Tang and Sunny Delight in the bright yellow drink wars. Fans still desperately try to recreate it by mixing orange and lemon-lime Kool-Aid. Many think it’s the best Kool-Aid flavor ever.
Discontinued: 1992
Six flavors, one drink.
The most colorful packet in Kool-Aid history debuted in 1984 and even featured future “Full House” star Candace Cameron in early TV ads. This flavor mixed six unspecified flavors, creating hints of cherry, orange, lemonade, lime, and grape. The packet design showed the Kool-Aid Man with a beautiful six-banded rainbow shooting from his pitcher’s head.
Discontinued: 1989
Part of the ambitious “Punch Bunch” series, this 1986 creation combined strawberry with banana. The TV ads played up its wild nature with the punny tagline “it’s the taste you’re going to fall for.” Apparently, not enough people fell for it. The punch was gone after three years.
Discontinued: 1996
The grape-lemonade that became legendary.
Meet the king of Kool-Aid discontinued flavors. Purplesaurus Rex featured a cheerful purple dinosaur that became the most requested discontinued flavor in Kool-Aid history. The grape-lemonade combination sounds weird, but tasted incredible. The flavor was invented by a General Foods flavor chemist whose child proudly shared this family legacy online. Purplesaurus Rex came back for a limited time in 2014.
Discontinued: 1996
This flavor originally featured a cool pink shark wearing sunglasses, this orange-strawberry-banana combo was pure 90s attitude. The bright pink liquid looked like something from a mad scientist’s lab. When it returned in 2014, our shark friend had ditched his shades for underwater goggles and lost his pink skin. But the flavor remained the same.
Discontinued: 1994
This 1991 sensation featured an anthropomorphic crocodile who could play mean jazz. The mixed berry punch (cherries, grapes, strawberries) brought new meaning to “see you later, alligator.” Kool-Aid even put Rock-A-Dile on a farewell tour in 1994! When he returned in 2014, he’d traded his sax for drums.
Discontinued: 1993
The drink that literally popped.
Summer 1991’s most explosive flavor borrowed from Pop Rocks candy technology. When you added water, it created popping and sizzling sounds for up to two minutes. The packaging spanned four connected packets, showing Kool-Aid Man riding a firework across the New York skyline.
Discontinued: 2003
The magician of beverages.
Debuting in 1992, this color-changing drink was Kool-Aid’s first advertised transforming flavor. The powder started light green, then turned aqua blue when water was added. Featuring a top-hat-wearing blue octopus mascot, it combined white grape, Concord grape, cherry, strawberry, and plum. Despite its cool concept, it never gained much success.
Discontinued: Mid-1990s
This blue raspberry lemonade had one fatal flaw: it looked exactly like windshield wiper fluid. Parents kept mistaking it for antifreeze when stored in Kool-Aid pitchers. The flavor was invented by the same chemist who created Purplesaurus Rex, but safety concerns sent it to an early grave.
Discontinued: 1996
Sporting Bermuda shorts, sunglasses, and a backwards hat, this frazzled tourist flamingo represented watermelon-cherry flavor. Pink Swimmingo was competing in the same pink drink space as Sharkleberry Fin, but tasted too much like regular cherry to stand out.
Discontinued: Early 2000s
The super fruity blob.
This 1994 creation united strawberry and raspberry into something “Super Fruity!” The mascot was a happy yet disturbing blob of Kool-Aid that couldn’t be contained by any glass. It was goopy, blobby, and unsettling as it soared through the sky. Like the Incredible Hulk of beverages, but berry-flavored.
Discontinued: Late 1990s
A carbonated mystery.
Under the Spanish banner “Traviescura” (meaning “mischief”), this mid-90s international flavor was caramel-colored like cola but completely flat. It mystified consumers who expected fizz but got... well, flat cola-flavored Kool-Aid.
Discontinued: 1997
The Halloween exclusive from up north.
Released in 1996 as a Canadian Halloween exclusive, this was just regular black berry with spooky packaging. The real treasure was the trick-or-treating Kool-Aid Men in Halloween costumes on the packets.
Discontinued: 1997
Scary Black Cherry’s Halloween partner.
The companion to Scary Black Cherry, this was a regular orange flavor dressed up for Halloween. Canadian kids got the exclusive spooky treatment while American kids had to settle for regular flavors.
Discontinued: 2003
Part of the millennium-celebrating Blast-Offs series, this Y2K creation featured Kool-Aid Man in an astronaut suit hovering above Earth. The aerodynamic font replaced hyphens with stars, because the future was NOW! The strawberry-starfruit combo was supposed to be “out of this world” — and apparently, it went back there after three years.
Discontinued: 2003
The other space explorer.
Strawberry Starfruit’s cosmic companion in the Blast-Offs series. Together, they “orbited stores for at least three years before falling back to earth and retiring from service.” The space race was over, and these flavors lost their mission.
Discontinued: 2006
Part of Kool-Aid’s 2004 Ice Cool line, this started as snow-white powder before transforming into frosty green liquid. It delivered both color change and a tingling sensation. But critics complained about unappetizing color and funny aftertastes.
Discontinued: 2006
Arctic Green Apple’s chilly companion.
The yellow half of the Ice Cool duo, transforming from white powder to frosty yellow liquid with that signature tingle. Like its green partner, it suffered from the same mixed reviews and disappeared after two years.
Discontinued: Early 1990s
Part of the extensive “Punch Bunch” series, this was supposed to be Kool-Aid’s dark and sophisticated flavor. It tasted like “unsettled strawberry Jell-O” — which sounds more elegant than it probably was. By the time the Punch Bunch series ended, Kraft had completely run out of creative names.
Discontinued: 1989
Yabba-Dabba-Delicious.
In 1988, Post Pebbles cereal boxes came with Kool-Aid packets instead of toys, but with Stone Age names. Bedrock Orange was just regular orange flavor with Flintstones branding. The crossover brought Fred Flintstone into the Kool-Aid universe, where he could theoretically borrow power tools from the Kool-Aid Man.
Discontinued: 1989
Bedrock Orange’s prehistoric partner.
The strawberry half of the Flintstones promotion, this was regular strawberry flavor with a rockin’ Stone Age name. These Flintstones-branded packets are now precious fossils that collectors snatch up on eBay.
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