The signature flavored gelatin known as Jell-O is a staple for many families. It's one of
those brand names that has become so popular it's synonymous with the entire product itself,
like Kleenex or Band-Aids. Jell-O has released a lot of different flavors throughout the
brand's history and some were hits, and others were definitely not. Let’s get a taste of
10 discontinued Jell-O flavors that went too far.
Cola flavored Jell-O
We understand the idea behind this particular flavor. In the southern United States, there
are many people who love to whip together something called a Coca-Cola salad. This "salad"
looks like a big ring of Jell-O and usually contains a combination of Coca-Cola, gelatin,
cherries, pineapples, and nuts. So, Jell-O apparently decided they were going to make
it one step easier and make a cola flavor. They released this in 1942, but it didn't
really last long. Turns out people were fine with adding Coca-Cola on their own. These
types of gelatin-based salads were all the rage in American kitchens in the 1950s and
1960s. As a result, Jell-O was marketed to people as an easy, cheap, and convenient item
to keep in your pantry and use with just about any dish. Some people today may cringe at
the idea of a bunch of fruits or vegetables stuffed in a sweet, jiggly Jell-O based outer
coating. But it serves a really nostalgic purpose for a lot of people who remember being
served these dishes as a child.
Celery Jell-O
Here's another flavor that Jell-O released in order to appeal to the Americans who couldn't
get enough Jell-O salad: celery. This was another one of Jell-O's clever marketing tactics
that took advantage of people's thirst for easy and convenient dishes to serve their
families or take to potlucks or other gatherings. These flavors were marketed as "Jell-O Salad
Gelatin" specifically for this purpose. So, just what kind of dish would you ever need
celery Jell-O for? As it turns out, there are tons of varieties of gelatin salads that
people would use this for. Here's an example recipe: celery Jell-O with canned tuna, diced
tomato, diced hard-boiled eggs, sliced olives, sliced peppers, sliced onions, and Italian
salad dressing. You'd mix all of those ingredients in with the gelatin mixture and then cool
it so it ends up in a big molded green blob. Now, we totally understand the appeal of the Jell-O
fruit salads.These dishes usually consist of fruit mixed with Jell-O, with some type
of whipped cream topping. We're all for that. But a vegetable Jell-O salad just does not
sound that appealing.
Italian Salad
What vintage family dinner would be complete without Italian salad flavored Jell-O? This
particular flavor is extra nauseating because it was actually designed to taste like pasta
and Italian dressing. You heard that right. All of those flavors were combined inside
a little gelatin packet, ready to mix into a gelatin salad stuffed with veggies and the
like. Italian pasta salad is still a solid dish that appears at various events and dinners
to this day. It's a go-to, easy recipe and tastes delicious. And there aren't many people
out there who don't enjoy the taste of Italian dressing... or Italian anything, really. But
putting this in a Jell-O flavor just doesn't seem right. This takes things way too far.
Simulating these flavors also doesn't seem easy, and sounds like it could end up really
fabricated. We can't help but be extra curious about what that actually would taste like.
Mixed Vegetable flavored Jell-O
The mixed vegetable flavored Jell-O was also designed specifically for gelatin salads.
This one was a particular blend of various vegetables, left to leave a taste of blended
artificial salad ingredients in your mouth. So, in case you didn't want to settle just
for celery, you could have a blend of everything. Vintage Jell-O ads, circa 1964, boast that
salads made with this particular selection have "a lot of flavor." You could say that
again. If you ever look at vintage images of these gelatin salads with various food
bits floating around inside, you'll see that they are often surrounded by green Jell-O.
This may gross you out because we're accustomed to today's green Jell-O, which is lime. However,
that green Jell-O was actually most likely mixed vegetable flavor or one of the other
vegetable flavors we’re talking about. Don't knock it until you try it, right?
Seasoned Tomato Jell-O
It's one thing to have imitation fruit flavors in your food, but imitation tomato? Sure,
tomato is technically a fruit, but we can see why this flavor was nixed. This is just
wrong. Maybe it's because we are so accustomed to Jell-O being marketed toward kids and sweet
desserts these days that we just can't wrap our minds around these gelatin salads. The
Jell-O edible slime they released last year doesn't help that mindset. Around the 1980s,
Jell-O took a sharp turn with its marketing tactics due to the gelatin salad craze dying
down. They had to think of a new re-brand because the average consumer was beginning
to focus on fresh foods for dinner and reduce their intake of processed sugars, so voila!
Kids love food that jiggles! Or, maybe it's the fact that these giant molded salads resembled
something more like alien brains than actual salads that turns us off.
Cotton Candy flavored Jell-O
It wasn't just the random salad flavors that Jell-O came out with and then discontinued.
Some sticky-sweet flavors also made the list for a short period of time, including this
cotton candy one. It actually came out for a few different occasions, all as part of
marketing campaigns for various movie releases. When the Trolls movie came out in 2017, Jell-O
released limited-edition themed flavors to correspond with the movie. One of these was
a cotton candy flavor, which had Branch, the main male character voiced by Justin Timberlake,
on a blue box. They also released a limited-edition Wonder Woman version to correspond with that
movie. It was still the same blue cotton candy flavor, but with Gal Gadot in costume on the
box. In theory, cotton candy Jell-O doesn't actually sound that bad. Cotton candy is super
sweet, and the flavor is used in a lot of other candies and treats. It's even a popular
ice cream flavor. However, there are a lot of people out there who don't really like
this flavor because it can be way too sweet at times. After all, cotton candy itself is
basically just a ton of sugar swirled together and mixed with food coloring. You can see
why it's mostly associated with and marketed to children, who generally can't get enough
of the sweet stuff.
Maple Syrup Jell-O
Maple Syrup is already sticky and sweet enough. That's why it can be a huge hit or miss when
it comes to maple syrup flavored things, or maple syrup flavor going into various food
items. But it only really goes with certain tastes, like bacon, ice cream, and various
breakfast foods. When it's mixed into gelatin form, it's hard to think of how this could
actually be used. What could you make with maple syrup Jell-O? If we had to guess, it
would likely have been in dessert form like the Coca-Cola salad recipe we mentioned. It's
pretty hard to find a lot of resources with information about this long lost flavor, which
is a big indicator that it really didn't last long and wasn't super successful. There
is a strong taste difference between simulated maple syrup and the real, pure stuff. People
have been debating this forever. Simulated maple syrup, like the classic Aunt Jemima
brand, is cheaper, so a lot of Americans prefer it for their breakfast items and various other
uses. However, the cheap stuff is basically just corn syrup with artificial flavor and
does not have the same sugary taste the real stuff does. Once you try the real stuff, it
can be pretty hard to go back to the simulated stuff, unless you're really watching your
budget. It's pretty safe to say that this same type of artificial flavor was probably
used for the maple syrup Jell-O flavor.
Coffee flavored Jell-O
Coffee-flavored Jell-O actually came out way before today's days of Artisan and hipster
coffee-aholics. It made its rounds in 1918. Originally, the minds behind the Jell-O brand
thought this was going to be a huge success. People liked to have a cup of java with their
dessert, so combining coffee flavor into that dessert seemed like the perfect solution.
However, they soon realized that people who enjoyed coffee enjoyed having it in that warm
beverage form. Plus, the simulated coffee didn't really do it since it didn't have the
caffeine people relied on from the real thing. Needless to say, this didn't really catch
on. There is a box from 1918 that still exists, but if there's anything left in it, we strongly
do not recommend tasting it. To some, this is kind of a shame that the flavor is discontinued.
It doesn't provide the actual caffeine content that people rely on these days, which could
be a major downfall for those who rely on that jolt more than once a day. But for those
who genuinely just enjoy the taste of coffee, this could have been beneficial. Imagine the
cool uses you could get out of coffee-flavored Jell-O. You could cut it into cubes and use
it with iced coffee somehow, like some weird bubble tea knock-off. Or, you could use it
with your dessert for a little bit of extra flavor.
Bubble Gum flavored Jell-O
Bubble gum is one of those flavors that people are divided over. Some people think it's much
too childish and sweet, while others simply love it. This flavor translates really well
to just about anything sweet or dessert related, from gum itself to ice cream and milkshakes.
Since the flavor itself is a simulated creation, you don't have to worry about imitation versions
being too overly fake. It's all fake! As a result, we get a pretty good consistency with
bubble gum flavored products. That being said, Jell-O just doesn't fit in with the crowd
on this one. We're all familiar with Jell-O and its pudding products, both pre-made and
sold by the powder mix. At one point in time, Jell-O sold pudding versions of bubble gum
and cotton candy flavors. The bubble gum one was pink, while the cotton candy was blue.
Now, there's something about eating pink pudding that just doesn't really feel right. First
of all, when we think about bubble gum, we think about blowing big huge fruity flavored
bubbles and popping them for fun. Eating a mouthful of bubble gum flavored goop doesn't
let you do that, so where is the fun of it all? Do we need bubble gum Jell-O pudding?
Probably not.
Imitation Apple Jell-O
The flavor itself was actually called "Imitation Apple." No masquerade here. That's because
the imitation part actually appealed to people when it came out in the 1950s. Sounds like
a big contrast to today's anti-GMO, anti-additive, pro-organic culture, doesn't it? Well, back
in the day, people were actually intrigued by the concept of GMOs and laboratory-produced
food items because they were excited about the technology of the future. So, the idea
that they could make an imitation apple flavor in a lab instead of using real apples was
actually impressive to the general American population. As a result, imitation products
were purposely used to market to the average consumer. The imitation apple Jell-O flavor
was released right around the time that people were going nuts for the gelatin salads and
jiggly molded desserts. Therefore, it's pretty obvious that this was another creation that
people could use to stuff fruit and other items into. Apple sounds like it would at
least be better for a dessert salad than many of the other items on this list. We know that
simulated apple pie tastes fine, thanks to fast food companies like McDonald's who sell
them for dessert, so we can imagine it probably tasted something like that. Although since
this flavor didn’t make the cut and couldn’t stand the test of time, this flavor too was
discontinued and probably did go too far.
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