There are products that fade away. And then there are products that haunt the snack aisle like ghosts of grocery carts past.
Today, we’re investigating three discontinued (for the most part) cult classics that feel ripe for a comeback in the era of nostalgia-fueled launches, ironic branding, and millennial-parent-core.
Let’s dive in.
1. Keebler Pizzarias (Now Owned by Utz)
“We baked real pizza right into the chip.”
📍Original Era: 1991–1995
📉 Discontinued: In the late 90s after the sale of Keebler
These triangle-shaped pizza chips were baked using actual pizza dough. And we remember them. Vividly. Almost too vividly.
They came in three unforgettable flavors:
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Cheese Pizza
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Pizza Supreme
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Zesty Pepperoni
Each one tasted like it had no business being that good in a foil bag.
And here’s the thing:
Pizzarias weren’t just pizza-flavored potato chips.
They were thicker, crispier, a little doughy, with actual pizza crust vibes. You could taste the layers — the cheese dust, the seasoning, the nostalgic guilt. It felt more like snacking on a crunchy slice than licking Dorito dust off your fingers.
📈 Modern Landscape:
The salty snack aisle is on fire.
From Khloud Protein Popcorn, Wilde Chips, Crisp Power Protein Pretzels, and The Good Crisp Company to acquired brands like Siete and Lesser Evil, consumers are saying yes to flavor, crunch, and cultural relevance, and absolutely to novelty and nostalgia.
🧠 Analysis:
Pizzarias would thrive today as a nostalgic reboot with modern macros. Think heirloom grain pizza dough, with a clean-label angle and retro-meets-ironic packaging. No elves required. Just a little bit of protein.
🔮 Prediction:
Utz already holds the rights — they just need the right drop strategy. A campaign geared towards elder millennials who have been waiting for the brand revival, now afflicted with lower back pain, sore knees, and TLC playing on Limewire should do the trick.
2. Hostess Fruit Pies
“Real fruit filling."
📍Original Era: 1960s–2000s
📉 Discontinued (select flavors): The fruit pies have existed in some form, but most core flavors and regional cult favorites disappeared after the Hostess bankruptcy.
Remember the waxy paper packs and the shellacked crust? These pies were what you grabbed at any time of the day. And on the cheap!
📈 Modern Landscape: The hand pie is back. From local farmers markets to viral TikToks, consumers love a single-serve, grab-and-go indulgence.
🧠 Analysis:
Hostess Fruit Pies are the perfect bridge between nostalgia and low-carb decadence. The modern consumer still wants the dopamine hit, but they want it with less sugar, more protein, and zero blood sugar crash.
🔮 Prediction:
🥧 Legendary Foods brings them back, this time as keto-friendly, protein-packed toaster pies with fruit-inspired flavors, frosted edges, and an indulgent fruit-forward filling.
3. Orbitz
“Was it a drink or a toy? Yes.”
📍Original Era: 1997–1998
📉 Discontinued: The market wasn’t ready for textural beverages… but the internet never forgot.
Orbitz was fruit-flavored beverage with floating gel spheres suspended in the bottle, much like a lava lamp, creating a drinking experience that fell somewhere between Clearly Canadian and a bio-lab experiment.
📈 Modern Landscape: Bubble tea is thriving. Texture is in. Gen Z wants sensory novelty. And let’s not forget: TikTok would eat this alive.
🧠 Analysis:
With functional drinks and retro beverages both trending, the time has never been better to bring Orbitz back. You don’t even have to change the formula. Just let the weird shine, but update the sugar content and tell the story.
🔮 Prediction:
🌌 Clearly Canadian makes the comeback happen, reclaiming Orbitz as a limited-edition sibling brand. Retro bottle, modern macros, TikTok-first rollout. Flavors like “Galaxy Grape” and “Cherry Nebula” float onto shelves. The lava lamp lives.
Editor's Note: The Clearly Food & Beverage Company created Orbitz and currently produces Clearly Canadian.
Final Take:
Nostalgia is currency, especially in a CPG era obsessed with reboots, collaborations, and TikTokable packaging.
Brands that win are the ones that know how to remix the past while anchoring it to today’s consumer demands: formulation, storytelling, and platform-native marketing.
Some call it a comeback, but this strategy has been here for years.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was briefed and written by Growthbuster, then edited by AI, and then polished and published by Growthbuster.
Growthbuster helps food and beverage brands stop blending in and start standing out online and on the shelf.
