See, in the 1960’s Hi-C invented a drink called “Citrus Cooler”, which was a bright green orange and LEMON flavored juice product. Or, rather, they didn’t try very HARD when making it. That’s because Hi-C didn’t make a brand-new drink for Ecto-Cooler.

You may have noticed that I put an asterisk on “made” 4 paragraphs ago. This may sound somewhat cheap, but you’ll be happy to know it’s part of a proud tradition. “What if, instead of the legally actionable floating green mouth demon, we made a DIFFERENT green-mouth demon?” At which point they simply changed the name to, and I am NOT making this up: “Shoutin’ Orange Tanger-green”, and Slimer was replaced by a green ball of lips. Amazingly, Slimer stayed on Ecto-cooler boxes for 6 YEARS after The Real Ghostbusters ended, and the drink wasn’t formally discontinued until 4 years after THAT, in 2001. And if there’s one things corporations hate, it’s expenditures they don’t need. Which means, somewhere, somehow, Hi-C was paying for that picture. As we noted, Ecto-Cooler was made to look like goo from Slimer. The answer to that is very simple and rather obvious from a corporate point of view. Which begs the question: where did it go? You may faintly remember that part of the buzz about the 2016 Ghostbusters film was that they were “bringing back” Ecto-Cooler. So, even if you know about Ecto-Cooler (which you all should, now), one thing you may or may not be aware of is where exactly it came from, and what HAPPENED to it. Let’s get everyone back together It Ain’t Easy, Being Green Drink, and become part of the Gluttonous Slime. Within 2 years of the film, “The Real Ghostbusters” cartoon was made, (more on that later) and as part of it, the company Hi-C made* a fruit juice drink called “Ecto-Cooler”, which was a green drink that tasted like Oranges and Tangerines, to mimic the character Slimer’s…slime.ĭrink of my essence, children. Like, apparently Dan Aykroyd’s family is all SUPER into ghosts and the supernatural, and he was going to do it like a Blues Brothers but with Ghosts thing with Belushi, but then John Belushi tragically overdosed, so he got Bill Murray to sign on instead.) (Side note, the history of Ghostbusters, as a movie, and the creation of it, is WILD. This of course meant that, in the profit-driven cocaine-scape that was the 80’s, this movie about ghosts, ghost blowjobs, and a dude named “Keymaster” hooking up with a chick named “Gatekeeper” to summon a Cosmic Goth should DEFINITELY be a children’s cartoon, because kids buy FUCKING TOYS, and that meant MORE MONEY. The first Ghostbuster movie came out in 1984 and was a huge hit, like, “highest box office ever for a comedy” at the time level of hit. THE POINT is that I assume most people around my age know of Ecto-Cooler, and where it comes from: Which is the Ghostbusters 4 cool dudes (or, most recently, gals) who bust ghosts. I’ve just discovered that Vanilla Pudding Pops would make a good “Unicorn Horn” dessert if I ever have a need for that, however. To those OLDER readers who have no connection to the idea, the example I would use is…probably Jell-O Pudding Pops? I don’t know early 80’s/late 70’s food. In a way I…THINK something like “Drake and Josh” or “ Catscratch” might lock in your brains. Turns out I’m a bit of a repetitive drunk.Īnywho, to the unaware, whom I just implied were young’uns, to those of us born from around 1982 to 1992, the phrase “ecto-cooler” is a stabbing knife of memory to a younger, happier time. I’d say “you decide”, but I literally just did that bit. Those of you with the background, skip to the next section to skip over the explanation for the young’uns. And thus, you either know what we’re doing, or you’re worried I’ve started speaking in tongues. Look, I’m not going to play coy, you read the title card. And while you COULD explore all of those interesting descriptors, you can also just click this link, get the recipe, and get brewing for yourself. Today’s cocktail is a surprisingly simple, somewhat nostalgic, seasonally appropriate, and legally non-actionable riff on a drink from Jon’s childhood. A process he USED to do without a special name, but branding is the Master Sword of internet marketing, so here we are. Why hello there, and welcome back to Kitchen Catastrophe’s series, Catastrophic Cocktails, where, in order to buy himself time and write off his copious alcohol purchases as business expenses, Jon O’Guin explores the world of drinks.

Ecto cooler strain review