12/29/2003 Entry: "An ECTO COOLER Update!"

We're working around the clock (ha yeah right) to put together X-E's post-Christmas design. Completely overlooked it last month. Longtime readers might remember that the site's past holiday designs usually remained active till around February, if not later. This new one's kinda funky. The basic goal was to super-simplify everything. I think the site's templates (mostly with the articles) had just way too many bells and whistles -- since my plan is to write somewhat shorter articles much more frequently, I didn't want ten pounds of extra crap on each page. Anyway, the other coup of a more basic design is that there isn't a week's worth of gruntwork to tack on...it should be active by tomorrow.

Anyway, I've got some treeemendous news for Ecto Cooler fans. Ironically enough, once we figured out that Hi-C's "Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen" perfectly mimicked Slimer's ghastly color and fruit juice flavor, it seemed to vanish from the shelves. Seriously, I've gotten well over a hundred e-mails from disgruntled, thirsty readers wanting to know if the flavor had been discontinued. I have no idea, but they certainly stopped stocking them around these parts. Even if you're lucky enough to find it, chances are good that it'll be the "no stain" version, which tastes like Ecto Cooler but lacks the requisite green sheen. Worry no more -- here's your solution, and no matter where you live, it'll work for ya.

A reader named Lars tipped me off to this one. You know Net Grocer? One of the last vestiges of that short movement to make people buy groceries from home, the site is a bonanza of...well, food. More importantly, they've got a lot of Hi-C juice. Most importantly, check this out:

Yup -- the listing for "Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen" features a photo of -- you guessed it -- Ecto Cooler! This only further proves our findings: Tangergreen is Ecto Cooler, albeit with a less cool name and a box that doesn't feature Slimer. I didn't want to disappoint anyone with false news, so I went the extra mile and ordered some of the stuff. By "some," I of course mean "a giant box full." Take a gander:

It's the real deal. The radioactive green version of Tangergreen. Lord knows how much of the slop Net Grocer's got left, so if you're at all interested, check out their site and order a batch. This may be the last call for Ecto Cooler fans. If you'd like to learn more about the most fascinating fruit juice of all time, check out my article from a few months back.

Chestnuts roasted by Paul Ortego @ 12/29/2003 07:43 PM EST

for a moment i thought you were going to announce that they were bringing back ecto cooler! but i was wrong. :'(

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 12/29/2003 08:06 PM EST

hmm this obsession has led me to want to try one of those things... they must be good :) Does this Net Grocer place ship overseas? Btw, looking forward to the new layout!

Chestnuts roasted by gurge @ 12/29/2003 08:21 PM EST

I still have one more juicebox of Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen left in my fridge from a few weeks ago. I will cling to it dearly until I get some more.
They do seem to be on and off the shelves a lot, and the only place I've been able to find it every time I look is in the grossest supermarket ever - Pathmark. Man, I hate that place. But, I do what I have to to get some Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen.

Chestnuts roasted by Denise @ 12/29/2003 08:33 PM EST

Matt, you truly go above and beyond the call of duty to keep these memories alive for us all. Or create false memories, if we don't actually remember stuff. I hope you never have to go broke just to enjoy the youth we all share and wish to reacquire.

I also have to say that I love when "First Posters" aren't. It gives me a smile. An evil smile.

And a shout out to fellow Canucks and visitors from elsewhere--at least one local Sears retailer appears to have cleaned out their toy storage--for about $5 apiece, you can get various Star Trek, X-men, and TMNT figures. The catch? There is usually only one from any given line, and they are rarely ones that you'd want (case in point--an April O'neil figure from 1992, and a Deanna Troi figure from 1993). There are also more obscure lines (remember DragonFlyz? no one else would). I haven't the budget, but anyone else looking to find the last vestiges of 10-year old or older toy lines should check out your older Sears outlets (especially the ones that used to be Eaton's).

Cheers, and may the Llama bless you all. If the Camel allows it.

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 12/29/2003 09:37 PM EST

Yeah, I was hoping Matt wold bring us the news that Ecto Cooler would be brought back in its purest form (w/ Slimer on the box) too. Oh well.

You know, this has nothing to do with Ecto Cooler, but I was just thinking, we've seen black Santas and white Santas, but no Asian or East Indian Santas. What's up with that? Or how bout Native American Santas? Don't see too many of those anymore. Come to think of it, I never did.

Anyway, I found an old Street Fighter II action figure which has the G.I.Joe logo on it. It's a Blanka figure, so now I know that Blanka was reclusive before becoming a Street Fighter just a couple of years ago. And looking at the date on the card, a couple of years ago was more like 1991 or '92.

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 12/29/2003 10:43 PM EST

my cousin had that blanka figure. We blew him up with fireworks.

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 12/29/2003 10:50 PM EST

i just bought some tangergreen like a week ago, unfortunately it expired in october but I drink it all and it tasted good, so I think it's still in some stores

Chestnuts roasted by piratenic @ 12/29/2003 11:15 PM EST

i managed to buy the Tangergreen twice before it disappeared. i haven't yet seen the stainless variety here.

i can't believe it all disappeared within a couple weeks after the case was cracked on X-E... except for the fact that we obviously all went out and bought it all. but they must make more~! damn Hi-C and their devilish mind games~!

Chestnuts roasted by zann @ 12/30/2003 12:31 AM EST

We have the non green tangergreen shit up here. I bought some not too long ago after reading about it over and over.
Nate-I had forgotten all about the GI Joe/Street Fighter line. They came out after I stopped collecting GI Joes so I never had any around but I saw them a lot at the toy stores. All I can say is that Blanka was the cheapest combatant in the old Street FIghter games as long as you could do the electrify thing. Then you just sat there and let the other idiot run into you.
I over drank tonight and now I have a friggin headache.
Sean, I remember Dragon Flyz. Though I wish I didn't.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 12/30/2003 12:37 AM EST

God bless you, kind soul!

Chestnuts roasted by The Nefarious Terd Fergusson @ 12/30/2003 01:19 AM EST

It's good to see that people remember the Street Fighter II/G.I. Joe line.
Killer Duck-Yeah, if you were stupid enough to walk into him while he was doing his electric thing he'd kick your ass. Usually, whenever my friends (or just kids at the video arcade) tried to pull that shit, I just stood there and laughed. But there was the first time it was pulled on me...by a girl...

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 12/30/2003 01:25 AM EST

A small dosage of Yoga Flame will help clear up a nasty case of Electrify.

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 12/30/2003 07:56 AM EST

I heard ecto cooler is being used in Nelly's Pimp Juice http://www.beveragesdirect.com/browse/detail/product-881.asp

Chestnuts roasted by Rick James Crack Pipe @ 12/30/2003 09:15 AM EST

Nate, we girls are known for pulling cheap shots in video games. Sonja Blade in Mortal Combat had that flip thing where she'd grab the opponent with her legs that, at least on the Super Nintendo version of on of the MKs could suck you in even if you were fairly far away. My sibs and I called it "pussy vortex" and still do. My brother is a self proclaimed video game champ and i catch him with that and the Blanka thing all the time. Unless I choose the fat ass sumo guy and just get slap happy.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 12/30/2003 11:39 AM EST

Cheap tricks aren't just while playing, preperation can be just as important. Not too long ago, I saw a girl adjust her "attributes" before playing Tekken against some loud-mouth jock type. She would giggle and hop in place in a pseudo-airhead manner, distracting all us red-blooded american-males. And, she was winning, of course. I did notice, though, she also had a excellent playing technique on the game. That might have helped a lot. In my opinion, breasts should be legally defined as a superpower, like x-ray vision, or morning breath.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 12/30/2003 12:19 PM EST

grocery store in maryland still had it. I got some sunday before settling down for a nice day of football and ecto cooler. I'm getting cases of it to experiment this new years, ways to get drunk off slimer.

Chestnuts roasted by chad @ 12/30/2003 12:20 PM EST

king made me spit my drink once again. I should not partake of beverage refreshment when checking this blog. I have to say I have never used my "assets" to cause a guy to lose at a video game. Only poker, and other games where money is at stake :) Hey, I've got standards. They may not be high but they are there.
I am trying to talk myself out of going up to the store to get more pseudo ecto cooler. Uphill battle, that.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 12/30/2003 02:23 PM EST

Heck yeah, cheating while playing fighting games! I'm not exactly an attractive girl, and all of my guy friends are either too young and/or homosexual to care, but I AM known for playing in-game cheap tricks. Among my posse, I'm the one credited with finding out Jigglypuff's "secret attack" in Super Smash Bros. For those who don't know what that is--you know how when you press B + Down, she'll fall asleep? Seems useless, but try doing that when you're standing riiiiiight next to someone. Woohoo, watch 'em go flying! I love doing that to Bowser especially in SSB Melee. Nothing like beating up an evil spiked turtle with a little squiggly ball of pink fluff.

Chestnuts roasted by Freezair @ 12/30/2003 02:41 PM EST

GREAT FIND! I'll pass the word along.

Chestnuts roasted by Mike @ 12/30/2003 03:18 PM EST

There's always "House Rules" to make any game more interesting. Sometimes when playing PS BMX games against my nephew, we do what we call the To Be Continued ending. Play any timed course, and as the timer runs out, try to do the biggest stunt you can and try to be in mid air at 0:00. "Will he make it? Tune in next time!" We also try to see who can do the most crashes and make up our own point values for them. (I'm good at that 'cause I suck at sports games.)

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 12/30/2003 04:20 PM EST

Kingklash, in Dave Mirra BMX 2 there is a 2 player mode where you try and have the biggest crash.

About Blanka i never found his electricity cheap. there are plenty of moves tt get around it such as ryu and ken's hadoken. However the veritcal role attack he got with turbo would always catch me off guard.

Chestnuts roasted by Bright Noah @ 12/30/2003 05:13 PM EST

A new trapper keeper!!

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 12/30/2003 05:39 PM EST

"Trapper Keeper, I'm never gonna let you go."

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 12/30/2003 06:25 PM EST

You can still get cases of Ecto Cooler at some military bases. We used to until Mare Island closed and Travis doesn't stock crap.

Girls w/ assests and use them to be cheap are cool but I swear upon all that's holy that I saw the Spirt of DDR while at Disneyland, and this little asian girl in a almost typical Japanese schoolgirl outfit beats everything. My ex-boyfriend and I were watching these really horrible red-neck players playing DDR and this one guy kept winning, mainly because his opponents really did suck. He thought he was king of thw world, when this little 8 year old Asian girl w/ pigtails and a japanese schoolgirl uniform walked up, popped in her quarters and proceeded to whip him into submission. And after throughly trouncing him and humiliating him in front of all his friends, she simply smiled and walked away, disappearing into the mob of people just getting off Space Mountain. I swear, she must have been the true spirit of arcade gaming or one talented little munchkin.

Chestnuts roasted by CardCaptor Loki @ 12/30/2003 06:56 PM EST

LOL - I had a similar experience at disneyland, but mine was a asian guy in his early 20's. He was awesome. There was a crowd watching him. He was spinning and flipping and gettin down on the floor. It was crazy i tell you!!

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 12/30/2003 07:26 PM EST

I ended up buying the last few packs of Tangergreen from my ghetto grocery about a month ago. They haven't restocked it since.
Now my greatest regret is squandering a good portion of the haul making experimental Hi-C/Vodka concoctions.

Chestnuts roasted by BaronVonHotPants @ 12/30/2003 08:41 PM EST

Broght Noah- Dave Mirra 2 is a great game and I didn't know that about it. I'm going to have to force the roommate to play it with me when she gets home :)
The Trapper Keeper design is swell, Matt.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 12/30/2003 09:22 PM EST

Yeah Dave Mirra 2 is probably my favorite skateboard/bmx/snowboarding game. The mode i was talking about is wipeout mode.

It can be pretty fun especialy on the highway level when after a car hits you you cna press the grind button and grab on to the cars and be dragged all over the place.

Chestnuts roasted by Bright Noah @ 12/30/2003 10:09 PM EST

Still haven't found Tangergreen down here in Southern New Jersey, which isn't that shocking since we don't get a lot of interesting stuff, like movies everyone hasn't seen 500 times.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 12/30/2003 10:45 PM EST

Denise - I'm not sure about the Pathmarks where you live, but around here they're actually pretty nice. They opened up a brand new one about a year ago, and cleaned up all the other ones. I'll have to check tomorrow when I go into work if they've got any Tangergreen left. Yea, I work at Pathmark...

Chestnuts roasted by MG @ 12/31/2003 03:48 PM EST

BTW - I checked today, and Pathmark had plenty of Ecto Cooler.

Chestnuts roasted by MG @ 01/02/2004 09:14 PM EST

Bless my mother. I told her many many months ago how I was on the lookout for Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen, but it was nowhere to be found. Best I could do was Orange Lavaburst, close but no cigar. Well she just happened to stumble across some Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen a few days ago in some small grocery store out of town, and she picked some up for me. I had no idea how she remembered I wanted the stuff. Heck, I had practically forgotten myself. But now, thanks to her, I have some Ecto Cooler of my very own. Ain't moms grand?

Chestnuts roasted by Rood @ 01/02/2004 11:19 PM EST

When they brought back Mello Yellow a few years ago (Minute Maid is a division of Coca-Cola Foods...) I *swore* that it was a carbonated version of Ecto Cooler......

Chestnuts roasted by GSeven @ 01/06/2004 02:54 PM EST

As soon as I read the update, I ordered 50 boxes of the stuff. Luckily, when my supervisors at work found out I was "wasting my time and theirs" in the pursuit of a childhood juice memory, they were more amused than angry, at least until the giant box of it arrived on my desk a few days later. Truthfully, I think they were just mad I wouldn't give them any.

Chestnuts roasted by Skeen @ 01/12/2004 04:50 PM EST

Seems like Shoutin Orange Tangergreen isn't going anywhere folks. Minute Maid still lists it on there site as being part of there product line.
url. http://www.minutemaid.com/mm_products/hic-7.html
I just recently bought some at a Pathmark in NJ and the sell by date is marked, June 14 2004. I don't know how far ahead the sell by dates on hi-c juice drinks go but 2004 is a good indication that Pathmark might still br restocking this drink. Its the same packaging as the picture shown above with the lilo and stitch sweepstakes on the front. Even though it doesn't have the No-Stain logo on it, unfortunatly the drink isn't green, which kinda defeats the purpose of it being "Tangergreen" so mabye they'll be another name change in the future of Ecto Cooler... who knows. On the back of the package it says, "Specially marked packages available until 11/15/03 or while supplies last." It also says, "For a free Official Game Piece/Rules, send a SASE to: Minute Maid Disney Channel Requests. P.0. Box 4044, Blair, NE 68009-4044, to be received by 2/9/04." I would assume that we have some time before stores get there next batch of hi-c from all this info. I personally dont see this product disapearing, i just think that the next wave of it has not hit the stores yet due to this sweepstakes. On a side note, I need to get my hands on some of those 1 Gallon jugs of the stuff now, for now i'm content with being slightly slimed.

Chestnuts roasted by rezolution @ 02/04/2004 08:33 PM EST

I also found this interesting and I thought you might.

Ingredients of Orange Tangerine Minute Maid
Pure filtered water, concentrated orange and tangerine juices, less than 1% of each: tricalcium phosphate and calcium lactate (calcium sources), Vitamin D3.

Ingredients of Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen Hi-C
Hi-C 10-packs: CONTAINS PURE FILTERED WATER, SWEETENERS (HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SUGAR), ORANGE AND TANGERINE JUICES FROM CONCENTRATE, LESS THAN 0.5% OF EACH: ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), NATURAL FLAVORS, POTASSIUM CITRATE (REGULATES TARTNESS), CITRIC ACID (PROVIDES TARTNESS).

Who knows.. could be the adult ecto cooler.

Chestnuts roasted by rezolution @ 02/04/2004 08:46 PM EST

Goddamn you, Matt......

I was at my local supermarket yesterday, when I looked into my cart, and realized that everything I planned on purchasing, was food I had seen on your site.....

Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen (The last in the entire store, and it was still labelled "Ecto Cooler" on the shelf tag, and the reciept) those Jack shaped Apple Jacks, and a whole bunch of other crap.....

Coincidentally, Chef Boyardee still makes fettuccini, however, mine wasn't nearly as cool as yours, nor as old....

I tried to find pink bubblegum flavored Hi-C, but no luck.....

I guess my luck with ancient foodstuffs isn't as good as yours....

so, I guess I'm starting the X-entertainment diet......I'll letcha know how it goes, whether I actually lose weight, balloon into a 600 pound saccharin bloated 80s nostalgia monster, or die from food poisoning for eating food that by all rights shouldn't still exist........

Chestnuts roasted by Tai @ 03/05/2004 12:50 PM EST

Goddamn you, Matt......

I was at my local supermarket yesterday, when I looked into my cart, and realized that everything I planned on purchasing, was food I had seen on your site.....

Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen (The last in the entire store, and it was still labelled "Ecto Cooler" on the shelf tag, and the reciept) those Jack shaped Apple Jacks, and a whole bunch of other crap.....

Coincidentally, Chef Boyardee still makes fettuccini, however, mine wasn't nearly as cool as yours, nor as old....

I tried to find pink bubblegum flavored Hi-C, but no luck.....

I guess my luck with ancient foodstuffs isn't as good as yours....

so, I guess I'm starting the X-entertainment diet......I'll letcha know how it goes, whether I actually lose weight, balloon into a 600 pound saccharin bloated 80s nostalgia monster, or die from food poisoning for eating food that by all rights shouldn't still exist........

Chestnuts roasted by Tai @ 03/05/2004 12:51 PM EST

Redner's Markets in Pennsylvania still stock this..i think i got the last two packs of it on the shelf (tangergreen)

Chestnuts roasted by M @ 03/10/2004 07:51 PM EST

I used to drink this stuff with 151 rum on Spring Break circa 1991-1992

Chestnuts roasted by sixpointsix @ 03/19/2004 12:10 PM EST

I've been looking for a clip of this approximately 10-year-old Hi-C ad where this kid imagines himself as this HUGE muscle man: "...& then I'd jump into a pool of Hi-C. 'Cause when you're this big, you get REALLY thirsty."
Does anybody have this somewhere?

Chestnuts roasted by Ian @ 07/17/2004 01:18 AM EST

Hey, on the Minute Maid website Shoutin Orange Tangergreen is still listed. Here is the link :
http://www.minutemaid.com/mm_products/hic-7.html .

Thanks!

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