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People Online Share Foods They Thought Were “Fancy” As Kids But Not As Adults (35 Foods)
Have you ever experienced times when you saw something and that thing brought back childhood memories? And then you were hit with the realization of how different things used to be or how different they were in your mind in comparison to how you comprehend it all now? It’s fun and curious to see how much people and places grow and change over the course of time. How things we once valued so much were changed by newer and better ones.
Having in mind how different people value things now than they did back in the day, Twitter user @imjasondiamond asked people online to share what kind of food was considered as “fancy” but now is seen as something you can buy for a few dollars.
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The tweet that received almost 33k likes was filled with comments where people shared names of various foods together with their childhood memories. The author of the tweet also revealed what was that one thing he thought to be special. It tuned out to be a Toblerone chocolate bar. He also specified that these “specialty foods” were common for those who were kids from the late 80s until the mid-90s.
I'm halfway through a packet right now! They'll be gone before I reach the bottom of this article!
What is fun to notice is that a lot of the foods that people were mentioned as being “fancy” and rare at their table, usually only when there was a celebration or someone special coming over, now can be found at a low price (if found at all). Mint chocolates “After Eight”, “Ferrero Rocher” candies, various biscuits and so much more of various sweets were some of the most common examples of what people found to be rare and expensive, but now it can be found in every store.
Every couple of months we had a ‘free choice’ dinner. In reality (4 kids) my mom bought one of these and we got to fight for our choice. Looking back as an adult, I see things like our family’s financial security in a whole new light. We went to private schools, but there was certainly scrimping to make it happen.
We do breakfast for dinner a few times a year. Everyone loves it. Less cooking, less dishes, kids get chocolate milk. It's a good day lol
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My mother called that junk. We got to eat shredded wheat (plain, no frosting) or regular cheerios. Now I'm 50 and currently have Froot Loops and Lucky Charms on top of my fridge. I don't have kids.
On balance, mom did like how you could open the box flatwise and pour the milk in, so she only had to wash spoons.
I remember that! We always took them on trips, so we didn’t have to go to a restaurant for breakfast.
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This is all wrong! Take it away! Should be Frosties, Rice Krispies, Coco Pops, Corn Flakes and Special K!
Yes Robert!! Special K was also quite different. I still love Coco Pops but bleurgh to the rest.
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My aunt didn't have kids, but always had them when we visited. The option of choice was the voice of rich gods.
It always irked me that while there would be 4 or 5 flavors you really liked, there would be a few that were awful and would sit there for weeks. No one wanted them. Kellogg's knew no one wanted them. Mom would end up falling on the sword and eating them because the rule was we couldn't buy more until these were all eaten.
My kids get these in their stockings from Father Christmas. Except the Australian version which isn’t quite as fun…..
We had these at summer camp in the 1960's. They turned into a "bowl" so you could eat them outside in the morning. Let's just say a jack knife was helpful.
My , rather sad, cereal memory is of my mum saying if we want something sweet we can have weetabix with milk and sugar, if we want something savoury we could have weetabix with butter and marmite #too tight to buy crisps.
I remember when my grandparents would visit, we would get Honey Nut Cheerios. This was a big deal!
Anybody else old enough to remember the boxes used to be perforated so you could open the broad side and use the box as a bowl? The liners for all varieties was waxed paper, except for the Sugar Pops, which for some reason was shiny plastic-foil.
I have no clue why but we would always get these when mum had done the Christmas food shop x
These were for vacation, i.e. the road trip to PA to visit grandparents. Mom would bring these to eat in the motel room. Each box is it's own little bowl if you cut it open the right way. Not fancy, but kinda special in a "on the road again" kind of way.
Santa always brought those for us. Now I search every December for my kids.
It was such a treat to get a pack of these! Do you remember how the box could open down the front so you could pour the milk right in?
My grandma bought these when we slept over at her house. Absolutely never had them at home, of course.
Grandparents are supposed to spoil their grandchildren—if the parents do it, the family dynamics can become very fraught.
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My parents would sometimes buy one of these as a treat. We'd fight over the Froot Loops and Lucky Charms.
What's Apple Jacks? If that s**t has cinnamon, someone need to ship me a package!
I know, that would be yummy. Love cinnamon. Have to make do with Jordan's Apple & Cinnamon Chewy Cereal Bars!!
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My parents primarily served corn flakes, cheerios, oatmeal or other non-sugar cereal at breakfast. I would get a pack like this at Christmas and/or my birthday and it was the best ever. I always looked forward to Corn Pops, Apple Jacks and Lucky Charms.
My kids eat these like crisps straight from the packet - which is handy on long car trips. I don't tend to buy them for just at home as I'll find the kids mixing them and having 2/3 packs at once so they last a day - but I do buy them a 'boring' cereal like Cheerios and a better one like cookie crisp- can you guess which one get finished first?
We always took these camping. I don't know if they are like this anymore, but the bag was a wax paper. You'd open the box from the largest side, and the box became your cereal bowl. You'd pour the milk right in the box.
They actually were a lot better years ago (like 25 - 30 years ago...).
Besides various food, people also mentioned things such as plastic cup dispensers and drinks such as soda or wine coolers. What is something that you found to be special and rare when you were a kid only to find out that it wasn’t so “fancy” when you became an adult? Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments down below!
Same thing for hot dogs in our house, it was a slice of bread not a magical, fancy ~hot dog bun~.
To keep it for herself - same as I do with my kids, they're far too unappreciative of the good things - my oldest would likely put tomato sauce on it like a Neanderthal
Not orange rolls but we always had cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate on Christmas morning growing up! But I never stopped, still do it every Christmas with my kids!
Downtown Tacoma smelled horrible from the nearby wood processing pits, except for the little area near Pacific Ave. where Almond Rocca was made
Definitely this was a treat for any Oregon kid! I remember all the fancy kids in high school had a bottle of New York Seltzer at lunch every day.
I kind of like Asti, tbh. Sweeter than champagne, and all the bubbles to boot.
It was the best as an introduction to alcohol. Same with Arbor mist.
Jolly ranchers and Zima….a classic for young drinkers! Although I’m 40 and would most definitely still drink it!
shredded has that awful powdery anti-caking stuff added. i don't know how people can eat it.
Ferrero Roche - they were a special treat we'd buy for my dad on Father's Day and if we were lucky he'd let us have one each.
My grandma always buys all her grandkids a small box for xmas. They really taste like holidays for me
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Getting toys on days other than birthdays and Christmas. All my classmates would say, "Oh, Mommy bought me a Barbie at Target yesterday." I was floored. Why? It's not a holiday!
My parents allowed us books, art supplies, and musical instruments (and accoutrements) year round. But toys were solely for birthdays and Christmas. I did the same with my daughter.
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Does anyone remember the gooseberry flavour cream? I think Quality Street must have retired that one in the 70s
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I love these!!! Especially the ones shaped like Scottie dogs!
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Once a year at Christmas we would get mixed nuts. Sometimes we would be able to get cashews or pistachios. That was a real treat. Our fingers would be all red from the pistachios.
I forgot about the red dye in pistachios. I wonder why they did that. I still love pistachios.
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Brown sugar crystals (instead of granulated or cubes sugar) meant guests were coming for dinner and coffee with mints would be served afterwards. Thankfully guests never knew that sticky little children's paws had been reaching up and nicking them all afternoon.
VICOUNT BISCUITS!! How can they not have been on this list. Even a Family Circle red plastic box of biscuits with the coconut wheel and pink wafers??
Viscount biscuits - fabulous! And Milk Tray chocolate bars with the Lime Barrel segment...
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Shortbread. We used to bring it back from leave, and my mother said it was poisonous to anyone under 14 (I was 6 at the time, I would have woofed it down not made it last, I can completely understand her reasoning).
Andes Mints. A lot of restaurants where I live give them to you after a meal and I thought they were crazy fancy. They’re super yummy but I can’t eat more than like two at a time, haha.
Mozart kugeln. Only when our German family came over and they where for my grandma. I was given a large tablet of good German chocolate but I always knew that Mozart kugeln must be the bomb.
Many years ago I took German classes at a private school. Most of the teachers were native speakers. Near the end of one semester, just before Christmas, I found Mozart kugeln in a specialty shop. I bought enough for our class to share in the session and a box for the teacher to take home with her. She was so astonished and said that was the special treat her family had at Christmas time. She had trouble finding it here in the States. I told her where I found it but said that shop turns over its inventory quickly. She sent me an email a week later and said she'd found one last box there. I do hope she didn't eat them all in one sitting. They are very rich!
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A whitmans box of chocolates. We didn't get them often because they cost a fair bit but i always loved the milk chocolate delivery man and the inside the lid candy id has become the guide by which i judge other boxes of chocolates.
I always got See's Candy but Whitman's was better...you didn't have to poke through the bottom of the chocolate to see if it was a gross flavor (then put it back in the box hoping nobody noticed. Anyone else do that as a kid?
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This is a great nostalgic thread that helps me remember simple joys are often the best!
I tasted Turkish Delight only once, from a friend who traveled to Turkey, and it's delicious. I've never seen it available anywhere, unfortunately
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We begged our parents for these and never got them. Once when at the store with my grandma, we asked her for them, and we were so excited when she got them. But then we ended up going home before she let us have them. I think she knew we would be going home soon... hqdefault-...ace1a0.jpg 
Mine was Andes chocolates, and the Danish Butter cookies. I thought the butter cookies came straight from Denmark because my mom had a bf growing up whose family was Danish, and his mom would get them for me, so I thought she was getting them from her Danish relatives when they came to visit. 🤣
My folks kept a jar of Andes by the cash register at their restaurant. They were so addictive!
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Getting Fimo (polymer clay for crafting) was a real treat, because it was basically a one-use toy compared to play-doh and the like. We carefully used every morsel of our tiny hoard.
Frango Mints...Bon Marche. My grandmother used to get them during the holidays only. Also ..hard ribbon candy.
Creme de Menthe liqueur on ice cream was 'fancy' at our house when I was a kid. And once a year, Mom & Dad took us out to a movie & dinner at Gaetano's Italian restaurant by the old City Market in Kansas City. We were always thrilled to have individual pizzas for dinner, and then Spumoni ice cream with BRANDY sauce for dessert - it was so much fun to pretend to get drunk on dessert!
Ours too. I still like Mateus Rosé but it's not cheap, so it is, again, just a once in a very while treat
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Sara Lee chocolate cake...it was kept in the freezer and had a clear lid so you could see all those perfectly sculpted frosting peaks
I honestly only knew what like 4 of these even were.... And I eat alotta weird s**t
I feel like a lot of these were very U.S. centric.
Load More Replies... Ye Olde Oak canned ham - we only bought it at Christmas and ate it with leftover turkey on Boxing Day. Also pick and mix sweets from Woolworths, especially the fruit fondants with the Gainsborough lady on the wrapper
Point-Chocolates- my family got a bag for me and my siblings every Christmas. It’s still as special to me anymore, but I still like it.
Chicken liver patè. My mum would make her own on special occasions and then have to chase us away from it so there was some left for the guests
Perrier. In those metal-capped green glass bottles that came in a four pack. During middle school I guzzled so much Perrier sparkling water with hints of lemon, lime, and briefly I think there was cherry and orange, too. Perrier used to be really popular.
I have an entire LIST 1. Nutella. My mother didn't like it so it was never in the house. Whenever it was an option I grabbed it. Tastes like spreadable heaven. 2. GINGER BEER. My favourite childhood drink and it was just the greatest. When I had some I felt so badass, I still do to this day! 3. Ice cream with sprinkles, syrups and general toppings, as well as a double scoop. Once my dad when away and said I could have ice cream for dessert, I ate the entire tub smothered with syrups, sprinkles and nuts. I felt gross but regret nothing.
Cans of tuna, back in the ‘80’s it was quite expensive so I’d get a tiny tin every now and then. It had about a heaped tablespoon of tuna in it but it was sooo good! (I live in Belgium so it was expensive). Such a tiny amount but I still had to share with my mother who took like half of it.
Individual frozen Chicken Pot Pies. We only got them when my parents went out, so that was like 5 of 6 times total.
I used to think wines were hella expensive and only for special occasions and thought Pot of Gold and any other box of chocolate was prime tasting and super expensive that only men gave to their spouses.
Blossom Cookies - marshmallow cookies with toasted coconut. Don't see them much here in Canada in our major supermarkets, but they are full of memories for me. Gran would have a different flavour every time we came over -
Alohamacs are the fancy thing in my house- but they’re pretty legit fancy in my opinion
When I was younger it used to be a fancy dinner if there was a bottle of Shloer on the table for us kids
I never heard of this in the States and so I just looked it up... now I want some Shloer too!
Load More Replies... Ferrero Roche - they were a special treat we'd buy for my dad on Father's Day and if we were lucky he'd let us have one each.
My grandma always buys all her grandkids a small box for xmas. They really taste like holidays for me
Load More Replies... Getting toys on days other than birthdays and Christmas. All my classmates would say, "Oh, Mommy bought me a Barbie at Target yesterday." I was floored. Why? It's not a holiday!
My parents allowed us books, art supplies, and musical instruments (and accoutrements) year round. But toys were solely for birthdays and Christmas. I did the same with my daughter.
Load More Replies... Does anyone remember the gooseberry flavour cream? I think Quality Street must have retired that one in the 70s
Load More Replies... I love these!!! Especially the ones shaped like Scottie dogs!
Load More Replies... Once a year at Christmas we would get mixed nuts. Sometimes we would be able to get cashews or pistachios. That was a real treat. Our fingers would be all red from the pistachios.
I forgot about the red dye in pistachios. I wonder why they did that. I still love pistachios.
Load More Replies... Brown sugar crystals (instead of granulated or cubes sugar) meant guests were coming for dinner and coffee with mints would be served afterwards. Thankfully guests never knew that sticky little children's paws had been reaching up and nicking them all afternoon.
VICOUNT BISCUITS!! How can they not have been on this list. Even a Family Circle red plastic box of biscuits with the coconut wheel and pink wafers??
Viscount biscuits - fabulous! And Milk Tray chocolate bars with the Lime Barrel segment...
Load More Replies... Shortbread. We used to bring it back from leave, and my mother said it was poisonous to anyone under 14 (I was 6 at the time, I would have woofed it down not made it last, I can completely understand her reasoning).
Andes Mints. A lot of restaurants where I live give them to you after a meal and I thought they were crazy fancy. They’re super yummy but I can’t eat more than like two at a time, haha.
Mozart kugeln. Only when our German family came over and they where for my grandma. I was given a large tablet of good German chocolate but I always knew that Mozart kugeln must be the bomb.
Many years ago I took German classes at a private school. Most of the teachers were native speakers. Near the end of one semester, just before Christmas, I found Mozart kugeln in a specialty shop. I bought enough for our class to share in the session and a box for the teacher to take home with her. She was so astonished and said that was the special treat her family had at Christmas time. She had trouble finding it here in the States. I told her where I found it but said that shop turns over its inventory quickly. She sent me an email a week later and said she'd found one last box there. I do hope she didn't eat them all in one sitting. They are very rich!
Load More Replies... A whitmans box of chocolates. We didn't get them often because they cost a fair bit but i always loved the milk chocolate delivery man and the inside the lid candy id has become the guide by which i judge other boxes of chocolates.
I always got See's Candy but Whitman's was better...you didn't have to poke through the bottom of the chocolate to see if it was a gross flavor (then put it back in the box hoping nobody noticed. Anyone else do that as a kid?
Load More Replies... This is a great nostalgic thread that helps me remember simple joys are often the best!
I tasted Turkish Delight only once, from a friend who traveled to Turkey, and it's delicious. I've never seen it available anywhere, unfortunately
Load More Replies... We begged our parents for these and never got them. Once when at the store with my grandma, we asked her for them, and we were so excited when she got them. But then we ended up going home before she let us have them. I think she knew we would be going home soon... hqdefault-...ace1a0.jpg
Mine was Andes chocolates, and the Danish Butter cookies. I thought the butter cookies came straight from Denmark because my mom had a bf growing up whose family was Danish, and his mom would get them for me, so I thought she was getting them from her Danish relatives when they came to visit. 🤣
My folks kept a jar of Andes by the cash register at their restaurant. They were so addictive!
Load More Replies... Getting Fimo (polymer clay for crafting) was a real treat, because it was basically a one-use toy compared to play-doh and the like. We carefully used every morsel of our tiny hoard.
Frango Mints...Bon Marche. My grandmother used to get them during the holidays only. Also ..hard ribbon candy.
Creme de Menthe liqueur on ice cream was 'fancy' at our house when I was a kid. And once a year, Mom & Dad took us out to a movie & dinner at Gaetano's Italian restaurant by the old City Market in Kansas City. We were always thrilled to have individual pizzas for dinner, and then Spumoni ice cream with BRANDY sauce for dessert - it was so much fun to pretend to get drunk on dessert!
Ours too. I still like Mateus Rosé but it's not cheap, so it is, again, just a once in a very while treat
Load More Replies... Sara Lee chocolate cake...it was kept in the freezer and had a clear lid so you could see all those perfectly sculpted frosting peaks
I honestly only knew what like 4 of these even were.... And I eat alotta weird s**t
I feel like a lot of these were very U.S. centric.
Load More Replies... Ye Olde Oak canned ham - we only bought it at Christmas and ate it with leftover turkey on Boxing Day. Also pick and mix sweets from Woolworths, especially the fruit fondants with the Gainsborough lady on the wrapper
Point-Chocolates- my family got a bag for me and my siblings every Christmas. It’s still as special to me anymore, but I still like it.
Chicken liver patè. My mum would make her own on special occasions and then have to chase us away from it so there was some left for the guests
Perrier. In those metal-capped green glass bottles that came in a four pack. During middle school I guzzled so much Perrier sparkling water with hints of lemon, lime, and briefly I think there was cherry and orange, too. Perrier used to be really popular.
I have an entire LIST 1. Nutella. My mother didn't like it so it was never in the house. Whenever it was an option I grabbed it. Tastes like spreadable heaven. 2. GINGER BEER. My favourite childhood drink and it was just the greatest. When I had some I felt so badass, I still do to this day! 3. Ice cream with sprinkles, syrups and general toppings, as well as a double scoop. Once my dad when away and said I could have ice cream for dessert, I ate the entire tub smothered with syrups, sprinkles and nuts. I felt gross but regret nothing.
Cans of tuna, back in the ‘80’s it was quite expensive so I’d get a tiny tin every now and then. It had about a heaped tablespoon of tuna in it but it was sooo good! (I live in Belgium so it was expensive). Such a tiny amount but I still had to share with my mother who took like half of it.
Individual frozen Chicken Pot Pies. We only got them when my parents went out, so that was like 5 of 6 times total.
I used to think wines were hella expensive and only for special occasions and thought Pot of Gold and any other box of chocolate was prime tasting and super expensive that only men gave to their spouses.
Blossom Cookies - marshmallow cookies with toasted coconut. Don't see them much here in Canada in our major supermarkets, but they are full of memories for me. Gran would have a different flavour every time we came over -
Alohamacs are the fancy thing in my house- but they’re pretty legit fancy in my opinion
When I was younger it used to be a fancy dinner if there was a bottle of Shloer on the table for us kids
I never heard of this in the States and so I just looked it up... now I want some Shloer too!
Load More Replies...