'90s Kids Will Remember This Slime Green Drink That Dominated Lunchrooms

Picture it: You sit down in your school's cafeteria, humming the latest New Kids on the Block song and feeling like all that and a bag of chips in your high tops and parachute pants. You open your plastic lunchbox to find a little bag of Munch 'ems, a few Keebler Pizzarias pizza chips, a classic PB&J (or a Lunchable, if you were lucky), and finally, the pièce de résistance — a juice box filled to the brim with the sweet, sweet (and slightly sour) nectar that was Ecto Cooler. The citrus-flavored beverage sported a shade of green that doesn't really exist in nature, and was just as quintessential to the decade as Orbitz, Fruitopia, and other old-school drinks that kids will never have again.

Ecto Cooler landed on store shelves in 1987 in conjunction with the cartoon "The Real Ghostbusters," which first aired in 1986. The name of the drink came from a ghost in the franchise — Slimer — who was a straight-up glob of bright green ectoplasm. TV ads featuring the character helped boost its popularity as a school cafeteria staple. Its main ingredients were water, a mix of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, and tangerine and orange juice concentrates (which no one buys frozen anymore).

Sadly, Ecto Cooler was discontinued in 2001. If the at-home version isn't quite giving you the hit of nostalgia that you're looking for, fear not — there's a chance you could see it on store shelves again at some point. When a new "Ghostbusters" movie came out in 2016, Hi-C re-released Ecto Cooler. However, if you find some on eBay, steer clear, as there have been reports of the decade-old drink exploding. If you're seriously missing the green stuff, good news: Fans online have found that mixing a citrus punch like Tampico and some quality store-bought lemonade in a 4-to-1 ratio (plus, yes, a few drops of green food coloring) creates a pretty suitable approximation at home.

While Ecto Cooler isn't currently on store shelves, there might be some hope for a re-release in the future. While appearing as a guest on the "Talking Strange" podcast in November 2025, "Ghostbusters" star Dan Aykroyd said that there is indeed another feature film in the works. This means that the Coca-Cola Company (the parent company behind Hi-C) could re-release Ecto Cooler in the future to celebrate the new film's launch, just as it did in 2016. While we can't be sure whether it'll hit shelves again, here's hoping that millennials get the chance to reminisce and share the slime-themed beverage with our own kiddos.