13 90s Ice Cream Treats So Nostalgic, It Hurts To Remember

Have you ever come upon a treat so nostalgic that it almost hurts? (And no, we don't mean the middle-aged acid reflux it causes when you try to bite into it like you're 12 again.) It's an acute reaction, a pang that happens upon sight, a visual alone that is so potent, you're immediately transported back to a time, a place, a person, an outfit, a scrunchie. The 1990s, in particular, have become the current "it" decade for this kind of throwback love.

It makes sense, too. With many millennials all grown up and running the show in society, '90s nostalgia is in full swing. Whether it's reboots of "Full House," "Animaniacs," "Rugrats," "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," or "Baywatch," baggy clothes making a fashion comeback, or the New York Knicks finally being good again, it seems that the last ten years of the last millennium are as relevant as ever — including when it comes to ice cream.

In many ways, the '90s felt like the heyday of the ice cream bar, the push-up pop, and the edible intellectual property. That's why we're throwing it back to some of the decade's finest. Here are a baker's dozen of ice cream truck and freezer aisle staples from that era. (Disclaimer: not responsible for the emotional toll of extended reminiscing.)

In some ways, professional wrestling is made for nostalgia. As most of us grow up, the absurdity of the whole spectacle grows, and the attachment dissipates. But when you're a kid, wrestling is a behemoth of pleasure, with larger-than-life characters, acrobatic performances, soapy storylines, and marquee events. All this was once distilled into an ice cream bar.

Okay, maybe that's overstating it a bit. But to a '90s young'un who idolized Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, and all the rest, WWF Superstars of Wrestling Bars were the frozen treat to supplement your summer days.

The bar consisted of vanilla ice cream, hard chocolate, and a soft cookie combined with the clean, simple, yet unmistakable image of a whole range of famous WWF wrestlers (back when it was called WWF, before that panda won), and some lesser wrestlers as well (Koko B. Ware, anybody?). Originally launched by Gold Bond Ice Cream Company in 1987, Good Humor continued the line once it bought the smaller, Wisconsin-based manufacturer before ultimately discontinuing the sweet treat in 2008. Be careful not to go and suplex your little cousin after reading this. Guy's got kids now.

Spoiler alert: Good Humor is going to dominate this list. Few ice cream companies put their stamp on the '90s quite like the brand that literally invented the chocolate-covered ice cream bar (as well as creating the first truck dedicated to ice cream). One of its many heavy hitters on this list was a homerun that pitched a perfect game for '90s taste buds. And if the mixed baseball metaphors didn't already give it away, here it is plainly: Bubble Play.

What was Bubble Play? Well, it was a baseball mitt-shaped cherry ice that had a bubble gum baseball smack in the middle. The gumball pairing was a common '90s frozen snack trope, and you could call it the gift that keeps on giving, since you could chew on the sticky gum fully loaded with the ice pop's flavoring once the snack proper was finished.

Granted, the cherry ice wasn't to everybody's liking, as it could have a mildly medicinal taste (although perhaps not quite as much as the worst Wingstop sauce ever). Bubble Play was launched in the mid-1990s and was discontinued at some point in the 2000s. One place it wasn't discontinued, however: the collective memory of '90s kiddos.

When Klondike discontinued the Choco Taco in 2022, it may have expected a quiet, unremarkable corporate move noted by few in the public sphere. But Klondike may have underestimated not only how much people loved the treat, but the viral clout of folks who grew up in the 1990s.

A wave of eulogies and emotional send-offs accompanied the announcement, along with more than a little generation-specific outrage. For anyone who's ever had one, it's easy to understand. A repurposed ice cream cone, the Choco Taco used the waffle as a shell for vanilla and fudge swirl ice cream, capped off with a hard chocolate roof. It was both fat and phat.

Credit Taco Bell for trying to satiate this yearning for the past. Although the Tex-Mex chain isn't bringing back Klondike's proprietary version, it's done its own take on it called The Tacolate, in collaboration with artisanal ice cream maker Salt & Straw (describing it as an elevated dessert taco). It's no Choco Taco, but it's the closest we're going to get for now.

Talk about cartoon characters with staying power. "The Flintstones" debuted on TV sets in 1960. Based on the legendary sitcom "The Honeymooners," it was the first animated series to air on prime-time television (almost a full three decades before "The Simpsons" would do the same). "The Flintstones" was a Saturday morning staple, thus entering the consciousness of children for decades to come.

Nestle was already selling the retractable sherbets prior to the "Flintstones" branding, which happened in the early '90s. This precipitated a bit of a revival for the franchise, with John Goodman, Rosie O'Donnell, and Rick Moranis headlining "The Flintstones" live-action movie that came out in 1994.

There were also plenty of '90s tykes, however, that didn't really care about the movie, the show, or the history. However, the pops, which included flavors such as Yabba Dabba Doo Orange, Bedrock Berry, and Lime Rock Lime, were so kid-level delicious that they could've put Orson Welles on the packaging and children would've clamored for them.

The late 1980s and the 1990s saw Disney retool its filmmaking approach in an attempt to lift itself out of a years-long slump. The adjustments worked, and a decade known as the Disney Renaissance began with "The Little Mermaid" in 1989 and ended with "Tarzan" in 1999, breathing new life into the company's animation department. As the movie side boomed, Disney merch and licensing also spiked and disseminated.

One of these brands was the Mickey's Parade Ice Pops, also generically known as Disney Pops. They sort of came and went with the '90s, so no one could blame you for completely forgetting about them until now. However, once you do lay eyes upon them again, it really does prompt an intense moment of psychological transportation.

These were a hit, both on the ice cream truck and in the freezer section of the grocery store (which witnessed many a pant-pulling beg for mom to buy them). The figures of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy alternated between orange, cherry, and grape flavors. Why there weren't four flavors, no idea. Regardless, the mind's tongue will remember them as being delicious.

Popsicle is one of those words used so liberally that it's easy to forget it's actually a trademark. Like Band-Aid, Frisbee, and Sheetrock, Popsicle is a common term that's really a brand. This brand produced several staples of the '90s, including the Screwball. 

For something that feels so '90s, the frozen treat actually first appeared on ice cream trucks in the 1970s. Popsicle's slushed cherry ice was served in a plastic cone that had a gumball on the bottom. Eventually, a second gumball was added, spawning the — wait for it — Two-Ball Screwball.

There was even a blue raspberry flavor, which feels very much like the more forgotten of the two flavors. With both varieties, however, a gumball (or a pair) is tossed in as a bonus — keeping with the '90s penchant for doing that kind of thing.

When you can double-up the '90s nostalgia, you do it. In fact, it was tempting to put Good Humor's equally iconic Fat Frog ice cream bar in this slot, as the forerunner of the green-amphibian-with-gumball-eyes category of frozen treat (admittedly a bit of a niche). But the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle version of this kind of ice cream bar was just too '90s to pass up.

Manufactured by Wells, the bar (which is still available for purchase, but not quite as easy to come by as in the 1990s) is tropical-punch flavored with two gumball eyes, because it was the '90s, and gumballs were just added to everything, apparently. Nowadays, the gumball doesn't have the same pulling power — evidenced by the SpongeBob SquarePants ice cream pop having its gumball eyes removed. 

Regardless, the throwback power of the TMNT edible is substantial. It's hard to overstate how massive the turtles were for millions of '90s kids — a singular obsession that was buoyed by, first, the original comics (which were actually surprisingly PG-13), then the animated cartoon, then, of course, the live-action movies. They could've sold Brussels sprouts in the image of the Heroes in a Half-Shell, and kids circa 1992 would've probably eaten them — so a sugary frozen confection was destined to be a smash hit. And now, it's catnip for the retro-minded.

Yes, it's extremely easy to make chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches at home – where you're also able to customize the cookie, the size, and the ratios to your liking. Or you can just go and buy a Chipwich and unthinkingly delight in the hockey-puck-sized frozen treat as is, since it's already been perfectly calibrated. In 2018, the New York Times even ranked Chipwich as the greatest packaged frozen dessert of all time.

Even though the Chipwich was first sold by NYC native Richard LaMotta in the early 1980s, it's the 1990s where it's firmly ensconced for many. Chipwich itself even recognizes the ice cream sandwich's place as a '90s snack staple, posting self-aware Instagram promos with retro effects.

A number of imitators have come forth since LaMotta's invention, including Good Humor with its banally named Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich. And even though it seems a simple confection to imitate, there is just something about the Chipwich that nails every note.

Talk about imitators and lookalikes. Bomb Pop, the iconically tri-colored frozen treat, was created by Merritt Foods in Kansas City, Missouri, way back in 1955. The flavors were lime, blue raspberry, and cherry. When Merritt Foods ceased operations in 1991, Wells acquired the manufacturing rights, stewarding the sticky pop into a lucrative decade.

A few years before that takeover, the Popsicle brand released its own red, white, and blue, well, popsicle, known as the Firecracker. In time, legal tussles would follow, specifically in 2014 when Wells repackaged the Bomb Pop in a way that Popsicle felt would prompt customer confusion as to who made what — even though the Bomb Pop was older by 40-plus years (there's even an unofficial National Bomb Pop Day on the last Thursday of every June).

Since 2015, a number of other, less overtly patriotic Bomb Pop flavors have been released, including lemonade, Jolly Rancher, Hawaiian Punch, Sour Warheads, and arguably the worst Bomb Pop flavor ever, banana fudge. But the classic is still the classic — and, thankfully, banana-free.

Like the Chipwich, the Giant King Cone doesn't seem like anything special on the surface. It's essentially a really huge vanilla and chocolate ice cream cone with some roasted peanuts on top (along with chocolate-flavored coating, not actual chocolate, in between the grooves). Yet, like the Chipwich, the Giant King Cone's sum is greater than its seemingly understated parts.

Giant King Cone's place on Good Humor ice cream trucks goes back at least as far as 1960. Like many classic treats, its modest ingredients are perfectly calculated to give you an indelible, inimitable eating experience. The hard ice cream, the sweetness of the chocolate crown, mixed with the slightly savory hit of the peanuts, just all come together so nicely.

Plus, you can take your time with it. Unlike soft serve or most ice cream pops, Giant King Cone wouldn't rapidly melt under the 1990s summer sun, leaving your JNCO jeans unblemished. Until you hopped on your mountain bike and got the frayed bottoms of the pants stuck in the spokes, that is.

Although this may be one of the more aesthetically pleasing designs on a '90s frozen treat, you really had to be a really big fan of bubble gum flavors to enjoy the Bubblegum Swirl ice pop. Many were, aiding in its ubiquity on ice cream trucks. For those of us who didn't share that kind of palate, it was always just an image on the menu that was seen, never ordered, but to others, it was a favorite.

Bubblegum Swirl was another treat from the Popsicle brand, and a big reason for its pull was how affordable it was compared to some of the others. One thing '90s kids certainly remember is weighing out the various prices on the side of the truck, counting up crumpled dollar bills, quarters, dimes, and nickels to see if you could swing your favorite. If not, you'd settle. At one point, fans claim you could get two Bubblegum Swirls for $1 — or even less.

Wells made their own version under its Blue Bunny label, called (drumroll please) the Bubble Gum Bar. This take had a more even color distribution than the Good Humor iteration, with a less dramatic swirl effect — presumably for proprietary reasons. You know how these corporations get.

Now, this really feels like the '90s. This is like Alanis Morissette holding a Tamagotchi while watching "Beverly Hills 90210." A 1990 commercial for Twisters says it all, complete with a bunch of rad skateboarders. Even the bright, popping colors of the fruit bars were right in line with the decade's neon-tinted aesthetic.

The decade was also a bit of a golden age for braided ice pops. This included the Cyclone (three flavors rolled into one twisted pop, also made by Popsicle) and Tangle Twisters (debuted in 1984 in Ireland and now simply known as a Twister, like the one stateside).

The old cliché that you eat with your eyes is especially, profoundly true for kids. If Twisters looked like they did, but tasted like shiitake mushrooms, you'd still have had '90s boys and girls badgering the parentals to get them at the supermarket (along with the long-lost Reese's Bites – oh, how we miss thee). Twisters just screamed synthetic, fruit-flavored hedonism. They later evolved to a product that combined both fruity and creamy elements, but have since been discontinued.

There are a ton of fudge bars on the market, and have been for many decades. But there is one retro frozen chocolate bar that '90s kids want back more than any other: Jell-O Pudding Pops. The icy outer layer of film once you opened the packaging, the smooth, creamy texture — it really did feel like the foremost chocolate pudding company in America perfectly replicated that pudding in frozen form.

It could be argued that the 1980s were the real halcyon days of Jell-O Pudding Pops, as they reached $100 million in their first year. This carried the item into the '90s, where its heavy presence on the market was maintained — despite competition from the many other, flashier frozen treats spawned that decade.

The reasons cited for their ultimate discontinuation seem murky, as Jell-O eventually sold its manufacturing to Popsicle in the early 2000s, at some point after which the latter halted production of the Pudding Pop. Perhaps there will be enough of a groundswell of nostalgia for someone to do what needs to be done for the pudding pop to return. For now, though, they remain simply a wistful dream of days past.