A blast from the past

Remember when?

... “The Beaver” was not just a large aquatic rodent
that gnawed on trees?

... Fizzies were on the same shelf as Beeman’s gum,
High Noon, Powerhouse and Wax Mustaches?

... Fizzies set your tongue a-tingling in the fashionable colors of a carefree adolescence?

... your parents said if you swallowed Fizzies Drink Tablets whole, then drank water, your stomach would explode?

Relive the memories ... Fizzies are back!

I can hardly wait. I guess I'm getting a little nostalgic in my old age. The good old days weren't all good but some of them were and some of the things we enjoyed back then were great. That's why I now have Stadium Checkers and a Poosh-Em-Up-Big-5 pinball game in my closet. And just the other day we were wondering "whatever happened to Fizzies?"

My own personal favorite memory of Fizzies was eating at a nice restaurant in Germany. My folks had sent me a few packets of Fizzies. I had ordered ice water with my meal and when the waitress returned with the food, she was surprised and puzzled that I had some sort of "root beer" looking soda. She kept looking at her order pad until I explained what I had done and showed her with another glass of water how easy it was to make "root beer".

According to the Old Time Candy Company

Once upon a time in the '50s -'60s there was a popular drink tablet that fizzed when placed in water. FIZZIES® were invented by the Emerson Drug Company. The idea derived from scientists working with chemical formulas similar to "Bromo Seltzer" and wondering if a fun, fruit flavored drink could be developed the same way.

"Wouldn't it be grand if we could drop a tablet in a glass of water and have an instant soda pop?" After long hard work, they finally figured out how to combine the right combinations of fruit flavoring, sweetener, citric acid and sodium bicarbonate (a substance that is much like baking soda) into a magical tablet that when dropped into water, turned water into an instant sparkling, effervescent fruit drink!

Fizzies were made in grape, cherry, orange, punch, berry, lemon-lime, and root beer flavors and 8 tablets cost 19 cents. Unfortunately Fizzies contained the sugar substitute cyclamate. In 1968 the FDA banned the use of cyclamates citing research showing that cyclamates caused cancer in laboratory animals and the company went out of business.

They returned in the mid-1990s containing NutriSweet, a substitute 200 times sweeter than sugar. A new company purchased the formula and reintroduced them to the market in 1995. It was short lived because the company went out of business and all of the inventory was gone by late 2001.

Well, according to the folks at Fizzies.Com, the delightful "instant soft drink" of the 50's will soon be back again. Marketing is set for mid- to late May of this year. We'll all be able to enjoy the magic again. But probably not for 19 cents per pack of 8 tablets. More likely $2.99 per pack.