If you're a fan of The Holidaze, you know that I really don't keep up with it outside of September and October. I really do intend on keeping up with it, but I fall out of the Holidaze spirit after Halloween, start buying presents for Christmas, and the next thing ya know, there's not much left to talk about. Last year, I posted a few things in June. I talked about some cookies and Pop-Tarts. It was fun, it was interesting, but again, I didn't keep up with it as the months went by. I'm not making any promises this Summer, but I am back now and I'm connecting the past to the present.
If you remember, my Halloween came to abrupt end thanks to Hurricane Sandy. Before the blackout, this was a topic I had planned on posting. In fact, it was something I was saving for Halloween day. Obviously it didn't get posted, but it is now. Let's take a little bit of Halloween 2012 and connect it to Summer 2013 as we transition into the next Holidaze..
Make Your Own Hi-C Ecto Cooler!
I've always been a fan of nostalgia, and The Ghostbusters are high on my list of throwbacks thanks to Slimer. I absolutely loved him as a kid! I think I had a thing for the color green because he, along with the Ninja Turtles, were a huge part of my childhood. I had every toy and product they pumped out. I guess that's why my favorite color is green. Who knows?
But do you remember Ecto-Cooler? Man, what an awesome drink that was. Hi-C hit a home run with that one and, to this day, I can't think of a cooler drink for kids. Pun intended!
I didn't come up with the recipe, but I found one online and knew I had to try it. The reviews were top-notch and taste-test approved. That was enough for me!
Most of the ingredients were easy to find, but not Tangerine Kool-Aid was impossible. I looked everywhere, but I could only find orange or "mandarin." That just wasn't going to cut it. Ecto-Cooler was known for its distinct Tangerine flavor so it had to be done right. The solution? Ebay! 89 cents a packet and I had 10 in my mailbox in less than a week. Now I was ready to rock!
I took all the ingredients and poured them into an empty gallon. At this point, it just looked like a big container of orange juice. But I figured this had to work. I did everything right, I scoured the streets for Tangerine Kool-Aid, I found it and combined it with more sugar than I ever thought I'd pour. Ecto-Cooler was almost complete, but you all know it can't stay orange! It's time to add the green food coloring!
Ehhhh... It's okay. It's not bad. It's definitely not the color green I remember, but it's as close as I'm going to get. When you combine green food coloring with orange, you get sewer. It's not pretty or bright. It doesn't remind me of Slimer, but I know it's green and that's good enough for me. Besides, when you pour it into a cup, it's still pretty cool.
Okay, well, it looks like I took a few of those leaves from the background and mashed them up to create some type of vegetarian cocktail. Thankfully, when it comes to flavor, this is far from healthy. No, when you take a sip of this Ecto-Cooler re-creation, you'll know that this IS Ecto-Cooler! It's not orange, it's barely tangerine, it is something entirely different. The combination of ingredients and flavors makes for a nostalgic kick that brings you back to a time when everything was easier. One sip and you're a 4-year-old kid again. It's pretty amazing. Sure, the process is a bit messy and it can even be expensive. But if you want to drink this classic again, this is as close as we may get.
Hi-C has released Ecto-Cooler since the days of Slimer on the front. It came in green and orange and had the exact same flavor. I don't remember it because I was mainly drawn in by Slimer himself, but the Internet tells me so and I believe it. Why Hi-C hasn't released the flavor once again is beyond me, but I'd like to believe that we haven't seen the end of Hi-C Tangerine or, what it will always be known to me, Ecto-Cooler.
As I was searching through Ebay auctions, I was hoping to come across an actual Ecto-Cooler carton or can, but no such luck. So, being the creative genius that I am, I once again turned to the Internet. I found a printable replica of the box on Google images and printed it out on sticker paper. It was fitted to the box so all I had to do was cut it out and stick it on an Orange Lavaburst Hi-C carton. Of course, I dumped out that crappy orange and poured in the custom Ecto-Cooler. Now, I really couldn't get any closer to the old days.
The best part of making this drink in October for Halloween? It lasted me through the blackout and gave me a flavor to associate with the time. When I think of Halloween 2012, I think of sitting in the dark with my family with a few glasses of Ecto-Cooler. For as annoying as that time was, it really wasn't all that bad. Pretty "cool, " huh?
Take my advice and make your own Ecto-Cooler. If you remember the drink or were a kid when it came out, you owe it to yourself to have that burst of nostalgia. The flashback is insane. They say smell is the strongest tie to memory, but I'd bet taste is second because this was a rush. Although, it also could have been all that sugar :)
Hey, Hi-C, bring Ecto-Cooler back and give the next generation of kids something to remember!
