11 Old-School Snacks People Loved To Eat In The 1970s

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You can tell a lot about an era by the types of snacks people liked to eat during it. When it comes to the 1970s, some of the biggest snacks around point to a time when people were keen to experiment, try new flavors, and be challenged by the food they ate. Just like some of the old-school desserts people enjoyed in the 1970s, the snacks of that decade were marked by their combination of crowd-pleasing flavors, innovative textures, and slightly wacky concepts. Although some options like Marathon and Reggie Bars were fairly straightforward, others — like Space Food Sticks, Space Dust Sizzling Candy, and Kraft Squeez-A-Snak — stood out for their unique execution, even if they didn't quite stand the test of time.

The 1970s also saw a notable rise in processed snacks, with many of the era's main treats offering grazeable versions of more traditional foods. During this decade, we saw pizza flavors squeezed into crunchy crisps, bacon slices turned into puffy crackers, and pudding packed into cans that had kids risking their fingers just to open them. It was a pretty wild time for the snack world, and we're taking a trip back to the past to see what people were munching on.

Few snacks feel as '70s as the Marathon Bar. This chocolate bar was introduced by the Mars Candy Company in 1973 and quickly stood out due to its unique shape and endlessly chewable quality. Marathon Bars were a full eight inches long, and inside each wrapper was a braided, knotty mass of caramel coated in smooth milk chocolate. The braided design stopped the bar from becoming too dense or chewy, while also allowing it to be stretched and pulled as you chomped away. Allegedly, it was called the Marathon Bar because it took longer than usual to eat, thanks to its chewiness and length — and we'd also imagine it gave folks a fair bit of energy for long runs, too.

Unfortunately, despite its unique composition, the Marathon Bar couldn't keep pace in the chocolate bar races. Sales lagged behind competitors, and although it managed to stick around until 1981, the Marathon Bar was ultimately discontinued after an eight-year run. However, if you're curious to try the candy today, you can still get a taste of what it was like. In the U.K., a similar bar called the Curly Wurly is still sold, and while it isn't available in the U.S., some specialty stores or importing services may carry it.

Although the Space Race was winding down by the time the 1970s rolled around, it's fair to say that space mania was still very much in the air. So it was little surprise when snack foods started to appear that jumped on the intergalactic bandwagon and offered folks a taste of space at home. One of these snacks, Space Food Sticks, had a real extraterrestrial lineage and the distinction of actually having been to space.

Space Food Sticks were made by Pillsbury, which played a key role in the creation of space food itself, as part of a line of products designed to be eaten by astronauts. Debuting in 1969, Space Food Sticks were energy-dense snack sticks intended to be eaten through a small opening in an astronaut's helmet. Once these snacks went all the way to the moon on Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's successful flight aboard the Eagle spacecraft, Pillsbury realized that earthbound customers might want to try them too — so it created an altered version of Space Food Sticks, available in chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter.

Once the world moved on from its space obsession, Pillsbury dropped the word "space" from the product entirely, rebranding them simply as Food Sticks. Eventually, though, interest faded. Perhaps people wanted something a little less processed and strange from their daily snacks, and by the 1980s, they were discontinued.

If you were snacking in the '70s, it's highly likely you remember Reggie Bars. Made by the Curtiss Candy Company — perhaps best known for Baby Ruths and Butterfingers — this candy bar was named after famed baseball player Reggie Jackson. First appearing in the late '70s, it quickly became a favorite across the country, beloved for its combination of roasted peanuts, caramel, and chocolate — as well as its low price of just 25 cents.

The reign of the Reggie Bar was, sadly, short-lived. It was discontinued in 1981, only to be briefly brought back in 1993 to celebrate Jackson's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. In the years that followed, the Reggie Bar's spot in the market was largely filled by Bun Bars, candies made by Pearson's that share a similar composition and shape. Amazingly, in the early 2020s, a Canadian candy manufacturer began making Reggie Bars again, allowing folks to indulge in pure nostalgia and revisit a snack from their childhood. It's unclear how long they'll stick around, so you may want to pick some up before they disappear again.

Man, people really loved space-themed stuff in the 1970s, huh? If you need more proof, look no further than Space Dust Sizzling Candy, another galactic snack that had its heyday during this decade. For all intents and purposes, Space Dust was just a more processed version of Pop Rocks. Made by General Foods, it offered kids and adults alike a unique combination of citrusy, sharp candy and a fizzy consistency that made eating it a bit of an adventure — even if your teeth may have paid the price.

Space Dust Sizzling Candy arrived not long after Pop Rocks debuted in the mid-1970s. It gained popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, with fans in the U.K. enjoying it just as much. Unfortunately, Space Dust was soon dragged down by Pop Rocks' declining reputation. Rumors began to spread that Pop Rocks could explode in your stomach when combined with soda, and while General Foods tried to calm fears by insisting this was impossible, the damage was already done. Pop Rocks and Space Dust Candy were both discontinued in the 1980s (though Pop Rocks were later resurrected).

Anyone who grew up in Canada during the 1970s likely remembers Bar Six. Made by Cadbury's, this chocolate bar first hit the market in the 1950s, but it took a couple of decades before it really caught on. Perhaps its appeal came from its seeming simplicity: On the surface, Bar Six looked like a collection of chocolate-covered wafers, broken into six individual pieces and designed to be snapped apart like a Kit Kat. But biting into each piece revealed a layer of hazelnut cream, giving the bar a nutty, luscious edge.

Bar Six bars were commonly found in vending machines across Canada, with some machines dedicated solely to the candy (and others offering it alongside Cadbury's classics like Dairy Milk and Fruit & Nut). Although Bar Six remained popular throughout the '80s, its appeal began to fade, and by the '90s it was more of a nostalgic relic than a go-to snack. It was eventually discontinued for good and now lives on only in people's memories.

Oh, boy. Look, it wouldn't have been the 1970s without some wild, slightly gross-looking processed snack, would it? This was a time of innovation, after all, and food manufacturers were pulling out all the stops to be unique and harness new food technologies for consumers. The combo of these things led to Kraft Squeez-A-Snak, a product that seemed to sit somewhere between Cheez Whiz and meat paste in terms of its consistency. Squeez-A-Snak was sold in loads of different flavors, like garlic, pimento, bacon, and hickory smoke, although the base taste was cheese. Each Squeez-A-Snak was a big, bulky sausage with the paste packaged inside, and the idea was that you'd snip the edge off one of the tubes and smear the snack on crackers, hot dogs, or vegetable slices.

Now, let's be honest: That doesn't sound all that appetizing, does it? However, somewhat surprisingly, people loved this snack food. Kraft Squeez-A-Snak is remembered fondly by folks who tried it back in the '70s, with people praising its ability to make an easy queso and its suitability for appetizers. As Cheez Whiz is now the smooth cheese product of choice from Kraft, it's unlikely we'll see a comeback of this snack any time soon — but we guess folks can dream, right?

Call us what you want for this, but we love it when a snack looks like the food it tastes like. So you better believe that we're huge fans of Pizza Spins, an old-school pizza-flavored snack that was unfortunately discontinued way too early for our liking. Pizza Spins came to life towards the end of the 1960s, and by the time the '70s rolled around, they were a firm favorite. This snack, which incorporated the flavors of pizza into a crunchy chip-like food, capitalized on the popularity of 'za at the time, which had only grown more appealing during the 1960s.

Pizza Spins were sold in boxed form, with a foil-lined bag protecting their slightly delicate nature. As you might expect, the snack was promoted with heavy use of reds, whites, and greens, to mirror both the Italian flag and the visual appearance of a Margherita pizza. Unfortunately, though, Pizza Spins didn't make it too far through the 1970s before they were discontinued. The product was taken off shelves in 1975 after a few short years in production, despite having a fairly baked-in appeal. We guess you'll just have to eat the real thing if you want the taste of pizza these days, folks.

If you live by the mantra that everything tastes better with bacon, you're gonna love this next one. In the early 1970s, Betcha Bacon was the snack to beat. This product took plain old snack crackers and infused them with the flavor of bacon. Each bite of Betcha Bacon also had a surprisingly mature note of cheddar and buttermilk, giving these snacks a somewhat baffling amount of complexity — particularly when they probably could have just gotten away with being salty and full of umami. That maturity, though, was snatched away from Betcha Bacon by its visual appearance, with each cracker shaped and colored like a bacon slice. Let's be real, folks — they looked kinda silly, but that was all part of the appeal.

Sadly, however, it seems like that appeal didn't last long. Betcha Bacon's reign lasted just four years or so before the product was discontinued around 1976. These days, it's not hard to find bacon-flavored chips, but Betcha Bacon is a thing of the past. If you're ever in the U.K., though, you can try a product that's surprisingly similar. Frazzles are chips that have an intense bacon flavor and appear to have the same consistency as Betcha Bacon. They don't quite have the subtle flavor it sounds like these chips had, but they're pretty good.

If you're a child of the '70s, or you're a fan of retro desserts, then you'll likely remember the original Hunt's Snack Packs. These canned puddings were quite a hit when they arrived in stores in 1968, with their range of flavors and bump-proof packaging making them a popular choice for packed lunches. Hunt's Snack Packs were marketed heavily throughout the 1970s, and the canned version stuck around all the way up until 1984. We're amazed that it lasted that long, to be honest — folks who remember eating the original canned pudding have long traded stories about cutting their tongues and fingers on the sharp lid.

Although Hunt's Snack Packs have technically never gone away, today you'd be hard-pressed to recognize them as the original thing. Snack Packs have dropped the Hunt's from their name, and instead come in plastic packaging that's much harder to injure yourself on. They also come in a massive range of flavors, a far cry from the simpler offerings of the '70s. While you can enjoy a Snack Pack today, it's really nothing like the original.

When it comes to gelatinized desserts, how much can you reinvent the wheel? That's the question that Jell-O was asking itself in the late 1960s, when it was looking to find a way to jazz up its flagship product. The answer it came to arrived in the form of Jell-O 1-2-3, which hit store shelves in 1969. The idea was that you could create a layered Jell-O dessert with integrated toppings, which had a more elegant appearance than the classic product. The problem with Jell-O 1-2-3 was that it was pretty complicated to make: You had to go through several stages of blending and adding liquid, before pouring the Jell-O mix out into several glasses and then incorporating them all together. Oh, and then you had to leave it all to set, just like you would with regular Jell-O.

Given how fiddly it was to prepare these desserts, it's no surprise that Jell-O 1-2-3, though a '60s classic, was ultimately discontinued. It was pretty amazing how long it stuck around, though. The product only began to be phased out of stores in the mid-1980s, and lingered until 1996, when its manufacturer ultimately decided it was merely taking up space.

Chocolate and peanut butter is a timeless combo, and it's not uncommon to find the two flavors incorporated into the same jar in supermarkets today. Back in the '70s, though, this was a much more novel occurrence. That makes Koogle, a flavored peanut-based spread made by Kraft, somewhat of a trailblazer. This spread was released in 1974, and it became an instant hit among kids and adults alike — especially the chocolate version, which combined peanuts and chocolate into one sweet, spreadable treat (though in practice, it was a little more of a peanut butter-flavored chocolate spread, like Nutella).

Although Koogle's chocolate peanut butter version was arguably its most popular flavor, Kraft also put out a few other options. Banana, cinnamon, and vanilla-flavored Koogle were also available in stores, each with the same peanut-based foundation. Sadly for Kraft, though, the nutritional response to Koogle was pretty negative, with consumer watchdogs criticizing the product for being overly sugary, warning that it was a far cry from natural peanut butter. Perhaps it was this that ushered in Koogle's downfall: By the late 1970s, it was no longer available.