Fans Are Still Craving This Chocolate Breakfast Bar That Vanished Decades Ago

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Nostalgia has a famous (or perhaps infamous) way of illuminating things from the past in a flattering light. But, sometimes, the jewels of yore simply really were that good. For foodies who grew up in the 1970s with Carnation Breakfast Bars, nothing else in 2025 hits quite the same.

Carnation released its Breakfast Bars in 1975 (when a Big Mac cost less than $1) as an offshoot of its powdered Instant Breakfast, which hit the market in 1964. A 1965 commercial for Carnation Instant Breakfast shows a milkman delivering glass bottles, and a young child hugging her mother. It's a lot of pomp, but arguably fitting for a wonder-offering marketed as a complete, balanced meal in a single glass. The powdered drink mix promises "as much protein as two fresh eggs, as much mineral nourishment as two strips of crisp bacon, more energy than two slices of buttered toast, plus vitamin C — the orange juice vitamin" in every glass. What could be better? Answer: The same concept, but a chocolate bar you can eat for breakfast.

Carnation Breakfast Bars were all about textural interplay. Crunchy nuts and granola were densely packed and coated in an outer layer of silky chocolate. Chocolate chip and peanut butter seem to be the two most popular and fondly remembered flavors, but these bars also came in chocolate crunch, granola with raisins, and granola cinnamon flavors. In 1981, Carnation expanded into more flavors: caramel nut crunch, chocolate coconut crunch, and chocolate malted milk crunch. 

Breakfast Bars remained popular throughout the '70s and '80s, finding an enthusiastic fan base among kids and teenagers as a portable, convenient meal replacement. In 1982, Carnation printed a coupon for grocery shoppers to get a free half-gallon of milk when they bought three packages of Carnation Instant Breakfast powder or Breakfast Bars (any combination). Whether or not the bars remained on store shelves during the late-80s to early-'90s is unclear, but whatever the case, Carnation officially relaunched its Breakfast Bars with a fresh ad campaign in 1994, then discontinued them for good shortly thereafter in 1997.

In 2014, parent company Nestle released a Carnation Breakfast Essentials Nutrition Bar. This offering followed the O.G.'s nutrient-forward blueprint, but didn't taste like the original bar of years past, and was discontinued in 2020. Indeed, enduring fans describe the original Breakfast Bars as incomparable and unlike anything else, which might be why attempts at replication with new products in the years since have failed.

The internet is filled with social chatter from folks who miss the vintage snack. One page on the nostalgia forum "In the 80s" is filled with comments from enduring Breakfast Bar fans. "Oh the peanut butter flavor! Can't forget the chocolate chip! I would eat 3 or 4 of them after school most days!" raves one now-grown-up. Another similarly waxes, "Wow! I used to love these bars, I wish you could still get your hands on them. I loved the peanut butter and the chocolate chip!"

Keeping the instant breakfast category alive today, Carnation still sells a Breakfast Essentials Complete Nutritional Drink. Maybe Carnation's Breakfast Bar faded simply because its original fans got older and aged out of meal replacement bars. Maybe those fans are even cooking sit-down meals for families of their own. But, they never forgot that siren call from years past.

As retro foodies in one Reddit thread write, "I ate my share! Can't quite describe them," and, "Those things were so d**n good. They got me through summer camp in the '70s and '80s. I can still hear that crinkly wrapper and remember the unique dry-yet-somehow-waxy texture." Elsewhere online, other Redditors write, "Yes! The peanut butter ones. I practically lived on them through high school. Have never found anything anywhere near as good." A reply echoes, "Same, I can still remember the texture, they were so good. Like you said, nothing has come close."

The formula that has captured foodies' hearts 50 years later seems to be a not-too-sweet flavor with a dense, chewy texture, and an oat-malt-milk chocolate forward taste. Wrap it all in a layer of paper, encased in a thick foil wrapper, and maybe the Carnation Breakfast Bar of the Swingin' Seventies will have a recipe for resurrection. Until then, as one "In the 80s" commenter puts it, "All these years later, I still haven't forgotten them and can't find another product as satisfying."