If You Ate This Pink Cereal As A Child, You're Probably A Gen Xer

Some foods have come and gone, but for those who remember, memories preserve some serious nostalgia for products that have vanished from shelves. Among discontinued cereals we mourn and food brands that don't exist anymore, Gen Xers may remember eating bowls of pink milk and cereal for breakfast. In 1973, Post Consumer Brands put Pink Panther Flakes into stores, linking a Saturday morning kid's show with a convenient and colorful breakfast option.

The opposite of a no-sugar added cereal, these sugar-coated flakes were covered in bright pink sugar with a strawberry flavoring that was known to be very sweet. The description on the cereal box explained the contents as pink frosted and pre-sweetened corn flakes fortified with eight essential vitamins. Once combined with milk, the color from the flakes infused bowls filled with milk with a cheerful color. "I actually liked these. They were just pink frosted flakes," wrote a fan on Reddit. "These were my favorite also drinking the pink milk," added another. One Facebook fan compared the taste to strawberry-flavored Kwik. Not every cereal eater who sampled this product was enthusiastic, however, as one likened the taste to "insulation" and recalled an unpleasant aftertaste.

If pink milk wasn't enough to tempt buyers, boxes of Pink Panther Flakes came with prizes like a 5-in-1 spy kit, a toy ball, a tiny race car, and disappearing paper that would dissolve in water once submerged. To the dismay of lovers of the cereal, food coloring red #2 was banned in the 1970s after the ingredient was associated with harmful health correlations. The cereal was discontinued as a result, just one year after its debut, putting an end to commercials with the catchy jingle that included the line "Tickle me pink!" 

Even after boxes of this cereal were pulled from stores in 1974, kids continued to watch The Pink Panther solve various mysteries on TV. Since then, the discontinued yet not forgotten Pink Panther Flakes cereal has inspired artwork and miniature replications. "I would buy these if they brought them back," confessed a Redditor. Other hopeful cereal fans speculated that the cereal might make a reappearance alongside more recent movie productions, but the pink product has yet to make its comeback. Until that day, hopeful and nostalgic Gen Xers can try using raspberry to naturally dye milk or drop red food coloring into bowls of cereal. Any prizes will have to be the result of self-organized initiatives.