Relive the ’80s by Making Your Own Ecto-Cooler
by A Real Person on September 8, 2011
Remember when you were a kid in the ’80s and they had that Hi-C Ecto-Cooler flavor that was somehow tied in to Ghostbusters? I don’t (we were more of a Squeez-It family anyhow), but if you do miss the Ecto-Cooler, or its subsequent incarnations Shoutin’ Orange Tangergreen and Crazy Citrus Cooler (seriously, these were produced until 2001. How did I miss out on this whole thing??), some Ghostbuster nerds have figured out to make it at home, and kindly made a video to show us luddites how to, uh, stir stuff in a pitcher.
The video, while mildly humorous, goes on about 7 minutes longer than it needs to, so I helpfully transcribed the recipe below. So if any of you actually know what Ecto-Cooler tastes like and decide to make this, let us know how closely it matches your delicious, sugar-filled memories from 1984.
Homemade Ecto-Cooler
- 3/4 cup orange juice (no pulp)
- 3/4 cup tangerine juice
- 1 packet orange Flavor-Aid
- 1 packet tangerine Flavor-Aid
- 1 spoonful Country Time powdered lemonade mix (or 1 packet of lemonade Flavor-Aid? Just throwin’ it out there)
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- Blue and green food coloring
Stir all ingredients in a gallon jug. Add water to fill the jug. Add food coloring until it’s just the right, unsettling shade of green.
HT: Uproxx
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I remember Ecto Cooler, but I’m not sure if I ever drank any.
Hostess made pies for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with green frosting, and I believe the filling was green pudding, too. Nothing to do with Ecto Cooler, but they were willing to put out some pretty funky licensed foodstuffs in the 80′s and 90′s. I wonder if they still do anything like that?
I remember drinking this color/flavor Hi-C when I was a kid in the 70′s. It was my favorite flavor. I never had it when it became Ecto-cooler, so I don’t know if they changed the “formula”.
I dont know how it started but as kids my brother and I use to call this stuff slimmer pee. And from then on hi c was always slimmer pee no matter the color
MMMM!!! Tastes like Slimer jism (redundant?) and sadness.
Invite all your creepy, lonely, Ghostbusters costumers over to your house to share a warm pitcher of this sugar-laced trifecta of citrus. Then confuse the shit out of them by dyeing it the color of bay water.
I loved that stuff. It was the only flavor of Hi-C I liked at all. And as obsessed as I was with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I HATED those pudding pies. The goo was so nasty!
I’m going to try this stuff out! Ghostbusters on the tube, ecto slim, and a green teeth (I bet).
I loved Ecto-Cooler! I drank this stuff all the time. I was the biggest Ghostbusters fan ever. Thanks Rachel for reminding me of this childhood classic beverage.
HOLY SH*T! HOLY SH*T! HOLY SH*T!
I cried when they stopped making this…I was 6 though.
I know what I’m doing tomorrow.
They had that Ghostbusters monster on Hi-C cartons for a long time, even in the nineties when I was a kid. I don’t think they made that flavor anymore. The thing was just on all the cartons for seemingly no reason.
I remember it being more fruity, less citrusy (yeah, because that’s a real word). Heads up- don’t use flavor-aid or kool-aid instead of the lemonade mix (go ahead and use an off brand though). You’ll have to add the usual amount of sugar, and then it’s almost sickly sweet… learn from my mistake…
I remember my sister and I freezing those cartons and then cutting the tops open and scraping it out with a spoon. Good stuff (according to my memories).
That is cool and all, but if someone could tell me how to make TMNT taffy that was released coincident to the Secret of the Ooze, I’d be a very happy man.
Not to be a debbie downer but the color is all wrong. it was more of a lime green than a sewage green
Did you put the blue food coloring in??
In my college cafeteria, there was a combination of juices you mixed that would make your juice look exactly like ecto-cooler. There were a lot of double-takes when you sat down at the table with it.
Ok, so after making this for the first time tonight i gotta say, its similar but not exact… i dont think anything will ever be as good as Hi-C Ecto cooler but at least i tried… and yeah it was more lime green, i even added blue to it, its like raw sewage. EVen though it doesnt taste like the Hi-C its still amazing in flavor.
If anyone still follows this and wants to know how to get the right color add 6 drops of yellow food coloring the add green a couple drops at a time until it turns green. it will turn lime green like the real stuff. Stir as you add the green.
This will easily give you cancer after the first batch
the food coloring is safe. if you want a safe healthy recipe either use tropicana orange tangerine a little bit of splenda and the food coloring or healthier yet fresh juices. I use my nuetribullet to make fresh juices.
someone’s getting their moneys out of the Ren and Stimpy production music cd’s they got for christmas last year!
I loved this so much. It was my favorite drink. I was sick for 3 months when I was a child and my mother would buy this for me as a “treat” while I was recovering. It was a huge disappointment when they stopped making it. 30 years later I still catch myself checking for it in the juice aisle. I hope the recipe works.
You need lime green to get the right color. Lime green is about 4 drops yellow and 2 drops green food coloring. To make it, use about
half a box Tropicana tangerine orange, equal parts water and about half a cup splenda. Mix that together well and that should do it.