:kirsch: from Raleigh, US on Wikimedia

Do you remember the snacks you ate in elementary school? Just thinking about them might already bring a pang of nostalgia, transporting you straight back in time, where you were sitting in the classroom with your friends. It's probably no surprise, too, that food nostalgia hits differently than other kinds of memory triggers because it engages so many senses at once. Even hearing the crinkle of a particular wrapper can be enough!

Thankfully, while some snacks that we enjoyed as kids have since been discontinued, many have lived on, meaning you'll be able to find them in your nearest grocery store should you ever want to revisit your childhood. Ready to take a trip back to the past? Whether you dipped them or dunked them, these three treats are a big reason why the memories still feel so vivid today.

Lunchables

Sure, you could always bring a ready-made pizza to school, but where's the fun in that? Kids being kids, we loved to play, and more than that, we loved to play using our hands. So the idea of building your own little meal, stacking the cracker, cheese, and meat exactly how you wanted it, made lunchtime far more enjoyable. And yet, funnily enough, when Lunchables debuted in test markets in 1987 before going national the following year, the concept actually came out of a very specific problem the company was trying to solve. It wasn't about making food fun for kids, but was simply a way for Oscar Mayer to sell more bologna and other lunch meat. Yep, you read that right. 

Not only did they sell more lunch meat, but the real breakthrough came when the team behind the product discovered that their DIY kit concept would help American mothers, since they often felt stressed by the time (and constraints) of making breakfast and packing school lunches. That insight would then shape everything about the final product—even right down to the crackers, as they held up better in the cooler! Who knew this nostalgic snack had such a strange backstory?

Yan-Yan

Lunchables was for lunch, but if we rewound a bit to recess, you likely had regular favorites, too. In fact, there's a good chance that Yan-Yan was your backpack at least once a week. Made by Meiji, one of Japan's largest food companies, Yan-Yan first hit shelves in 1979 under Japan's Showa era, though it wouldn't become popular in the United States until much later. 

The snack's design was simple: a small plastic cup divided into two sections, one with long biscuit sticks and the other encasing a sweet, creamy dip. While the most well-known flavors were strawberry and chocolate, you probably remember the kind that came with two dips, perfect for indecisive kids. Part of what makes Yan-Yan so nostalgic today is its uncomplicated design. There was just something about the hands-on eating experience that felt fun and novel compared to opening a bag of chips or unwrapping a candy bar.

Dunkaroos

Yan-Yan wasn't the only snack making rounds during recess, though. Rounding out this trio of nostalgic snacks is another familiar face that defined the '90s lunchbox: Dunkaroos. Similar to Yan-Yan, Dunkaroos included rounded biscuits or cookies that were dipped into a vanilla frosting with sprinkles. Most kids are probably most familiar with that flavor, though there once was also chocolate chip, cinnamon, peanut butter, and the fan favorite, rainbow sprinkles. And, believe it or not, the original cookies were also shaped like kangaroos due to its mascot. It wasn't until 1996 that it was redesigned and named Duncan the Daredevil, who later went by the shortened nickname Dunc.

Dunkaroos disappeared from American shelves for a while, which, of course, only intensified the nostalgia surrounding it. General Mills officially discontinued the snack in the United States in 2012, though it remained available in Canada for several more years. The company eventually brought it back in 2020, fueled mostly in part by the millennials who grew up eating the snack. Not seeing Dunkaroos on the shelves felt like they were missing a piece of their childhood, so there was a sigh of relief among all '90s kids when it came back.

Nowadays, kids are probably eating different snacks and lunches, which will later become nostalgic for them later on, but the '90s ones will continue to rage on. After all, what ties Lunchables, Yan-Yan, and Dunkaroos together isn't just that they're old snacks from a specific decade, but that they offered something fun in an era where kids grew up without screens. It's probably why, too, that the memories connected to them still feel so vivid today. If you spot any of these on a store shelf, don't be surprised if you're suddenly back at your childhood kitchen table, snack in hand, without a single worry on your mind.