Dunkaroos
Betty Crocker's kangaroo snack pack: tiny cookies plus a frosting cup for dunking. The ultimate lunchbox flex of the mid-90s, Dunkaroos were so coveted they became playground currency—until parents killed the sugar craze.
General Mills' Betty Crocker brand launched Dunkaroos in the early 1990s—a simple but genius formula of small cookies paired with a well of frosting for dunking. The name mashed "dunk" and "kangaroo," with the mascot being an Australian kangaroo originally named Sydney. The snack hit its peak around 1996 and became the ultimate lunchbox flex; the kid with Dunkaroos in their lunch ran the cafeteria trade market.
General Mills discontinued Dunkaroos in the US in 2012 as the wave of parental concern over sugary kids' snacks swelled. Like Surge and other discontinued 90s foods, nostalgia proved powerful—the company relaunched them in 2020 with a bigger, less-sugary formula, marketed directly at now-adult 90s kids who had coveted them in elementary school.
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