Discontinued 1970s Candy That People Still Miss

The ’70s were full of short-lived sweets that kids swore were the best thing ever. Some were knockoffs that never stood a chance, and others disappeared before anyone realized they were gone. If you grew up back then, you probably had a favorite that’s been missing from shelves for decades — here are the discontinued 1970s candy people still miss most.

Summit

Mars came up with Summit in 1977, as an amped up version of Twix — two-bar chocolate-covered wafer with peanuts.  At first, people liked the mix of wafers and chocolate, but it had a major flaw: it melted too easily. Packages turned messy in store displays, and tossing them in the freezer only turned them into inedible bricks. Mars tinkered with the recipe by adjusting the peanut ratio and adding more chocolate, but it never solved the problem, and by the mid-’80s, Summit descended from the shelves.

Cristy Bar

 People who grew up with Cristy might remember buying one every week, yet the bar has almost no footprint today.  It was a nougat bar with nuts, coated in a creamy shell, and sold under packaging that featured a smiling blonde girl. It hit shelves at the end of the ’60s and stuck around for a few years in the ’70s. 

Marathon Bar

Marathon was a ridiculously long — 8-inch to be exact — chocolate-braided caramel, which came with a ruler printed on the wrapper, in case you had trust issues. It took forever to go through the chewy caramel, hence the name. It was launched in 1973 and had a good run for almost a decade, when it fizzled out and was discontinued in 1981.

Those who still crave the ginormous candy bar, Cadbury Curly Wurly from the U.K. —a twisted caramel-chocolate thing—in a six-inch format is available on Amazon, and it’s close enough to scratch the itch.

Space Dust

Space Dust was Pop Rocks ground into powder. It was introduced in the late ‘70s, utilizing the same popping candy formula but crushed into a fine powder for a harder, faster impact. The name, though, sent parents into a paranoid fury as “Space Dust” sounded too much like the drug panic of the time, so the company tried calling it Cosmic Candy instead. The rebrand wasn’t enough, and by the early ’80s, the product was gone.

The Reggie! Bar

The Reggie! Bar started out very promising, named after New York Yankees star Reggie Jackson. It launched in 1978, right when Jackson’s popularity was peaking. The marketing leaned hard into his “Mr. October” fame, and during his Yankees debut, fans at Yankee Stadium were actually given free Reggie! Bars to toss on the field when he hit a home run (which, of course, he did). The bar itself was basically a round patty of caramel, peanuts, and chocolate — sort of like a flattened Snickers without the nougat. They didn’t stick around long. By the mid-’80s, the bar was discontinued, though Clark Bar Co. brought it back briefly in the 1990s before it vanished again.

Choco’Lite

Nestlé launched Choco’Lite in 1972, right when “light” products were the craze. The bar looked ordinary, but inside it was filled with tiny air pockets and bits of crisped chocolate that made it feel lighter and crunchier than the usual milk chocolate bar. It stuck around for about a decade before vanishing in 1982. The airy chocolate idea lives on in bars like Aero, but Choco’Lite itself never made a comeback.

Snik Snak Stiks

Mars didn’t bother hiding the total rip-off when it introduced six chocolate-covered wafer sticks and blatantly called it Snik Snak Stiks. Sound familiar? It didn’t end there, either. The tagline was “Take a break, take a Snik Snak.” Hard to tell if that was arrogance or laziness. Predictably, it didn’t last. Snik Snaks were gone in under six years, while Kit Kat kept its crown as the go-to break-time candy.

Super Skrunch 

Mars put this one out in the early ’70s as a way to ride the peanut wave. Super Skrunch was essentially a peanut-packed chocolate bar, competing with Hershey’s Mr. Goodbar but leaning harder into the crunch factor. Ads pitched it as loaded with “tons of peanuts,” which was true — each bite was more nut than chocolate.

It lasted through the decade but never hit mainstream success, and by the early ’80s, it was gone. 

Dynamints

Nabisco tried to grab some of Tic Tac’s shine in the ’70s with Dynamints, little breath mints sold in a flip-top plastic box. The name promised explosive freshness, but the truth was closer to “fine if you’re out of Certs.” They never built a loyal following and were discontinued in the early ’80s. Today, they mostly live on in retro ad scans where everyone looks way too excited about having fresh breath.

Jolly Rancher Stix

Think of your favorite Jolly Rancher, then flatten it into a candy plank you could snap into pieces. That was Jolly Rancher Stix, which hit shelves in the ’70s and turned the brand’s sharp, tangy flavors into something closer to a bar than a drop. They were discontinued by the 1980s, and the Jolly Rancher line shifted focus to the smaller cubes and later to chews and lollipops. A much smaller version of the Jolly Rancher Stix were brought back in recent years, but true fans say they’re nothing like the originals.

PowerHouse Candy Bar

Peter Paul introduced the PowerHouse in the 1960s, and by the ’70s, it was a candy store regular. The bar was a heavy block of fudge, caramel, and peanuts wrapped in chocolate. It had fans who swore it was better than Snickers, but it never managed the same staying power. By the mid-’80s, the bar disappeared.

Charleston Chew Bar (Honorable Mention)

A true ’70s kid will tell you the freezer was the only right way to eat one. Technically born in the 1920s, Charleston Chew had a major second act in the ’70s when it became the freezer candy of choice. Nougat covered in chocolate doesn’t sound revolutionary, but toss a bar in the freezer and you have a whole new experience — the “smash it on the counter and eat the shards” trick was practically a playground ritual. Strawberry and vanilla flavors helped it stand out in a sea of plain chocolate.

It never fully disappeared—Tootsie Roll Industries still makes them—but today it’s more retro novelty than checkout staple.

More Candy Nostalgia From Cheapism

• 9 Discontinued Candy Bars from the 1960s — Some of the most memorable treats were the kind you grabbed on the way home from school or found melted in your jacket pocket.
• Long-Gone Childhood Candies That Boomers Still Miss — Here are some goodies we’d love to see make a comeback.
• 15 Strange and Surprising Facts About Your Favorite Candy — Discover some of the weird, surprising, and downright ridiculous stories behind some of the most popular candies.