Gone but not forgotten - 7 of the most-missed lost comfort foods you'll remember from the 80s and 90s

Everyone has a favourite comfort food, guaranteed to pick them up

But many of our old favourites from the 80s and 90s have been discontinued

How many of these lost snacks, desserts, sweets and chocolates do you remember?

Some meals are like a warm hug in a bowl, and everyone has their favourite comfort food they turn to when they’re feeling a bit low.

Sadly for some, many popular snacks, desserts, sweets and chocolate that brought comfort to so many during the 80s and 90s have been discontinued.

These lost foods from the era include one of the most coveted Christmas gifts from years gone by, and a chocolate bar that was ‘to die for’.

How many of these much-missed 80s and 90s comfort foods do you remember?

Golden Wonder Pot Rice

Pot Noodles are still a popular snack, but how many of you remember Golden Wonder Pot Rice?

It was introduced in the 80s, with flavours including chicken curry and chicken risotto.

Some people preferred Pot Rice to the original noodle version, with one person reminiscing about the ‘banging’ flavour, but not everyone was a fan, with another person branding it ‘stinking’, and it was eventually discontinued in the early noughties.

Jap Desserts

Not everyone recalls these sweets, but those who do remember them fondly.

Jap Desserts were rounded cube-shaped coconut sweets, with a hard fondant shell and softer fondant in the middle.

They came in a variety of colours, including green, pink and brown, with fruit and cocoa flavours.

They were a large version of the sweets found in Dolly Mixture. As for the name, no one seems quite sure about its origins.

Cadbury’s chocolate money box machines

This was a toy, chocolates and a piggy bank in one, allowing children to imagine themselves as giants running a tiny sweet shop, while saving their pennies.

You just had to pop a penny, 2p or 10p, depending on what year you got yours, into the pint-sized vending machine to release one of the tiny Cadbury’s chocolate bars.

The toy was particularly popular in the 70s, 80s and 90s, especially around Christmas time, when it ended up in many a stocking.

Not every child was so lucky. One person recalled: “Every Christmas I wanted one of these. Never got one, though. I thought the chocolate would just refill itself forever.”

There have been calls to bring back the mini vending machines. Even if you kept yours, Cadbury’s no longer makes the tiny chocolate bars needed to fill it, though Divine does now make bars that fit them.

Fox’s Thick Tea biscuits

These were popular with people who like a superior dunk.

They were very similar to rich tea biscuits, only about three times thicker.

While many people dunked them in their tea or cocoa, others enjoyed them slathered with butter and jam.

Cabana bar

Coconut sweets used to be more popular, with another example being the Rowntree’s Cabana chocolate bar.

With a coconut, caramel and cherry centre, wrapped in milk chocolate, it was a popular snack in the 80s but was discontinued in the early 90s.

Many people remember the TV adverts, with the famous line ‘Come mister magic man, make me a Cabana’, sung to the tune of Day-O (The Banana Boat Song).

One fan recalled how the cherry pieces were ‘to die for’, while another person said it was an ‘odd combination but so good’.

Bird’s Hot Crunch

Many people remember this warming dessert as the ultimate 80s and 90s comfort food.

You simply added hot water to the flavoured powder before topping with the biscuit crumb for the perfect quick sweet treat.

It came in banana, chocolate and lemon flavours.

It’s years since Birds Hot Crunch desserts were discontinued, but they’ve not been forgotten. One fan called them ‘amazing’, and another said they were ‘so good’.

Birds Eye Chocolate Lovely

These frozen mousses lived up to their name, in many people’s opinion.

They came in milk chocolate, plain chocolate and chocolate orange flavours, each with five little blobs of cream on top.

While most people let them defrost before eating, others couldn’t wait and enjoyed them straight from the freezer. Some people felt they tasted better frozen.

After they were discontinued, hundreds of people signed an online petition calling on Birds Eye to bring them back.

For more top-nosh nostalgia, why not check out our look back at the lost crisp flavours we once loved.