Where can I find those plastic oranges you can drink out of?

June 18, 2010 8:21 AM

Do you remember drinking some kind of orange drink out of plastic oranges? Particularly at movie theaters or amusement parks, and probably a few decades ago? I'm looking for information!

I work at a historic movie theatre in Tampa, Florida. One of our board members remembers coming to the theatre as a kid, and drinking out of plastic oranges that you punctured with a straw, like a juice box or a Capri Sun. I'm 29 but I have a vague memory of doing this myself, maybe at Disney World. Does anybody else remember this product? Does anybody know who made them, or where I might be able to chase down samples or examples? Are they still being made? Pictures would be wonderful; the ability to actually get my hands on some would be HUGE.

It's the same thing mentioned here and here and here, in case that jars anybody's memory. Much appreciated!

posted by penduluum to Food & Drink (35 answers total)

Was it Orange Julius? They are/were prolific in FL back in the 70s (I grew up there during that time). I do remember those as well.

As for finding old stuff like that, try eBay.
posted by mnb64 at 8:25 AM on June 18, 2010

I remember those as well. They may have been made by Bluebird.
posted by proj at 8:26 AM on June 18, 2010

I'm 33, born and raised in California, and I remember these. My grandma used to buy them for me. I also vaguely remember a grape flavored one that came in a plastic bottle shaped like a bunch of grapes. I don't remember puncturing either the grape or the orange with a straw though.

And it was not Orange Julius.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:29 AM on June 18, 2010 [3 favorites]

My memory is similar to elsietheeel. Raised in Southern California. I remember the grape one too.
I recall a plastic screw top on them.
posted by vacapinta at 8:34 AM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Could have been a screw-top, a little green screw-top. Memories on the straw could be mistaken.
posted by penduluum at 8:36 AM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

I remember getting these at an amusement park in VA (King's Dominion). I think that they did have a screw top.
posted by amarynth at 8:39 AM on June 18, 2010

I remember drinking actual orange juice out of the oranges, and the grape-shaped drink bottle too! Maybe at Disneyland, in the 70's?
posted by pinky at 8:39 AM on June 18, 2010

I completely remember the drinking out of an orange shaped container (I'm 32, from Southern California) -- and I also remember a green lid.

I think it's possible your friend is misremembering the puncturing part - because around the same time there used to be a commercial for Orange Juice (Tropicana, I think?) where people took an orange, plunked a red and white straw into it and took a long pull. I remember hating those commercials when I was a kid because they sold their orange juice in a carton and I had to drink out of a glass and that was not fair!
posted by pazazygeek at 8:39 AM on June 18, 2010 [2 favorites]

I remember these. I also remember screwtop and not straws. It's possible that this was at Disney World, but it could have been New England or any state the I-95 goes through. (I am fairly confident it wasn't available in Quebec or Ontario.) It was not Orange Julius, and there might have been other fruit, too, because I think I remember a red one. Apple? Strawberry?
posted by jeather at 8:39 AM on June 18, 2010

I remember them too, I grew up on Long Island in 80's. I also thought that they might be mis-remembering the Tropicana commercial where they stick a straw into an orange. I wish I had more info than that.

I actually tried to stick a straw into an orange when i was about 5 and was disappointed to find out that it doesn't work at all
posted by amethysts at 8:45 AM on June 18, 2010

I remember them too, not at Disney World though, at state fairs and so forth.
posted by teleri025 at 8:49 AM on June 18, 2010

I remember them fondly.

A Local orchard uses a similar container (apple shaped) for their apple juice. Perhaps an inquiry to them will lead them to a supplier of similar (other fruit-shaped) beverage containers?
posted by labwench at 8:50 AM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

My dad sold them in his store in the 70s.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 8:51 AM on June 18, 2010

They had these I'm Europe too, which suggests that either it was a big multi national corp or lots of companies used the containers.
posted by fshgrl at 8:55 AM on June 18, 2010

I remember novelty cups shaped like oranges with straws in them, but if I recall correctly (big if) ma bought them empty and we filled and drank from them at home. But I remember the pop top/sports drink top type too.
posted by lemniskate at 8:56 AM on June 18, 2010

Oh I remember these at fairs and parks - maybe Weeki Wachi. Boy, I loved them. The plastic was pretty thin, though, wasn't it? Not something you could use again and again, so I don't imagine too many people kept them.
posted by Evangeline at 8:57 AM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

I lived in Orlando in the late '70s and early '80s. Those orange and grape hand grenades are deeply tied in my memory to trips to Disney.
posted by Seamus at 9:01 AM on June 18, 2010

Response by poster: My dad sold them in his store in the 70s.

I know it's kind of beyond the pale for AskMe, but ... he wouldn't happen to know the supplier or anything, would he?
posted by penduluum at 9:02 AM on June 18, 2010

Living in Florida, they actually sold short straws with serrated teeth that you would plunge into an orange in order to drink its blood.

However, I recall the tops on the fruit grenades as green and screw top.

I want some now.
posted by Seamus at 9:03 AM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This, right? The one in the pic is branded with the park's logo, but I remember them being plain.
posted by Evangeline at 9:04 AM on June 18, 2010

Response by poster: Yeah, exactly like that!
posted by penduluum at 9:19 AM on June 18, 2010

I definitely remember drinking out of a plastic orange, with a little green screw-top stem, on one of our summer vacations to, say, Busch Gardens, or wherever. The only similar modern container I can think of is the juice in plastic lemons/limes in the grocery store.
posted by aimedwander at 9:22 AM on June 18, 2010

I remember the orange and grape ones at Maple Leaf Village in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in the mid-1970s. Seems to me there was a strawberry one, too. They had a kiosk selling those fruit drinks exclusively.
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:47 AM on June 18, 2010

Best answer: Does your theater work with a promotional products company for anything (pens, stress balls, whatever)? If so, I'd send them the photo Evangeline links to and let them do the searching for you. Whoever gets to research it there will probably be happy to not be looking for yet another pen, koozie, stress ball, or notepad. I used to work at one of these (smaller, local) companies, and they basically bent over backwards looking for just the right item for requests like this because the customer was forever grateful and almost always brought repeat business.
posted by BlooPen at 9:49 AM on June 18, 2010

Along similar lines, there was a brand of drink similar to Kool-Aid called Funny Face. They produced a line of cups to match their flavors: Lefty Lemon, Goofy Grape, Jolly Olly Orange, Choo Choo Cherry, Freckle Face Strawberry, Rootin' Tootin' Rasberry
posted by CathyG at 10:11 AM on June 18, 2010

I didn't grow up in Southern California, but my grandparents lived in Fullerton and I visited fairly often as a kid. I remember getting those fruits (oranges, grapes & apples) at Knott's Berry Farm. I remember it being a distinctly Knott's Berry Farm thing -- like the banjo bear ride -- something I could only get there and so it was that much more special. I didn't see them on the Knott's Berry Farm website, but wow, it was fun to suddenly recall those little juices and how sweet they were since I didn't get to have them all the time.
posted by macadamiaranch at 10:28 AM on June 18, 2010

These bad boys are the closest I've found; they come in clear and orange. The ones I recall were made of soft, squishy plastic, however (probably chock-full of BPA, alas).
posted by julthumbscrew at 10:32 AM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

I definitely remember enjoying them at amusement parks, but I don't recall seeing them anywhere else. Thanks for the memory ;)
posted by siclik at 10:46 AM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

Count me in with the group remembering having these (in both orange and grape) at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm.
posted by ThatSomething at 11:03 AM on June 18, 2010

Oh yeah. When I was a kid in the 60's, the Indiana Theater in downtown Indy served those plastic oranges, back when it was still a movie theater. They had them on-ice at a couple of stands in the lobby. From what I understood, they had been serving those little oranges for a long, long time before that.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:28 AM on June 18, 2010

I still can't drink/eat/chew grape-flavored ANYTHING after drinking a grape one from King's Island in Cincinnati OH in the late 70's - too much excitement for me and I got sick after drinking it. Even grape smells make me nauseous to this day.
posted by prettymightyflighty at 11:38 AM on June 18, 2010

I thought you were talking about a similar thing that was sold at movie theaters in Anchorage AK when I was a kid in the late 1970s-early 1980s. It was a little plastic lemon, grape bunch, or orange with a green lid that you twisted off. Inside was a Pixie Stick-like powder.

It was only years later that I realized you were probably supposed to pour water into the wee plastic lemon and shake it to make a sweet lemon-flavored beverage. We always just tipped the sugar powder out onto our tongues.

Inevitably no matter how hard you tried to prevent contact, your actual tongue would touch the opening. Since it was only about 1-2mm across, the dampness would cause the powder to clog up and stick, and you'd spend way too much time trying to knock it clear. So that you could get at the rest of the sweet sweet powder inside.

And believe it or not... you can still buy these things online!
posted by ErikaB at 1:38 PM on June 18, 2010

There used to be a drink called Orangina that was sold in orange-shaped containers and bore a strong resemblance to orange juice, with overtones of Tang.
posted by motown missile at 12:52 AM on June 19, 2010

There still is a drink called Orangina, but the containers aren't orange shaped and it is mostly marketed at furries.
posted by the latin mouse at 6:44 PM on June 19, 2010

Oh man thank you for bringing back memories of Marine World!

BlooPen is right - promo vendors love a challenge!
posted by radioamy at 11:31 PM on June 19, 2010