2 days Ago By [email protected] (Jon Gutierrez)
Gatorade is one of the oldest and most influential sports drinks of all time. In fact, the drink is such an entrenched part of professional sports that it's even become a . Over the past six decades, Gatorade has created a huge range of different flavors, many of which have been lost along the way but are definitely not forgotten.
Social media is flooded with countless Facebook groups, Reddit threads, and online petitions created by Gatorade fans desperate for one last chance to chug their favorite long-lost drinks. To honor their struggles, we've put together a brief look at some of the most remembered and most impossible-to-buy flavors you used to be able to find on store shelves. Oh, and if you are able to find some, we don't recommend dumping any of these vintage flavors on anybody, Super Bowl champion or not — especially since you would probably make more money .
ESPN the Flavor (aka Berry Thirst Quencher) Released in 2004 as a tie-in with ESPN's 25th anniversary, this short-lived red Gatorade was also described as a Berry Thirst Quencher, presumably to describe the flavor to buyers who didn't know what a cable sports channel tasted like. (We would've assumed ESPN tasted like a mix of wires and sweat from a commentator's headset, but maybe that's just us.) Since it was only on shelves for a short time, it's hard to find reviews or even pictures of it, so there doesn't seem to be a huge demand for its return.
Probably the best sign that it's never coming back is the fact that Gatorade currently has a berry flavor in its Thirst Quencher line, so it seems unlikely that it would confuse fans by bringing out another flavor with an extremely similar name. However, we can't totally rule out a return. Gatorade and ESPN still share close ties, with Gatorade standing as a major sponsor of ESPN events.
So, who knows? Maybe one day, we will get another chance to gulp down a sports network. Ice Punch One of the more mysterious flavors in the Gatorade line is this fruit punch-flavored clear beverage that was discontinued in 2020. Just one year later, Gatorade took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to announce that it had started selling Ice Punch again, but only in packs of six.
While it's still searchable on Gatorade's product locator, it doesn't seem to be available anywhere. Gatorade never shared an official announcement of its discontinuation. Then again, Gatorade's main method of informing people of discontinued products seems to be apologetic tweets released several years after they ceased production.
Despite its short shelf life, Ice Punch was apparently a big hit with fans. You can find multiple Reddit threads of Gatorade fans desperate to track it down while is flooded with positive reviews for the flavor. At the same time, some reviews also claim that it tasted like medicine, so maybe it wasn't universally beloved.
Either way, people are still trying to find it to this day. Frost Rain Lime This neon green lime drink came out in 2006 as part of the Gatorade Rain line, which was promoted by a TV advertisement led by sci-fi director Neill Blomkamp that, for some reason, featured NBA superstar Kevin Garnett emerging from a basketball like something out of "Alien." Apparently, the goal of the Rain line was to create Gatorade drinks with less of an aftertaste, but when that didn't take off, Rain Lime was moved to the Gatorade Frost line.
Gatorade described this line on , as featuring "light, cool, crisp" flavors, the phrasing of which was remarkably similar to the Rain line. Unfortunately, that same account later announced that the flavor was being discontinued in 2016. The news soon prompted a petition to bring back Rain Lime.
As one fan said, "For the love of God, please bring Gatorade Rain Lime back. I haven't been properly hydrated since 2012." However, since the petition has only received just over 700 signatures since 2017, we doubt Gatorade is giving it much attention.
On the bright side, after five years in early 2025, so fingers crossed that others follow suit with their own lime drinks in the near future. Iced Tea Cooler This brown-hued Gatorade premiered in 1993, mixing the sweetness of Gatorade with the traditionally refreshing flavors of iced tea and lemon. Its launch was accompanied by a quintessentially '90s TV commercial that mixed BMX, basketball, and beach volleyball, with a Michael Jordan cameo thrown in for good measure.
Jordan played a big part in hyping the drink, having been lured away from Coca-Cola after a half a decade with an $18 million, 10-year endorsement deal. His endorsement certainly helped Gatorade maintain its spot as the No. 1 sports drink and it coincidentally prevented him from endorsing Coke's new sports drink – and Gatorade's new rival — Powerade.
Unfortunately, Iced Tea Cooler didn't last as long as Michael Jordan's endorsement deal, as it was discontinued in 1995. Still, at least it lasted longer than MJ's baseball career. Fortunately, there's no shortage of iced tea treats to take its place in the modern day, with in our eyes.
Gatorade Naturals In 2010, Gatorade released its Gatorade Naturals line of drinks, emphasizing that they were made with natural flavors and ingredients. At the same time, it also added a G2 Naturals brand to its existing line of G2 low-calorie drinks. Both of these options were sweetened with stevia and sold exclusively at Whole Foods, although they were both later sold at Kroger stores, too.
While an all-natural Gatorade certainly sounds like a great idea, parent company PepsiCo announced that it was discontinuing the concept in early 2014. In a statement shared via , it claimed that through "engagement with athletes on their fueling needs, we found that Gatorade Naturals and G2 Naturals did not resonate with this core consumer." At the time, there was some speculation that the shutdown was related to lawsuits PepsiCo had faced over the use of the word "natural" in its Naked line of juice drinks.
It doesn't feel like a stretch to say that this may have made them shy about using the term in a line of other drinks, but that was never confirmed by the company. While we can't find any record of anyone suing over the Gatorade Naturals line, we also couldn't find proof that many people actually remember that it existed. Sadly, Gatorade Naturals doesn't seem to have the dedicated fans boasted by other discontinued Gatorade products.
Frost High Tide The Gatorade Frost line promised a crisp and refreshing range of flavors, with Frost High Tide joining the team in 2001. The drink was tinted a greenish-blue color and carried a vague taste that Gatorade fans still debate to this day. There's not a lot of discussion about High Tide online, with few definitive descriptions of what it was supposed to taste like, aside from occasional observations that it tasted similar to Gatorade Starfruit (but more on that one later).
According to Gatorade's X, formerly known as Twitter, account, High Tide was discontinued in 2004. It certainly hasn't garnered the same heavy fan support as other flavors on this list in the years since. There currently aren't any petitions to bring back High Tide or dedicated Facebook groups trying to stir up support.
If there are secret High Tide fans out there, you should make yourself known. Otherwise, this is one tide that definitely isn't coming back in again. Midnight Thunder Midnight Thunder, one of the most dramatic names outside of professional wrestling, was a limited-edition flavor released in 1999.
Despite coming in at the end of the decade, it also managed to have an extremely '90s commercial, with what sounds like a Nine Inch Nails cover band playing over footage comparable to B-roll from "Fear Factor." This dark purple drink was blackberry flavored and made a lasting impression on fans, even getting its own officially branded T-shirt with purple lettering to match the commercial. While it's long gone, Gatorade did launch a new flavor in 2024 called Midnight Ice, which has a familiar dark hue and, according to some fans, a somewhat similar taste.
Some fans on Reddit even theorized that it's the exact same drink, although others claimed that Midnight Ice tastes more like grapes. So, while the original hasn't been around since the 2000s, you can still enjoy a little bit of that midnight flavor. Flow Blackberry Wave Gatorade released Blackberry Wave in 1999 as part of its Flow line of Thirst Quenchers, which, according to the labels, provided a "smooth finish" when you drank them.
This "smooth finish" was never clearly defined but assumedly meant a lack of aftertaste or an exceptionally easy drinking experience (although how that differs from your standard Gatorade, we don't know). This is another flavor where it's hard to say exactly when it stopped being produced. In 2021, Gatorade revealed on , that the flavor had been retired.
Some fans angrily replied to the announcement, with one declaring that "if it didn't sell well enough, it's likely because you couldn't find it to buy! I know many people that were always looking for them!" These messages seemingly had no effect, as in March 2025, Gatorade replied to a different fan request on with some bad news. "No plans to bring back Gatorade Flow Blackberry Wave right now," it said, "but you can always give a different flavor a chance." Chances are it won't be flowing back to stores anytime soon.
Frost Alpine Snow Frost Alpine Snow joined the Gatorade lineup in 1997, boasting a lemon-lime flavor. Even when it was released, the flavor didn't seem too popular with fans. That same year, the gave every Gatorade flavor a taste test with a bunch of basketball players, only to find that none of them liked Alpine Snow and believed it was the worst entry in the Frost line.
"Alpine Snow was disgusting, with a putrid pineapple taste," it concluded. It's unclear exactly when Frost Alpine Snow was discontinued, but it looks like it was sometime in the 2000s, with one Reddit user posting in 2012 that they were unable to find it in-store or online. As for why it was unpopular (you know, besides the taste), Gatorade's reasoning behind creating a lemon-flavored snow beverage does sound questionable in retrospect, considering the fact that, as a society, we've all agreed that yellow snow is best left avoided.
Tropical Punch This red fruit punch flavor was part of Gatorade's All-Stars Thirst Quencher line, which featured other iconic flavors such as Watermelon, Pink Lemonade, Lemon-Lime, Orange, Grape, and Fruit Punch. To avoid confusion, we should point out that Gatorade has offered plenty of other tropical flavors, including the green Tropical Cooler, which was discontinued at some point by the early 2020s, and the Gatorade Fit Tropical Mango, which is still on sale. There was also Gatorade Xtremo Tropical Mango, which was marketed as being "Gatorade with a Latin twist" and featured a bilingual label in English and Spanish (via ).
Years later, Tropical Punch is one of the Gatorade flavors that fans still miss. As recently as 2022, Gatorade responded to someone questioning its discontinuation and requesting its return on , by saying, "We're always working to come up with new ideas that help keep our products fresh and exciting. Unfortunately, retail shelf space is limited and some products can only be offered on a rotating basis.
" Here's hoping this same rotational basis brings this punch back to store shelves one day. Frost Whitewater Splash Whitewater Splash was one of the first releases in Gatorade's Frost line, released in 1997, along with Alpine Snow and Glacier Freeze. The Frost line was seen as a way to expand Gatorade from sports to the general market.
As Sue Wellington, Gatorade's Vice President of Marketing at the time, explained to , "Gatorade Frost is an opportunity for us to build upon our ubiquitous presence in the world of sports to serve as a beverage choice for active individuals any time they are hot and thirsty. While active consumers currently look to water to quench their active thirst, we foresee them turning to Frost in those same situations in the future." So, basically, the Frost line was designed to convey that the drinks were cold.
Mission accomplished. While the Frost line continues to this day, Whitewater Splash was discontinued in 2001, only to be replaced by the similarly short-lived Frost High Tide. Of the original three Frost flavors, the only one still sold in stores today is Glacier Freeze, which remains .
Lemon Ice Originally released in 1995, this clear Thirst Quencher drink had a light lemon taste that reportedly tasted akin to less flavorful lemonade. This is another flavor that Gatorade has periodically discontinued and reintroduced over the years. The last time it was spotted in the wild appears to be in 2015 when it was an exclusive flavor at 7-Eleven.
The flavor seems to have been well-received during its repeated reappearances, having grown a sizable cult following over the years. This fanbase is passionate enough to even generate a Facebook group, Bring Back Lemon Ice Gatorade, that boasts 1,700 members. Honestly, this flavor might have the best chance of coming back someday simply because it's already worked its way back onto store shelves multiple times in the past.
So, here's hoping, because there's certainly no way you could recreate the taste, apart from putting some ice in your lemonade and waiting five minutes for it to water down the flavor. Starfruit This light green Thirst Quencher flavor tasted like, well, star fruit, a delicious export that's also . Also known as the carambola, the star fruit is native to a number of different countries, including the Philippines, Indonesia, India, and Australia.
With star fruit juice a popular beverage in the likes of Hawaii and Jamaica, it's no surprise that eventually, a company like Gatorade would try its hand at mass-producing something with a similar flavor. Released in 2001 alongside the Passion Fruit Thirst Quencher — which has since also disappeared – Starfruit only lasted a year on shelves. Despite several pleas on , from fans asking for the flavor to return, Gatorade has always shared a similar response.
"Thanks for being a fan of this flavor!" it wrote on the platform in 2021. "We'll let the right people know you'd like to see it make a comeback." Seeing how several years have passed since then, we're betting the right people aren't going to do anything about it soon.
So, if you're waiting for more of this fruity concoction, you should probably just get some star fruit juice and mix it into a lemon-lime Gatorade while you wait. Recommended.
