BWFolsom/Getty Images
- The beloved striped gum from your childhood, Fruit Stripe, has been discontinued.
- Fans are joking online that the gum's short-lived flavor was the best few seconds of their lives.
- Ferrara Candy Company announced the move this week, and re-sale prices of the gum are skyrocketing.
Fans of Fruit Stripe gum now have one less way to relive the glory days of their childhoods. The fruit-flavored treat and its playful mascot, Yipes the Zebra, have, tragically, been shelved.
Since Ferrara, the candy company behind the product, announced its discontinuation earlier this week, Fruit Stripe lovers have taken to social media to joke that chewing the gum was the best few seconds of their lives.
That's because the gum's flavor was by no means everlasting — enduring for really only about 30 seconds — but it was so worth it. Those glorious seconds will be missed.
"Fruit Stripe was always the best 20 seconds of your life," one fan wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Another X user joked, "We will now observe 5 seconds of silence, or the length of flavor in one stick of Fruit Stripe."
Ferrara Candy Company — which also owns Nerds, Pixy Stix, Fun Dip, and more — first introduced the striped gum packets in 1969, according to NBC News. Each pack featured five delightful flavors — Wet n' Wild Melon, Cherry, Lemon, Orange, and Peach — with the wrappers of each stick doubling as a temporary tattoo of Yipes the Zebra, CNN reported. Yipes' slogan, which characters would chant in TV commercials for the product, was "Yipes! Stripes!"
A representative for Ferrara said in a statement shared with Business Insider that its "decision to sunset this product was not taken lightly."
"We considered many factors before coming to this decision, including consumer preferences, and purchasing patterns — and overall brand trends for Fruit Stripe Gum," the statement said.
Nostalgia for Fruit Stripe is already fueling a run on remaining stockpiles of the product, with a 12-pack already being sold for $100 on eBay and, slightly more reasonably, for $26.99 on Candystore.com.
Though Fruit Stripe may be gone, the joy it sparked lasted much longer than its flavor.