I love me some Jello pudding pops! Back in the early 80s (the Jello website says gelatin pops were introduced in 1982, but doesn’t mention the pudding pops), Jello introduced their pudding pops with great fanfare, by way of a Bill Cosby commercial you can watch above. They were touted as a “healthy” snack, with only 90 calories a bar, but that is not how I remember them.
I remember them as creamy, smooth frozen pudding bombs of happiness. My favorite part about eating them? They had a thin layer of ice that covered the pudding, and I used to flake it off, and see how big of a sheet I could get. Mmmm, chocolate pudding flavored ice!
I used to occasionally get the fruit flavored gelatin pops, which were good, but no comparison to my little frozen chocolate lovers. It’s interesting to note this old ad, which steers away from marketing the pops to kids, and focuses more on pushy the healthy snack to adults.
Pudding pops disappeared by the late nineties, but in 2004, Popsicle brand decided to bring them back!
As soon as I heard the news (I remember I was living in Chicago at the time), I hunted them down at a local grocery store and bought a few boxes. The sad thing is, they completely changed them! They are smaller, less paddle-shaped than before, and they taste exactly like Popsicle Fudgesicles, and less like frozen pudding. Ah well. Sometimes things taste better in your memories. Do you have any Jello Pudding Pop memories you’d like to share? Please spit yo words in the comment section!
~LTG!





