Gatorade Revisited

I grew up on Gatorade. Invented in the mid 1960's at the request of a University of Florida assistant football coach, the carbohydrate-electrolyte beverage hit store shelves in 1967.

My introduction to Gatorade came when I was in elementary school and caught a nasty virus at school. I couldn't keep anything down, and as a result I was getting dehydrated. My mom called the pediatrician who told her to buy some Gatorade and try that. She did and it worked great!

Back then, there was only one flavor, lemon-lime (or "regular" I guess, since there were no other choices). I remember when the Orange flavor came out a few years later, and how strange it seemed that Gatorade came in a second flavor. I remember collecting Gatorade bottle tops with NFL teams on them, and how my mom wrote to the company because they were unable to find the last few teams we needed to complete the set (the Saints were one of them, I think there were a couple more). Stokely Van Camp kindly sent her the caps she needed, and we got the cardboard display board as well. Of course, it got messed up when the NFL expanded and there was no place for Tampa Bay and Seattle.

Over the next 30 years or so, Gatorade has really branched out from those two original flavors (I'll give Orange the benefit of the doubt). There is now Rain, Frost, X-Factor, Fierce, even Gatorade A.M. (makes me think of Tang). There is an entire line of Performance drinks. And of course Propel "Fitness Water". Saturday Night Live even did a spoof a few years back, mocking all of the designer flavors:

Despite all the choices -- even the "original" lemon-lime flavor sold today is different -- nothing has quite measured up to the original Gatorade flavor formulated in the 60's.

Until now.

Until Gatorade Tiger, Cool Fusion.

This is the real thing. This is Gatorade how it's supposed to taste. Mildly sweet, lemon and lime flavoring, very refreshing, no after-taste like some of the "modern" Gatorade flavors have. I read today that Cool Fusion has a hint of key lime. That would explain a lot.

Thanks Tiger, and thanks Gatorade people for bringing back a classic, even if unintentionally.