Dunkaroos Is Bringing Back This Classic '90s Flavor
Julius Erving, aka Dr. J, is the undisputed grandfather of the dunk (via Bleacher Report). Michael Jordan gave it swag, Kobe Bryant did it with defenders like Yao Ming and Tim Duncan watching in awe. Vince "Vinsanity" Carter did it over a 7-foot-tall Fredrick Weiss. But, as any '90s kid will tell you, you don't just dunk – you Dunkaroo.
Dunkaroos were the snack food of the 1990s, an era defined by brilliant snack foods. For those of us who love a good, process-based snack experience, involving the marsupials of the southern hemisphere, there was none greater than Dunkaroos. Introduced to the market in 1992 and savagely slashed from shelves in 2012 (via Eater), Dunkaroos were the creation of those wily codgers at General Mills, who knew that if there was going to be one thing kids might like better than dunking carrots into hummus, it was probably going to be dunking sugary cookies into sugary frosting. As the R&D reports came back showing that jungle creatures were highly adept at selling high-fructose corn syrup, the only thing left to do was slap a cartoon kangaroo on the box, come up with a Mensa-level tagline, and push it on kids during the ad breaks on TGIF. What a time to be alive.
Dunkaroos and classic flavors come back, kangaroos do not
After much public outcry or a few half-hearted tweets from people with nothing better to do, General Mills realized it was time for Dunkaroos to make a comeback. In February of 2020, the company capitalized on the nostalgia for, well, nostalgia, and revealed it was bringing Dunkaroos back with a bang (via Eater). It changed the branding to match the 90s aesthetic (think pink and teal geometric shapes with shadows and squiggles), swallowed that last bit of nutritional integrity that gets left in your mouth after eating too many healthy foods, and announced a return of the vanilla cookies with a vanilla frosting dip. The kangaroo had mysteriously vanished, á la some other characters we know, but with cookies dunked in frosting, people's mouths were too full to ask many questions.
Now, the fun-loving gang at General Mills has decided to one-up its own wackiness, bringing back another classic '90s combination this summer. No, it's not Corey and Topanga or Steve Urkel and Stephan Urquelle – it's Chocolate Dunakroos (via Delish). Vanilla cookies will now be subject to a chocolate frosted dunking, the likes of which the world has never seen. Or rather, saw thirty years ago. All that's left now is for Air Jordan to do the commercials, hopefully leaping over the cast of "Fuller House" to dunk a Dunkaroo in the new/old chocolate frosting, before slapping on a slap bracelet and feeding his Tamagotchi. Hey, it could happen.