Coconut Yoo-Hoo did exist. Lets bring it back!
My cousin Dan and I have some fond memories of Yoo-Hoo. When I was a kid, my dad used to have a deli on 13th avenue in Brooklyn, and he would let me have a Yoo-Hoo every time I went in the store. One weekend, my cousin Dan was staying over, and my dad brought home an entire case of Yoo-Hoo for us. Legend has it that Dan and I finished the whole case in one night. I was 4, and he was 7. This was when Yoo-Hoo came in small 8oz bottles. I’m not justifying two little kids drinking 100 oz of Yoo-Hoo each; I’m just saying they weren’t the wide mouthed 15.5 oz bottles they make now.
So anyway…
Back then, Yoo-Hoo came in 3 flavors, chocolate, strawberry, and coconut. Yes, coconut. Nowadays, when you say Yoo-Hoo, people assume you mean the chocolate stuff, but they do still make strawberry.
Many people don’t believe me that coconut Yoo-Hoo was a real thing. Ohh it was real, and it was awesome!
I only had it a few times in my life, and the first time was also tied to experiences at my dad’s 13th avenue Brooklyn deli. I used to carry bags or boxes to peoples’ cars within a block. One time, the person was nice enough to hand me a buck, and I went into the corner store at the end of the block and decided to not get the candy bar I wanted but instead to get the white colored Yoo-Hoo. It was coconut Yoo-Hoo, and the taste is something I’ll never forget. It wasn’t as rich as chocolate Yoo-Hoo. It actually didn’t have much texture at all. It was very sweet, and the taste of coconut was very obvious, but it was a little thinner than the standard Yoo-Hoo. I loved it, and I begged my dad to get it. I don’t think that he ever did, but coconut Yoo-Hoo and I crossed paths at other points in my life. Just a few points though.
It turns out it was rebranded as Koko Blanco, and was made available in the southern states some time in the mid 2000s. It’s been discontinued now. There’s a petition online to get it back, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
Cousin Dan actually reached out to their customer relations team to find out what the deal was with coconut YooHoo. They promptly responded, and he sent me their response. Here it is in its entirety.
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Dear Mr. Papandrea:
Thank you for contacting us about Yoo-Hoo Koko Blanco. We’re always excited to hear from our consumers. Your comments give us valuable input about our brands and where people want to see them.
Product flavor offerings are introduced based on our knowledge of needs and wants in local markets. We are challenged to sell a large variety of SKU’s in a limited amount of space. We face this space challenge in retail accounts, as well as route trucks and warehouses. Unfortunately, Yoo-Hoo Koko Blanco is not in production at this time. We will make sure to express your desire to see the product return to our sales team.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us, Dan. We greatly appreciate your feedback!
Sincerely,
Consumer Relations
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So yeah, it’s a stock message expressing empty regret, but it sounds like there’s the slightest chance they may open to bringing it back if there’s a demand. I think we can make it happen, but I’m going to need your help. Right now, the petition has 1662 signatures, and the goal of whoever set it up made it 5000. The people I know can’t fill that gap, but if we all rally together and get our friends to spread the word, this could happen.
So I’m going to ask everyone who reads this to sign the petition. Use an email address that you don’t check, for all I care, but please sign it, and get some of your friends to sign it.
If you really want to help, additionally contact consumer relations via their online form. The more the message that people want to try coconut Yoo-Hoo goes around, the better chance there’ll be that they’ll bring it back.
I’m telling you it’s worth the effort!
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