Capri Sun: History, Packaging & Availability

Snack History Nostalgia Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

If you were a kid who was lucky enough to get a Lunchable for your meal at school, or if you were able to convince your mom that a sugary drink mix in a pouch was much more practical than just getting a Gatorade, you probably got the chance to enjoy a Capri Sun or two during your childhood. If you missed out on this unique little pouch-based drink, you can still get Capri-Sun at most grocery stores.

There was just something really unique about the process of enjoying these sweet little drinks. Everyone also has a fondness (mixed with despair) for trying to get the little included straws into the pouch without breaking the straw or stabbing through both sides of the bag. Most people are not sure if the nostalgia they feel about Capri Sun as a product is more about the flavor of the drinks or about the experience of drinking out of such a unique container.

History

The Capri Sun drink is actually a German juice product that is sold in the US under the business name Capri Sun Group Holding. The company is privately held by Hans-Peter Wild. These little drink pouches have been around since 1969, and they were originally named for the Italian island of Capri. This was meant to explain that the drinks were semi-tropical in nature and to give them a bit of an exotic feel that they would not otherwise have had to offer.

Portable drinks were a huge hit in the 60s, as were lots of gimmicky space race-themed foods. Capri Sun fit right into this environment with ease, and kids were delighted with the shiny, bendy, silver bags that came with their own straw. Thus began the love story of kids and the silly Capri Sun pouches that we all know and love today.

These little juice products were first sold in the US in 1981. Kraft Heinz was the partner who brought them to North America, hence the reason that they ended up in Lunchables and other kinds of mixed marketing efforts with other Kraft products. In the UK, the Netherlands, France, and Belgium, Capri Sun is sold by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.

There is one standard size of juice pouch that is most commonly associated with this product. It is a 200-milliliter pouch, which is 7 oz in the US. There are also added sizes of pouches on offer in the US, with some Capri Sun products being sold in 6 fluid oz pouches and in 8 fluid oz pouches. These pouches are trapezoidal in shape, which allows for the bag to stand up on a flat surface with ease. Each little pouch comes with its own straw in an individual wrapper that is glued to the side of the drink. This tiny straw is inserted into the bag through a small round access point.

In some markets, there are Capri Suns that are sold with resealable caps, and these pouches are usually 11 fluid oz. You will not find these on offer in the US, but they are sold in some of the other European markets. 

Most kids from the 90s remember Capri Sun as being advertised in a way that suggested that drinking it would turn you into a cool, silvery, reflective puddle that oozed all over the basketball court or around school. Early ads for this product also indicated that it was healthier than other juice products and made a lot out of the possibility that your kids could drink this substance to stay hydrated in the summer. 

Most people remember the taste of Capri Sun with fondness, but there is little evidence that this product is excessively hydrating in any way. Somewhere along the way during the 90s, the focus on the product being a sports-type drink changed, and there was more focus on how portable and fun the pouches were to use. This effort to focus on portability also helped to target moms, who were probably getting tired of dragging around water bottles for their kids to different events after school.

There are not nearly as many product combinations that include Capri Suns these days, but many people who were young in the 90s remember the Capri Sun that came with a Lunchable very well. This was the hay day of this product, and since all 90s snacks for kids were gimmicky in some way, it all made sense.

As the need to provide gimmicky and strange foods to kids has passed on, the Capri Sun has remained a fairly practical way to bring a juice product with you on a hike, to the beach, or to keep your kid busy in the car. While it must be stated that you can make a huge mess with these little drink pouches if they are not opened correctly, they are still a great way to get a sweet and tasty drink from point A to point B.

Capri Sun will probably continue to be popular for years to come, just for its relative practicality. While there is no sign that the silly and zany marketing pairings that made Capri Sun a huge hit in the 90s will ever come back, younger kids will probably still really enjoy the odd but fun nature of this drink pouch. And considering how sugary and unhealthy many other drinks can be that are marketed at kids, this is still a better option than some of the other choices that children could be making.

Logo

Flavors

There are many flavors of this product that have been sold over the years, but many of the various flavors have been discontinued. You will find that only the most basic and most popular products are still on the shelves of stores. This is likely due, in part, to the growing antipathy toward sugary foods and drinks that are targeted specifically at children when they are being marketed. Bolded items on this list are no longer sold in any market that Capri Sun operates in.

• Tropical (SE/RSA)
• Strawberry
• Strawberry Kiwi
• Splash Cooler
• Coastal Cooler
• Pacific Cooler
• Fruit Punch
• Wild Cherry
• Lemonade
• Orange
• Surfer Cooler
• Mountain Cooler
• Dragon Fruit Punch
• Grape
• Wild Grape
• Blackcurrant (UK)
• Summer Berries (SE/UK/RSA)
• Alaska Iced Tea’s
• Apple (UK)
• Apple & Blackcurrant (UK)
• Apple & Cherry (UK/RSA)
• Mango (UK)
• Safari Fruits (SE/UK/DE)
• Cola Mix (DE)
• Multi Vitamin (DE)
• Monster Alarm (DE)
• Elfentrank Fairy Drink (DE)
• Kirsche (SE)
• Blackcurrant & Apple (SE)
• Banapple (SE)
• Piña Mango
• Strawberry Cooler
• Tropical Blast
• Cool Summer
• Starfruits
• Mystic Dragon
• Power Team
• Multifruits
• Blue Raspberry

 Capri Sun Sport

• Citrus Rush
• Fruit Frenzy

Roarin’ Waters – Flavored Water Products

• Strawberry-Kiwi Surf
• Wild Cherry Waterfall
• Tropical Tide (Pineapple, Cherry and Orange)
• Grape Geyser
• Fruit Punch Wave
• Berry Rapids

Island Refreshers (sold from 2003-2015)

• Lemon Tea
• Tropical Fruit

100% Juice

• Apple
• Berry Blast (EU)
• Fruit Punch
• Grape

Sunrise (2009-2011)

• Tropical Morning
• Orange Wake Up
• Berry Tangerine Morning

Super-V (sold from 2012-2016) 

• Apple
• Berry
• Fruit Punch

You can see that a huge number of the various varieties are no longer sold, and some people lament that their favorite Capri Sun has been discontinued over the years. There have been some campaigns to try and get some of the retired types of Capri Sun and their unique flavors back into the market, but Kraft has not responded to these petitions.

Ingredients

The Kraft company goes to long lengths to reassure people that Capri Suns are not bad for you and that they are not loaded with sugar. There is a very long page on their website all about how sugars impact the health of foods and which explains all about the kinds of sugar that are used in Capri Sun products. You can clearly see the pressure that food and beverage companies feel about sugar and kids when you look at this effort by Kraft to make the public feel safe about their products. 

From the HEB entry for Capri Suns:

• Apple, Grape, and Cherry Juices from Concentrate (Water, Apple, Grape, and Cherry Juice Concentrates)
• Citric Acid (for Tartness)
• Natural Flavor

The company makes no promises about the gluten-free, vegan, or other status of the product. There is also a safety warning that indicates that you should never drink the pouch in question if it is leaking, swollen, or damaged in some way, as fermentation can occur. The company also made a change to the packaging in 2014 to help allow parents and kids to check on fermentation within the pouch to be sure that they were not drinking Capri Sun products that had gone bad on the shelf.

This is not a common issue for this product, but the bags are rather thin, and there have been recalls related to bags failing in large batches of the product in years past. This is one of the things that you should always look at before you drink a Capri Sun to be sure that your pouch of juice is good to drink.

Nutrition

Serving Size:	1 pouch (170g)	% Daily Value*
Amount Per Serving
Calories	66
Calories from Fat	1.1
Total Fat	0.1g	0%
Saturated Fat	0g	0%
Cholesterol	0mg	0%
Sodium	3.4mg	0%
Total Carbohydrates	17g	6%
Dietary Fiber	0g	0%
Sugars	15g
Protein	0g
Vitamin A		0%
Vitamin C		0%
Calcium		1%

• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000-calorie diet.

Pictures

Commercials

A silly newer commercial for the product:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGNZkp0MXHo

Some 90s Capri Sun Commercials:

FAQ