June 7th, 2005

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History
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Milk Box from the Eighties?

My friend Sarah is searching for a box drink of our youth. It’s a cousin, apparently, of Super Socco (remember that awful, tangy stuff?), came in a similar tetra pak and was actually a milk product (though it may have contained no actual milk). It came with a bendy straw, and was available in at least three different flavours (blue for vanilla, pink for strawberry and brown for chocolate). This all resonates vaguely with my early eighties memories, but I can’t think of the product. Can anybody help?

UPDATE: I’ll have to check with Sarah on this tomorrow, but I’m optimistic that AhBook got the right answer with Dr. Oh. Bonus points for any web resources anybody can find on the subject. Here’s the only reference I could find. Ironically enough, it’s in a blog entry that also concerns Super Socco.

Comments: 16 Responses so far

Andrea
June 7th, 2005
3:20 pm

Super Socco was one of the first drink boxes. It came from Dairyland. It tasted a bit like Gatorade. There were three flavours: regular, grape and orange. Super Socco sponsored youth soccer and other sports programs. The Whitecaps were a hot team at the time, and I’m sure that was part of the message — a soccer sports drink. I’m 95% sure that it wasn’t a dairy beverage, but it did have the Dairyland logo on it.

Come to think of it, does Dairyland still make that vile Dutch Chocolate drink that was out at the same time? I adored it as a kid….

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Andrea
June 7th, 2005
3:22 pm

I just re-read your post and realized that I’m rambling on about Super Socco, when your friend is looking for something else. Duh.

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Darren
June 7th, 2005
3:22 pm

Indeed, Supper Socco definitely wasn’t a dairy drink. The drink box we’re looking for was available during the same period in the early eighties.

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Andrea
June 7th, 2005
4:52 pm

Was the product called something like “Shake”? The idea was that it was a milkshake in a box. I can picture these on display at Woolco….

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heather
June 7th, 2005
5:05 pm

ohmygod. i used to drink those all the time… not that i can remember anything about the brand. oy.

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AhBook
June 7th, 2005
6:41 pm

Wasn’t there one called “Dr. Oh” or something like that? I remember it tasted like melted ice cream.

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Chris
June 7th, 2005
6:55 pm

I’ve been wracking my brain over this one since you posted this. And now I find that AhBook beat me to it just after I managed to pull this obscure knowledge from the dark recesses of my brain.

It most definitely was Dr.Oh. Remember those Saturday morning ads: “Dr.Oh, Dr.Oh. Got to drink my Dr.Oh. Ohhhhh-ohhhh.” And then something about a “whole lotta chocolotta” among other flavours. Pretty horrid stuff really. And to think some mothers actually gave their kids these things in their lunches.

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filmgoerjuan
June 7th, 2005
11:21 pm

How dare you?

How dare you, sir?

Do not diss the good name of Super Socco!

Sure it’s pure citric acid mixed with water, but it was the one thing about the 80s that remains unsullied in my memories!

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sxKitten
June 8th, 2005
3:50 pm

I’d totally forgotten about Super Socco (more like repressed the memory) but your post brought the whole thing flooding back, including the stupid jingle.

Thank you.

Fortunately, I either missed the Dr. Oh phenomenon entirely, or have been more successful at burying the memory irretrievably deep in my subconscious.

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Derek
June 9th, 2005
12:22 am

Dr. Oh it was. Previous to that, the first real Tetra Pak I remember actually was a tetrahedron, and had a picture of a polar bear on it. I think the drink was blue, and you could consume it either liquid or frozen (at least we did, and if it was frozen you ripped the Tetra Pak to get at it.

I have a similar “can’t remember the name” item from the late ’70s/early ’80s. It was a chocolate bar that resembled an Oh! Henry or a Mr. Big (lumpy), but it was white. The interior was crunchy, but had no nuts. I used to get it at London Drugs. Can anyone remember it and what it was called?

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Jeff
September 4th, 2006
3:46 pm

I remember it being like a lemon-type citris drink that would make your lips pucker and burn the tastebuds swollen. The tetra pack was mainly white with a soccer ball on it an i think the lettering was yellow and orangy/red color.

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jody
November 17th, 2006
4:02 pm

I’m doing research for a fiction piece I’m writing set in Saskatchewan in the early 80s, where I spent part of my childhood. I vaguely recall Dr. Oh, and have a much better memory of the commercial jingle than the actual product itself. The lyrics went something like “Just what the doctor ordered / That’s right! / Dr. Oh!”

If anybody else can provide any information on this, I’d appreciate it. I’m most interested in getting the timeline for this product correct (when was it introduced, when did it disappear?) It seems to me it didn’t stick around too long.

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Sigs
April 21st, 2007
1:36 pm

It’s funny, but I was thinking about Super Socco today!

Here is some discussion about Super Socco: http://www.discovervancouver.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=22506

Here is a PHOTO of Super Socco:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/pb94d5d39a027f7170efcd1a4c45f777e/ea164f1e.jpg

And here is a (can you believe it?) a video on You Tube of a Super Socco commercial (but it’s not that 80s one that I remembered of a woman singing “Supah Supah Supah Supah SOCCO! S-O-C-C-O….SOCCO!!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwyrevHpD-4

I also remembered “Dr. Oh”, but I also vaguely remember “Dairymaid Emergency Milk” (not to be confused with Dairyland). I think it was the first of the tetrapak beverages, where you didn’t have to worry about refrigerating your milk.

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wendy
July 31st, 2007
1:24 pm

Twist & Shake!

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Michael
June 17th, 2009
7:13 pm

I was one of the kids in the Dr. Oh milk drink commercial from Dairyland. I juggled the tetra packs, made them magically rise from a magic hat and jumped up and down on a trampoline with other kids in front of a green screen. it came in 4 flavors, (quoting from the commercial) Lotta Chocolata, Very Berry Strawberry, Havanna Banana and what can you say about Vanila.
as far as I can remember I did the commercial in 1978 in Vancouver. If anyone can find a copy of I would love to show my kids.

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red
August 19th, 2009
10:44 am

BIG M?

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