Not Pop Rocks: The '70s Candy That Needs A Comeback

The 1970s were an interesting decade for food. You might remember it as a time when no meal was safe from being encased in a gelatin mold, or when "luxury" deli loaves reigned supreme. While we're happy to leave those behind in the '70s, one department the decade rocked was sweets. Some are long overdue for a comeback, and we can't think of any more deserving than Space Dust Sizzling Candy.

A product of the General Foods Corporation, Space Dust was like the powdered form of Pop Rocks — the small granules of candy infused with carbon dioxide that would pop upon hitting your tongue. Released in the late 1970s, it was an immediate hit among kids. It came in three flavors: Galactic Grape, Cosmic Cherry, and Orbiting Orange. Everything was going great until, through no fault of its own, Space Dust got sucked into an (unfortunately) comical public relations black hole.

The first issue was the name. See, in the '70s, PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, was wreaking havoc on the streets. Sold as a white powder, one of its street names was "Angel Dust." Notice any resemblance? Parents certainly did. Fortunately, this proved to be an easy fix; General Foods simply changed the product's name to "Cosmic Candy." But the second issue proved much trickier to resolve. Out of the blue, a baseless urban legend spread that pairing Space Dust or Pop Rocks with soda would cause your stomach to explode. Looking back, we can laugh, but this was no joke in the '70s. The FDA even had a hotline set up to reassure worried parents that their children would be perfectly safe eating the candy. Yet despite General Foods' best efforts to salvage its reputation, the damage was already done, and Space Dust eventually disappeared from shelves.

Though its time was short, Space Dust's brief flash on the market was enough to leave a lasting impression on '70s kids. Those who were around at the time fondly remember one particularly absurd legend that Little Mikey, the kid from Life cereal's iconic commercial, had died after making the ill-fated decision to pair Pop Rocks with Coca-Cola. The rumor became so widespread that even the real-life actor's mother received calls from people offering their condolences. It was the stuff of legendary playground lore, but over at General Foods, the brand was figuratively (and literally) buried; huge amounts of unsold Pop Rocks and Space Dust were reportedly interred underground.

Pop Rocks, which had also disappeared from shelves, eventually made its way back onto the market after the stomach-rupture rumors died down. The brand changed hands over the following decades, and Spanish confectionery company Zeta Espacial S.A. eventually became its owner and manufacturer, continuing to sell Pop Rocks as of 2026. Unfortunately, while modern versions of popping candy dust have since appeared, the original General Foods product never returned.

If you weren't a '70s kid and the name "Space Dust" rings a bell, you're probably thinking of Elysian Brewing's Space Dust IPA, whose branding borrows the name and psychedelic imagery of the discontinued candy. As for actually trying Space Dust, the closest you'll get is to make your own version by crushing Pop Rocks into a powder using a mortar and pestle, or sealing them in a plastic bag and rolling over them with a rolling pin — though vintage packets do occasionally pop up on secondhand sites, where they can sell for upward of $90.