Vintage Libby’s Fruit Float for dessert
The 30-second Fruit Float — everybody’s favorite real fruit dessert. Just pour a can of Fruit Float into a bowl, add fresh cold milk, stir for 30 seconds, and it’s ready to eat. Four servings.
Fruit Float comes in eight real fruit flavors. If you’ve got a little more time than 30 seconds, try one of these delicious Fruit Float recipes. Note: Times indicated do not include chilling and freezing.
4-minute fruit float: Ice cream shake / 10-minute fruit float: Raspberry chill cake (also see this recipe: Pink raspberry-angel food dessert from 1970)
Test-tasting flavorful Fruit Float from Libby’s (1974)
By Sally Batz – Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) March 29, 1974
Buyer’s Market was prompted to test Fruit Float after receiving a letter from a 10-year-old girl. She wrote, “Dear Mrs. Butz, I like your food column. Please, if you can, have the ladies try Fruit Float. My mom doesn’t think it looks good.”
Three out of the four panelists liked Fruit Float. So maybe mom will break down and try it.
Fruit Float is a quick-to-make dessert in a can. The price per can is 49 cents. It is made by the Libby company.
To make it, empty the contents of the nine-and-three-quarters fluid ounce can into a bowl. Refill the can with cold milk, add the milk to the bowl, then stir with a spoon for 15 to 30 seconds. Spoon the mixture into dessert dishes and it’s ready to eat.
Each 4.88-ounce serving has 130 calories when made with regular milk; 110 calories when made with skim milk.
The advertisements say, “There never has been a dessert like Fruit Float… it’s deliciously different from ordinary gelatins and puddings… a light, delicate dessert mix containing pieces of real fruit.”
It comes in several flavors including strawberry, raspberry, peach, pineapple, and mandarin orange. Mary Smith was the only panelist who really didn’t like Fruit Float. She tried the pineapple flavor. “It’s not any good,” said Mary.
“My only comment is ‘yechhh.’ None of the kids liked it. They just wouldn’t eat it because it tasted like medicine to them. I don’t know, maybe it was just the pineapple in it, but I do know that we don’t like it.”
ALSO SEE: Frosty pineapple pie recipe (1953)
MARY THOUGHT it was an easy and inexpensive dessert, and added that perhaps another flavor might be better. Betty Perk’s mandarin orange flavor Fruit Float went over well with husband Bob and herself, but her daughter Vicki just wouldn’t eat it.
“Bob’s not one to try stuff like that,” said Betty. “I was really surprised when he asked me to give him a dish of it. His first reaction was that it looked like pablum, but he tried it and said it tasted good.”
Betty thought the Fruit Float tasted better REALLY cold. “It has big chunks of fruit in it, and was real easy to fix,” Betty added.
“Vicki made it, and all she did was pour it in a bowl, add milk, stir and it was ready. Her fiance, Mark, didn’t believe her, and I guess that’s why we tried it right away without letting it get cold.” Betty agreed the price wasn’t bad at 49 cents for four servings.
ALSO TRY: Ruby Slipper Jello Bundt cake recipe, plus how to make an orange jello pound cake (1978)
CATHY HEFT thought the raspberry Fruit Float had good flavor, but was too sweet. “Karr tried it and he doesn’t even like sweets,” Cathy said. “Julie and Gregg liked it. but Sharon didn’t. I just don’t like the sweetness of it.
“I couldn’t make one can of it into a regular dessert,” Cathy added. “I’d have to buy two cans. I think a dollar (plus adding your own milk) is too expensive to serve to a large family for dessert. I can buy seven or eight boxes of Jello for that, add fruit, and still come out ahead.”
Cathy said it was a good dessert to have on hand if company comes in and you needed something in a hurry. “My kids thought that Fruit Float was great! Laurie made it and got satisfaction from doing it as it is so easy. All of our kids love puddings and yogurt, and this dessert easily fits into either of these two categories.”
BOB AND I only got to taste the Fruit Float, because Bobby, Laurie and Jackie had quickly devoured all theirs and everyone else’s.
From our “taste,” however, we did think it had a real good flavor and nice texture. The price is the only thing I can see wrong with Fruit Float. I can make as good a dessert, much cheaper, by mixing up an instant pudding and adding the fruit myself.
The 10-minute Fruit Float frozen dessert: Cherry Cream Pops recipe
Ingredients
1 envelope (2 ounces) whipped topping mix
1/2 cup cold milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 can cherry Fruit Float
1 cup miniature marshmallows
Directions
Whip topping as package directs using milk and almond extract in place of vanilla extract. Fold in Fruit Float until blended; add marshmallows. Fill eight 5-ounce paper cups and freeze, interesting plastic spoons when firm. Freeze solid, unmold to serve. Note: [10 minute] time does not include freezing.
You’ll like Libby’s — Fruit Float Cherry Dessert — the 30-second fruit float
15 Responses
Whenever I eat peach yogurt I think of Fruit Float. I only liked the peach and strawberry
oh my goodness I grew up on Libby’s fruit float! It was a highlight in my childhood and I just asked my mother about it and she did not remember it until I showed her the can. It was just the best and I have been looking for it for years but I suppose my search will be futile. I am a Libby’s fruit float fan always have been and always will be!
It was the best!!!
Me too! I loved the peach! Is their a way to copy cat it, or by chance would Libby’s bring it back? Please?
When They Ever Gonna Bring Back Fruit Float?
Does anyone know what it was so that it could be approximated?
I have cracked the very simple “code” of Fruit Float!!! I have obsessed about it after remembering it suddenly. So I tried a few different ways, and it’s up to you really. I used one box of strawberry gelatin, I had sliced strawberries on hand. I prepared the gelatin w/ the hot water, adding the strawberries. I then added one 6 Oz container of reg strawberry yogurt, and instead of the amount of ice or ice cold water the gelatin then required, I used ice cold milk. It tastes just like fruit float bc basically that’s all fruit float was. I made it w/o the yogurt and it was delicious, but I prefer the yogurt in it. If you like it with more of a yogurt tang, you can change the ration accordingly. I hope this helps someone.
Well, I was way off with what I thought was cracking the code. I’m sorry. I’ve realized now gelatin is not the way to go, it’s pectin they use to stabilize the dessert. I will keep working on it, but it seems so simple. Ughh aggravating. It’s obviously a very strawberry “liquid” with strawberries, but the pectin is in that, quite a bit I’d say. So when you add the milk it immediately starts to firm up. Anyone else want to try too? Anyway, I’ll post again once I actually crack the code :(
Oh my gosh! I have been looking for a recipe for Fruit Float for years! I will try your recipe, thank you!
Ok, this is Kathy again. After spending quite a bit of $$ and eating gallons of delicious but not Fruit Float or what it actually is “fruiche”, I have found the actually recipe online. I have not tried it yet bc I had disastrous results when I used another type of pectin. I’ve never used pectin and I do not understand it lol. The recipe I have discovered requires a very specific brand and type of pectin and it includes the finished picture which is the beloved fruit float we all love. I will say there is a website you can actually buy the fruit float dessert, it’s a Japanese brand called House, and it is identical. I am not sure if I’m allowed to share a website so I won’t do that, it’s called House Strawberry Yogurt sold by a company called Yami I believe. But here is the recipe and once I figure out the deal with pectin, I’ll try it.
FYI, this recipe makes 2 servings.
Ingredients
1 teaspoon Pectin Powder *Note: you MUST Use high-calcium reactive Pectin that sets with lower amounts of Sugar, e.g. Pomona’s Universal Pectin
3 tablespoons Sugar
1/4 cup Water
125g Fresh OR Frozen Strawberries
3/4 cup Full Cream Milk *You can replace some of it with Cream
Method:
Cut Strawberries into small pieces or thin slices.
Combine Sugar and Pectin Powder in a saucepan, add Water, and mix well. Add Strawberries, bring to the simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly, and simmer for a few minutes until the mixture thickens like Strawberry Sauce.
Add cold Milk, quickly stirring with a spoon, and combine well. Chill in the fridge to firm up before you enjoy it.
*Note: Today I added 1/2 cup Milk and 1/4 cup Cream.
Thank you for doing this. I’m serious, thanks.
Loved Fruit Float as a kid and for some reason, it just popped into my head today. I wish they would bring back some of the old stuff we had as a kid, it was so much better! Going to try Kathy’s recipe!
Remember the jingle? You had to say the name Three times in a row
Fruit Float. Fruit Float. Fruit Float
That was a tongue twister. This needs to come back. I loved the strawberry flavor!!
So nostalgic for this stuff, had forgotten the jingle and was remembering it as fruit fluff which is what I’d say trying to say it 3 times fast at 5
So I had to share this story with other fans of this dessert relic….I grew up in the 70;s, and Fruit Float was around a lot…I remember really loving the peach one, and one other one that I don’t recall. Anyway, at some point, this item disappeared from all store shelves and we found out that it had been discontinued for some reason…So, flash forward to about 1986….My mom and I had gone fishing about 30 miles out of town, and stopped at a little country store to get some snacks. While she was paying I was casually checking out the grocery items they had on their shelves and then I screamed because sitting up on a very high shelf was one can of Libby’s Fruit FLoat, PEACH flavor!!!! i grabbed it and ran over to the cashier and told my mom we had to get it…She agreed…I couldn’t believe I was going to get to try it again.. Then, to our dismay, the cashier told us she couldn’t sell it because it had expired 8 years ago, 1978…I was like, “That’s okay we’ll take it anyway” but my mom said no, and the cashier looked at me like I was crazy…In my head I was thinking “NOOOOOO”…but who knows how sick we would have been had we eaten it…I remember thinking it would have been worth it….