How A '90s Trend Gifted The World With Little Debbie's Cosmic Brownies
Cosmic Brownies are a lunchtime favorite for kiddos and adults alike, and have been putting smiles on faces since 1999. And, while there's a whole host of discontinued Little Debbie snacks that we're never getting back, these fudgy, dense rectangles of brownie delight with candy sprinkles have some serious staying power. In 2024, Little Debbie sold over half a billion Cosmic Brownies. The iconic snack has inspired a Kellogg's breakfast cereal, a Goose Creek candle, and more online dupe recipes than you can possibly imagine.
Come to find out, however, this dessert that brings us so much joy in the 2020s stays faithful to its millennial origins in a way that you might not have realized. According to the Little Debbie website, Cosmic Brownies were inspired by that quintessential 1990s nighttime delight, cosmic bowling. Do you remember hanging out with all your friends at the bowling alley 'til midnight, throwing strikes and spares amidst the lurid glow of neon paint against black lights as Britney and the Spice Girls blasted over the sound system? The colorful candy sprinkles on Cosmic Brownies, set against the dark background of the frosted brownie cake, are meant to evoke the aesthetics of cosmic bowling even today. Little Debbie's competitor, Hostess, rolled a gutter ball with its discontinued candy bar brownies that may have resembled Cosmic Brownies in spirit, but nothing compares to the original.
What makes Cosmic Brownies so special after all these years?
It's not only a very cool bit of snack cake lore to learn that Cosmic Brownies were inspired by a 90s bowling alley trend; we think that it might actually be the key to the treat's longevity. Nostalgia for the 1990s is insanely hot right now. Everything Y2K is in again, from low-rise jeans and flannel to remakes of hit movies like "She's All That" and "House Party." Kids are wearing "Nirvana" t-shirts, VHS tapes are big movers on the secondhand market, and Brendan Fraser is having a career renaissance. Some 1990s bangers never left, like Pokemon cards ... or Cosmic Brownies.
A delicious dessert like Cosmic Brownies can transport us to a simpler time. For a lot of people, food evokes core memories in a pleasant way. As an adult, you could undoubtedly make an objectively higher-quality brownie at home — we love the viral TikTok Dr. Pepper brownies ourselves — but sometimes you want to simply unwrap a package that takes you back to your childhood. For some folks of a certain age, Cosmic Brownies are a time machine back to the years of ubiquitous payphones, "The Matrix," watching "Spongebob," and eating school lunches with a special treat inside. Your memories probably include trips to the bowling alley to play the late-night game that inspired Cosmic Brownies as well!