Is Snapple Elements Discontinued? What Happened?

Snapple Elements was a drink line that Snapple launched in 1999. The drinks had elemental names and came in wide-mouth glass bottles that looked different from anything else on the shelf at the time.

The original four flavors were Rain, Sun, Fire, and Earth. Each one had a fruit-based recipe and a name meant to match the feeling of the flavor. Rain was berry-forward. Sun leaned citrus. The bottles were short and wide with a big opening, which made them feel more like something you would keep around than throw away. A lot of people did keep them and used them for years after the drinks were gone.

Snapple launched the line in spring 1999. Trade coverage from 2000 showed the line had already grown beyond the original four drinks, with new flavors added to stores. The line was doing well enough that Snapple kept adding to it.

But like a lot of beverage side lines from that era, Snapple Elements did not last. The early 2000s brought more competition and changing tastes. Snapple had also been through several ownership changes in the years before and after the launch, which made it harder to keep a niche line going. By the mid-2000s the drinks were hard to find, and eventually they stopped being made.

Snapple Elements never got a proper comeback. Snapple has brought back other things over the years, but not this line. It comes up often in discussions about drinks people wish would return, and Rain in particular has a following that has held on for decades.