Cherry

Life was always a big bowl of cherries with Bonne Bell around. Cherry was freshly picked from the BB cherry tree in 1975 in the original, beautiful 'Biggy' size. Always a perennial favorite, Cherry was an instant classic and favorite from the get-go that saw many beautiful transitions throughout its many decades in the Lip Smacker flavor line-up. Cherry first hit the market in July 1975.

70's:

The timeless screw-cap tube design that only a few early Lip Smacker flavors saw

Cherry flavor stamp

Cherry was a beautiful bright maraschino cherry-red and had the iconic screw top cap that only the very early 70's Smackers saw. It even had the 'flavor' stamp on the bottom adding even more charm to the already flawless packaging. The flavor was perfect too and a lush maraschino cherry, freshly picked by Bonne Bell. Sweet enough but not candied nor medicinal. I will never get over how Bonne Bell was able to capture fruit's in their peak ripeness. It's as if they captured them in harvest, plucked them and bottled up the smell.

A 70's Cherry trifecta

With Cherry being an instant flavor staple, it saw many packaging and label transitions even from the very beginning. The 'Lip-Smackers On a String' came in 1976 and along with that added loop hole on the bottom of the cap came other minor updates. Mine has an interesting color fade, you can see the screw cap is definitely the original color while the tube has faded to a pinkish shade.

Store ad featuring Cherry from August 1977

Bonne Bell was already in the works to be a global brand (still family owned!) even in the 70's. Different countries saw different packaging with slightly altered graphics and color of tubes as you can see below, making hunting them down even more exciting. Despite the slight differentiations, the flavor was consistently the same no matter the country. 

In 1978 The Firecracker Super-Smacker was a brand new dynamite size (bigger than a Biggy!) that featured the original Cherry flavor.

 

More to come on this firecracker down the line! ;)

A very Cherry 70's size-up, line up.

80's:

Cherry's aesthetic remained the same throughout the 80's and continued to be offered in the classic Biggy size (.60 oz.) along with the mini (.14 oz.). That is until Holiday 1984 rolled around!

Holiday 1984 brought us quite a few amazing limited edition Biggy flavors including the Frost collection. The Cherry we all knew and loved was ready for to meet Jack Frost that winter with a gorgeous retro script and limited-edition name, Cherry Frost. It even had a new frosty shimmer finish to go with the theme but had the original Cherry flavor everyone coveted. 

Of course mini's were already in full-swing by the 1980's and Bonne Bell gave us some fun new labels in playful fonts in some various collections during the decade. It even saw a new rare logo and the then 'new' block logo at the very end of the 80's, ready for the new decade ahead.

90's:

Cherry came roaring into the 90's with a brand new get up and a new wave 90's design. Check out the white tube and cherry-red accents.

The 90's continued to see a big evolution for the brand with various packaging updates along with the new more colorful block logo.

Even the Bonne Bell logo saw transitions from the retro BB logo to the blocked logo.

Barcoded tubes from register and countertop display units

Cherry was eventually a part of the Smackersville characters and was featured in a lot of different materials. As much as Cherry was featured in Smackersville, I'm surprised we didn't see her in more collections. Her character was quite athletic as you'll see below.

www.bonnebell.com Smackersville bios

Cherry was in the first edition of the Friendship Collectibles but did not have a limited edition label. 

Cherry Friendship Collectibles set with ladybug notebook and keychain

Let's ogle at one of my favorite graphic eras for Smackers in the mid-to-late 90's below!

Mid-90's carded single Cherry graphics 

00's/10's: 

Cherry was ready for the new millennium and century in 2000. While the noted label designs above showed how much Cherry evolved in the 90's, it was about to take an unexpected sabbatical but received one last iteration before then with a World of Smackers label.

Early 2000's carded Cherry single

Believe it or not Cherry took a long hiatus after 2005. After over 30 years on the original Lip Smacker flavor roster, this was a big deal and it wouldn't be seen again until 2009!

I remember vividly walking up to the big Bonne Bell display in Walmart in 2009 and much to my excitement stood 3 new Lip Smacker flavors. The dark red tube made me think either Black Cherry or Cherry Chocolate finally made a return but upon further inspection I noticed it was our old beloved Cherry in a brand new get up. Everything about Cherry 2009 was new though and surprisingly Bonne Bell even changed the flavor. This was not the same Cherry flavor used for the 30 years before but a new candied cherry that smelled like Cherry Laffy Taffy to me. Good, but my thought is always "If it's not broke, don't fix it...".

The new Cherry flavor stayed the same and even donned a limited edition label for a Justice collection in 2010 called Cherry Sunshine. One of the very few limited edition labels Cherry saw in its later lifetime. Regardless, this iteration was officially discontinued from the Bonne Bell line-up in 2015.

Not to fret, check out this never before seen Decked Out Cherry Dream Liquid Lip Smacker prototype that never was released. As iconic as Cherry was it's crazy to think how we never got a plain Cherry Liquid Lip Smacker in the regular Liquid line-up. 

 Some Cherry Biggies from the 1970's-1990's

After nearly five decades Cherry remained a favorite in all of its Americana, culturally iconic glory, and was the cherry-on-top of a perfectly crafted Lip Smackin' line-up. Bonne Bell branched out and gave us SO many other fun and new cherry creations within the regular Lip Smacker line-up and glosses over the decades, that you're bound to see them again here on this merry road to Bonne Bell Lip Smacker Land.  

                                                                           

Some Cherry mini's from the 1970's-2010's