FLASHBACK: Isang patak, kaya ang bisitang sankatutak

Sunny Orange was a staple drink at Filipino house parties in the’80s and ‘90s.

It is sometime in the 1980s, and there is a birthday party in a typical Filipino home.

Spaghetti with sliced hotdogs is on the table. Hotdogs and marshmallows are skewered on sticks. A birthday cake waits to be sliced. Children are running around the living room, eagerly waiting for the next parlor game or their turn at the pabitin.

Then Mother walks into the kitchen carrying an empty pitcher.

She opens a familiar bottle, pours in a splash of thick orange concentrate, adds water and stirs.

In seconds, there is juice for everyone.

Sunny Orange.

For many Filipino children who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, the brightly colored juice concentrate was practically part of every birthday-party menu.

Made by Food World Inc., Sunny Orange offered something particularly attractive to Filipino families: a small amount of concentrate could produce an entire pitcher of sweet orange drink.

Hence the unforgettable line: “Isang patak, kaya ang bisitang sankatutak.”

And there were always plenty of guests.

Sunny Orange appeared beside plates of spaghetti and slices of birthday cake, served in transparent plastic cups or poured from enormous pitchers and Coleman jugs.

But it was not only for parties.

On school days, mothers mixed it early in the morning and poured it into water jugs for children to bring to school. By recess, the juice might already be slightly warm and diluted by melting ice, but nobody seemed to care.

Children even compared whose Sunny Orange was sweeter or stronger.

Orange was the classic, but other flavors also found their way into Filipino kitchens. Mothers also discovered another irresistible use for the concentrate: iced candy.

The mixture was poured into long plastic bags, tied and frozen overnight, creating an inexpensive treat that became another fixture of childhood.

Then there were the commercials.

Sunny Orange became familiar not only through the kitchen but through television, with advertisements and a catchy jingle that helped turn the drink into part of Filipino pop culture.

Eventually, tastes changed.

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