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Original poster

Childhood memories destroyed...

91 replies

StinkyWizleteets · 08/08/2019 20:10

I had this wonderful childhood memory of Bird’s Dream Topping so I bought some today and tried it. It’s horrible. It has a very vaguely similar taste of what I remember it to be but it’s like the savoury version... may as well be cheese for all the fun it was eating it. Even red jelly couldn’t fix it.

What things did you love as a child that companies have later destroyed?

OP posts:
MayFayner · 08/08/2019 21:50

Penguins have always tasted weird, imo. Fake chocolate taste. They were always my least favourite bars, although naturally I still ate as many of them as I was given.

Kit Kats are now shit. Actually all chocolate is now shit so I won’t even get started on that rant.

I used to live in cream crackers as a child but I’m sure they’re different now. Maybe they had hydrogenated fat in them before? Bring back hydrogenated fat, I say.

VenusClapTrap · 08/08/2019 22:10

Lucozade. The bastards have ruined it.

Norfolkenchancemate · 08/08/2019 22:15

@VenusClapTrap I agree, used to sort my migraines right out, now it contributes to them. Bas**rds

AppleKatie · 08/08/2019 22:16

Ribena

And yes Ice Magic the bastards.

AutumnCrow · 08/08/2019 22:16

Pot Noodle spicy curry flavour. It used to be a proper treat tea with toast. Now it's just an odd chemical thing. And that Borrowers-size mango chutney sachet to counteract the 'spice' of the 'curry'? I've had more flavour from a postage stamp.

IamPickleRick · 08/08/2019 22:20

Hassled yes! The breathing lady! Camden Highstreet as well, we used to love walking up and down there as teens looking at all the funky clothes and the big fibreglass models above the shops.

My kids give no shits.

VenusClapTrap · 08/08/2019 22:20

BRING BACK SUGAR! BRING BACK SALT! GIVE US BACK OUR TASTY SHIT!

The cakes in my local cafe are all bastarding gluten free or vegan now too, except for a token Victoria sponge. It’s just not on.

WarmSausageTea · 08/08/2019 22:22

Wagon Wheels have shrunk (as have most chocolate bars) and the chocolate coating tastes nasty. Very disappointing.

Rainbowknickers · 08/08/2019 22:28

Curly whirlies used to have delicious soft fudge in them lived on them as a kid
Now they have vile hard toffee in them-yuck
fruit gums-just taste of starch
Caramacs are ick too way too sweet and have lost that caramac caramel taste
Creme eggs-they seem to have gone bitty
And chocolate oranges-I can’t taste the orange-it’s just cheap chocolate now

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 08/08/2019 22:29

I bought a Kitkat Chinky the other day and it was so bad I had to throw half of it away. I can safely this that this has never happened before.

It was greasy, too sweet and strangely sticking to the teeth.

Also, they ruined the wrappers.

Have they no soul, the manufacturers?

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 08/08/2019 22:30

chunky, sorry!

DtPeabodysLoosePants · 08/08/2019 22:38

All chocolate has gone seriously downhill now.
I used to love tinned spaghetti as a teen. Now the sauce tastes rank and my kids won't touch it.

It's definitely the change in recipes and messing with the salt, fat abs sugar content not to mention the preservatives.

Cherryade was a favourite drink and now it's full of sweeteners instead of sugar. All sugar free drinks taste awful.

Smarties taste synthetic now. No joy to those anymore.

I've not had crispy pancakes for years but have a craving now. Loved them with oven chips. Around 2001 oven chips started to have a weird smell when they cooked and I e not liked them since. Home fries were the worst.

Feast lollies aren't as nice as they used to be, nor frazzles crisps.

Veggie quarter pounders and vegetable fingers. Tasteless now.

They need to stop messing with recipes and bring back the originals.

DingleyDells · 08/08/2019 22:54

Wall's mint Vienetta. Used to be a delectable marvel with layer upon layer of crackling icy folds. Now it is just a blob with cheap chocolate and a chemical mint taste. Yuk.

Sicario · 08/08/2019 23:07

Tins of Nestlés sterilised cream. They seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Christmas just isn't the same without it.

Count Dracula ice lollies - black with red jelly vampire blood in the middle. They were brilliant.

BlueSkiesLies · 08/08/2019 23:12

The lazy river at ponds forge. When I was a nipper and my feet didn’t touch the bottom it was a real adventure and you got properly swept round and had trouble getting out unless you times it right to make a mad swim for the side.

Now it’s incredibly pathetic.

runfloppityrun · 08/08/2019 23:20

Ribena. I'm certain they've watered it down and taken all the sugar out of it.

I always think of DH's lovely late grandad when I see Ribena, because he used to almost fill the glass with it neat straight from the bottle and top up with a teeny bit of water. Grin

Original poster
StinkyWizleteets · 08/08/2019 23:28

If they’d just bring back sugar, salt, fat and E numbers!

Irn bru was ruined when they changed to their lower sugar and added sweeter flavour. I loved blue smarties now they’re timid. Orange squash has been destroyed as they’ve all got aspartame or some such sweeter with lingering aftertaste in. Same with Fanta.

Now if only they’d bring back pacers (showing my age)

OP posts:
FlamedToACrisp · 08/08/2019 23:45

Orange Club - they used to have two thin biscuits with orange cream inside, thickly smothered in orangey chocolate. Wubbish now.

Glenryck Atlantic Pilchards - thanks to overfishing, they are now horrible Pacific Pilchards Sad

Icebreaker - a mixture of milk and plain chocolate with bits of blue and green crunchy mint honeycomb - gorgeous.

Fry's Five Centres Bar - oh I miss them!

AutumnCrow · 09/08/2019 00:01

Sports Mixtures aren't right either.

Stravapalava · 09/08/2019 00:07

Angel Delight is horrible now too as well. Got some for my DC, made it, served it up excitedly and... oh. Gritty, chemically. DC were looking at me like "why did you big this up mum?"

NannyR · 09/08/2019 00:10

I agree with findus crispy pancakes, we used to eat loads of them as kids but they taste disgusting now. We also used to have a product called Steak Canadian which was very thin processed meat that you fried with onions and had it in a hot sandwich - I tried it again a few years ago for nostalgic reasons and it was foul. Also, walls vienetta used to be quite a posh dessert (for our family anyway), now it just tastes cheap and nasty.

lavenderbluedilly · 09/08/2019 02:56

Kellogg’s Country Store. Used to have lovely powdery sweet stuff in it, now it’s just like any other boring muesli

flouncyfanny · 09/08/2019 06:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Gingerkittykat · 09/08/2019 06:10

Arctic Roll, the ice cream stuff is vile and it stays as a solid mass instead of going into a liquid when it melts.

Smarties, no e-numbers means less taste and none of the amazing orange ones.

Cremola foam, I spent a fortune on a tin of similar stuff and it was rubbish.

wanderings · 09/08/2019 06:51

Water slides: I enjoy going down them as an adult, but try as I might, I just can't get that feeling of childish excitement and thrill that I remember from thirty years ago.