Brands that jumped the shark

[TTCat39]

Is there a brand that you love, but they brought out a 'New exciting flavour!!' or seasonal variety and it just didn't work at all?

I'll go first - I love an After Eight, but the Gin & Tonic flavour is vile! Unfortunately we do like a gin & tonic, so have been gifted not one but two packs.

Another one - Walkers' cheese mix ups. Big fan of all the snacks individually, but shoving them all in one bag just doesn't work - they're somehow more bland and a bit soggy.

And no, I don't live on junk food, but brocolli and rice seems fairly consistent!

Tell me your brands that went off the rails...

A couple of years ago Aldi did some prosecco crisps it was one of many shops that seems to think putting prosecco flavour into everything made it desirable.

Aldi "improved" their Wotsit dupe, Cheese Puffs. They are now inedible and sweet and just revolting. So disappointing as I loved the previous version.

Marmite is now Vegan Friendly - I don't know if they've changed the recipe, but it's very difficult to spread now, really determined to remain on the knife!

And I would really like half an hour alone with a baseball bat and the person who first said, "Caramel is too deliciously sweet - why not add SALT?"

@Gatekeeper

Blood orange San Pellegrino..icy cold it was sublime but they have taken out some of the sugar and its so disappointing..thin with no body to it

San Pellegrino have not changed the recipe of their Chinotto drink (orange myrtle flavour - I love it) so I can still treat myself to that, though I have to order it 24 cans at a time from Amazon.

Dh used to love Fevertree tonic, until it went low sugar, but Fentimans still do full sugar versions as well as light versions. Their curiosity cola is not as nice as Fentimans original madagascan cola, but it is not bad. I like the pink grapefruit tonic and the rhubarb tonic.

It's not just artificial sweeteners that I hate - I can spot the plant based ones like Stevia too - as you say, @Gatekeeper, the drinks taste thin with no body - and somehow too sweet, too.

It pisses me off when brands decide to go low sugar across their range - I am an adult and I am capable of making my own decisions about what I drink and don't drink (though my weight would suggest I make bad decisions - they are still MY decisions).

@Starborn It was Nigella Lawson who started the salted caramel craze I believe

Capitalism though innit?

Nobody is truly interested in making a great product. It’s all about maximising profit (at the expense of taste/quality)

@LadyCatStark

Cadbury’s for trying to hide the disgustingness of their palm oil filled ‘chocolate’ by adding sweets and biscuits. Just give us proper, original recipe chocolate. It makes me sad that DS will never know what a real Dairy Milk bar tasted like.

Yep - this.

They clearly decided that since they had a lot of mis-shapen or broken sweets and biscuits at the end of production that would otherwise be thrown away, what better way to use them than to sweep them up off the floor chop them up and chuck them in a chocolate bar?

Coke zero (have you seen they are now relaunching it saying it's now the best tasting coke ever - isn't that what they said when it originally launched? 🤔)

Passion fruit Jaffa cakes (the cherry ones were nice though)

Raspberry Pepsi Max

@VisitingtheInfidel

Ocean Spray cranberry juices and squashes all have sweeteners now too. Not a single one with just sugar. 😖

Yes! I used to love Ocean Spray, every single one is vile now.

I do like ‘Eager’ cranberry juice but only seem to be able to get it from Ocado. I stopped shopping with them during the whole M&S shitshow, and I really miss good cranberry juice

I've only ever seen orange Jaffa cakes, where have I been?

Scented sanitary towels, with misleading euphemisms to describe the freshness system.

All sorts of random stuff with marmite

I really hope that those were two unconnected sentences

Sweeteners are nasty. I personally think they're a health disaster waiting to happen - something designed to fool your body into thinking that it's ingesting a load of sugar and preparing for it unnecessarily. I don't know if there are any proven published studies, but to me (and others have believed similar), it sounds like a set-up for diabetes. Donald Rumsfeld became phenomenally rich by aggressively pushing Aspartame into the food chain.

I've no objection to those who want the sweeteners, but I too hate the fact that choice has been largely taken away from us. Even Lucozade, for goodness' sake - that was always the whole purpose of the product! It's like getting around vehicle taxes based on emissions per mile travelled by producing cars without wheels.

The whole point of the sugar tax was to make people think carefully about how much sugar they consume and not to do so to excess - if the intention had been to just ban sugar in drinks, the government would have just done so. Which is less bad for you, healthwise: a proper can of sugary pop as a treat once or twice a week (guided by increased cost) or 6 cans of the sweetened fizzy rubbish stuff every day?

I don't drink alcohol myself, but the minimum-price-per-unit scheme seems to be working as intended there - people accept that spirits and other high ABV drinks might cost them more per bottle/serving; what the industry hasn't done is thrown their hands up in defeat and started only selling bottles of weak little Glenfiddich shandy or Buckie-flavoured water.

Thornton’s. Once upon a time was nice, luxury chocolate.

McVities putting all sorts of weird flavourings in chocolate digestives such as cherry bakewell and Christmas pudding. Why? They’re perfectly lovely biscuits on their own!

@CoraPirbright

The fizzy orange San Pellegrino! It used to be delicious but now they have taken out a load of sugar, it is a thin tasting disappointment!

You can get sugar-only orange San Pellegrino (also the lemon one). You need the "classic taste" version. Ocado have it and presumably other places will too. Sadly the pomegranate one is still polluted.

For those who detest sweeteners try: Cawston Press, Soda Folk, Dalstons, Bottle Green, Belvoir, Tiessere (not sure of spelling) and Lowicz (from Polish shops). All still have full sugar and are miles nicer than the awful crap the mainstream brands produce.

I won’t buy anything with artificial sweeteners. Hugely disappointed with San Pellagrino.
The whole thing sends out the wrong message. Shouldn’t we be drinking mainly water. If we choose a sweet drink, make it real and enjoy it. Artificial sweeteners encourage constant swigging of all kinds of stuff which are not good for us and taste horrible as well.
I didn’t mind paying for nicer drinks like San Pellegrino and Schloer but there’s no point now. I buy Sainsbury’s high juice too as pp mentioned.
Sainsbury’s basic chopped tomatoes in tetra packs have gone and I can only buy ones with oregano or garlic. I like to add herbs and spices myself!

Like crisps?
Like beer?

NO I DO NOT WANT TO TRY SEABROOK CRISPS FLAVOURED BEER! (available in Prawn Cocktail and Cheese & Onion).

www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2021/04/northern-monk-and-seabrook-brew-the-worlds-first-crisp-flavoured-beer/

I'm amazed so many people are averse to artificial sweeteners! I must be lucky as I can't tell much difference in flavour. Personally I prefer a more liquid, less syrupy consistency too.

San Pelegrino and Fever Tree have sneakily added sweetener and their drinks are no longer nice

I hate sweetener, I hate the taste (esp the after taste) just soo unpleasant. I just drink tea now or water (or wine)

Lindt when they added palm oil to their chops

Nutella when the switched to palm oil

Basically everything that has aspartame or palm oil!

Fairy Liquid - smells horrible now, not at all like the original

the red velvet magnums that came out last year bought some and they taste of absolutely nothing very disapointed as i love magnums icelands versions of magnums are much tastier and half the price

Every supermarket version of magnums is better than an actual magnum! 😆

@bananapumpkin

I'm amazed so many people are averse to artificial sweeteners! I must be lucky as I can't tell much difference in flavour. Personally I prefer a more liquid, less syrupy consistency too.

I can taste every one of them and it seems quite common. They also cramp my gut and give me the shits. Again, not uncommon. They're vile and I refuse to buy a single product with that shite in it.

San Pelegrino and Fever Tree have sneakily added sweetener and their drinks are no longer nice
San Pelegrino have bought out sweetener free ranges again but they are a bit limited

Fever tree contains fructose (fruit syrup) and doesnt have that chemical taste, it has always had fructose in.

Lush. Over the last few years they have been slowly getting rid of all the fragrances I love and making everything citrus (i.e. cheap). Then they charge £3.50 for a bath bomb that leaves you smelling like toilet cleaner.