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Original poster

What food did you have as a child that really just doesn't taste the same anymore??

90 replies

serendippity · 27/12/2025 00:06

I used to love breakfast muffins, brown bread and butter and an amazing shop bought cottage pie in a round foil tin which was super buttery and tasty. Also mcdonalds chicken nuggets. None of the above tastes anything like I remember, no matter where I buy it from or how much I spend on it! Is there anything you used to have that you still think about that you can't find? Or thought you'd lost forever that you have managed to track down??

OP posts:
Sunshineandoranges · 27/12/2025 10:35

Walnut whip ...was thick chocolate with walnut inside and on the top. Easter eggs came in two halves with a thick chocolate rim where the two halves met.

Coffeeishot · 27/12/2025 10:36

Hohumdedum · 27/12/2025 09:30

Brussels. The ones this year tasted almost of nothing. I preferred them when they were less sweet.

We had good Brussels this year really tasted of Brussel sprouts, was just the morrisons 5p ones.

Andthatrightsoon · 27/12/2025 10:37

Mushrooms. Used to be revolting, now they're bloody delicious!

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General food
HangryBrickShark · 27/12/2025 11:15

Everything sweet tastes of sacharin and is awful. Being on WL injections just magnified it.

Madformaltesers · 27/12/2025 11:17

Sandwich spread, loved it as a child but when I recently tried it, it was really vinegary

rosydreams · 27/12/2025 11:19

Ziga · 27/12/2025 01:00

Ribena!

gosh i loved Ribena what a treat.Such a shame its a shadow of what it once was

PrincessHoneysuckle · 27/12/2025 11:20

Nevermind17 · 27/12/2025 01:18

Eggs. I remember the lovely taste of a boiled egg when I was a child. Now they taste of nothing. I was on holiday in France a few years ago and had an egg that actually tasted eggy, like they used to.

Try Burford browns

rosydreams · 27/12/2025 11:23

PrincessHoneysuckle · 27/12/2025 11:20

Try Burford browns

Show quote history

good quality eggs are so much better omg i love the fresh eggs when i visit my aunt. She had chickens once a upon a time and the eggs were amazing

Farm shops are better for eggs ,boiled eggs with a pinch of salt perfect food

senua · 27/12/2025 11:25

DH got given a tub of mini chocolates at Christmas (can't be bothered to go and look to see which ones, they are all interchangeably awful). He tried one and spat it out. We than checked the date and realised that somebody had re-gifted last year's tub.
Which put us in mind of tales of chocolate from our younger days. I remember stories of WW1 chocolate which was found to be still edible decades after it was issued. None of this going off in months malarkey.

Lampzade · 27/12/2025 11:28

Ribena
Lucozade
All chocolate - tastes like the horrible chocolate you buy in the US
Mcvities - Milk chocolate biscuits ( digestives ) - I used to love these biscuits as a child and spent many parties glued to the chair next to the said biscuits . Now they taste like plastic and don’t even crumble

discodoggy · 27/12/2025 12:15

Nevermind17 · 27/12/2025 01:18

Eggs. I remember the lovely taste of a boiled egg when I was a child. Now they taste of nothing. I was on holiday in France a few years ago and had an egg that actually tasted eggy, like they used to.

i find unless you spend money on eggs they taste of nothing and aren’t worth eating!

Seeline · 27/12/2025 12:15

Wagon wheels are revolting now!
And Milky Way bars.

Most fruit and veg - when I was small, everything was seasonal. New potatoes in the summer only and you had to wait for autumn for 'proper' potatoes to roast, jacket etc. And they tasted wonderful.
Strawberries for about 3 weeks over the summer that were juicy and sweet and full of flavour. Same with tomatoes.
Now everything is available all year round, kept in cold storage or flown thousands of miles, and you never get to eat anything at its best.

Heathotstuff · 27/12/2025 12:16

Black jacks - reduce sugar content

MoonWoman69 · 27/12/2025 12:46

Oh and I forgot to add Weetabix! They used to be lovely and crumbly, not now, they full of hard bits that hurt my fillings to bite down on them. Horrible hard things now!

Pricelessadvice · 27/12/2025 13:03

Grapes all used to taste like Candyfloss grapes, or so I remember.
It was only when I ate candy floss grapes that I realised that that was the taste of grapes from my childhood and most grapes just tasted like nothing nowadays.

Pricelessadvice · 27/12/2025 13:04

Animal biscuits. They have replaced that lovely vanilla white biscuit with a brown, tasteless monstrosity.
I am livid about that.

Outside9 · 27/12/2025 13:06

Everything and anything.

CatHairEveryWhereNow · 27/12/2025 13:10

Lucozade - well a lot of soft drinks.

Chocolate nearly all of it - dark chocolate doesn't taste like it now.

In our 20s we found steaming fresh potatoes meant they had flavour - which was nice now even that doesn't seem to work now.

Do agree about mushrooms hated them as a kid - love them now.

ShearLuxe · 27/12/2025 13:12

A pp mentioned Twiglets.
I used to love them when I was younger ( always around Christmas time) we got some the other day and they just don’t have that strong, punchy flavour anymore, plus they used to be longer and more knobbly.

Most chocolate tastes far too sweet now, just pure sugar and nothing else. Boost bars used to be chewy and crunchy at the same time. Now it just feels like mulch, no texture.

Quality street - it’s not just the crap wrappers they have now, the chocolate just isn’t the same. Only the penny toffees taste the same.

bananawaffle · 27/12/2025 13:17

So many things and as PP have said a lot of it is due to the sugar tax. Ribena is a massive one for me I used to love it but it’s horrible now, artificial tasting and watery. Same with five alive (god that was good in the 90s!) and most chocolate now just tastes of plastic. Also is it me or have jelly tots changed! They used to be small and sweet and now they’re bigger and have less flavour.

dudsville · 27/12/2025 13:20

Mum's cooking. She hasn't really cooked like she used to do for about 10 years now, which is absolutley fair, but I do miss her cooking.

firstofallimadelight · 27/12/2025 14:20

Pop
chicken
bacon
coco pops
chocolate
hot chocolate

Original poster
serendippity · 27/12/2025 19:16

Omg yes to chicken and mushroom pot noodles and also super noodles. I was only ever allowed them on walking holidays and I still remember the gooey salty comfort- absolutely not the same! I wish I hadn't started this thread now, it's making me nostalgic and desperate for this food back 😂 in other news though, and I don't want to excite anyone too much, I have just tried twigletts again after dissapointed ones last week. Thet claim to have a new recipe and I swear they are much more like the old ones used to be!

OP posts:
Original poster
serendippity · 27/12/2025 19:17

And porridge and pretty much all breakfast cerial seems to taste like cardboard now sadly 🙁

OP posts:
CandiedPrincess · 27/12/2025 19:19

bananawaffle · 27/12/2025 13:17

So many things and as PP have said a lot of it is due to the sugar tax. Ribena is a massive one for me I used to love it but it’s horrible now, artificial tasting and watery. Same with five alive (god that was good in the 90s!) and most chocolate now just tastes of plastic. Also is it me or have jelly tots changed! They used to be small and sweet and now they’re bigger and have less flavour.

Jelly Tots is the worst crime. They were sooooo good but you are right, they've changed so much.