...but what the fuck have they done to WHAM! bars?!?

[AnguaUberwaldIronfoundersson]

I know I'm 35 and far too old for sweets but I'm pregnant and craving a sugar fix.

Popped into the local shop and I spied WHAM! bars. 5 for £1! My inner child started to salivate at the chewy sour goodness and I knew I needed to get some.

Sat here having a post lunch treat and fuck me are they shite now. They used to be hard and chewy to the point where you risked your teeth coming out, especially if they were loose. When you bit into them they'd pull apart leaving thin threads of sticky goodness at the edges. one side was sweet and the other side, with the sour crystals was sour enough to make your toes curl and your bum clench!

I'm sat here in disappointment eating a soft smushy stick of meh that's about as sour as a bloody polo mint.

My heart is literally broken.

Has anyone else revisited childhood sweet nostalgia for it to be cruelly destroyed in the first bite?

They hadn't been stored near a radiator or in a pocket had they?
If so the heat softens them so put them in the fridge for a couple of hours and they'll get harder.
But I'd agree that they don't taste as good as they did 15ish years ago when I first had them

At least you can still get WHAM bars... I miss Irn Bru bars

I have them every now and again and they're still how they used to be. Maybe you got some duds.

Nope, @user139328237 eaten straight from the shop and it's not warm at all.

Oh god. Irn Bru Bars Now they were delicious.

I fondly remember being about 9 and eating a 5p mint Highland Toffee bar and pulling out a loose tooth.

Refresher bars seem to be the same. I might get one on the way home from work to cheer myself up after today's disappointment.

I feel your pain! I got a tub of sweets for trick or treaters, and tried one of the leftover whams. I was hoping for the nostalgic experience you described, but alas NO! It was shite! So upset!

@E20mom where do you get yours from?

'SconNotScone I am glad it isn't just me but I feel you

Nope they are definitely not the same bars from my childhood 

I agree. Had a wham bar a couple of months ago and it was really soft. I presumed it was something to do with reducing sugar content or something.

Was really rubbish though, didn't taste the same at all!

Nope it's not just you! They've done the same with fruit salads and blackjacks - all really soft and gooey now. Yuk. Before they were tough enough to pull out a filling!

I agree op.they used ro last all afternoon when i was a child and were just 10p it was always a choice between wham bars or jawbreakers

Had one yesterday. utterly appalled. Nothing like the chewy semi opaque deliciousness of the 90's.

I'm going to shop and I'll buy one and come back to this 😀

Same as PP, tried one from the mix tub I got for Halloween. Spat it out into the bin; wasn't worth the calories.

palm oil ?

Our kids are growing up thinking this is how chocolate should be .

I get them from Wilkinsons. It's the only place I've seen them.

Highland Toffee bars! I'd completely forgotten those, they were a big treat when you'd gone in for penny sweets.

Aquaterof.co.uk they have retro sweets.

At the risk of sounding like an old fart... everything’s shit these days!

Waxy, greasy bendable choc, with no ‘taste’ except sweetness.

Everything’s become ‘samey’, homogenised and bland. No effort to make something different.

I have found my people!

I'd forgot fruit salads and Black Jacks. Anyone remember Booty Bags with the little silver stickers and the lollies and the fruit salad/black jack sweets?

Wham bars.... are those the big flat eye-wateringly sour ones in the lurid blue and pink wrapper? I used to love them. They used to give them away free sometimes on the cover of the Beano or the Dandy shows age

I had a sham bar ages ago and remember feeling it was really disappointing and a lot smaller than they used to be. The only ‘sweets’ that are the same are Rainbow Drops and tbh they don’t really count.

Ha ha, that was meant to be Wham bar not ‘sham bar’ although it’s probably more appropriate now 😂

@JovialNickname yes!!! the Beano was great for free sweets. Sometimes a Refresher lolly or even a Double Dip taped to the front page. Amazing. My parents used to ditch us in the back of the car with comics and sweets while they did the big shop. I imagine it's no longer legal for mags to give away sweets?

I lost two baby teeth on Wham bars. They were great. Sad if they've gone to shit.

Chewitts were one of my cravings,. Try those instead.