...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?

See, I liked the tangy, chewy goodness of the Wham and Irn Bru bars.

Chewits are like the missionary position of chewy sweets.

THEY STOPPED IRN BRU BARS???

I had a Wham basle yesterday and still have another one next to me. I took one bite and threw the rest out - they are now sticks of sweet, soft mush and nothing like the original. Absolutely disgusting!

Loved wham bars, they were way bigger with more 'bits' on them when I was a kid. Anyone remember the green wham with black bits? I'm still very partial to love hearts, they still seem to be the same.

My partner was gutted recently by wham bars... not as good as they used to be for sure.

They made Curly Wurlys all soft as well. And now you can’t suck the sherbet from a Sherbet Fountain through the liquorice- it’s just a solid liquorice stick. And it’s in a plastic tube!

Sit down op I have bad news... highland toffee bars are also soft and shit now too. I'm not pregnant but I was pms and may have cried last month

American Hard Gums used to be well... hard and beautiful. Alas no more!

Wham bars have definitely gone down hill. I'm 26 and remember them being sour and super stretchy and chewy.
Now there's no flavour and no chew to it.
A refresher bar cracked and pulled out in of my baby teeth too!

@Loyaultemelie NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Why would the confectionery companies do this to us?

Our children will never know the joy of wrenching their teeth out with a chewy toffee bar

I remember the green ones with the black bits. The bits were crunchy and super sour. I popped one in the fridge to see if that helped but it was still lack lustre

This is why the nation is getting fatter, years ago a chocolate bar or sweets actually satisfied the craving, they were real flavours, real textures, I’m convinced the reason we are eating more crap is because the stuff manufacturers are producing is flavourless, full of inferior ingredients such as palm oil etc and so because we are not getting the ‘hit’ we eat more to try and satisfy the craving, well that’s my theory anyway but I really think it’s part of the problem, poor quality products.

Desperate dan bars where my favourite 😍

Back when you could take 20p shop come back with a feast

Sour chewits were one of my favs. Along with highland toffee bars. I loved the ones with chocolate on. I actually have a bookers card...im going to investigate the sweet aisle!

I agree @BettyBooJustDoinTheDoo I’d kill for a bar of old fashioned Whole Nut. I’d literally pay a fortune to savour that taste again. Chocolate has been ruined I tell ya!

Sorry to break the news, I think it's because they're now vegan! Which is great for me because I can actually eat them. But I remember how chewy they used to be and was disappointed in how they're mushy now!

I had a Wham bar about 18 months ago and haven’t touched them since because it was unrecognisable. Crappy soft texture, flavour was completely different. Everything that makes Wham Bars Wham Bars was gone.

Don’t start me on Jelly Tots - they have been completely ruined too.

They took out the E numbers. I was thinner when there were E numbers and sugar in food.

So some kid probably went blind from chemicals but why should we all suffer?

Fruit gums have gone the same way too. They could do some real damage.

Sigh. The good old days.

Ha! Reading my pregnant rant is hilarious.

I'd still kill for a proper old tasting bar if Whole Nut

Remember Brazil nut toffee? they had it in Asda the other day, happy days

Just saw this thread as was googling "what's fucking happened to my wham bar" ... I'm pregnant with my 3rd and can't get enough of sour sweets just now. Was flipping gutted when I opened my wham bars, thought it had gone off- surely not, I just bought it! It was pale pink, wishy washy and the first disappointing bite melted in my mouth. Tastes like plastic. WTF!

I just got an advert on Facebook for Swizzles sweets including refresher bars. 👀

try putting curly wurly in the freezer then eating it frozen much nicer

McCowan's (who made the original wham/highland toffee/irn bru bars) went through a few rounds of insolvency in the 90s/00s and sort of limped on for a while but were bought out. Not sure if there's a direct link between the changes and the move but the magical thinking bit of me wonders...