To think Cadburys is vile.

[Freddo75]

The chocolate is gross but the family totally sold out on all their principles. Disgusting.

Wouldn't buy that shite if you paid me.

@Caswallonthefox
If it was so awesome, why are they forever trying to seel it so cheap?

Profit my friend, it's all about profit.

Reduce size + use cheap(er) ingredients + keep the price = more profit.

Without wanting to ask a rude question, how old are you?

I'm in my mid-40s and I can't truly remember the exact point when it changed. I think the Kraft/Mondelez debacle drove quality down much further and quickly, but iirc, it had already started to deteriorate in quality long before that.

Then again, I'm aware of nostalgia's rose-tinted ability to play tricks on you - and that taste buds also deteriorate and reduce as you get older, so that could play a part as well. If only there was a way that we could defy physics and get a child of today to compare their enjoyment of CDM now with their enjoyment of it 30 years ago!!

It's the best brand imo. Don't get the hype about Tony Chocolonely or any of the others.

The little buttons used to taste like 'proper' Dairy Milk, ditto the giant buttons, little bars, Flakes and until a few Easter's ago, the shells of the Dairy Milk Easter eggs.

However, now the Easter eggs shells are no longer shiny, a sign that the chocolate no longer tastes as it should. Little buttons have been withdrawn, and the only products that taste as they should are giant buttons, flakes and little bars, but only if kept in the freezer.

At Easter, they make these little Dairy Milk eggs, I think there are 8 in a bag. When they first launched, they were solid Dairy Milk and so delicious. Now, it's 1mm shell made of Dairy Milk, filled with the cheap, greasy chocolate they use inside min eggs. Just vile.

YANBU. It used to be gorgeous and now it is just sugar and grease.

But the price has reduced a lot in real terms. I think they've set the price benchmark too low, even without factoring in shrinkflation and reduced quality, meaning that they couldn't make a quality product for that price, even if they wanted to.

Before the CoL set in, supermarkets routinely sold 4-packs of Cadbury chocolate bars for £1, which is ridiculously low. Unless you impulse-bought one at the checkouts, when it would be 70p for a single one!

I'm not saying they ever really were top premium products, or that they should be out of the reach of the typical person, but if they'd kept them at, say, £2.50 or £3 for a pack of four - so they were still a bit of a treat and not something to idly grab and scoff without thinking about it - they could have retained the quality ingredients (assuming they'd been so-minded to do) and there would have been no need for 6,745,219 MN threads about how gross it is now compared with the old days.

I think Poundland have now (eventually) learned the lesson, whereby it's great to be able to offer products at a good price, but if you're working down to a sometimes artificially-low set price-point, nobody is going to be happy. I often bought things from PL for £1 and found myself wishing they'd just made the same product but with better grade materials and charged a bit more for it: I'd much rather pay £3 for something that would last years than £1 for a seriously inferior version of the exact same thing that would fall to pieces before a month had passed.

Even what is now Hotel Chocolat started to deteriorate in quality long before the inevitable effects of the imminent takeover by Mars.

We used to be members of their Chocolate Tasting Club, probably getting on for 20 years ago, and what started out as a great taste extravaganza and a huge treat every month became something significantly less special and exciting before too long. And iirc, it was something like about £20 per box!

I work for a company that sells products made by Mondekez, among many other things. They seem to have an unlimited marketing budget, and we have at least one or other Cadbury's product on offer all the time.

I have just come back from the Co-op, and was looking for some advent cakendars. There were loads of Cadburys ones. The other brand had almost sold out. I wonder if people are voting with their feet now?

Weird thing to feel so strongly about.

I've just eaten a dairy milk and loved it. Yabu

I work for a company that sells products made by Mondekez, among many other things. They seem to have an unlimited marketing budget, and we have at least one or other Cadbury's product on offer all the time.

Yes - it reminds me of the old joke about the US v Russian rowing teams. The Americans were permanently baffled as to why none of their tactics ever helped them to win more races, until they finally realised that, whilst the Russians would add another rower to achieve a faster time, they would add another cox!

The stronger your product, the less you eventually have to spend on marketing it, as your extremely happy customers will rave about it to all their friends, at no cost to you!

There was a box of Heroes at work yesterday, I had a Creme Egg one, it was totally disgusting. Tasted of grease

I think a lot of people haven't factored in the loss of taste that comes with age. It's never going to taste like it did to you several decades ago.

YANBU

Used to be lovely, I'm the wrong side of 45 so remember the old stuff, it tastes like fatty sugar solidified now to me but I guess if you've never known any different it might taste alright.

It behaves differently though. Easter eggs just bend, there's no hardness, or snap to it. It doesn't melt properly, just sort of gloops and mushes.

My range of senses are telling me that Aldi's chocolate is behaving like chocolate should, but then it's not bulked with palm oil like Cadbury's and their peers.

At early 40s, I can no longer hear the pitch of cat/ teenage deterents, but the rest of my senses are still pretty good, and no other foods taste fundamentally wrong unless they've been tampered with e.g. adding sweetners or palm oil. I still taste the difference between brands like Coca Cola and Pepsi.

Used to be my favourite.

It's now greasy and has an odd, lumpy texture it never used to have before. These days it would be last on my list of chocolate brands to buy.

Love it😋

Christ, are we meant to have lost our sense of taste and smell at 40 😆

This seems to happen with all of them – they all slowly drift downmarket.

Remember when Thorntons was the go to for occasion chocolate?!

It’s chocolate flavoured vegetable fat rather than chocolate as such.

It’s an interesting history and a big part of the company was their ethics and relationship with the community. They’ve left an indelible legacy in Birmingham, and I think people in the UK generally have a strong attachment to the brand. I was disappointed when US companies took over.

Edit to remove typo

I used to love chocolate, but I don’t really eat it much anymore because none of it tastes good. I still like Cadburys Whole nut but dislike the rest. I used to love Roses at Christmas, but the last time I bought them they were horrible and sickly, so haven’t bought them for many years now. I liked the old style 1980s/90s Roses. I also used to love mini eggs and would start buying them as soon as shops started stocking them, but I haven’t bought them for a few years either because they don’t taste the same.

Hear, hear! 💪

I am not a chocolate snob by any means, I have already said before that for me, dark chocolate is only good for making cakes/ganache. Milk all the way.

BUT… even Milka, which used to be amazing, creamy and kind of what Lindt tastes like, and now it’s just beyond recognition. Again, lots of “fancy” flavours but underneath it all it’s all shit. It used to be made by Suchard but am not sure who owns it now.

I grew up in Croatia. Same goes with little chocolates that have a sticker in a packet (to stick into the album about animals). Little chocolates used to taste like chocolate. Now, when my brother sends me some over here, I throw away the chocolate and keep the animal stickers. It just doesn’t taste of anything. Just generic sugar.

I find the same with mass produced chocolate cakes - they taste of nothing, just gloopy sweetness. Not a hint of chocolate taste.

Ooh, Thornton's used to be so delicious - such a special treat. As you say, sadly just homogenised, these days.

I think companies often work on the quality and exclusivity for so long, enough to get it firmly into people's heads that the brand stands for excellence, and then seek to trade on that perception for decades afterwards, long after dumping what made it special in the first place.

BUT… even Milka, which used to be amazing, creamy and kind of what Lindt tastes like, and now it’s just beyond recognition. Again, lots of “fancy” flavours but underneath it all it’s all shit. It used to be made by Suchard but am not sure who owns it now.

Now owned by Mondelez - the same as Cadbury's. Milka used to be so delicious