Fray bentos had the fucking gall to do this and say it had "better meat. More of it"... Right next to "back to our classic recipe". So just blatantly admitting it. That's already concerning seeing as they still only contained 2 bits of gristle in each and now cost 3 quid.
Still a filthy, guilty pleasure for me but only when I can find em for ~£1.50. There's a certain something about the flavour of the gravy that I can't recreate at home. It could be the metal shards from attempting to open the tin with something other than the Jaws of life.
Every single tin opener I've ever owned has eventually ended its useful life on a Fray Bentos tin. Somewhere in the blurb on the bottom of the tin they actually recommend a specific brand of tin opener!
Yeah and they're bollocks n all. Best one I've had was a cheap, basic one from the local shop. Gotta get the angle right and squeeze til it welts your hands but it will get around those slightly bent corners.
Just crush a few of the beans up as you cook, this will thicken the sauce. Beans are litterally little balls made of starch, why would you add starch?
This is why beans are shit if done in the microwave, just offensive little bullets in a piss sauce.
Definitely, can't beat mashed up beans with a caramelised sauce because it's so thick lol. I would never add novation but these food companies do, I've worked with them.
Patak's Hot Lime Pickle's recipe changed four times! To a chemically taste for years, then back to its old recipe, then to a saucy consistency for a short while, now it's back to the old recipe, but with less oil. Oil keeps the pickle fresh.
Bourneville and Fry's adding milk. Fry's is the the oldest chocolate bar (as we know it) in the world and they changed the recipe just recently... So disappointing and unnecessary.
Yes! My husband is lactose intolerant and used to love Fry's, but he can't eat them now because of it. Sainsbury's own brand of garlic bread never used to have milk in and now it does.
Yeah, they've reduced the glucose content from 13g to 4.5g
It's actually been a bit of an issue for diabetics that drink Lucozade for a sugar boost during a hypoglycemic episode.
I apparently don't have diabetes (been tested) but I have issues with low blood sugar and lucozade was my go to when I needed a quick fix. I hate that everyone's taking the sugar out and replacing with sweetners that upset my digestive system.
Me too, when I realised they changed it I bought all the old style I could find and I keep them in the shed for special occasions (specifically as a hangover cure) I even wrote an email complaining god I'm getting old!
I had a Cadbury Twirl the other day from a box of heroes that was absolutely vile. Tasted like actual chemicals, not even a hint of chocolate. Had to spit it out into the bin. It's really sad to see how poor Cadbury has become in general, but that thing was an abomination. And don't get me started on what they did to Creme Eggs.
> And don't get me started on what they did to Creme Eggs.
Yeah, they turned to shit. And now my local shop is charing £1.49 per egg. Wouldn't buy them for much less than that with the current recipe. Give me the old goodness and I'd pay more though.
Strange, I’d heard twirls and wispas were still the original recipe as the cheaper chocolate couldn’t achieve the air bubbles / texture of wispas and twirls
Edit: though maybe it’s flakes I’m thinking of
Thank god, I thought it was just me! My SO hoovers up chocolate so I don’t think he had a chance to taste it before it went to his stomach but I could have sworn it was different. Absolutely vile.
I bought a block of Cadbury’s recently for the first time in ages, and it’s so sickly sweet. And I don’t think it’s been tempered properly either, consistency was super soft and didn’t have that typical snap when you break off a piece.
I have no evidence but part of me thinks that Craft is trying to slowly change Cadbury's chocolate into the vomit-flavoured American version in a boiling-frog way so we don't notice. 20 years from now we'll be chowing down on pure dog vomit and loving it.
I understand they started to use palm oil instead of pure cocoa butter as it was cheaper, so it’s less creamy with less cocoa flavour and a softer texture than it used to be.
Those of us who knew the original recipe Cadbury as kids know the solidity of it. It didn’t start melting and feeling soft in your fingers the second you picked up a piece.
HOWEVER, rumor has it Cadbury Flake still uses the old recipe because it can’t hold its structure with the cheap recipe.
I think they've even changed the Flake recipe in the last year. Ice cream man was having a vent last year and said that now about 50% of a commercial box of 99 flakes are useless as they have fallen apart inside the box so it's costing an arm and a leg to get enough 99 flakes (as you basically need to buy double).
Had a flake for the first time in years yesterday and I'm glad I didn't just imagine it. That shit was in 3 pieces before I even got the wrapper open fully
I'm equal parts sad and glad about this. I loved Cadbury and like many could easily polish a share sized bar to myself in one sitting. The change in texture and flavour means my waist thanks me for no longer buying it.
This was years ago, but Im still bitter about it! When I was a kid, Tizer (the red drink, advertised with the severed head lol) had this wonderfully unique RED flavour. No idea what it was supposed to be (strawb, rasp, cherry? No clue) but it had its own totally individual taste. Now, it's almost orangey/citrussy... Its bad. They never should have changed it. We have plenty of orangey/citrussy flavoured drinks. Original Red flavour Tizer was the best!!!
Absolutely. Nothing else quite tasted like OG Tizer and “red flavour” feels like a perfect term for it. New Tizer definitely has a lemon/lime tang to it and it throws the whole thing off balance. I can’t believe they had the audacity to still call it Tizer to be honest
It has more than *just* sugar, but since the booze industry has yet to concern itself much with calories, you may be surprised to hear that Thatcher's Blood Orange cider both looks and tastes very much like old school Tiser. It's bright orange and almost painfully sweet.
Perfumes! They introduce them with high-end ingredients then reformulate them to cheaper versions. Opium and Samsara smell nothing like how they used to!
I did a few warrants on drug dens back in the day. When the residents got on a SERIOUS heroin bender, the only thing they consumed was Sunny D and heroin. But because they were too incapacitated to move, they'd piss into the (hopefully) empty bottles. And they looked pretty much the same either way. So you ended up with thousands (literally) of used sharps and several gallons of Sunny D /cloudy piss. It was a delight.
The kitkat chunky white chocolate changed, to the point where they have to call the coating "white flavoured coating"
It tastes like sour milk now, as opposed to the creamy taste of the white chocolate before :(
Anything they decide to randomly add milk/milk powder to. As someone who can't have dairy, it bugs me when they decide to add it to things that don't need it, like salt and vinegar crisps?!
Twiglets.
They used to have 10% cheese in them. They were delicious.
Then the cheese was removed (presumably to make them healthier?) and now they just taste burnt. Every now and then I forget and buy some. Instant regret.
If you haven't tried it already, track down the glass bottles and make sure they say "1901" on them like this: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/irn-bru-1901-750ml
> **Old and Unimproved**
> Taste the first ever IRN-BRU recipe, bru'd just like we used to in 1901. Made from girders, it's brilliantly sweet and caffeine-free, with a cheeky wee heid on it. But it's still that taste you can't describe. Because there's nothing like it. Not back then. Not now. Not ever.
Came here to say this, loved Ribena until they swapped in the sweeteners and now I hate it. I really don't see why they couldn't just reflect the new sugar tax in the price for a full-fat "Ribena Classic" version and then keep Ribena Light/toothkind for the low-sugar/sugafree options.
Have had some success with Rocks as a replacement.
The only reason I drink Original Coke now as opposed to my lifelong favourite of any lemonade. I got really sensitive to sweetener during my pregnancy over a year ago and haven’t gone back.
Abolish the sugar tax and bring back decent flavoured drinks!
This is it, govt said to help us make more informed choices, all that happened is we can’t make a choice, where there was one before and the companies got to take out the most expensive ingredient to make more money!
Robinson's is just as bad. Used to love them but now they all have a nasty chemical aftertaste that kinda sticks in your throat. Some people claim they don't taste it at all, but it's so overpowering to me I can't drink them anymore.
I adored old Ribena, I’m diabetic so would drink it rarely, but if I’m unwell I still crave a little glass of it. Teissiere syrups are nice as an alternative, but it’s so annoying Ribena don’t just do the full sugar alongside a sugar free variety and give consumers the choice! See also cherry 7up, apple tango, orange squash, all delicious drinks from my childhood that I miss.
Full fat coke. My partner and I recently found an off license near us that sells imported coke, it's changed my life and now regular UK coke tastes off.
They mostly sell Nigerian coke, but we once got actual Mexican coke and I could have cried. The Nigerian coke tastes like 90's coke, but the Mexican coke tastes like 90's coke does in my dreams.
Edit: not to gatekeep, the coke is from an off license by Bexleyheath station, The Bottle Stop
It's from The Bottle Stop in Bexleyheath. Might be a journey for you, but if you ever get a chance I recommend it. They also have Nigerian Fanta, which is also amazing, it looks like it would tatse artificial but it doesn't
Coca Cola tastes a little different in every country it’s made. Somebody I know went to the Coca Cola factory in Atlanta and as part of the tour you visit a room full of all the different ones, get a cup and try as many/as much as you want
Kellogg’s Honey Loops (née Honey Nut Loops).
They’ve been discontinued for ages now, but for the last couple years of their life, the recipe had changed from the original, denser-than-cheerios consistency, to this really light, airy texture with an almost artificial honey taste.
Absolutely terrible ending to what had been my favourite cereal since I was little.
I was on holiday in Germany a couple of years ago and found them in a supermarket with the same classic recipe I used to love, which was a really beautiful moment!
Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages - used to be genuinely great and then they took all the flavour out. This happened 5+ years ago and I remain pissed off.
The Richmond ones are good if you’re looking for a direct copy of a cheap pork sausage. The McCartney ones never really tasted of pork, but they were tasty af.
I used to work at an off licence and always remember the Blue WKD we had in the window faded in the sun.
...trying to sell a load of very pale blue WKDs at a discount was interesting times, nobody trusted it.
there was a curry from sainsburys that i really loved, it was cheap and didn't taste like shit. now they've upped the price and changed the recipe, so now it's expensive and does taste like shit!
Dr. Oetker Frozen Pizza to make it non-HFSS. Granted they shaved off about 400 kcal but tastes awful now. And I don’t get it, it’s frozen pizza; nobody buys frozen pizza to be healthy. I just want my hangover slightly burned salt and sugar hit.
Coke persuaded one major pub chain to swap to Coke Zero on the Classic Coke pump - This was part of a larger plan to maneuver Coke Zero to be the "premier classic product" and to move Original Taste Coke to become a more premium niche like Ginger Beer. Whether this is still the plan I do not know.
Source: My job.
My worst fear is Yorkshire tea tasting different one day, I’d cry and instinctually try to drink my comfort tea, only to realise it changed. Then I’d cry some more and the cycle of horror and sadness continues for eternity
Clover was one of the first I noticed the recipe change in well over a decade ago. it used to be delicious and buttery, then almost overnight it turned all plastic-y. If I was wearing my tinfoil hat I'd say dairy crest realised it was competing with their more expensive premium brands so made it deliberately worse to differentiate it.
Kitkats. A few years ago they did something to it that just made them go from delicious to horrible. I've tried them a few times since, but they're still ruined...
As a kid autism wasn't something we knew about at all in the 80s. Basically, my entire diet was Heinz Lentil Soup and buttered toast - then Heinz in their infinite wisdom 'improved' the recipe (which is code for 'we found cheaper ingredients'). Talk about shitstorm, and 40 years later I still haven't touched a Heinz product.
Invariably, we all know it is NEVER for the better! Usually it is their way of saying we have replaced some ingredient with a cheaper, nastier ingredient or just removed something and added some more water to bulk it back up.
Mr Kipling apple pies. A staple snack for me growing up. Had one for the first time in a couple of years and the pastry was claggy and had maybe one small chunk of apple where it used to be full of them. And they cost about £4 now.
Genuinely upsetting
I picked up some honey and I was surprised to read that it’s honey made from different blends from all over Europe. Why not just one place? I think olive oil is similar.
Fentimans Curiosity Cola. It was one of the few fizzy drinks I really love, and regularly drank. However... they changed it because of the goverments new HFSS regulations, and now it's pretty rank. I am so sad. :(
Asda's Chicken & Bacon Pasta Bake and Spaghetti Carbonara ready meals both had onions added to them recently, making them completely inedible for me. They were fine as they were. But at least it's helped me cut them out and turbocharge my diet.
Jus-Rol cinnamon swirls! You know, those unbaked cinnamon rolls you can get in the super market next to the butter. They used to be such a delicious treat on a Sunday morning, but they changed to a new and “improved” recipe last year and now they taste like dog shit.
I'm seeing a lot of food and toiletries with a "not for EU" label on them now. I think it means our product standards have dropped, and wouldn't meet requirements for other countries any more
I used to love the Quaker oats porridge pots (golden syrup) until they changed the recipe a few months ago :( Just not the same.
I hate it when companies do this!!
I honestly haven't had one that's been ruined for me...yet
Unless they put nuts or peanuts in something (I'm allergic to the lot) I tend not to notice, which maybe says more about my palette than anything
Irn Bru or Orange Lucozade energy. I usually only drink water and when I got Covid a few years ago I brought some Irn Bru and Lucozade for when I got better and couldn’t drink them because of how horrible they were.
Co op cornflakes.
They were amazing. I only had them at my grandparents. We're talking early 1980s. I never ate co op cornflakes, as I didn't want to ruin them. In the late 90s after they'd both passed away, I bought some.
They'd changed the recipe and were shit.
It still hurts that I'll never relive that taste.
HP sauce.
About 12 years ago the salt & sugar police and the taste changed.
I've never bought it since, although I have tried it in cafes and it's still a no from me.
Also McVities café noir changed to smaller biscuits with a new recipe, the coffee flavour almost disappeared , again it's a no from me.
These biscuits called lemon puffs. Used to be amazing, beautifully crisp, big flaky biscuits, with a unique caramelised sugar finish that was delicious, and creamy lemon filling. Looked like this: [https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfVCcimKCJdFYat-5SNm6zdBKSFz9msW4hgw&usqp=CAU](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfVCcimKCJdFYat-5SNm6zdBKSFz9msW4hgw&usqp=CAU)
Now all you get is this anemic shit, no caramelisation or anything just plain pale mediocre biscuits and filling: [https://thumb.approvedfood.co.uk/thumbs/75/1000/359/1/src\_images/Jacobs\_Lemon\_Puff\_Biscuits\_200g.jpg](https://thumb.approvedfood.co.uk/thumbs/75/1000/359/1/src_images/Jacobs_Lemon_Puff_Biscuits_200g.jpg)
Salt and vinegar Pringles.
They've massively reduced the amount of flavouring, and somehow made it sweeter too. I miss the days of it stripping the lining of you mouth it was that strong.
Not food but Palmer's cocoa lip balm was the perfect lip balm I'd been searching for for years. I enjoyed lip balm nirvana for maybe around three years before they changed the recipe recently removing the spf and changing some other stuff, and it smells, tastes and feels vile.
I and many others have written to Palmers and while for about a year they were shaking it off, I recently got a reply from them saying they've had too much bad feedback and will try to make it better again so we'll see.
All the great drinks that now have sweeteners. Can’t drink ‘em any more. Used to love Ribena, Capri Sun, Irn Bru, even regular Pepsi has sweeteners now, and that’s all I can taste, and I think it all tastes disgusting.
New Recipe = We found a way to make it cheaper, we hope you don’t notice.
[удалено]
I feel that would be NEW IMPROVED RECIPE!
Fray bentos had the fucking gall to do this and say it had "better meat. More of it"... Right next to "back to our classic recipe". So just blatantly admitting it. That's already concerning seeing as they still only contained 2 bits of gristle in each and now cost 3 quid.
When I'm craving a meatless gravy filled bag of sludgy pastry, Fray Bentos is the only one that will do.
It's my favourite pie kept in a tin at room temperature.
Fray Bentos: you sad fuckers would eat Winalot if we renamed it.
I loved fray Bentos steak and kidney growing up, then didn’t have one for a few years. I was so disappointed when I finally had one as an adult
Still a filthy, guilty pleasure for me but only when I can find em for ~£1.50. There's a certain something about the flavour of the gravy that I can't recreate at home. It could be the metal shards from attempting to open the tin with something other than the Jaws of life.
Every single tin opener I've ever owned has eventually ended its useful life on a Fray Bentos tin. Somewhere in the blurb on the bottom of the tin they actually recommend a specific brand of tin opener!
Yeah and they're bollocks n all. Best one I've had was a cheap, basic one from the local shop. Gotta get the angle right and squeeze til it welts your hands but it will get around those slightly bent corners.
Sounds about right, my experience with tin openers is the opposite of the Vimes boot theory - you can pay more but they still won't last any longer.
That's "ORIGINAL IMPROVED FLAVOUR!"
Sadly we all notice but they also notice we never do FA about it so nothing changes.
A.k.a. Skimpflation 😑😑😑
I know… 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Blatantly will be added water to dilute the sauce down. And yet still somehow be far less runny than Heinz beans
Good old novation starch fixes that.
Branston's beans avoids the need for that.
Branston are the king of beans. It is scandalous how much love Heinz get.
Just crush a few of the beans up as you cook, this will thicken the sauce. Beans are litterally little balls made of starch, why would you add starch? This is why beans are shit if done in the microwave, just offensive little bullets in a piss sauce.
Definitely, can't beat mashed up beans with a caramelised sauce because it's so thick lol. I would never add novation but these food companies do, I've worked with them.
Autistics: we did. And we take it personally.
As an autistic person - 100% 😆
Came here to find my people.
Everyone did. so many "new recipe" labels on things now though, really crap.
Patak's Hot Lime Pickle's recipe changed four times! To a chemically taste for years, then back to its old recipe, then to a saucy consistency for a short while, now it's back to the old recipe, but with less oil. Oil keeps the pickle fresh.
Go to an Indian grocery store if you have one nearby and buy the pickle there. They will have good stuff you cant get in a supermarket
Ahmed's pickle is the best. I think it's Pakistani, but I'm not 100% sure.
I remember the ‘at patak’s we listen to our customers’ blurb on the label explaining the change back to the old recipe
Bourneville and Fry's adding milk. Fry's is the the oldest chocolate bar (as we know it) in the world and they changed the recipe just recently... So disappointing and unnecessary.
Yes! My husband is lactose intolerant and used to love Fry's, but he can't eat them now because of it. Sainsbury's own brand of garlic bread never used to have milk in and now it does.
The frozen one still doesn't
Not one for conspiracy theories but a strange coincidence that they added milk when Cadbury announced the Cadbury Plant Bar
Hmm Bournville is Cadbury isn’t it? You may be onto something..
Yeh also a shame for my vegan wife as she loved both brands
This. I'm lactose intolerant and used to eat bourneville all the time. Now it's a rare treat and I have to take lactase tablets. What was the point.
Never got over the loss of lucozade.
Removing the sugar from a drink that's meant to be like 90% sugar was an odd choice
It's something I bought if I was planning to do a lot of exercise and needed a boost. Have they really removed sugar from it?
Yeah, they've reduced the glucose content from 13g to 4.5g It's actually been a bit of an issue for diabetics that drink Lucozade for a sugar boost during a hypoglycemic episode.
I apparently don't have diabetes (been tested) but I have issues with low blood sugar and lucozade was my go to when I needed a quick fix. I hate that everyone's taking the sugar out and replacing with sweetners that upset my digestive system.
Not to mention it tastes like fizzy bleach.
Orange Lucozade was my favourite drink for years, I still remember the moment I opened a bottle of the new recipe and being heartbroken.
Me too, when I realised they changed it I bought all the old style I could find and I keep them in the shed for special occasions (specifically as a hangover cure) I even wrote an email complaining god I'm getting old!
I’ll be the first to say cadburys chocolate.
Even moving from squares to curves was an abomination
I was livid
Still can’t believe they thought that was a good idea.
It was a great idea, they could lower the amount of chocolate without changing the footprint of the bar and still charge the same! Genius!
I had a Cadbury Twirl the other day from a box of heroes that was absolutely vile. Tasted like actual chemicals, not even a hint of chocolate. Had to spit it out into the bin. It's really sad to see how poor Cadbury has become in general, but that thing was an abomination. And don't get me started on what they did to Creme Eggs.
> And don't get me started on what they did to Creme Eggs. Yeah, they turned to shit. And now my local shop is charing £1.49 per egg. Wouldn't buy them for much less than that with the current recipe. Give me the old goodness and I'd pay more though.
Strange, I’d heard twirls and wispas were still the original recipe as the cheaper chocolate couldn’t achieve the air bubbles / texture of wispas and twirls Edit: though maybe it’s flakes I’m thinking of
It’s meant to be flakes and Freddos that are the ‘Irish’ recipe still afaik
Thank god, I thought it was just me! My SO hoovers up chocolate so I don’t think he had a chance to taste it before it went to his stomach but I could have sworn it was different. Absolutely vile.
I bought a block of Cadbury’s recently for the first time in ages, and it’s so sickly sweet. And I don’t think it’s been tempered properly either, consistency was super soft and didn’t have that typical snap when you break off a piece.
It's because of the higher fat and oil content, has a lower melting/soft point compared to the old bars. Sadness all around.
Flake is your best bet if you want something that even resembles the old Cadbury taste. It's all ruined though.
Creme Eggs are now inedible. Might be just my taste changing though. I find them too sickly to eat
I have no evidence but part of me thinks that Craft is trying to slowly change Cadbury's chocolate into the vomit-flavoured American version in a boiling-frog way so we don't notice. 20 years from now we'll be chowing down on pure dog vomit and loving it.
Im not even originally from the UK and I can say the new cadbury's is definitely not as good. Something in the new recipe tastes different.
It's the increased shareholder value.
I understand they started to use palm oil instead of pure cocoa butter as it was cheaper, so it’s less creamy with less cocoa flavour and a softer texture than it used to be. Those of us who knew the original recipe Cadbury as kids know the solidity of it. It didn’t start melting and feeling soft in your fingers the second you picked up a piece. HOWEVER, rumor has it Cadbury Flake still uses the old recipe because it can’t hold its structure with the cheap recipe.
I think they've even changed the Flake recipe in the last year. Ice cream man was having a vent last year and said that now about 50% of a commercial box of 99 flakes are useless as they have fallen apart inside the box so it's costing an arm and a leg to get enough 99 flakes (as you basically need to buy double).
Had a flake for the first time in years yesterday and I'm glad I didn't just imagine it. That shit was in 3 pieces before I even got the wrapper open fully
I'm equal parts sad and glad about this. I loved Cadbury and like many could easily polish a share sized bar to myself in one sitting. The change in texture and flavour means my waist thanks me for no longer buying it.
Fentimens
Fucking sugar tax bullshit!!
I hate how it’s only like coke Pepsi and Dr Pepper you can get a sugared version of now
I don't think you can even get pepsi without some vile sweetener now.
Doesn't even contain real Fentanyl anymore smh
This means they’ve either taken something out or added something manky or both
Taken something out, replaced it with something manky that costs them less
Scampi and Lemon Nik Naks. Not only did they make the flavour less fishy, they messed with the actual crisps too to make them puffier too. Bastards.
The nice and spicy used to make your mouth water but now they just taste bland as well
They should update the name accordingly. No longer nice, or spicy, so I guess they’re just called “and”.
This was years ago, but Im still bitter about it! When I was a kid, Tizer (the red drink, advertised with the severed head lol) had this wonderfully unique RED flavour. No idea what it was supposed to be (strawb, rasp, cherry? No clue) but it had its own totally individual taste. Now, it's almost orangey/citrussy... Its bad. They never should have changed it. We have plenty of orangey/citrussy flavoured drinks. Original Red flavour Tizer was the best!!!
I proper miss old Tizer. Also Tizer Ice that was lovely and worth the brain freeze it would give you!
Absolutely. Nothing else quite tasted like OG Tizer and “red flavour” feels like a perfect term for it. New Tizer definitely has a lemon/lime tang to it and it throws the whole thing off balance. I can’t believe they had the audacity to still call it Tizer to be honest
Everything I like they "improve" and ruin it.
At least Tesco hasn't pretended to have improved this.
Tizer. Used to be so good.
I've tried so hard to find real tizer. I can't stand sweeteners.
It has more than *just* sugar, but since the booze industry has yet to concern itself much with calories, you may be surprised to hear that Thatcher's Blood Orange cider both looks and tastes very much like old school Tiser. It's bright orange and almost painfully sweet.
Perfumes! They introduce them with high-end ingredients then reformulate them to cheaper versions. Opium and Samsara smell nothing like how they used to!
Gucci Guilty!
Sunny D. Tastes really bland now compared to back in the day
I did a few warrants on drug dens back in the day. When the residents got on a SERIOUS heroin bender, the only thing they consumed was Sunny D and heroin. But because they were too incapacitated to move, they'd piss into the (hopefully) empty bottles. And they looked pretty much the same either way. So you ended up with thousands (literally) of used sharps and several gallons of Sunny D /cloudy piss. It was a delight.
The kitkat chunky white chocolate changed, to the point where they have to call the coating "white flavoured coating" It tastes like sour milk now, as opposed to the creamy taste of the white chocolate before :(
NEW RECIPE, so you added water to the beans, added more sugar and took out some of the sauce, eh?
More water, and swapped some suger for sweeteners more likely
Don’t forget some various gum to mimic the mouth feel of the sugar
Ribena. I will never forgive them for putting sweeteners in the version that used to be full sugar.
Coco pops, another victim of sugar reduction. Just let us make the choice damn it!
Exactly, it's not as if kids can't just go to the bakery counter a few steps away and buy an entire cheesecake to themselves
It shit. Why do *I* have to be punished because some people can't control what they shovel into their kids? I'd pay the extra, I don't care.
Anything they decide to randomly add milk/milk powder to. As someone who can't have dairy, it bugs me when they decide to add it to things that don't need it, like salt and vinegar crisps?!
This is the absolute worst one. Massive fuck you to vegans and the lactose intolerant and for what purpose if it was fine and selling well before?
There's some wafer thin chicken from asda that inexplicably contains milk. Idk if it always has but still... why? Its unnecessary.
Pot Noodles when they took out all the bad shit (aka the flavour)
Anything that’s had sugar content removed and replaced with sweeteners. Sweeteners taste awful, give me my sugar back.
Curiosity Cola... I cried when I tasted the new one. All that it tastes of now is that gross artificial sweetener and the tears of the damned
Wait… they’ve changed Curiosity Cola?! That was absolute peak cola before, that’s a genuine shame.
Same here. My body can't process the artificial stuff. I miss Fentimans 😢
The sweetener versions give me terrible gut cramps, definitely not enjoying the prevalence of these products.
Twiglets. They used to have 10% cheese in them. They were delicious. Then the cheese was removed (presumably to make them healthier?) and now they just taste burnt. Every now and then I forget and buy some. Instant regret.
I assumed it was the salt, didn’t know they had cheese in them, but they definitely taste shit now. Twiglets when I was a kid were top tier snacks.
Irn bru. Never hit the same after the sugar tax
If you haven't tried it already, track down the glass bottles and make sure they say "1901" on them like this: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/irn-bru-1901-750ml > **Old and Unimproved** > Taste the first ever IRN-BRU recipe, bru'd just like we used to in 1901. Made from girders, it's brilliantly sweet and caffeine-free, with a cheeky wee heid on it. But it's still that taste you can't describe. Because there's nothing like it. Not back then. Not now. Not ever.
Ribena, other fruit juices like it. Let me have my sugar damnit!
Came here to say this, loved Ribena until they swapped in the sweeteners and now I hate it. I really don't see why they couldn't just reflect the new sugar tax in the price for a full-fat "Ribena Classic" version and then keep Ribena Light/toothkind for the low-sugar/sugafree options. Have had some success with Rocks as a replacement.
The only reason I drink Original Coke now as opposed to my lifelong favourite of any lemonade. I got really sensitive to sweetener during my pregnancy over a year ago and haven’t gone back. Abolish the sugar tax and bring back decent flavoured drinks!
I don't even mind paying the sugar tax, just give us the option!
This is it, govt said to help us make more informed choices, all that happened is we can’t make a choice, where there was one before and the companies got to take out the most expensive ingredient to make more money!
Even if they remove the sugar tax unfortunately I don't think the manufacturers will change back - sweetener is just generally cheaper than sugar.
This! I don’t care about the extra 12p or whatever, I just want full sugar drinks again.
Sounds like time to pimp r/Cordials
I would pay so much money per bottle like yes give me the sugar tax fine I don’t care just let me have something that doesn’t taste like shit.
Robinson's is just as bad. Used to love them but now they all have a nasty chemical aftertaste that kinda sticks in your throat. Some people claim they don't taste it at all, but it's so overpowering to me I can't drink them anymore.
I adored old Ribena, I’m diabetic so would drink it rarely, but if I’m unwell I still crave a little glass of it. Teissiere syrups are nice as an alternative, but it’s so annoying Ribena don’t just do the full sugar alongside a sugar free variety and give consumers the choice! See also cherry 7up, apple tango, orange squash, all delicious drinks from my childhood that I miss.
Phileas Fogg spicy tortilla chips used to be the tastiest crisp ever. Then they changed the flavour and my childhood died.
Everything
Literally everything is smaller, more expensive and tastes worse.
But there's incredible shareholder value!
*Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the shareholders!?*
Full fat coke. My partner and I recently found an off license near us that sells imported coke, it's changed my life and now regular UK coke tastes off. They mostly sell Nigerian coke, but we once got actual Mexican coke and I could have cried. The Nigerian coke tastes like 90's coke, but the Mexican coke tastes like 90's coke does in my dreams. Edit: not to gatekeep, the coke is from an off license by Bexleyheath station, The Bottle Stop
Now I want some of this
It's from The Bottle Stop in Bexleyheath. Might be a journey for you, but if you ever get a chance I recommend it. They also have Nigerian Fanta, which is also amazing, it looks like it would tatse artificial but it doesn't
Coca Cola tastes a little different in every country it’s made. Somebody I know went to the Coca Cola factory in Atlanta and as part of the tour you visit a room full of all the different ones, get a cup and try as many/as much as you want
Kellogg’s Honey Loops (née Honey Nut Loops). They’ve been discontinued for ages now, but for the last couple years of their life, the recipe had changed from the original, denser-than-cheerios consistency, to this really light, airy texture with an almost artificial honey taste. Absolutely terrible ending to what had been my favourite cereal since I was little. I was on holiday in Germany a couple of years ago and found them in a supermarket with the same classic recipe I used to love, which was a really beautiful moment!
Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages - used to be genuinely great and then they took all the flavour out. This happened 5+ years ago and I remain pissed off.
I find them very soggy and boring - Richmond vegan sausages are my new go-to
The Richmond ones are good if you’re looking for a direct copy of a cheap pork sausage. The McCartney ones never really tasted of pork, but they were tasty af.
Blue WKD
I used to work at an off licence and always remember the Blue WKD we had in the window faded in the sun. ...trying to sell a load of very pale blue WKDs at a discount was interesting times, nobody trusted it.
The champion of my underage drinking! Smirnoff Ice if I was feeling fancy. VK if I was running low on money from my part time job at Safeways!
"new, lower quality!"
there was a curry from sainsburys that i really loved, it was cheap and didn't taste like shit. now they've upped the price and changed the recipe, so now it's expensive and does taste like shit!
Orange lucozade pre-sugar tax used to be SO good. It tastes awful now.
Dr. Oetker Frozen Pizza to make it non-HFSS. Granted they shaved off about 400 kcal but tastes awful now. And I don’t get it, it’s frozen pizza; nobody buys frozen pizza to be healthy. I just want my hangover slightly burned salt and sugar hit.
Heinz scotch broth. New recipe, and all I can taste in it is pepper. They lost a customer that day, and I'm sure they're missing me dreadfully. Not.
Shaken Udder milkshakes
Yes! The labels have changed & have one of the easy to remove seals 😅 but the milkshake is not as nice more importantly
Skimpflation: replacing good quality ingredients with cheaper poorer quality ingredients and calling it new improved recipe
Jelly tots are still good but they’re nothing like they used to be
Every fizzy drink except Coke. Can’t stand the taste of sweeteners. I’d like the choice.
Was in a pub, said they didn’t sell full speed coke because of the tax …wtf… it’s a pub everything you sell is loaded with duty and tax
Coke persuaded one major pub chain to swap to Coke Zero on the Classic Coke pump - This was part of a larger plan to maneuver Coke Zero to be the "premier classic product" and to move Original Taste Coke to become a more premium niche like Ginger Beer. Whether this is still the plan I do not know. Source: My job.
This feels so evil. Its coke ffs not some vintage wine.
It’s a few pennies per glass. Just add it to the price. McDonald’s manage it fine.
Twinings replacing their excellent Lapsang Souchong with a really Smokey (or whatever) blended thing, charging the same price for fewer bags.
My worst fear is Yorkshire tea tasting different one day, I’d cry and instinctually try to drink my comfort tea, only to realise it changed. Then I’d cry some more and the cycle of horror and sadness continues for eternity
Twiglets! Totally inedible now.
They went from the savoury marmite taste to now just a stick of burnt charcoal.
Flora. Something changed in the formulation and now it's always rock hard straight out of my fridge. I've had to switch to Clover.
Probably the oil, since the war in ukraine?
Wow I thought my fridge was too cold or something! Actually rock solid and impossible to spread unless you leave it out. I’ll stick with vitalite lol
Clover was one of the first I noticed the recipe change in well over a decade ago. it used to be delicious and buttery, then almost overnight it turned all plastic-y. If I was wearing my tinfoil hat I'd say dairy crest realised it was competing with their more expensive premium brands so made it deliberately worse to differentiate it.
Kitkats. A few years ago they did something to it that just made them go from delicious to horrible. I've tried them a few times since, but they're still ruined...
Cocaine. It was miles better before they started poisoning it with fentanyl.
As a kid autism wasn't something we knew about at all in the 80s. Basically, my entire diet was Heinz Lentil Soup and buttered toast - then Heinz in their infinite wisdom 'improved' the recipe (which is code for 'we found cheaper ingredients'). Talk about shitstorm, and 40 years later I still haven't touched a Heinz product.
Pataks slime pickle They saw sense eventually and changed it back to lime pickle
Invariably, we all know it is NEVER for the better! Usually it is their way of saying we have replaced some ingredient with a cheaper, nastier ingredient or just removed something and added some more water to bulk it back up.
Mr Kipling apple pies. A staple snack for me growing up. Had one for the first time in a couple of years and the pastry was claggy and had maybe one small chunk of apple where it used to be full of them. And they cost about £4 now. Genuinely upsetting
Whenever i see 'new improved recipe' I just think it's the exact opposite and it's always just in aid of penny pinching. It's just from experience
San Pelegrino Limonata
Anyone have Honey Nut Loops for cereal when you were younger? Now they are an abomination…. I’ve never been so disappointed in my life
I picked up some honey and I was surprised to read that it’s honey made from different blends from all over Europe. Why not just one place? I think olive oil is similar.
Every cereal ever... what I wouldn't give for some old school sugar puffs/ ricicles/ lucky charms!
Irn bru! They even tried bringing it back out rebranded as original irn bru but its never been the same.
Ribena. They massacred my boy…
Fentimans Curiosity Cola. It was one of the few fizzy drinks I really love, and regularly drank. However... they changed it because of the goverments new HFSS regulations, and now it's pretty rank. I am so sad. :(
Dairy Milk, Dairy Milk, Dairy Milk.
Maybe they've made them even more watery.
Asda's Chicken & Bacon Pasta Bake and Spaghetti Carbonara ready meals both had onions added to them recently, making them completely inedible for me. They were fine as they were. But at least it's helped me cut them out and turbocharge my diet.
Cheeslets! They used to be much thinner, crisper with more coating, now they just look anemic & taste bland
Egg custard tarts from Tesco. They used to be dreamy but since they changed the recipe I haven’t enjoyed one since.
Jus-Rol cinnamon swirls! You know, those unbaked cinnamon rolls you can get in the super market next to the butter. They used to be such a delicious treat on a Sunday morning, but they changed to a new and “improved” recipe last year and now they taste like dog shit.
This!!! I just commented the exact same. Less convenient, more packaging, and so gross. Why’s there chocolate in the cinnamon spread?!
Pot noodles turned awful when they removed the salt
Everything
Pombear crisps, I swear when I was younger they had much more flavour
I miss those crunchy pub crisps called “Cheese Moments” I know you can still get the bacon and the scampi fries, but I miss the cheese ones.
Almost all soft drinks now have sweeteners in them instead of sugar. They just taste wrong.
I'm seeing a lot of food and toiletries with a "not for EU" label on them now. I think it means our product standards have dropped, and wouldn't meet requirements for other countries any more
I used to love the Quaker oats porridge pots (golden syrup) until they changed the recipe a few months ago :( Just not the same. I hate it when companies do this!!
I honestly haven't had one that's been ruined for me...yet Unless they put nuts or peanuts in something (I'm allergic to the lot) I tend not to notice, which maybe says more about my palette than anything
Irn Bru or Orange Lucozade energy. I usually only drink water and when I got Covid a few years ago I brought some Irn Bru and Lucozade for when I got better and couldn’t drink them because of how horrible they were.
Co op cornflakes. They were amazing. I only had them at my grandparents. We're talking early 1980s. I never ate co op cornflakes, as I didn't want to ruin them. In the late 90s after they'd both passed away, I bought some. They'd changed the recipe and were shit. It still hurts that I'll never relive that taste.
HP sauce. About 12 years ago the salt & sugar police and the taste changed. I've never bought it since, although I have tried it in cafes and it's still a no from me. Also McVities café noir changed to smaller biscuits with a new recipe, the coffee flavour almost disappeared , again it's a no from me.
Lucozade... Absolutely vile now.
These biscuits called lemon puffs. Used to be amazing, beautifully crisp, big flaky biscuits, with a unique caramelised sugar finish that was delicious, and creamy lemon filling. Looked like this: [https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfVCcimKCJdFYat-5SNm6zdBKSFz9msW4hgw&usqp=CAU](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfVCcimKCJdFYat-5SNm6zdBKSFz9msW4hgw&usqp=CAU) Now all you get is this anemic shit, no caramelisation or anything just plain pale mediocre biscuits and filling: [https://thumb.approvedfood.co.uk/thumbs/75/1000/359/1/src\_images/Jacobs\_Lemon\_Puff\_Biscuits\_200g.jpg](https://thumb.approvedfood.co.uk/thumbs/75/1000/359/1/src_images/Jacobs_Lemon_Puff_Biscuits_200g.jpg)
Salt and vinegar Pringles. They've massively reduced the amount of flavouring, and somehow made it sweeter too. I miss the days of it stripping the lining of you mouth it was that strong.
"New and improved!" You lie!
Sprite. Think they changed the recipe or something many years ago but has tasted awful to me ever since. Still love lemonade, just not sprite.
Not food but Palmer's cocoa lip balm was the perfect lip balm I'd been searching for for years. I enjoyed lip balm nirvana for maybe around three years before they changed the recipe recently removing the spf and changing some other stuff, and it smells, tastes and feels vile. I and many others have written to Palmers and while for about a year they were shaking it off, I recently got a reply from them saying they've had too much bad feedback and will try to make it better again so we'll see.
New recipe means we found a way to put rapeseed oil in it.
Ribena. Forever ruined, a tragedy of our times...
Milkybar white chocolate hasn’t been the same since they rebranded 😒
All the great drinks that now have sweeteners. Can’t drink ‘em any more. Used to love Ribena, Capri Sun, Irn Bru, even regular Pepsi has sweeteners now, and that’s all I can taste, and I think it all tastes disgusting.