Do foods taste different to you now versus when you were younger? It’s not just your imagination! Ingredient changes, different cooking techniques, and even some selective breeding may have changed the taste of many of your favorite foods. According to users on a recent online message board, the following foods are the most unrecognizable from their former versions.
Fruit Roll-Ups
“If you grew up in the ‘80s, you remember what Fruit Roll-Ups used to be. They were glorious. That had actual strawberry seeds in them because they were made out of actual fruit!!! They were sublimely delicious and unique and infinitely superior to the gooey sugar rolls carrying the name now,” says one disappointed customer.
Kit Kat Bars
Many report that the flavor and texture of these chocolates have changed. One user says, “Kit Kat tastes like it only contains palm oil, carnuba wax and sugar for the last four years.”
Spaghetti-Os
“I think the change-over in a lot of foods — not just necessarily desserts and sweets — but others such as Spaghetti O’s tasting sickeningly sweet, particularly to late Boomers and Gen Xers who ate the 60s and 70s versions was the food manufacturers starting to use High Fructose Corn Syrup as a sweetener in place of regular sugar starting around the mid-1980s,” reports one commenter.
Brussel Sprouts
The reason brussel sprouts don’t taste as bitter as you remember in childhood is not because your taste buds have matured. One user reveals, “They found the two chemical compounds that were making them bitter and hated, and then started crossing the varieties that had the lowest level (best taste) with ones that were high yielding in the ‘90s.”
Twinkies
Many commenters complained about the strange taste that these fluffy treats have taken on in recent years. One user says, “Twinkies taste like chemical sludge. I was never really big on them growing up but they were fine. (I’m GenX… so I’ve had a lot of Twinkies in my life.)”
Trefoils Girl Scout Cookies
“They used to taste really shortbread-like. Now they taste like bad sugar cookies,” says one commenter about Trefoils. Apparently, there are two different companies that manufacture Girl Scout cookies depending on the region, and the taste can vary quite a bit between them.
Pizza Hut
One commenter says, “When I was a kid it was the best thing in the world! Now it just seems somehow both greasy and dry at the same time. It feels like it doesn’t include any real food ingredients.”
Little Debbie Snacks
“I got some little Debbie donut sticks as a quick breakfast the other day, I remember loving them as a kid. They tasted chemical-ly and left an oily residue with a bad aftertaste,” says one user. Another commenter reported a similar change in flavor and texture with the Nutty Buddy bars.
Taco Bell Green Sauce
“A few years ago Taco Bell discontinued the green sauce they’d used since the 70s for about 2 years. When they brought it back ‘by popular demand’ the formula had changed and it was sweet now and tasted nothing like Taco Bell green sauce. Being so excited for a green burrito again and having that factory of sadness in my awaiting mouth was such a disappointment,” reports one commenter.
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
Many readers were unhappy about the change in the blue box mac and cheese flavor. One user said, “I remember when I first noticed it tasted different and people acted like I was crazy. Then Kraft announced they’d changed the formula and I was like, ‘I told you so!!!'”
Halloween Candy
“My husband bought a box on Saturday that was on clearance after not having Halloween candy for years we opened up and grabbed a few and we both couldn’t get over just how weird and plastic/chemically they tasted I’m honestly horrified,” said one user.
Burger King Whoppers
Burger King cooking methods are to blame for the change in flavor, according to a former employee. They said, “I used to be at the back of the kitchen, feeding the frozen burgers into the big monster flame broiler machine. People used to ask for their burgers ‘fresh off the Broiler’. Our line was stretched around the building twice. This was 1994 in high school. Now they’re always empty. I can’t believe they don’t have the broiler anymore that’s sad end of an era.”
Haribo Gummy Bears
These sweet candies were a childhood favorite for many. One commenter says, “I remember it being really soft and flavorful. Last time I bought it, it was sooo tough and I could barely bite into it. And no distinguishing flavors.”
Crunch Bars
Crunch Bars are a popular chocolate candy bar produced by the Nestlé company. It consists of milk chocolate combined with crispy puffed rice, giving it a distinctive crunchy texture. “Crunch bar tastes like plastic now,” one commenter said. Another stated, “Crunch bars. They used to be my favourite chocolate bar but now you can tell they cheaped out on the ingredients.”
Source: Reddit
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