Is it just me or is candy not as good?

[Zeke]

Gotta admit that I've had my hand in the cookie jar lately. Seems like beginning with Halloween that there is more candy around. So I eat a Snickers, a Butter Finger and a Baby Ruth over the last 3 days.

All of them are nasty. I used to love a Mounds and an Almond Joy now and then, but I'm afraid I'll erase any memories if I eat any more of this junk.

What's in this stuff? Chews like chocolate infused cardboard.

Almond Roca was always tempting, but they aren't quite the same either. Not bad though. Maybe they used to have real butter in them or something.

Oh, my favorite was a Cup o' Gold. Can't get those nowadays. Probably a good thing.

I wish we had given the stuff away last Monday. See what I get?

[herr_oberst]

High fructose corn syrup.
Evil incarnate.

[romad]

Thats what happens when you take out the MSG

[krystar]

kitkat, twix original, and crunch are the best. werthers caramel hard candy is good too.,

almond roca sticks in my teeth.

[Laneco]

I won't divulge the name of the company, but they make nut butters (peanut butter, almond butter, etc). They had a change in business ownership and the new folks had some great ideas for profit. Not always great for quality though...

For the peanut butter, they were using a particular strain of peanuts that is farmed in the US. It's a little expensive, but the peanuts are sweet and make a great butter. But peanuts from overseas are much cheaper. Catch was, they had to buy them in very large quantities which meant they had to be stored frozen until use. They weren't sweet to begin with and the storage/freezing didn't help.

The peanut butter was bland to the point of absolute tastelessness. It couldn't be sold in the boutique stores where it had long commanded a premium price, so the company made an agreement with certain big box stores to take the huge supply off their hands at a significant price drop. So many ways that this was short sighted for this company...

Makes me wonder if the lack of flavor in many current candies (especially chocolates and nut bars) is some story similar to this.

angela

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Oh, my favorite was a Cup o' Gold. Can't get those nowadays. Probably a good thing.

Saw them at Smart & Final....

[jluetjen]

Try eating a Twinkie nowadays and see what you think!

(PS: My eldest daughter did a food rotting science experiment, and we kept the Twinkie-in-a-bell-jar as a momento. It's been sitting in the front window of our living room for most of a year and still no decomposition aside from the color fading.)

[Evans, Marv]

Maybe it's my taste buds now days, but candies are just sweet and tasteless. It all goes along with those "large" eggs, 1.5 qt. ice cream cartons, thin material clothes are made out of, etc., etc.

[Mark Henry]

I love Caramilk, so much so I eat the little ones only at Halloween, this year they taste like dog poo. Also another fav, Reeses PB cups are smaller and taste bland.

I wonder how many of these brands are being manufactured offshore these days. Guess I won't bother raiding the kids treats this year.

[gr8fl4porsche]

Not candy, but have any of you who grew up in the 70's had a Ding Dong lately?

When we were kids, DD's were individually wrapped in foil and were baked by the gods.
Absolutely fantastic, I can still taste them.

Now they are in loose plastic, taste like brown colored wax wrapped around stale cake with some horrible white crap in the middle.

What happened? Hostess used to rule the world, never had any real competition I ever tasted to make them cheapen their product. Is nothing sacred anymore?

[craigster59]

Ding Dongs were okay. My Grandfather ran the cake and cookie division of Langendorf Bakeries in the San Francisco/ Bay Area in the 50's thru 70's. They had these things called "Banana Dreams" that were a spiced shortcake cup filled with banana cream filling. Now those were GOOD! They were bought out by another bakery (Hostess or Mother's Cookies) and the Dream Boats were never seen again.

[widebody911]

I attribute it to the substitution of HFCS for sugar.

[widgeon13]

I just had a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and not only was it not as good, it was smaller that usual.

[andrew15]

Mark - Get yourself to a UK import shop in TO and buy a UK Cadbury Caramilk. We just had one up here and they are night and day compared to the normal stuff you get.
AM

[LeeH]

I agree and thought the same thing before seeing this post. Had an Almond Joy out of our treat bowl on Halloween. It was sickeningly sweet and the cococonut was like mush. The good part about that was that I had no desire for another.

My daughter shared a "fun size" pack of M&Ms with me after trick or treating. I'm sorry, but 6 M&Ms in a bag are NOT fun. I'm sticking with good quality dark chocolate.

[Tobra]

Chocolate has gone way down hill too. Hershey used to be good, no longer.

[Rick Lee]

When I buy chocolate, it's usually the German or Swiss stuff - Milka, Ritter Sport, Toblerone, Lindt, etc. Once you've gotten used to that, American stuff tastes like it has dirt in it. And even if you buy Mars products in Europe, they're so much better there than here because the chocolate is made there. Their version of Almond Joy is called Bounty and it's sinfully good. Kit Kat and Twix are way better there too. I just bought some leftover Kroeger brand candy corn for $1 and it tastes like garbage. Going in the trash.

[Mark Henry]

Originally Posted by andrew15

Mark - Get yourself to a UK import shop in TO and buy a UK Cadbury Caramilk. We just had one up here and they are night and day compared to the normal stuff you get.
AM

But that will make me fat....there's a reason I only ate the Halloween Caramilks, it only happens once a year

If you US guys don't have Cadbury Caramilk....pity.

[Normy]

I've never liked sweet snacks. Salty stuff I love.

These days, milk chocolate tastes like plastic. I liked it when I was young, but now I can't stand it, and it makes several of my teeth hurt. Dark chocolate is good, but my favorite treat is rice cakes. I take a rice cake, pour a tablespoon of olive oil on it, and some seasoning like Tony Chacheres, and I am in heaven. The Muscovy ducks behind my house totally agree- they love the rice cake crumbs.

N!

[campbellcj]

I agree - these days a lot of the mass-market stuff is just crap. I try not to eat a ton of candy, but when I do, I stick to premium dark chocolate or Trader Joes goodies.

My wife and I brought many pounds of Halloween crap to our offices to get rid of it...