Is it old age (and its moaning tendency)?
I don't know. But this morning I opened a plastic 'tub' of Ovaltine. I ordered it on my Tesco order. I don't have milk in either tea or coffee and often think I should drink a little more milk - I occasionally have Horlicks but tend to make that with water and the same goes for drinking chocolate so I picked up the plastic tub - immediately thinking - 'not as tactile as the tin used to be - but at least its orange '(remember 'we are the Ovaltineys, happy girls and boys'?
Miserable dull day here - elevenses time came round - spotted the tub in the tea/coffee corner of the kitchen, read the instructions, poured the set amount of milk into a jug and popped it into the microwave to heat up. I opened the tub, peeled back the shiny cover on top of the Ovaltine - what a disappointment. I didn't remember it like that at all. Didn't it used to be little brown crystals (can't think of a better word)- my Mum used to tell me off for sucking my finger and pushing it into the crystals and then sucking them off into my mouth.
Well it was a dismal brownish powder. But I put the requisite 5 heaped teaspoons into the mug, poured on the hot milk, stirred well, pushed the mug through to my chair and sat down ready to partake of 2 finger kit-kat and mug of Ovaltine.
It just wasn't Ovaltine as I remember it. Pleasant drink but not as I remember it.
A month ago it was Shredded Wheat. I remember the first time I asked my Mum could I have Shredded Wheat instead of Cornflakes. Shock horror - 'you won't like it', well my friend Margaret has it every morning. 'Well I'll get a box, but you'll have to eat it all. I'm not wasting it - so remember that. Make your mind up.' I adored it and had it every morning for years.
I bought some a couple of months ago. Anticipated fat wheaty 'cushions'. What a disappointment. Smaller, thinner, not at all like I remembered. I ate them but they somehow didn't taste the same.
And then there's Cadbury's Chocolate Finger biscuits. Oh the bliss of big, fat, chocolatey fingers. They seem thinner now, more fragile, only a thin layer of chocolate and half the length I remember.
And the Victoria plums straight off the tree a few weeks ago when I fought with dozens of Red Admiral butterflies for the priviledge. Delicious indeed - but not that mind-blowing deliciousness I remember the last time - many moons ago - when I had access to a plum tree in an orchard (stolen fruit's always the sweetest).
I intend not to put Russet apples on my Tesco order - just can't bear another disappointment.
Off now to make a cheese and pickle sandwich for my tea. Shall try to eat it without thinking about the past.
Could it be the fading of the old taste buds - or the enhancing of a perfectly ordinary wartime childhood.
Answers (to quote John Going Gently) on a postcard please.
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31 comments:
Never go back. It is a mistake.
I think it is both. I know my taste buds are different than when I was young or younger. However, having worked in food research for many years, I do know products are often changed. This was usually explained as "keeping up with the consumer's desires" but was mostly to save the company money. Jackie
Yes, you are correct. Companies try to find ways to cut costs while keeping prices the same. More profit for them, less taste for us.
I remember feeling very grown-up when I was allowed Shredded Wheat for breakfast. Two, of course.
I used to the Terry’s Chocolate Oranges looked so wonderful. A friend bought me one for Christmas and I hated the chocolate - way too sweet for me. Such a disappointment.
Yes, apart from our taste buds changing it is mostly large corporations cutting corners to cut pennies.
Fruit being picked too soon so that it can travel instead of developing taste.
The plums? It has been wet...that doesn't help the taste.
Whatever you buy, do not under any circumstances consider Club biscuits.
I have found that many times foods I enjoyed years ago are no longer what I remember. Canned salmon, sardines, breakfast cereal, are just a few I think of, along with some vegetables. I see things at the store, remember how I liked them, but. When I get home and actually taste them, no way. My husband was always so easy to please when it came to food, but, as he got older, that
changed. His favorite foods were, somehow, terrible. He was just as surprised as I was. So I think age is definitely a factor.
Since money rules, for sure products have changed to make them cheaper, but, I used to like pears. No longer.......
It's the same on this side of The Pond. Hostess Cupcakes is another product that doesn't taste the same and IMHO, isn't worth buying.
We go to a near-by Farmer's Market for fruit and veg and those taste as they should, barring corn on the cob. I grew up on delicious corn that was flavorful but not too sweet. Now it's all 'sweet corn' or 'super sweet corn' as if that's a good thing.
And don't get me started on 'high fructose corn syrup' that used to be a waste product and now is in too much of our food - and is a hazard to our health.
Hugs!
It's more likely that companies change products to keep things affordable than you don't accurately remember how
products tasted and felt years ago.I prefer the manufacturer raise the price and keep the quality of their product the way it's always been.One example-Smuckers strawberry jam is as wonderful today as it was decades ago,it just costs a lot more ,Mary
Rachel "kicked off" by responding so perfectly. She made me laugh. I feel the same as everyone so far who has commented. It's a bit depressing when I make an attempt to try again. I should really just stop trying. From the base of the mini-mountain in Maine - Regina
Before everyone castigates the entire confectionery and food industry one should not forget that manufacturers are under considerable pressure to reduce sugar content in foods and targets were set several years ago and the industry has been trying to meet these targets. This is to fight obesity and sugar related health issues. When sugars are reduced tastes of old favourites change.
The cook at my hospice recreates childhood and historic dishes for the patients
But also will create some meals that have a little kick of taste
Older people loose a significant amount of taste buds
Food therefore bean become more bland than memory dictates
I personally have seen my tastes change with age - now I find any milk chocolate far too sweet compared to a decent 70%+ cacao chocolate. As for Cadbury chocolate, any assurances that Mondolez gave about no changes have been completely ignored. Rachel is also right, the reformulations to reduce sugar have definitely changed flavours.
I do think that maybe our taste buds let us down as we age, but do agree about Ovaltine. I did the same thing a few years back and was disappointed with it's appearance and it definitely didn't taste a good as it used to. As a child I loved to take a small spoonful of those delicious crunchy little fragments - bliss.
Every biscuit and chocolate bar has diminished in size and in the effort of making profits the manufacturers have probably changed the recipe too.
But perhaps there is a little bit of remembering long school holidays in the summer when the sun shone every day thrown in!
Our sense of smell dulls as we age, it affects how we 'taste' food. I've noticed food not being as exciting or flavoursome as I recall it being years ago and guess it is that.
I have never understood that remark.. 'Answers on a postcard please'... Do you truly want them written on a postcard and put in the mail?? Because i look and people answer the question right in the comments like always so what exactly does that mean??
Anyway... i think it could be the taste buds are not as sharp these days... but also our memories just build them up and build them up and then if we ever get a hold of it , its a let down.. Hugs! deb
Food doesn't taste the same. I thing it's me and them. Them being the manufacturers who are changing everything, and making culinary delights for today's children.
I think it is a combination of things. Food is often made as cheaply as possible, more and more artificial ingredients. It is also true that our tastes change as we age.
Our taste buds, like our hearing, sight and a few other senses have deteriorated. For me, stuff just doesn't have the flavor it used to.
I recently replaced my empty Nescafé instant coffee. When I opened the new jar it contained thin powder rather than granules. In their wisdom Nescafé have put the granules and expresso in exactly the same jars (other than the word expresso which I didn't see).
"or the enhancing of a perfectly ordinary wartime childhood". When as children growing up after the war, I think we had a perfectly genuine hunger because there were no snacks, three meals a day and limited choice. Coming in from being out in the fresh air all day we were starving.
Now, at this present time, when there is an overload of choice and food, we are dogged by UPF - ultra processed food, which probably accounts for the chemicals used in the food we now eat and find yucky. As for smallness of chocolate bars, expect the rest is in some one elses bank accounts ;) Just check the big food companies bonuses to their top people.
I totally agree and I am a young 71. Cadbury was purchased by some huge company.
I think one factor is that we have many more luxury snacks and items in our everyday diet, so that nothing is now a real treat, but is something we can have anytime. I rember sharing a mars bar between the family of five. So of course my small share tastwd delicious and was remembered with pleasure. Also now plain food is flavoured by many more herbs and spices than we had available when we were younger. Our tastebuds are battered with flavour as a result.
I used to love tomatoes and corn on the cob in summer, but now it is so tasteless that I don’t buy it anymore. I haven’t noticed a difference in Ovaltine, but I only put three teaspoons of it in a large mug of milk. I also eat the shredded wheat squares that are unsweetened but put some peanut butter on them along with milk. They taste the same to me. I still like Cadbury plain chocolate bars. I don’t like American bars, too sweet. We can get uk Cadbury bars here. I don’t think I have lost my sense of smell or taste yet but who knows! Gigi
As we age our tastebuds change. As the years pass, so manufacturers do "New and Improved" not always for the better. Throw in our skewed perception of what we'd like to remember. Combine these with our medications and that part of the human condition is that we do not care for change = recipe for disaster.
You are correct I believe. Adulterated products. It is why I always have an heirloom tomato planted. The tomatoes of my youth have never been duplicated from store bought.
I agree with the above comment, and apricots, plums, pears, peaches and nectarines are as rock hard as a cricket ball. As nectarines are my favourite fruit, we planted one, even though we have a small area of mainly flowers. It's a joy and delight, as are our heirloom tomatoes each year. - Pam, Aust.
We have gone back to good honest cocoa. For convenience I make up a jar with powdered milk and sugar, and none of the nasty stuff on labels of the plastic containers.
Once it was illegal to adulterate food.
Thank you for your interesting comments/
I thought my tastebuds were fading with age, until I started buying organic produce and chicken, shipped direct. Tasted like when I was a kid! So it's not you, it's them! Long storage, changed ingredients can knock the life out of food.
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