A Mars a day helps you work rest and play!

[francovendee]

Now back in the day I ate a lot of sweets like Mars bars. I curbed my desire for sweet things years ago but on Saturday I bought one.
What a disappointment! Where has all the chocolate gone? A thin crust now, not the thick layer that was quite hard to bite through.
The filling tastes differently too.
I wonder if Kit Kat and Twix are also not very nice now.
For certain it's the last Mars bar I'll buy. If they've changed the recipe to make it more healthy it's certainly worked for me.

[RickH]

The make up of these things does seem to vary, probably depending on the price of ingredients.

I've known kitkats with no wafer, solid chocolate (cocoa cheap?) & ones where you can see the wafer through the chocolate on at least 3 sides(cocoa expensive?)!

They can also vary in size depending where you buy it! A big supermarket chain advertising a low price may just mean that they've had smaller bars made specially for them. That's without general "shrinkflation" where the price stays the same but what you buy gets smaller.

[Cyril Haearn]

Read the small print if you can
Does it contain palm oil?

[Lance Dopestrong]

As a Texan bar lover in the 70s I find modern chocolate terribly unsatisfying. Must've been years since I ate any.

[Mick F]

Choccy bars are awful nowadays.

Cadbury's Dairy Milk used to snap, but now it just bends.
Easter eggs likewise. The bits would smash off, but now they just fold off.

Rubbish.

[francovendee]

I suspect the changes are more about increased profit margins than our health.

I'm always a bit worried than memories from my yoof are distorted as I get older but in this case I have no doubt.

Reputation for a products quality seems not to be high up in a companies assets.

The idea that a product can be made at a lower standard so the supermarkets can offer a lower price seems wrong. I'm sure there won't be a warning on the pack that they are different.

[661-Pete]

Isn't this an instance of 'shrinkflation' - which pervades just about everything we buy? Like the Toblerone 'scandal'?

The old adage "Yer get what yer pays for" holds good. I avoid milk chocolate like the plague, but am quite keen on the, usually more expensive, dark chocolate with less sugar. If you have a Waitrose within reach, these are quite good - and the choccy coating is fairly generous. Of course, they're more pricey than some choccy products - though sometimes they're on 'special offer'.

And they're still not good for the waistline ...

[thirdcrank]

My biggest Mars Bar disappointment was in France - Crimbo 1963. I was coming home by train from Avignon to Leeds. For some reason I had time to kill in a French station in the middle of the night, either Avignon or possibly Paris. I was tempted by a display of Mars Bars. From above, they looked like normal Mars Bars. The price was 1NF (in those days New Frank) which converted to 1/6d ie three times the 6d for a Mars Bar in the UK (and in those days we didn't call them old pennies but 6d = 2.5p.)

I decided to lash out but when I'd stumped up the bar was only about half an inch deep. It had the normal layer of caramel and choc coating but the fudge was very thin. I can still feel the disappointment.

[Cugel]

Sweeties were always bad for us yet we bought them. The manufacturers (all now large corporations rather than family firms like Rowntree, Terry or Cadbury) realised this so loaded more bad things in to their wares along with the addcitive sugar.

This dross costs less to make and, as we know, manufacturers today are intent not so much on making good things but on making lots of money.

Personally I buy only Aldi or Co-op dark choc above 75% choc, as they are inexpensive and good. This is a medicine, of course, not a sweetie. Oh yes it is! Also, they claim it is "fair trade", which may be merely a mental emollient to we buyers but.....

Cugel

[mercalia]

Choccy bars are awful nowadays.

Cadbury's Dairy Milk used to snap, but now it just bends.
Easter eggs likewise. The bits would smash off, but now they just fold off.

Rubbish.

Galaxy is ok. special offer at Sainsburys at the moment

[mercalia]

as stupid as "Go to Work on An Egg"
what other slogans used to fool us or not into parting with ur cash?


[youtube]bGr5y2tNoqM[/youtube]

[francovendee]

Just as ridiculous was the cigarette slogan "You're never alone with a Strand".

[Mick F]

Just so happened, that I was riding a circuitous route into Plymouth yesterday, and went past the Wrigley's factory at Estover.
I see that there's a new sign and that the company is now called Mars Wrigley. I see Google Streetview is behind the times as usual.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.41649 ... 312!8i6656

How they combine chewing gum and a Mars Bar is beyond me!

[Vorpal]

I've never been much for sweets, but I do like dark chocolate, and indulge occasionally. My favorite is Green & Blacks (organic & free trade, no palm oil!). They also do milk chocolate, and bars with various things in them.

I have never liked Mars, though KitKat is okay (best in dark chocolate!), and so are most chocolate / nuts combinations, like Snickers, Hazelnut Noisettes, peanut m&ms, etc.

I don't like to eat chocolate cycling, the way some people do. I'd rather eat fruit. Though if it's a long day, I might have a little chocolate, but only after I've eaten fruit or something else. I'm more likely to eat ice cream, or a drink a cafe mocha, if I want a treat.

[merseymouth]

Hi all, "You're never alone with a Strand"! The man on a London bridge in dead of night.
But back in the 60's the gasper pushers experimented with "Non Tobacco Cigarettes"? Courtaulds tried toasted cellophane????????????
But the brand that sticks in my mind was "Bravo". You had a choice of two non tobacco types - Toasted Lettuce Leaves or Toasted Tomato Leaves, I kid you not.Yes this mug tried them both, didn't work out as a Hot Salad.
So the wags would say "You are never alone with a Strand, but you're always alone with a Bravo! I usually smoked Churchmans Number 1, untipped or Capstan Full Strength also untipped. You could re-sole your clogs with the Tar. IGICB MM