I bought a load of Mars and other chocolates to hand out for Halloween and there were quite a few left.
I took a bite out of one and almost puked. I could not taste anything other than sugar. I have memories of my first taste as a kid and it feels nothing like this.
It definitely tasted better back like 10-15 years ago. It would leave you satisfied.
Now I feel like one bar is still 3-4 bites too little, it just doesn't taste as great, and leaves you thirsty more than anything. Not only did they cut out the quantity but also the quality.
However I did try the "new" Raspberry mixed one, and it was pretty good. I allow myself one chocolate every 4-weeks as a treat, so I always spend a good 10+ minutes arguing with myself on which one to get.
Let me try the raspberry ones then. I still feel sad about not having that same taste though
Ugh they are AWFUL. It's like cheap bubblegum.
One chocolate every 4 weeks?
Yes, I also allow myself one can of soft drink once a month.
@Scythic: Umm… why do you have 2 accounts - Scythic and Kangal.
You forgot to switch accounts before replying.
Pretty funny that you've used both of these account (and your other ones) to neg vote.
@JelIyfish: Huh?
I think you're confused. I just have similar opinion to Kangal. Pretty sure they're a different person
Tragic!
They add salt to most chocolate now to "enhance" the flavour. Probably a lot more salt than they used to add and why you were thirsty afterwards.
It definitely tasted better back like 10-15 years ago. It would leave you satisfied.
Now I feel like one bar is still 3-4 bites too little
Maybe because you are bigger now…
This, less cocoa, more sugar, more "fillers". The sugar almost burns inside your mouth (at least it does for me) and os generally just disappointing.
Yes it was no cocoa and not even caramel.
Many products have increased sugar component because sugar is cheaper $/kg than the raw material.
This explains my recent experiences, I haven't consumed much in the way of chocolate and candy for years and the taste is now disappointing for me, I thought my taste buds had just changed dramatically to the point where I couldn't enjoy chocolate anymore.
artificial sugar maybe, not real sugar. the industry is under pressure to make the product healthier with minimal impacts to taste.
IIRC, the taste of coke has changed several times in the last 10 years to become more "healthy".
I am puzzled why there are three types of sugar free coke when only one is any good.
Because some people can't mentally equate coke no sugar with diet coke
Because different "sweetener" brands are used… because some are, or are suspected of being, harmful… so people avoid them. So manufacturers make multiple versions of the same product using each type to get sales. One the more recent ones (Stevia) causes diarrhea. Especially if you don't ingest it regularly so your stomach gets used to it.
e.g. Buy a bag of these from Colesworths, eat 1/4 to 1/3 of the bag (or give them to people or kids of people you don't like) and see what happens for the next 3-4 hours: https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/839683/dou…
So people can either choose to poison themselves with aspartame or get the runs for hours with stevia or maltitol.
Brown sugar wax.
Most chocolate being sold now is utter garbage.
Normal chocolate can taste terrible compared to the good stuff. I've been eating Whittakers chocolate for a while and I decided to buy a block of Cadbury on special and I couldn't believe how bad it tasted. The only Cadbury Choc I can tolerate now is that Breakaway stuff.
Used to love breakaway in my younger years but I find Kit Kat far superior now
I don't think as sweet coz the wafer breaks it up.
There’s a huge market in my opinion for chocolate bars that aren’t too sweet that aren’t dark chocolate.
Younger years? Isn't breakaway one of the newer chocolates or am I that far behind.
Brought a stack home from the Tasmanian Cadbury factory in 2000
.
Wow, I'm the complete opposite - can't stand the Breakaway stuff, feels like a mushy version of Kit Kat (although Kit Kat has definitely changed too)
Yea Kit Kat ain’t same no more. If Whittakers did similar wafer chocolate they be killing the market. So much potential. Still don’t know why Ozbargain voted Cadbury best chocolate in poll I seen
Where is this poll? I'm a huge fan of Cadbury dairy milk, but I'm not the best judge since I devour pretty much any chocolate.
No block is safe in my pantry.
The quality of Cadbury products 'took a dive' after Kraft Foods (American) bought the company in 2010.
We don't, now, buy any Cadbury products.
Cadbury used to be excellent (>20 years ago). It's now so bad that I just can't eat it - it's like that super cheap nasty chocolate your aunt buys you from the $2 shop each Christmas.
if you bought the share pack - sometimes the production quality of those is "poor" (or imported - or stale).
or you have covid
My to go chocolate is Lindt, but I got a bad badge. Then I checked manufacturing, and it was Italy. Now I check the Barcode of the Lindt product to check that it is Switzerland ( 076…. )
Yep it was the share pack.. But if it tastes different from the normal one them its cheating and sacrilege.
If you want good ones, buy the Celebrations box.
Last time I checked the other packs are made in China which don't taste that nice
Yeah celebrations version is even worse than share pack
Snickers have always been better than mars bars.
It is known.
Except for when they stopped making them in Australia, then they tasted kinda waxy…
Then they brought them back changed the size and didn't tell us. Until i contacted news.com.au than they ran a story on it saying "inflation".
Have you tried them around the world? I find it really interesting how they tweak them to each audience.
Eg in nepal I found them to have an overwhelming plasticy flavor that no one else could seem to notice.
In iraq they were much more 'nutty' flavored.
In real 3rd worldy type places like Yemen I felt like it was a mix of all types. The chocolate itself felt more waxy than here and it had lots of realyl strange spikes of unnatural tasting flavors that would come in and out as you ate it.
I've noticed that Snickers have recently changed. They are crap now and I've stopped buying them.
I thought the same with a bag I got recently. Just rubbish. Nothing tastes the same anymore, even 'fresh' fruit and veg.
yeah fruit and veg sold by coles and woollies are barely edible, held in cold storage for up to a year and sold just as they start to go brown.
That nonsense Coles and Woolies do not hold fruit and veg in cold storage for a year. The cost would be more then the product would be worth. Plus their model is typically buy on longer terms and have it sold before they have to pay for it.
I have been the Woolies SEQ distribution warehouse and the fresh produce typically comes in early morning is loaded later in the day and on its way to store.
Most of what comes in is out the very same day to store.
Not saying the quality is the beast just saying that they do not hold onto produce for a year.
It’s odd: I get the mushrooms for example out of the boxes rather then pre packed and it still tastes nothing like what you get from a local producer.
I got some bananas from Coles last week. They were still green. After a few days I expected them to yellow. Nope they stayed green but went all black and spotted like an over ripe banana.
Did a taste test. The texture was mushy and soft like and over ripe banana, but the taste was that of an underipe banana. Weirdest crap I've ever tasted.
The only good thing about them storing fruit for months is if you get it home fast enough after they bring it out, you can get several more weeks in your fridge to eat it. I bought some apples from Aldi 6 weeks ago. Had one two days ago and it's not as good, but still close to the same as the day I bought them.
I got the big box of mars from costco, and yeah all the chocolates in there were horrible, pure sugar.
But I think the bulk mars boxes are different, the chocolates are made in a different coutnry too
Were they stale? Also you have to remember kids taste sugar different to adults.
I think the Aldi Mars Bar “Titan” tastes better, I think mars has cut corners on the cost of the materials and doesn’t taste as good as it did.
Probably a bit of both
They used to use African Cocoa.
Then they switched to fast grown Asian sourced cocoa and, also switched some of their manufacturing to China so the taste could be geared to a different palate.
Yes i didnt like dairymilk after they added lecithin and it now it is stiff and crumbly.
Whittakers is the only one i enjoy now.
Well I now feel bad for getting mars for halloween. Gotta switch next time round.
Any chocolate that doesn’t say at least 70% cocoa is basically candy with chocolate flavouring.
I had a mars bar about 15 years ago and nearly coughed it up. It was disgusting.
I certainly liked them more as a teenager than I do now but I don't pretend to have an informed opinion as to why.
I thought the Fun Size bars (assumed because of Halloween) are actually made in China, not Australia.
Probably why the big taste difference.
They are 57% sugar, ingredients:
Sugar, Glucose Syrup (Sources Include Wheat), Milk Solids, Vegetable Fat, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Barley Malt Extract, Cocoa Powder,
Not much actual chocolate.
The 192g fun-size pack is made in Australia, and same ingredients. Where are the Chinese ones sold?
In 1985 they read like this:
Milk Chocolate, Almonds, Corn Syrup, Sugar…other stuff
Since when were there Almonds in a Mars bar?
Milk chocolate = (Milk Solids, Vegetable Fat, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass). This would have always been a lesser ingredient as it’s a coating on the outside in a Mars bars, always has been. The other two elements are nougat and caramel which have always been made of sugar.
They're getting confused with a bloody American Mars bar… (◔_◔)
This. I had fond memories of eating Mars, Snickers and Bountys as a kid. Now, they’re so sweet that it makes me cringe and I want to spit it out. I can’t tell if they changed the sweetness or if it’s just me (in which case, my childhood sugar intake was atrocious). If anyone from Mars/chocolate manufacturing could enlighten us, I would be grateful.
same here, i used to have a mars, bounty, milky way or sneakers after training 15 years ago and was amazing. Now they taste like shit especially now they come from china (or that could be psychosomatic). Now they just taste too sweet and 15 years ago i didnt eat much sugar except maybe a bar once a week and homemade cinnamon toast.
I wonder if its because i have had more expensive chocolate and my palette has changed — though i can still eat a whole bar of rocky road chocolate or Menz Bumbles Milk Choc Honeycomb etc if i have it around so i put limits on when i can buy chocolate bars :)
Would be interesting if its because older or if it actually has changed and quality has plummeted
Snickers has been Australian made for a few months now.
Still made in Egypt I see
Yes, cadbury/mars are insanely sweet now. Even the aldi chocolate is better. Did we change?
Tastes the same to me
The mini ones never taste as good. The ratios are off.
But the regular size mars and Snickers have always tasted good to me.
You must have covid, bummer…
Since childhood have you taken up smoking and drinking coffee?
Coffe yes .. Wine yes .. Smoke no.. But would that change my taste perception that much ?
Some people eat a chocolate bar or two with theie coffee. The taste would definitely be different
To drink alcohol and coffee we have to train ourselves to percieve to be ok or even enjoy very bitter substances. That could change your perception on sweet things?
Also you might just be experiencing nostalgia. You have an idea of what something was that may not be true to what it originally was.
EDIT: also as we age from children to adulthood our taste changes
The pack I bought from Amazon the other week was made in Australia and tasted just like it should, it's the Chinese ones you need to watch out for, you can tell the difference in packaging.
Same with snickers
Probly just you getting old tho
Funny, I just had a bite-size one and thought it tasted a bit different.
i found if u pay full price for chocolate its more fresh and tastes better including marsbars and to me they taste the same as when i was a kid granted im 34 so may not be as long as some of you, but when there a fade of white on the coating it tastes like crap
Well it is a bite size one .. Made in Oz and it says 25% cocoa solid.. Had another to check again.. Still tastes bad
Keep trying
.
Yes they're bad now. Some/many chocolates have coffee in them too and I hate the taste of coffee. I got a Mars bar after not having one for years and it had a chunk of unmixed coffee in it. I nearly threw up.
What rubbish
Which part? Actually, no matter, because both are true. Some chocolate DO have small amounts of coffee added (or chickory to give a coffee flavour), and YES there WAS an unmixed lump of one or the other in a Mars bar I bit into.
Here's just one example of coffee being used to enhance the flavour of cocoa powder:
https://bakingbites.com/2010/04/why-is-there-coffee-in-my-ch…
"When you bake enough chocolate cakes, or simply look at enough chocolate cake recipes, you’ll notice a trend: many of them include coffee or instant coffee as an ingredient. This isn’t because most people are looking for a mocha-flavored cake. Rather, coffee is commonly included because it is a great way to enhance the flavor of cocoa powder, resulting in a more chocolaty cake – not a coffee-flavored one. Cocoa powder is a bit bitter on its own, with hints of fruit and spice that are detectable when you get a good-quality cocoa. Coffee has these same flavor elements, and a small amount of coffee in a cake batter – whether you’re using 1 cup of coffee or 1 tbsp instant coffee – will help these cocoa flavors stand out even more than they would on their own. The milk, sugar, eggs and so forth that you add into a cake just helps all that cocoa taste good, not necessarily more chocolaty!"
Freddo is the best.
same with me and snickers and crunchie
Price of a mars bar has barely changed in 30 years so I assume it's just crap ingredients now.
Mars bars are weak anyways, one of the lower tiers in chocolate bars.
Snickers is the real deal
Snickers is just a Mars bar with nuts.
Had some with Halloween too and think they are the same as they have been for quite some time. Can still taste the chocolate flavour. Some people are finding subtle (or not so subtle) changes to their palate post COVID, ie you might be able to taste sweet but not the more complex flavours. I was struggling to taste differences in wine for a few weeks after having COVID. For some people changes are lasting months or longer. Just a thought.
My children love them but I think they are worse than they used to be. Probably grown ups can’t tolerate as much sugar.
palm oil change
Couldnt tell much of a difference tbh as i have reduced eating sugary foods. So any of them chocos taste like loads of sugar.
This year’s winner goes to tropical freddo
You are now old, go try some dark chocolate.
(But yes they're also worse than they used to be)
Has The Quality of Mars Bars Gone to Hell or Are My Taste Buds Ruined as an Adult
Likely ruined by Mars and co.
Bought a Snickers bar after this post.
Had it after a long time. And it felt way too sweet.
Look, as a Ballaratian (where Mars bars are made) there is common gossip amongst us all that they slowly have been increasing the sugar to cocoa butter ratio for years. A mate of mines dad works there and he couldn’t deny this being true. So yes, you are tasting more sugar as it’s cheaper than cocoa. Nonetheless your supporting local industry so keep it up!
Agreed chocolates these days are way too sweet to be enjoyable. I think there would be great demand for a less sweet, more natural but still delicious confectionery line - at least from my end lol
Most chocolate bars are much higher in sugar than they used to be and less real chocolate.