Hot take, but they always tasted like shit, and you’ve grown out of eating processed garbage.
Did they change it is it an age thing?
Trans fats were gradually banned in the US from 2008 to 2018
They replaced butter with palm oil. Look for ones not made in the US. Aldi has a bunch of good ones.
They definitely changed. Most of them got smaller, many of them got dryer (less moist), and they all got more expensive.
And one component of taste is the dopamine release from eating the food and all of the negative associations with snack foods combined with a mature and adult brain means that you can’t enjoy it as much as a kid who just wants to taste something sweet.
You’re literally psychologically conditioned to not enjoy them as much and to release less dopamine when you eat them now.
True. Its both. But I have a ton of positive associations with those snacks which make their change suck harder.
I mean i can link 6 different Little Debbie treats to unique family members and childhood events.
It’s hard to taste a memory, harder still when the company changed the recipe.
Both. As I grow older I’m more and more fond of bitter stuff that younger me wouldn’t like, and younger me was more accepting of the very sweet stuff.
Yes, randomly had my first zebra cake in ~25 years and holy shit are they awful. Not only smaller but really dry. I used to walk the long way home (an extra half mile!) to slam down a hard earned quarter for one of those things in my youth. Threw the fuckin box out after three bites.
Probably both.
Of course, everyone on Lemmy is going to say they are worse because capitalism or something. But I remember eating those packaged cinnamon rolls as a kid and the outside being deliscious pure sugar and the inside being dry, low quality bread. But I still loved them because SUGAR. These products were specifically designed to appeal to children, and thus contained the maximum amount of refined carbohydrates and fats they could smash inside a plastic wrapper. Kids today will still be jazzed to eat an entire box of zebra cakes. You, however, are now an old, who has lost their joy for the good things in life, including cheap, high calorie junk food. Time for the retirement home, gramps!
At the same time, the manufacturer did change the recipe. Presumably, portion sized got smaller, they found a cheaper source for even more processed flour and sugar, etc. But they also removed the trans fats. And they also cost more.
Which… is a good thing? Bit of a tangent here, but I feel like Lemmy has this very weird take. The modal lemming has executive dysfunction and can’t exercise the self control to give up their vices, like eating junk food, not exercising, and self-isolating with digital media. So they pray for something to change so they can break their addictions - but they still want the option to occasionally indulge. So these days, junk food tastes worse than ever, cars are full of annoying screens and spyware, tv plotlines are formulaic and boring, and social media is filled with ads and AI slop. And meanwhile, junk food, new cars, gasoline, studio apartments, and streaming services are more expensive than ever. It’s like an omnipotent, omniscient sky-god heard their prayers and said “Okay, all your vices are now less appealing and more expensive. Now it makes sense to enjoy your vices as higher quality, occasional indulgences, while shifting your lifestyle to living in a shared home in a bikeable area and making home cooked meals with your roommates.” And the lemmings are so angry about it.
I’d rather live alone and take up even cheaper and more addicting vices while driving a beater and watching old tv shows that I pirate.
Are you me? Get out of my head!
IDK but all the Little Debbie type cake things really do taste like wax to me now. And they used to be good, somewhat
I can’t speak for the rest but nutty bars are great. I put them in the freezer.
Aren’t these called “Nutty Buddy”? Am I crazy? Or is this a different countries have different names for it thing?
I definitely remember them as nutty buddy - how odd
Looks like its not a Berenstain Bears thing
Man, I thought they looked off in the picture. I didn’t look into it though. I kept thinking Nutter Butter but then I remembered those are the cookies.
Yeah, as I was looking through the picture, those are the only ones I think I’d eat. The rest are straight ass.
So I found this to be true EXCEPT when purchasing from costco. I’m guessing they won’t accept inferior products like this because the few Little Debbie purchases I’ve made there have tasted the same as they did when I was a kid
Plus they’re dirt cheap. For a box of 48 oatmeal cookie creme pies it’s $10!
Now if only I could afford the costco trip. It always ends up being $200 and I don’t have that money ;_;
Imma go ahead and render my fatass opinion. Those chocolate cupcakes, the ones with the little swirl across the top of the icing, are DOGSHIT NOW! they’re tiny, much smaller than I remember, the cake is dry as fuck, they barely put any cream filling in them, and the icing on the top is dry and brittle.
Wonder bread makes a version of that little debbie chocolate cupcake, its got little confetti sprinkles on the top instead of a swirl and it is AMAZING! the cake is moist and it is significantly larger than the former, while still having 8 cakes per box (at a similar / same price). the icing is soft and sweet, and they do a really good job of putting the right amount of cream in them.
Thank you for your fatass opinion. I won’t go out and get any for myself but I’m goad there’s still hope out there.
They were popular when I was young, but even them so many were dry?? Maybe I just had very specific taste as a kid. Mom baked a fair deal and taught me how to do I just made cookies myself!
Helps that they’re like $14/box. Most food tastes like shit at that rate
I would argue they never did to begin with.
It might not be 100% the fault of the food…
https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/trends-news/article/sense-of-taste-changes-aging
Thank you for saying that. Every so often I walk by and get a nostalgia craving and really want to get some of them but don’t.
How do you fuck up donuts. I don’t even understand.
Little Debbie is scab food.
Honestly, so many companies deserve boycott it’s kinda hard to keep up with which ones.
Honestly the oatmeal cream pies taste the same, but the vast majority of the rest do taste different.
Wish I could find the article but IIRC they went through enshittification during the aughts. Same company and product lines but they switched to cheaper ingredients and different production lines.
So there might be something to it besides nostalgia and changing taste buds. I can think of certain breakfast cereals that haven’t gotton worse over the same time period, just way more expensive.
Sugary wax. So many baked goods that used to be good are now drowned in sugar while every other tasty ingredient is diminished.
