Of late I’ve noticed a substantial change to some of the sweets I like. They’ve all taken on a decidedly unpleasant mouth feel and flavour. At first it was Goodies. They were one of my favourites, but they’re now oddly textured. They’re sandy and the taste is all wrong. This happened right when they were slapped with the infamous “new and improved” labels after some genius figured it was a good idea to dick around with the formula. Now my favourite Croatian saltwater taffys, Kiki, are similarly ruined. They have the same odd mouthfeel and flavour that destroyed my love for Goodies. Kikis, something made and marketed by Kras for probably 100 years, are now inedible to me. Even my kids, who loved the, refuse to eat them.
It all reminds me of Mike Stivick’s famous retort when Gloria brought something home that was labeled “New and Improved!”: “What was the old stuff, then, old and lousy?”
It’s almost as if someone wants to dissuade me from consuming candy. Can’t say that’s a bad thing, but for a candy company it seems like a bad move to irritate long time customers by destroying the very flavour they grew to love. It’s just so New Coke as to not even be funny. I wonder if the quantity of corn syrup has been upped? I did notice that some candies have corn syrup ahead of sugar now, and maybe that’s why I find it unpalatable.