Cold Weather and Faulty Cadbury's Creme Eggs

I had to go to get fish and chips from Brother's fish bar this evening. It was surprisingly cold. As I walked back to the car there were a few flurries of snow. I just wonder whether we'll be under several inches of the white stuff when we wake up tomorrow morning.

As I write this, Alfie is going slightly potty, the game he plays regularly, charging on and off the sofa, running outside into the hallway and then back onto the sofa, growling all the time. Funny little dog has now worn himself out and is curled up on the sofa.

Wednesday afternoon. Not a great deal to write about at the moment. I've just started reading a book called 'Watling Street,'  written by John Higgs. I didn't know of it's existence (the book, not the road.) until I was ordering something else on Amazon and the book came up, as others often do. This is one of the good things about Amazon, you discover books which you would't otherwise come across in a traditional bookshop, however you search. The book is about Watling Street (surprisingly) which runs through Milton Keynes, and the first chapter is about- Milton Keynes.  As I'm interested in history it seemed a book I might enjoy and actually learn something from at the same time.

I'm disappointed with Cadbury's creme eggs. Carol was eager to have some. I spent some time locating some for her when I went shopping. They always seem to appear at this time of year. I'm not sure whether they're meant to be Easter eggs. I haven't seen them much, but eventually got some in Sainsbury's last week, a box of twelve. What has happened to them? Many have been squashed. The wrapping on some of them hasn't exactly wrapped the contents properly. I formulate a  reason; Cadbury's was taken over by an American company, Kraft, not long ago. They got their hands on an iconic British company and have now ruined many of the classic products that Cadbury's made, one of them being the famous creme eggs. They seem to have thinner chocolate. Which would account for the fact that some of the twelve were squashed. Not just creme eggs, ruined.  I reckon, but I'm not sure, but I reckon these creme eggs are a good deal smaller than they used to be. Crunchie seems less chocolatey. They've messed with the famous Milk Chocolate, done something to the original recipe. How dare they! Keep your hands off our products! But, you might be saying, perhaps the creme eggs you had were  faulty batch, why not complain to Cadbury's. Well, possibly. But that would take a lot of time and effort and incur costs.  It's the same as when Nestlé bought Rowntrees Macintosh and started messing about with fruit pastilles. Trying to take away the famous ridges on these sweets, sold in tubes. Also, changing the Smarties tube, from a lovely tube into a horrible multi-sided monstrosity. Leave well alone. Do these companies never learn? A bit like when Kellogg's tried to change the size of their breakfast cereal packets, and made them too big to fit into the average kitchen cupboard. Crazy! Do they never do any market research? Find out what the average shopper or user of their products actually likes or, indeed, wants?

A Few More Little Annoyances and Irritations

Why do manufacturers have to change products? Why is it that your favourite brands, particularly food-items, sweets, chocolates, biscuits and other products, which you've probably had since childhood, have to be re-packaged, fiddled with, as you have probably been used to them in a certain way for so long? I mean, Rowntrees fruit gums, a favourite of mine, and enjoyed since I was quite young. They had a sort of set of 'bumps' on one side, sort of raised pimples (I can think of no better way to describe them, but quite unique to these sweets.) When Nestle's took over Rowntrees-Macintosh, they attempted to change these sweets, by taking away these 'ridges' or 'bumps' on these fruit gums.Probably been like that for over 100 years or so. Just a way to cut down on production costs, simplifying the making of them in some way (but in reality just changing them without any warning to their loyal customers) The new version of the fruit gum were just plain flat discs of gum and nothing else. I don't think they left them like this for too long, because eventually they changed them back to what they had always been. 

They changed the packaging of Smarties, from lovely little tubes with plastic stoppers, which were classic in design. Then they had to change them to being hexagonal instead of tubular (not round) and just plain horrible, without any sort of stopper (made of card, actually quite a clever design from folding the card without having to have a metal or plastic stopper.) But nevertheless, fiddled with by Nestle's. I never liked the idea of this once-great British company being taken over by a foreign company. Nestle took over quite a lot of companies, such as the company which makes Shredded Wheat as well as Lyon's ice-cream. Just made it into a large conglomerate, sadly. 

We always had a family-sized tin of Quality Street at Christmas when I was a child. There's something familiar about the sweets you get in the selection. I don't think they've changed them for decades. But I had a box given to me (when Carol was in hospital) and munched my way steadily through the box. There was something not quite right with them, something was different. Why had Nestle thought it necessary to fiddle with such a classic brand? The tasteis as I remember for most of the selection, but I'm sure they're a good deal smaller in size and those with chocolate on them, the layer of chocolate is far thinner. Just a ploy by Nestle to make the sweets smaller and less chocolatey but you still pay more or less the same price as before. Shocking. Pity Rowntrees Macintosh can't be bought back into British ownership and return their products to what they were before Nestle bought the business.

Cadbury's went the same way, a once-proud British company, taken over by Kraft, an American conglomerate, best known for making Kraft cheese, a disgusting tasting mush as well as Bird's coffee. Also, Bird's Mild coffee. Can't think of the actual name of the product. Yuk. If you're going to have a cup of coffee, at least have a cup that tastes of coffee, not bland and tasteless like this brand. If you go through Banbury you pass the kraft factory, which smells of this horrible artificial coffee, which is enough to put you off coffee for life. Just a pity that Cadbury's is now just part of yet another conglomerate. I think when it comes down to brass tacks, the Cadbury shareholders were more interested in the amount they'd make from the shares when they got taken over and couldn't have cared less what happened to the business. A shame, really, but when money is involved, that seems to have priority over what the buying public wants or likes. Infact, I don't believe the public has any say in such matters, except when the company leaves classic brands alone and doesn't have to change them. I can't think of anything that Cadbury's new owners did to change any of their classic products (such as Dairy Milk, Crunchie, or any other chocolate coated brands, including Flake, Double Decker etc etc.) Probably less actual chocolate in them, not that you'd notice.

Another brand that has been altered. Not made by either Nestle or Cadbury's or even Kraft. It's Wagon Wheels, a favourite from when I was at school. But I had one when we bought some a while ago and they seem so much smaller. Thinner, too, with less chocolate. I suppose manufacturers are attempting to be less wasteful of materials, more environmentally-friendly, making products more efficiently, but it's a bit of a cheat to make them smaller and expect you to pay the same. Originally these chocolate-coated biscuits were quite big (or is it they seemed so when I was a child, and now I'm an adult they only seems smaller because I've got bigger? Just an illusion ? Probably not. They just seem smaller.