This topic contains 27 replies, has 0 voices, and was last updated by 
John In Seattle 14 years, 7 months ago.
quote:
Originally posted by twinwillow
This is yet just another example of the "corporatizing" and buying up of
America by large conglomerates!
I grew up in the 50’s enjoying Breyers ice cream-as well as other delightful products only to have to stop eating them today because they, SUCK!
I have only my memories and these forums to share my grief with others to satiate my disatisfaction with today’s food products.
CORPORATE AMERICA-WAKE UP!!!!!!
The handful of "artisan" mom and pop places produce lovely products but, because they are so specliaized, they are not only very expensive but hard to find unless you are savy to their websites or live in the cities they call home.
Take "Vosges" chocolates. They are in Chicago and a handful of Wholefoods stores and some larger dept. stores. Did you ever price their chocolates?
Their stuff is fabulous and, fabulously EXPENSIVE!
Ok, don’t want to get away from this topic. So, for the record, I don’t eat Breyer’s ice cream anymore either! Did you HEAR that Van den Berg foods!
This is yet just another example of the "corporatizing" and buying up of
America! by large conglomerates.
I grew up in the 50’s enjoying Breyers ice cream-as well as other delightful products only to have to stop eating them today because they, SUCK!
I have only my memories and these forums to share my grief with others to satiate my disatifaction with today’s food products.
CORPORATE AMERICA-WAKE UP!!!!!!
The handful of "artisan" mom and pop places produce lovely products but, because they are so specliaized, they are not only very expensive but hard to find unless you are savy to their websites or live in the cities they call home.
Take "Vosges" chocolates. They are in Chicago and a handful of Wholefoods stores and some larger dept. stores. Did you ever price their chocolates?
Their stuff is fabulous and fabulously EXPENSIVE!
Ok, don’t want to get away from this topic. So, for the record, I don’t eat Breyer’s ice cream anymore either! Did you HEAR that Van den Berg foods!
Breyers, Good Humor, and now Ben and Jerry’s are all owned by Van Den Berg Foods/, the English/Dutch conglomerate which has been (forgive the pun) swallowing up American companies for years and then cheapening the products in an effort to squeeze more profits from them.
My sister works for this company, and has expressed utter frustration over their mishandling and manipulation of these products.
Good Humor, once the cadillac of ice cream novelties has been cheapened so much that you can no longer tell the difference between a "real" good humor bar and many of the lower priced knockoffs. Ben and Jerry’s has already shown a dimunition in the amount of "goodies" in their flavors, as well as a drop in the smoothness of the ice cream. Breyers has been maintained as "milk, cream, sugar, eggs" and no artificial ingredients for the most part, but as noted above the "real" chocolate is gone, and many of the other mix-ins will be lower quality in the future as well.
Among the products this company controls, Lipton beverages, Lipeon soup and side dishes, Knorr Products, Adolph’s products, Ragu products, Shedd’s Spread products, all of the former Cheseborough Pond’s lines, and all of the former Lever Brothers (Unilever) products.
Their modus operandi is to cheapen all the products, discontinue most r&d geared towards improvements, squeeze every last drop out of the line, and then abandon it completely, or sell the line off.
Such a shame.
at first, when my family began to complain about the change in breyers ice cream, i didn’t think much of it, until i had a late night craving for mint choclate chip ice cream.
the second i opened the box in a near dark kitchen, i immediately noticed that there were fewer, and larger, flatter chips. at first, i thought, ‘ok, this must be the change’, until i put a spoonful of it in my mouth.
ugh! what happened to the consistency?? it tasted gummy and gooey like all of the cheaper supermarket brands. and, with the ‘chips’ (are they really fake??? i won’t eat modified and artificial food!!) fewer and flatter between, the whole consistency of what used to be a great ice cream has changed.
years ago, ‘heath bar’ changed their candy bar by replacing the natural vanilla, for a cheaper vanillin susbstitute, and customers complained. and guess what? the company reverted back to the original formula. upon hearing that, i’ve been eating ‘heath bars’ ever since.
i think there’s one thing the consumers who may not like breyers original formula and unilever don’t understand, is that the fans of the original formula bought it because it was different and we liked the simple ingredients, and the grainy texture. it had a cleaner, more natural taste. the non-fans have a plethora of gooey, guar gum, carageenan ice cream from which to choose. we were a faithful bunch, that has been abandoned. so now, from soap to butter almond ice cream, i will buy from unilever’s competitors, along with every buying member of my large extended family, ages 12 to 78.
quote:
Originally posted by spicoli
quote:
Originally posted by John In Seattle
Unilever has responded. Here is one paragraph from their letter:quote:
unilever
Many consumers described our former chocolate chips as hard and waxy. After much consideration, we changed our chocolate chips in response to consumer requests for an improved and tastier inclusion. We decided the new chocolate chips delivered a softer texture and better chocolate flavor.While I sincerely appreciate that they took the time to respond without using a form letter, I find it very hard to believe that consumers were requesting that they use fake chocolate, and that fake chocolate could have a better chocolate flavor .
Typical Corporate PR BS. Really frustrating that they hide "Bottom Line" decisions behind fake customer preference decisions.
When McDonalds was recently questioned about why they use Hydrogenized oils in their US restaurants, but not in their European ones, they gave the same "taste preference" responses, when really, Hydrogenized oils are cheaper.
maybe someday, they’ll just tell the truth.
Indeed. Real scientific taste testing involves lots and lots of people and trials and blinds and double blinds–wouldn’t you like to meet this large bunch of people who expressed a marked preference for hydrogenated oils and fake chocolate chips? They probably all live in Roswell, NM, and the corporations just send over a bus when they need spurious substantiation of their decision to AGAIN lower the quality of their offerings.
No offense to the real residents of Roswell.
Catherine
quote:
Originally posted by Jennifer_4
the very term "chocolate chip" has changed from my childhood… I enjoyed more of a chocolate flake..whereas today’s is chocolate chunk.. I prefer the flakes because the taste is spread out more and it melts more easily on your tongue.. I don’t want big chunks of frozen chocolate in my iced cream.
Baskin Robbins is the only place around here that I still can get old fashioned chocolate chip.
I just had some mint chocolate chip the other day from Baskin Robbins. I have to say, I rather injoyed it. I havn’t had baskin-Robbins in years, but the realors of our building threw an ice-cream social, so Baskin-Robbins was the only choice. It tasted exactly as remember it from the Baskin-Robbins in Penn-Can Mall in North syracuse NY in the 70’s. Too bad they didn’t have the bubble-gum ice-cream that had the 1-Cent gum balls in it.
quote:
Originally posted by John In Seattle
Unilever has responded. Here is one paragraph from their letter:quote:
unilever
Many consumers described our former chocolate chips as hard and waxy. After much consideration, we changed our chocolate chips in response to consumer requests for an improved and tastier inclusion. We decided the new chocolate chips delivered a softer texture and better chocolate flavor.While I sincerely appreciate that they took the time to respond without using a form letter, I find it very hard to believe that consumers were requesting that they use fake chocolate, and that fake chocolate could have a better chocolate flavor .
Typical Corporate PR BS. Really frustrating that they hide "Bottom Line" decisions behind fake customer preference decisions.
When McDonalds was recently questioned about why they use Hydrogenized oils in their US restaurants, but not in their European ones, they gave the same "taste preference" responses, when really, Hydrogenized oils are cheaper.
maybe someday, they’ll just tell the truth.
I don’t even buy from the supermarket anymore for ice cream…
Schwan’s is the only place my mom and I will eat ice cream from. I’ll have the occasional Blue Bunny now and then…but Schwan’s ice cream tastes way better.
Glad I found this forum. I thought that I was the only one who wondered… What the heck have they done to Breyers??? I’m a Mint Chocolate Chip guy, but as a kid I even used to enjoy their vanilla, especialy with plenty of U-Bet poured over it.
Don’t know what they did, but the sharp vanilla base of both flavors tastes more like French Vanilla. Way too creamy for my taste. What a disappointment. Gotta go to Baskin for a Mint CC fix.[/font=Verdana][/font=Verdana]
R.I.P. Breyer’s in general. Not only have they quietly eased away from their formerly proud (and rightfully so) stance of "all-natural" on many of their products, they’ve gone very quietly from half-gallons to a smaller size, 1.75 liters or quarts or something. And John is dead on target: their taste is gone. It’s a sad day.
I agree i think Breyers sucks! it is absolutely the worst ice cream in the supermarket. It tastes fake like they use some sort of fat free skim milk, the texture is bad, I like ice cream that has a creamy texture to it and breyers doesnt have this. It has such an icy texture. My husband loves Breyer’s and I cant figure out why. Breyers is at the bottom of my list along with Hershey’s chocolate.
The concept that "chocolate flavored chips" have a "better chocolate flavor" than chocolate is interesting.
Unilever has responded. Here is one paragraph from their letter:
quote:
unilever
Many consumers described our former chocolate chips as hard and waxy. After much consideration, we changed our chocolate chips in response to consumer requests for an improved and tastier inclusion. We decided the new chocolate chips delivered a softer texture and better chocolate flavor.
While I sincerely appreciate that they took the time to respond without using a form letter, I find it very hard to believe that consumers were requesting that they use fake chocolate, and that fake chocolate could have a better chocolate flavor .
quote:
Originally posted by enginecapt
quote:
Originally posted by BT
But, of course, I think mint chocolate chip is disgusting anyway and I’ll never understand how it got so popularBecause people like me love it so much.
You: Mint chocolate chip
Me: Vinegar
You vinegar what? You don’t like it? I love it–drink it straight out of the bottle. Really. Not sure I’d like vinegar-flavored ice cream though.
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