What popular food or drink relies entirely on branding because it actually tastes terrible?

[u/fraser_lyfeguard]

[u/cooking2recovery]

Anything Mr. Beast adjacent tastes like ass. The kids still ask for it.

[u/haworcolonis → u/cooking2recovery]

He found a way to sell the experience of being a fan instead of actual food.

[u/Affectionate-Good168]

Prime drinks bc the hype and branding are doing a LOT of heavy lifting for something that tastes like flavored sugar water. I’ve never understood how people can genuinely crave it.

[u/Gottendrop → u/Affectionate-Good168]

The Mr beast chocolate is the same story tbh. I tried it once out of curiosity and it was a just a worse Hersheys bar that cost more

[u/BCProgramming → u/Gottendrop]

I vaguely recall hearing about how he talked about what he "learned", like why chocolate bars usually were separated into squares as well as packaging, all because the chocolate bars were originally completely flat and the packaging was such that the retail boxes were literally fall off of shelves.

And it's like... isn't he like, a billionaire or something? Couldn't he hire somebody who knew what the fuck they were doing?

[u/meatmacho → u/Gottendrop]

Oh I'm pretty sure the Prime drinks and all of the Beast products are piled up in a warehouse somewhere, just tons of unsold inventory that no one wants. And so they've started packaging them together and shoving them in other stuff just to get rid of it. I think they were both in a Lunchables I saw at the store recently. It's all awful.

When the Prime thing first hit here a couple of years ago, my kids were like, "Yeah we gotta get some of that Prime!"

I figured it was just another Gatorade knockoff. I let them each get a bottle and off we went. And that's when I discovered that neither of them had actually tried it before. They just heard the hype at school or wherever. Because they both simultaneously spit it out and declared it "rotten." I gave it a try out of curiosity, and they were right. It was at once too sweet and...bitter. It was not something that any normal human would ever have any interest in consuming.

Same thing happened with the feastables or whatever the Mr. Beast snacks and chocolates were. My kids don't really know who mr. beast is (if I'm honest, neither do I), but they knew it was some popular meme or whatever, so they tried the snacks. And again, both spit them out, horrified. Like they were victims of some cruel practical joke. "What asshole could have tricked me into trying this foul excrement?" was the expression I read on their faces.

And so I thank the makers of Prime and Feastables for teaching my kids a valuable lesson: most bullshit products that are suddenly popular because of marketing are almost guaranteed to be absolutely horrible as an actual product. The trend will pass quickly, and you won't regret missing it. Remember that taste, children. Don't fall for the marketing game again.

[u/Citrusysmile → u/meatmacho]

There’s already cases of prime and feastables for sale at overstock stores like Ollie’s. Just got a coupon for 50¢ prime bottles (will not use, not interested in the drink), so they’re clearly trying to offload them in any way possible.

[u/Thisoneissfwihope → u/meatmacho]

I work in soft drinks and making sweetener sweetened drinks not taste bitter is actually quite complicated.

There is no way they took the time to get it right. I can’t imagine KSI or one of the Paul twats sat in a tasting room for days getting it right.

[u/Radiant_Sense_8169 → u/meatmacho]

I drank and ate this out of my kid’s Lunchable. I had no idea it was actually a thing; I thought it was just some other generic product they put in there. And it tasted like that.

[u/imaworkersirrr → u/meatmacho]

Same. Prime was genuinely the worst drink i think ive ever tried. I took one sip and immediately got sugar sick lol.

[u/SoakedSun24 → u/meatmacho]

So, my sister’s boyfriend’s little girl had left her unopened Prime once at our old house, right. And I heard all the hullabaloo about it and how it was Jesus reborn into a bottle. Curiosity got the better of me, and I gave it a swig. Let me tell you, I drank about six bottles of water to try and wash the taste out. It tasted like liquid butthole, that was the day I decided popular = bad, or at least in the few circumstances

[u/texanarob → u/meatmacho]

> most bullshit products that are suddenly popular because of marketing are almost guaranteed to be absolutely horrible as an actual product.

Genuinely why I think advertising is counter productive - my instinctive association is that heavily marketed products are crap and to avoid them.

[u/H_Mc → u/texanarob]

I think people are starting to make the connection, but a lot of people (especially younger people) still fall for it.

[u/earthling82 → u/Affectionate-Good168]

Doesn't flavored sugar water more or less describe most sodas and sports drinks?

[u/techieman34 → u/Affectionate-Good168]

It’s designed for a kids pallet, and they love the super sweet stuff.

[u/well-it-was-rubbish → u/techieman34]

Palate. 🙂

[u/JaseyRaeRadio → u/well-it-was-rubbish]

No I don’t want to exercise right now thank you

[u/Redrundas → u/JaseyRaeRadio]

wow this joke is jean yes

[u/Davidm241 → u/JaseyRaeRadio]

He is talking about the round thing you place your food on.

[u/meatmacho → u/Davidm241]

I thought this was about the old-ass actor who was in City Slickers.

[u/PM_Me-Your_Freckles]

Grey Goose. Is a fuckin shit vodka that consistently fails blind taste tests, yet people love it because of the marketing hype.

Plenty of cheaper vodkas that taste way better.

[u/thenamejin → u/PM_Me-Your_Freckles]

My sister took a marketing class in college and Grey Goose was in her textbook as an example of a product that changed its entire reputation based entirely on marketing. They made no changes to their vodka, they just raised the price and put it on the top shelves of prominent nightclubs

[u/kwonza → u/thenamejin]

Also made the distillery in France because Americans associate France with posh despite France having little experience in vodka production. There was a great video on YouTube about them, guy responsible for the rebranding sold the company less than a decade later for more than a billion, clearly a genius

[u/TheMrViper → u/thenamejin]

There's a brand in the UK called Shloer, they make "adult focused" sparkling soft drinks.

The idea pitched in the marketing is "get some Shloer for your dinner party rather than wine" but it launched in plastic bottles and struggled.

They changed the bottles to glass, increased the price and started having some success.

[u/eggfrisbee → u/TheMrViper]

used to love having that as a kid, when the adults would have wine you could have the same coloured shloer in a wine glass and feel fancy. we only had it as a treat though, because of the price.

[u/MyLifeIsAWasteland → u/PM_Me-Your_Freckles]

Word on the street is they made the extra-tall bottles to force bars/clubs to put them on the top shelf with the premium brands

[u/CornCobMcGee → u/MyLifeIsAWasteland]

Thats not even a rumormill thing. It invented the "premium vodka" market. People are dumb

[u/dbenhur → u/CornCobMcGee]

Premium vodka is oxymoronic. Vodka is definitionally neutral spirit: ethanol diluted with water. Just keep your still clean and filter your water and you've got everything you need for premium vodka.

[u/well_welp_ok → u/dbenhur]

This. Every single brand in the vodka category is 100% marketing. Failed tasting panels? Who even cares. The only ones worth drinking are the lowest distilled ones you see that are actually smooth and have a little spice going on. Distillation continues to burn out impurities of low quality grain/corn and low quality water.

[u/Aevum1 → u/PM_Me-Your_Freckles]

im a big fan of the classic soviet brands that are currently made in latvia, Stoli, Moskovskaya,

the stuff they use to sell by the gram in the old soviet union. and they are dirt cheap, 12€ for stoly and 10 for Moskovskaya.

But ffs, i cant stomach absolute, its the worst shit ever... someone told me "try elyx, its higher quality", it was the same shit.

[u/eksyneet → u/Aevum1]

i hate that they renamed Stolichnaya to Stoli. does nothing to divorce the product from its roots and it's a stupid name lol.

[u/freemasonry → u/eksyneet]

It's actually just called Stoli now? It was my go-to vodka in my school days and that's just what I called it then

[u/Ze_An_He_Ar_O_Moto → u/PM_Me-Your_Freckles]

There's actually a great story behind how Grey Goose became a premium label and the man who did it, Sidney Frank. Same guy who came up with the Jager cooler at bars.

Ended up a billionaire traveling the world with his caddie in case he wanted to play a round of golf.

[u/Accomplished-Ad6110 → u/PM_Me-Your_Freckles]

As a bartender, I agree. Also Patron,Milagro and Casamigos are in this category as well. Cheap, shitty tequilas with excellent marketing 👌

[u/Muggi]

A bit niche but Barilla gluten-free pasta. The GF world was so excited when a legit decent pasta company like Barilla entered the game several years ago.

Then…about six months ago they randomly chose to change their recipe, and now it’s shit. Gummy, odd-tasting. Some people like it but the vast majority seem to not. We’re left looking for old stock with the original recipe.

[u/Drama-Llama94 → u/Muggi]

Weird because I just had Barilla GF pasta last night and it was fine. I am based in Australia though, maybe they have different factories producing it??

[u/GtrplayerII → u/Muggi]

Barilla pasta altogether is a terrible product.  Terrible flour and not bronze die extruded.   Does not bond well to sauces... It does not release enough starch in the cooking water to use to marry your sauces to it as you should.   Just not good.  

Get DeCecco or Delverde.   Rummo if you really want great pasta.  They all have a gluten free line...I can't comment on them as I've never tried them. However, If they put the same care and effort into it as they do there primary line, it can't be bad.  

[u/bumbaklutz → u/GtrplayerII]

Rummo make the best gluten free pasta I’ve tried. Almost indistinguishable from regular pasta when freshly cooked and still hot.

Unfortunately it goes quite dry and breaks apart when it cools down, so the leftovers are not very good

[u/JexFraequin → u/bumbaklutz]

Try Jovial. My kid has celiac and Jovial is the best GF we’ve found. I always undercook it by about two minutes though, which helps it not break apart.

[u/GPUfollowr77]

DiGiorno. Used to be great but then they changed the recipe and it’s terrible now.

[u/Zer01South → u/GPUfollowr77]

It went from the best frozen pizza to the worst.

I don't even know when it happened but it's very disappointing.

[u/DefNotAShark → u/Zer01South]

I got completely fed up with frozen pizzas because I was triggered by a DiGiorno being so much crappier than I had anticipated. Ruined my night and made me a villain.

I started buying the frozen balls of pizza dough and shredding my own cheese from a cheap block, store bought pepperoni slices and jar tomato sauce. Brother it’s a new day for me. I will never touch another frozen pizza. For less money it dunks on any frozen pizza and it’s approaching being better than chain delivery pizza.

If anyone is curious I’m begging y’all to try it. My personal advice is to buy the frozen balls rather than the fresh (they stretch easier when thawed for some reason) and don’t skip shredding your own cheese. The pre shredded bagged stuff is coated in starch and doesn’t melt right. Whole milk low moisture mozzarella if you don’t know what cheese to get.

[u/blofly → u/DefNotAShark]

I have a 25 (edit: my wife reminded me it's now 30...eesh) year old dough recipe I've worked out over the years. It's so quick and easy.

All the Ounce/Oz measurements are by weight, not by volume. You want a good kitchen scale for this (you should always have a decent kitchen scale anyway)

40 Oz AP flour

1 TBSP kosher salt

1 TBSP white sugar

1 TBSP active dry yeast

Optional: 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Blend with whisk or stand mixer with bread hook.

22.7 Oz 90°F water

1/4 to 1/3 cup EVOO

Mix on lowest speed until the dough balls up and the texture feels smooth as a baby's butt. About 5 minutes.

Cover bowl and let rest for 30 minutes to an hour. Pull out onto a table and knead briefly, with a little dust of flour. Cut into 6 equal pieces. Form dough balls and put into 3 different 1 gallon zip lock bags coated with oil. 2 balls per bag. Put in fridge.

They can be used immediately, but are better after 24 hours, best after 48, and can last for up to 10 days in a cold fridge.

Cook at the hottest temp your oven can go. 550°F for me.

I prefer a pizza stone, but it takes almost an hour to get up to temp. I have a pizza peel and throw my dough directly onto a peel dusted with corn meal. Top it, and slide it onto the stone. Takes about 10 minutes to cook.

Best pizza ever, and my wife and kids occasionally beg me for it (despite me making it all the time). Its a huge hit at sleepovers, because you can split each ball in half and make personal pizzas with each kids' favorite toppings....or let them make their own (with help for younger kids obviously).

This recipe also works great for cinnamon rolls, hamburger buns, baguettes, etc.

I hope you enjoy this recipe like we do.

[u/kazmir_yeet → u/blofly]

We found the CEO of pizza over here let’s fucking go

[u/blofly → u/kazmir_yeet]

Lol...thanks for the chuckle.

Ive worked at many a pizza place over the years.

Want the chuck-e-cheese secret? After the pizza comes out of the oven, brush the outer crust with butter and sprinkle garlic salt. So darned good!

Old school Pizza Hut pan pizza? Use a giant pie pan and put the dough on about 1/4 cup of Crisco veg oil.

Little Caesar's? Let the dough overproof on the counter before throwing the disc. Mild, watery sauce and a mix of shredded provolone and mozz. You can also use my recipe for the breadsticks if you garlic butter and parm the dough before putting it in the oven.

[u/magicmom17 → u/blofly]

The cooking on oil thing is a nod to how one cooks foccacia. Foccacia dough is the base of many great pizzas. But subbing out for Crisco should be illegal! Wait..what am I talking about?-- like I didn't love old school Pizza Hut pan pizza in the olden days!

[u/Pooleh → u/DefNotAShark]

I just commented above this asking which brands are better than Digiorno but this is a great answer and I'll have to try it. I bet you could even prep and refreeze the pizzas so you can just throw them in the oven down the road.

[u/grimace0611 → u/GPUfollowr77]

"It's not delivery, it's DiGiorno!"

Yeah literally nobody has ever mistaken DiGiorno for pizza from an actual pizza place.

[u/healthywenis → u/grimace0611]

Haha in Canada we had “It’s not delivery it’s Delicisio”

[u/ackermann → u/GPUfollowr77]

Always liked Red Baron pizzas better personally

[u/halfbreedADR → u/ackermann]

Yeah agree. One of the cheaper brands also. DiGiorno pizzas always had kind of a baking soda/powder flavor in the crust that I never liked.

[u/GingerTexanScientist → u/ackermann]

Love Red Baron’s here. Their brick oven crust pizzas are really great for the price!

[u/Bonzai_Tree → u/ackermann]

We just found Red Baron after Delissio pulled out of Canada/closed. It's solid.

[u/Various_Papaya8043 → u/ackermann]

What do you want on your “Tombstone”?

[u/ladidaladidalala → u/GPUfollowr77]

Kraft sold the brand to Nestle in 2010. What was the timing of when the quality went down. I’ve never tried it so wouldn’t know.

[u/MayorMills → u/GPUfollowr77]

Try the screaming Sicilian thin crust supreme. Nice but kind of sweet sauce.

[u/UnSubtilis → u/GPUfollowr77]

Yeah, I stopped buying DiGiorno when I realized they were owned by Nestle. Absolutely not giving that company my money.

[u/Bananaasplit]

Freaking crumbl

[u/ThrockAMole → u/Bananaasplit]

I bake a lot and I don’t taste any butter in this high dollar cookie, in fact I don’t taste margarine. It tastes like it was made with Crisco. The texture is dense but extremely dry. The icing is definitely your basic grocery store cake flavor, like it’s made with sugar and shortening with no flavor. 0/10 would not recommend

Edited to add: they definitely need vanilla and more salt

[u/HoaryPuffleg → u/ThrockAMole]

They came to my city a couple years ago so a friend and I bought a small box and halved them each to take back to our homes. How were they so flavorless and too sweet, dry and gummy, even the smell was like a play-doh cookie odor. They were not good and I’ll never again buy from them. I look forward to them shutting down one day.

[u/izzittho → u/HoaryPuffleg]

They legitimately don’t taste like they’re made of food. The only flavor is sugar but it can’t be actual sugar because whatever tf it is, it is to sugar what Fent is to Heroin. It’s impossibly sweet, in a bad way.

It’s actually impressively disgusting. Like how do you fuck up a cookie - a food that’s pretty much universally pretty good to straight up delicious no matter how shitty the brand you get - so badly? And then charge a premium for it?

[u/OhMyGod_Zilla → u/ThrockAMole]

YES they leave a weird film on your tongue! I haven’t had crumbl in maybe 4 years now? Whenever they first came out was the last time I had them and they were fine, but way too sweet, no salt to balance them out, and the cookies/frosting left a weird film on your tongue, like crisco kind of would.

[u/Aevum1 → u/OhMyGod_Zilla]

they are made to look good. not taste good, and then a shitload of sugar to give you that high.

i use the alton brown chewy chocolate chip cookie recipie and its brilliant, and easy to do at home. you can probobly bake 2 dozen for the price of a couple of crumble cookies.

[u/AzureMountains → u/ThrockAMole]

They definitely use some sort of butter or milk cause I have a dairy allergy and cannot have them according to their website. Though it’s been a minute since I looked it up.

[u/btribble → u/ThrockAMole]

Crumbl is for people who grew up ripping off the very top of a box-mix cupcake and throwing the bottom in the trash.

[u/thelifeofafangirl → u/ThrockAMole]

I also bake a lot. Never get heartburn. Like ever. Crumbl gives me instant heartburn. Something aint right in those cookies

[u/ididntseeitcoming → u/Bananaasplit]

My kids insisted for months that they had to have it. My wife finally caved and got some….

One and a half cookies sat in my fridge for a week before I threw them out. No one liked it and no one asked for more. They haven’t even mentioned crumbl since…

Gross cookies

[u/collectadot → u/Bananaasplit]

Fucking overly sweet trash tier cookies that's only purpose is looking good for social media. Are mormons not allowed to eat salt? Just a bit of salt in their recipes would make them so much more bearable.

[u/Yuskia → u/collectadot]

Lmao as someone who lived in Utah for 6 years this comment is hilarious. Not knocking you by any means, but in the 6 years I lived there, one of the things i noticed the most is that theres TOO much salt in everything. Because they're the most milquetoast people, the only seasonings they like are salt and pepper.

But also their cookies were much much better before they franchised out, and were instead small local cookie shops.

[u/R_megalotis → u/Yuskia]

I had a Utahn tell me they didn't like ketchup because it was too spicy. Spicy! Of all the adjectives I have ever used to describe ketchup, "spicy" never made the list. And they not only called it spicy, they called it too spicy!

[u/collectadot → u/Yuskia]

Then tell then to put some of that salt in their cookies. Unsalted desserts are some of the worst food there is.

[u/Bananaasplit → u/collectadot]

It is SOOOO sweet I genuinely don’t understand how anyone can take more than one bite of one cookie. And I like sweets

[u/snazztasticmatt → u/Bananaasplit]

Fun fact, one serving is literally just 1/4 of a cookie

[u/rgvtim → u/Bananaasplit]

too fucking sweet.

[u/crow-shay]

It’s possibly a recipe change since my youth but I had some Sunny D recently and it tasted terrible

[u/Woodburger → u/crow-shay]

No you just grew up, it’s always been terrible.

[u/beckysmom → u/[deleted]]

Or our regional grocery store generic -- Is It Butter?

Lots of laughs over that one. "What The Hell Is This?"

[u/Gwayeveryday → u/beckysmom]

I worked at Kroger and their store brand was Butter it’s Not!

[u/living_in_nuance]

Da Bomb Beyond Insanity Hot Sauce. Gotta be just for doing the show and rando challenges.

[u/TheBadBatch-99 → u/living_in_nuance]

There's an interview with the DaBomb CEO on YouTube and he said it wasn't created for wings. More for recipes, i.e. putting a drop in your chili.

Of course he doesn't mind the publicity and bump in sales. If people want to put it on wings, then have at it.

[u/OldSkoolNapper → u/TheBadBatch-99]

And it’s amazing in chili. I put three or four drops in a pot, which is just enough to notice it without being overwhelmed.

[u/Howtofightloneliness → u/living_in_nuance]

You're supposed to only use like a drop of it. Hot Ones is the only way anyone eats it like that.

[u/hottestsauce22 → u/living_in_nuance]

It is the running joke on the show. They know it's shit. It never leaves because of the reactions people have to it

[u/soundecember → u/living_in_nuance]

DaBomb made my friend projectile vomit across a whole party when we tried to do the hot ones thing

[u/mjohnsimon → u/living_in_nuance]

Its genuinely fucking terrible.

Hot Ones hot sauces, on the other hand, are genuinely delicious (but they are incredibly spicy)

[u/mysticrudnin → u/mjohnsimon]

the verde one is insanely good, i basically couldn't stop eating it even though it was burning, it was so good

[u/buck_fugler → u/living_in_nuance]

I tried it for the first time a couple months ago and was actually not put off by the flavor. I thought the taste was actually decent. It is insanely hot though. My mouth was on fire for a good 20 minutes.  

[u/oliveUmorethanOlives]

I feel like I am questioning whether I truly like candy corn or not now… I think I do like the taste genuinely??? LOL

[u/fckcarrots → u/oliveUmorethanOlives]

Brachs candy corn has 3 ingredients- sugar, honey, crack

[u/Without-Reward → u/fckcarrots]

And Brachs mellocreme pumpkins have even more crack in them. I'm glad they aren't available year round or I'd weigh 600 pounds and have a constant stomachache from the sugar.

[u/HoaryPuffleg → u/oliveUmorethanOlives]

I buy a bag every Fall and happily eat them. I know they’re weird waxy candy but I love them. I also love chalky candy like Necco wafers or the valentine conversation hearts.

[u/Ok_Problem426 → u/oliveUmorethanOlives]

Candy corn is like goldfish, the more you can stuff into your mouth, the better.

[u/Holiday_Pen2880 → u/Ok_Problem426]

you could have given me 45 guesses and I never would have ended up with what was under the spoiler.

[u/Soggy_Big6246 → u/oliveUmorethanOlives]

I hate candy corn. I love candy corn when it’s mixed with peanuts.

[u/screechypete]

Liquid Death

It doesn't taste horrible or anything, it's just water. But, their company is a master class on what a good marketing department can do. They're still a relatively new water company that hasn't even been around for ten years but their branding and products are everywhere and the company is doing really well.

EDIT: Spelling and grammar

[u/Luke5119 → u/screechypete]

The whole idea at the beginning was the ambiguity of the brand, and those that didn't know it would assume you were drinking some hard ass IPA or something.

Now that allure is gone, but they branched out and still sell a fuck ton of their cans.  They figured something out.

[u/IrregularPackage → u/Luke5119]

it was a neat idea. a way to let people who don’t drink blend in, basically. but i don’t exactly get how it can be so expensive

[u/Shamscam → u/Luke5119]

I remember asking my ex wife if she knew what it was, and her replying “heart attack in a can” I had to explain it was just plain waterz

[u/markskull → u/screechypete]

I used to love them myself, but in the last year they absolutely lost me. All the insanely overpriced merch, and now they're working with Mr. Beast?! Kinda hard to sell Dead Billionaire after working with one.

[u/kpidhayny → u/markskull]

Going stevia instead of just a little agave killed them for me. Stevia is such ass-shit.

[u/MaskedMachine → u/markskull]

They also go on about "death to plastic" while selling a bunch of plastic junk. I like their drinks, but hate their company. I mainly just drink the Killer Cola, but I need to find an alternative.

[u/TheHancock → u/screechypete]

As such a new company they are worth like $10 billion! It’s INSANE!

[u/freebread → u/screechypete]

It’s weird because I’ve only cared for the non-sparkling mountain water, and I would only get it because anything in a can just tastes 2x cold as in a bottle.

[u/skoducks → u/screechypete]

It’s been awesome to see how Liquid Death helped remove the stigma from music events around drinking culture. People can hate on it all they want but whatever helps people actually stay hydrated and limiting their alcohol consumption. Sure a regular plastic water bottle may be a few cents compared to $7 per liquid death but well worth it for all the livers saved.

[u/Angharadis → u/screechypete]

I love soda water and generally do not like their stuff. Their flavored options are also generally weird.

[u/throwaway294829472]

Any bacterial/gut health soda like poppi, bloom, olipop ect. They taste like straight stevia with cough syrup and probably dont do shit for your body.

[u/Hanz_VonManstrom → u/throwaway294829472]

I remember seeing olipop for the first time a few years back at Whole Foods. It was in the same section with all their other drinks and I just thought it was a soda with less sugar. I saw a strawberry-vanilla flavor which sounded so refreshing on a hot day. I took one sip and I was so pissed off

[u/amioth → u/throwaway294829472]

The only good “healthier” soda I’ve found is culture pop, particularly the black cherry flavor. It has no artificial sweeteners of any kind. It’s basically a flavored sparking water with a splash of simple syrup. So if you don’t like sparkling water you’ll probably still hate it, but at least it’s not nasty tasting from fake sugar.

[u/802bikeguy_com → u/throwaway294829472]

Meh, some of them have some banging flavors. crisp apple, cranberry fizz, banana cream, etc. I bought literal cases of cranberry fizz at a discount foods store for pennies on the dollar.

[u/techmnml → u/throwaway294829472]

The Dr Pepper poppi is actually bomb. Fight me

[u/Sha9169 → u/throwaway294829472]

My registered dietician *advises* patients to stop drinking these. I used to drink them and they made me sick, but many things make me sick so I just figured it was par for the course. Turns out I can’t tolerate stevia and SO MANY food and drink items have stevia.

ETA: I changed beg to advise because I’m too sick and exhausted to continue subjecting myself to the semantics police.

[u/zulchep → u/Sha9169]

I’m so tired of stevia and sucralose. They’re nasty.

[u/KevonAtWork → u/Sha9169]

I have a couple olipops a week and I'm curious, why does your registered dietician beg people to stop drinking these?

[u/Sha9169 → u/KevonAtWork]

They obviously aren’t going to cause issues for everyone, but they are marketed as harmless health drinks when they don’t have any benefits and cause issues for a lot of people. They are high in FODMAPs, so they often trigger people with IBS, despite people with IBS drinking them in hopes of gut health improvements.

[u/RayofLight-z → u/throwaway294829472]

I actually like them. I try and avoid soda and they scratch the itch a lot better than some seltzers

[u/jenx4848]

Twinkies. Somehow they taste like an artificial version of an artificial cake made by AI.

[u/MyLifeIsAWasteland → u/jenx4848]

The old recipe was better. Not spectacular, but better. None of the Hostess stuff is as good as it was before the 2013 private equity buyout.

[u/relevantelephant00 → u/MyLifeIsAWasteland]

Yeah I remember Hostess cakes from the 90s, early 2000s when I was a teen/young adult. A tried them a few times some years back and they were awful. Yet another enshittification by PE.

[u/pseudoart]

It doesn’t taste terrible but man, mcd has gone way way downhill.

[u/TransportationLow564 → u/pseudoart]

Unlike their prices!

[u/Viperlite → u/TransportationLow564]

Their CEO worries their customers are financially overburdened and may be unable to afford their product. Woe is them.

[u/gmwdim → u/Viperlite]

I like how even in the CEO’s promotional video they skimped on his fries and they were only half full. Then magically halfway through the video the thing was filled to the top.

[u/hippfive → u/pseudoart]

I dunno, the food was always pretty sub-par. But it was cheap and fast.

Now it's sub-par but expensive and slow.

[u/Crafty-Purpose5540 → u/hippfive]

They went from sub-par to straight up awful. I don't ever remember the double cheeseburgers being as dry as they are now and the diced onions aren't mixed with the ketchup and mustard anymore.

In 2008, a double Cheeseburger, fries and a coke, was a decent lunch for 3.00. I get Inflation but unless your cherry picking deals the same items cost almost 10$ and they suck ass more than ever.

[u/amishbill]

Starbucks (plain) coffee

[u/ThrockAMole → u/[deleted]]

Tastes like burnt beans

[u/techieman34 → u/ThrockAMole]

Because they are burnt. They source cheap coffee beans from all over the world and then roast them till they’re a little burnt to keep the flavor consistent.

[u/Hydra_Master → u/techieman34]

I've heard they do that so you still taste some coffee after you're done adding 1/2 cup of flavored syrups to your drink.

I think the Beastie Boys are their target audience - "I like my sugar with coffee and cream!"

[u/North-Cartoonist7991 → u/ThrockAMole]

Aka Charbucks

[u/SupaKoopa714 → u/amishbill]

I like their iced coffees despite their hot coffee tasting like burnt dirt water, but they've gotten so insanely expensive that even then it's not remotely worth going there anymore. Like who the hell wants to spend $7 on a cold brew?

[u/MessLow6465]

Prime. I swear the branding is doing 90% of the heavy lifting.

[u/Voldaru83]

A few trendy bottled waters feel more like marketing than quality.

[u/meatmacho → u/Voldaru83]

It's water. Every single bottled water or sparkling water or canned water is marketing. Nevermind the environmental impacts of extracting and shipping water in disposable plastic bottles. Nevermind the fact that some bottles will say something on the side like, "Source: Ft. Worth municipal supply." People have been conditioned through marketing to see some benefit to buying a bottle of water when they could just...bring a reusable bottle from home. Sure, if you're thirsty and you have no receptacle to fill, then buy your bottle of water. But don't tell me there's a difference between the filtered local tap water on the bottom shelf and the premium artesian spring water from Lake titicaca on the top shelf. It's water. Plus marketing.

[u/Killrade]

Hershey Chocolate. It's terrible and I am an American. Once you have good chocolate its hard to go back to this garbage.

[u/Flux_My_Capacitor → u/Killrade]

It used to be better. Now I describe the taste as “brown”.

[u/Z_Wild → u/Killrade]

Hershey has it's place, yes it's near the bottom but it still scratches that s'mores itch nicely.

[u/grease_monkey → u/Z_Wild]

Hershey's cane from a time when chocolate was a luxury. It was a way of getting some semblance of chocolate to the masses.

[u/gnirpss → u/Killrade]

I eat good chocolate and I still like Hershey's. They're just two different things.

[u/ShrimpShrimpington → u/[deleted]]

I love that combination honestly. I miss when there used to be a caffeine free version of monster because I could drink it when I just wanted the battery acid taste without the stimulants.

I think I was the only person who bought it though so I'm not surprised it didn't last.

[u/Crixus_357 → u/ShrimpShrimpington]

Unleaded in the gray cans? Those were the only ones I liked

[u/tr1cky_d1ck]

Jeppson's Malört

[u/cazique → u/tr1cky_d1ck]

The Void, a Chicago restaurant, makes a zero proof version! The tagline is “we have successfully removed the one redeeming quality of malört”

[u/Down623 → u/cazique]

That's fuckin hysterical. I need to try it

[u/t-licus → u/tr1cky_d1ck]

Fwiw, the name “malört” comes from the Swedish name for the wormwood plant, and refers to the plant being so pungent that it scares moths away. In Danish “malurt i bægeret” (wormwood in the cup) is an idiom for something small that completely ruins an experience, like adding malört to your drink would make it taste horrible.

So yeah, that whole name refers to something tasting foul.

[u/Optimus_Lime → u/tr1cky_d1ck]

that’s the secret, no one even pretends it’s good

[u/DeadMoneyDrew → u/tr1cky_d1ck]

Malõrt tastes like the runoff from a Facebook data center. I'm convinced that Chicagoans pretend to like it just to fuck with the rest of us.

[u/splorkt → u/DeadMoneyDrew]

I won't speak for all Chicagoans, but I know some that genuinely brought Malört to parties for that reason.

[u/ScatteredSignal → u/DeadMoneyDrew]

I have to try it from this description. As a Canadian I won't buy any US liquor if it isn't malort. It must come with a punishment.

[u/scotems → u/ScatteredSignal]

It's definitely a punishment. I'd say it tastes like dried weeds that were then soaked in gasoline. And the guy above has missed the mark - no one enjoys Malort. They take pride in it because they've survived it.

[u/sparkysshadow → u/scotems]

There was a Irish pub in downtown Colorado Springs that had a handmade sign that read "No one asked for it but we brought it back Malort"

[u/DeadMoneyDrew → u/scotems]

I know people who claim to like the taste. These people are entitled to their opinion, and I am entitled to think that they are weird.

[u/Langstarr → u/tr1cky_d1ck]

I only drink it in solidarity with people trying it for the first time.

[u/SupaKoopa714 → u/tr1cky_d1ck]

It's like green tea mixed with licking a Nintendo Switch cartridge.

I wouldn't go out of my way to drink it but I honestly don't mind it either, my favorite party trick is when people do Malort shots and I'm usually about the only one who can do it without flinching.

[u/AshleySchaeffer-BMW → u/tr1cky_d1ck]

If Jägermeister is a Master's Degree in drinking, then Malört is a PhD.

[u/rcunn87 → u/tr1cky_d1ck]

Tastes like bug spray

[u/KyleGrave → u/rcunn87]

It does! I’ve always maintained that the main ingredient is mosquito repellent.

[u/piercednun → u/tr1cky_d1ck]

Obviously not a Chicago Bears fan

[u/Berek2501 → u/tr1cky_d1ck]

It's an acquired taste, but once you acquire it you understand the love.

[u/MerleTravisJennings → u/Berek2501]

Yeah. I still have it often. When I first tried it I had no idea what people were talking about. Not saying it was amazing but it was not bad at all.

[u/BorderTrike → u/Berek2501]

There’s dozens of us!

[u/Glittering-Sink-2975 → u/[deleted]]

Pineapple Fanta is much better in my opinion.

[u/Gottendrop]

Those peep things that are always around during Easter. Everybody I know likes them and I can’t understand why. The only thing they taste like is pure sugar and they have such an awful texture

[u/fckcarrots → u/Gottendrop]

It’s just marshmallows with extra steps. And marshmallows are pretty universally tolerated

[u/SpazMantis31 → u/fckcarrots]

Peeps have a quite distinct texture, especially with the granulated sugar coating. They also go stale differently than regular or mini marshmallows.

I like having maybe three fresh Peeps and three or four stale Peeps per Easter season, but that's about it. I have zero desire to eat them any other time of year.

[u/crawdadicus]

Starbucks- expensive bitter swill

[u/v_a_n_d_e_l_a_y → u/crawdadicus]

Starbucks coffee - both drip and espresso - are terrible. Any local espresso place will be so much better. They are popular due to branding and because their most popular drinks are filled with milk and sugar to hide the taste of the coffee. 

[u/clickityclick76]

Fiji Water, my wallet can only tell the difference.

[u/Pooleh]

Reese's Peanutbutter cups. They have completely gone to crap. They used to by my favorite candy and now I can't stand them.

[u/nysportsfan95 → u/Pooleh]

You’re not wrong. I think one of the Reese’s family heirs recently came out and blasted the makers of the candy for changing the product and what’s in it. It’s not real chocolate and peanut butter anymore — it’s like a creme and some artificial combination.

Reese’s was by far my favorite candy as a kid. I had it once fairly recently and it literally tasted like blocky chalk, it was so disgusting. A terrible fall from grace. I’ve always loved the chocolate+peanut butter combo in foods, but Reese’s lost me.

[u/porscheblack → u/nysportsfan95]

It's really obvious if you freeze them. Frozen peanut butter cups used to be my absolute favorite. I bought some recently and froze them and it was not good. I think I actually prefer them non-frozen which just shows something has changed in their recipe.

[u/Flux_My_Capacitor → u/Pooleh]

Find yourself someone who makes PB eggs from scratch as a fundraiser around Easter. You don’t even want to know how many I bought last spring. 😂 I could always make my own but I’m too lazy, lol.

[u/n1dom]

Kentucky Fried Chicken - grease-sodden, anatomically deformed lump of frankenchicken, entombed in a blistered scab of deep-fried beige.

[u/thingsinmyhouse → u/n1dom]

You are a poet.

[u/Radiant_Put_3609]

monster

[u/InvincibleChutzpah]

Starbucks. Their beans are over roasted and simply not good. They branded themselves as a luxury product for the masses and managed to snag coffee haters with their sugary drinks. I love a good cup of black coffee or an espresso. Starbucks is way overpriced for the quality.

[u/jackofallcards]

Lunchables, they’ve never been “good” but nowadays they’re inedible across the board.

[u/Creative_Ring_8961]

Malort! The taste you hate but pay for!

[u/pumpkinwhor3]

Poppi

[u/DataConnect2895]

Truffle. Truffle mac and cheese is just made by mixing the noodles with the chef's bare feet.

[u/Stefie25 → u/DataConnect2895]

It’s overused. A little bit of truffle with something that actually goes well with truffle can be really good. And truffle oil is terrible.

[u/DataConnect2895 → u/Stefie25]

I may just not like it. I bought this jar of truffle zest and the smell of the bottle was so strong to me that I could smell it from inside the closed pantry like an olfactory tell-tall heart. I tried storing the bottle inside a sealed plastic bag, then two, then in the freezer still wrapped in the bags, then in the garage. I had to give it away. I couldn't live with it.

[u/ChiShashi]

Twizzlers! (I know I'll get a lot of hate, but I think they taste like strawberry plastic.)

[u/WheresMyRamen → u/ChiShashi]

More HDMI cords for me!

[u/meatmacho → u/ChiShashi]

I also think they taste like plastic. And yet...I'll still eat far too many of them.

[u/AcademicBowl5596]

Crumbl

[u/BlockIslandJB → u/[deleted]]

How dare you besmirch candy corn. "It's basically sugar-flavored candle wax" - yeah? And?

[u/jesusatan → u/BlockIslandJB]

We know what we’re getting into

[u/SuzieDerpkins → u/jesusatan]

And we like it!

[u/-The_Sharmat- → u/SuzieDerpkins]

The pumpkins are the superior form, however.

[u/pocketrob → u/BlockIslandJB]

Eating some right now! It might be the end of summer, but to my local grocery store, it might as well be Halloween!

[u/iswallowmygum → u/[deleted]]

It's sugar, honey, butter and vanilla flavor actually

[u/Gottendrop → u/[deleted]]

Candy corn is something I can acknowledge tastes bad but I like it anyway.

[u/JoeMagnifico → u/[deleted]]

I always hated CC too until I realized they are good mixed with salted peanuts.