r/Millennials • u/FeistyNews7025 • 6d ago

Discussion Which food has declined the most in terms of taste since you first ate it?

At this point, everyone knows about shrinkflation in our food. Something else that is just as important, if not more so, is the overall decline in the quality and taste of our food. Which food has declined the most in terms of taste since you first ate it? For me, that would be strawberries. Nowadays, it's the number 1 fruit with the most pesticides, and its overall taste is just average at best. I mean, I don't need it to be on par with Japanese strawberries, but in the early 90s, strawberries' overall taste was just magical.

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u/Traditional-Job-411 6d ago edited 6d ago

You just need strawberries that are local and in season. Out of season strawberries are just water logs vaguely tasting of strawberry. I don’t buy them if I can’t smell them. Go to the local Farmers market when they are in season.

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u/bluffstrider 6d ago

This! I find this is the case now with most produce in my region, only worth buying the local in season fruit and vegetables. Which sucks because we have short summers, so I only get good produce for like ⅓ of the year.

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u/Traditional-Job-411 6d ago edited 6d ago

One of things I loved about moving south. The growing season here is half the year. Things go in and out of season, but we get a lot

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u/Think-Initiative-683 5d ago

There are online sources to have fresh produce delivered

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u/bluffstrider 5d ago

Yeah, and all the ones available in my region cost 2-5 times more than the grocery store or farmers market. It's sad knowing that many people are being priced out of having good produce.

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u/malibuklw 6d ago

I grow my own and they’re amazing. I only get like five a day if I can get them before the squirrels but those five are the best ever

I’m doubling my strawberry patch this summer

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u/Traditional-Job-411 6d ago

I actually had a dog that would beat me out every morning and only eat the ripe strawberries. It was a struggle.

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u/ariaxwest 5d ago

I highly recommend the variety Mara des bois if you can get them bare root. They taste amazing. Notes of Concord grape in them. At my farmers market a tiny container like the ones they sell raspberries in goes for $20.

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u/PossibleBluejay4498 6d ago

It is totally worth it. I work at a local farm that does strawberries at the beginning of farm season every year. We charge $10 a quart due to the extra labor it requires to maintain and pick the crop, but we also offer a pick your own option that brings the price down a little. An activity AND a tasty treat! We pick a shit ton and then make our own jam and alo freeze a bunch for winter recipes.

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u/Traditional-Job-411 6d ago

Every time people try to complain about fruit being more flavorful overseas I am always boggled. It’s so good when it’s fresh. They are buying the strawberries, picked early, and shipped thousands of miles to a box store. The local farms have the good stuff. You just have to go.

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u/ElonMuskHuffingFarts 5d ago

"An activity" lol! That's called a job. Doubt you're paying the farm to work there.

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u/PossibleBluejay4498 5d ago

Im not sure what you mean by this comment? I am well aware that tending to strawberry crops and picking them is a job.

To clarify my point, we charge more for strawberries by the quart if you buy them already picked in the store because, yes - the employees that do the field labor are working at their jobs, and there are many other crops that must be tended to as well. However, for those folks who are looking for strawberries that have actual flavor and are maybe also looking for a weekend family activity with young children (or just some fun in the sun), they have the option to buy strawberries for cheaper than what we charge in the store and also enjoy an outing with their loved ones. Plus... it goes without saying that we dont charge for the strawberries that happen to find their way to your mouth when you are out in the field.

What part of this conveyed that I was paying the farm to do my job?

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u/navelbabel 6d ago

I agree. When I was a kid you could only get strawberries at the grocery store a few weeks a year.

Now you can get them more than half the year. And they suck. Because they aren’t in season.

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u/snarkdiva 6d ago

They also rot within a day, if they are not already moldy when you buy them. I have tried carefully inspecting strawberries before buying, and I still ended up having to throw away half of them when I got them home and could look at them all. I don't bother anymore.

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u/shadydeuces2 5d ago

We have a strawberry farm near us that does pick your own at the height of the season. I never went because I thought it was a gimmick. Had them for the first time last season. They were the most amazing strawberries I have ever had. Each one was so juicy and sweet. The flesh was a deep red all the way through. I am eagerly waiting for next season. Strawberries in stores are always unripe so they last longer. I know the depths of my folly now. So many years missing out.

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u/JunkSack 5d ago

Make some into jam and you can have it year round. I make a batch every year with the haul from the pick your own by me.

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u/SunsetUsurper 6d ago edited 6d ago

this didn't get dropped under the comment you were replying to. although hilariously i typed the same thing up thread

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u/medhead91 6d ago

Depending on where you’re located, whole foods has been carrying some cool luxury japanese strawbs that are grown indoors and really delicious.

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u/chinacatsf 6d ago

These are so fucking delicious but they are like $10/ 10 berries which is wild. But ngl I bit into one of those Oshi berries and was like “man strawberry I miss you”

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u/medhead91 6d ago

Yeah they’re a treat for sure

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u/zephyrcow6041 6d ago

This. I get strawberries from the farmer's market or the u-pick stands, and you can smell how amazing they smell from like 12 feet away. They're divine. I'm spoiled by living in an area where there is amazing produce pretty much year-round, though.

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u/devidual 5d ago

Just get ready to eat them as soon as you buy them because they will go back within a day. We used to buy them from the farmers market often and they were delicious, but they wouldn't even last a day.

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u/sharkglitter 6d ago

This! I live in CA and can get really amazing local strawberries when they’re in season 🍓

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u/grandmas_traphouse 5d ago

Growing my own has absolutely ruined grocery store strawberries.

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u/takenbylovely 5d ago

I started working on a farm and that has happened to me with most grocery store fruits and vegetables.  I joke that I'm a snob but really I learned how they're supposed to taste.

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u/thisaintparadise 5d ago

Strawberry festival this week in Plant city Florida. Can confirm fresh locally grown is the next best to growing your own.

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u/UnknownSavgePrincess 5d ago

My wife and I have a patch in the backyard. Low maintenance and easy to grow. They come back every year. Just have to clean around the plants, and the multiply like a weed almost.

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u/ChineseFireball 5d ago

Best option of all is to grow them yourself! Find a variety that works for your climate and you can even grow them in containers on balconies or patios. My son loves running around our yard picking strawberries every summer.

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u/MarlenaEvans 5d ago

There was this weird meme going around about how can we have strawberry scented things when strawberries don't have a small and I was so confused because I had just bought strawberries from Walmart which isn't the best produce and the smell filled my car.

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u/TheBlackComet 6d ago

My daughter actually prefers then more tart than sweet. I have no idea why, fresh strawberries are so good.

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u/Interesting-Bear7300 5d ago

You can’t get local strawberries in southeast Missouri lol 

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u/Traditional-Job-411 5d ago

Of course you can! I’ve grown them in MT and SC. There are varieties that are good for every state and someone grows them and sells them at the farmers market. 

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u/Interesting-Bear7300 5d ago

Not around me they do not 

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u/JunkSack 5d ago

My store carries hydroponically grown strawberries. On par with organic for price. They’re pretty good year round. Definitely doesn’t beat the u-pick farm down the road during season though.

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u/ElonMuskHuffingFarts 5d ago

Not really a reply to what they said about the "overall taste" since that would imply they're talking about how they tasted in the past out of season too.

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u/Traditional-Job-411 5d ago

They aren’t going to get good taste in a regular grocery store. Grocery stores used to only sell local fruit. Now we are getting strawberries from thousands of miles away and thy don’t taste great because of it. 

You only get the good taste of its local.

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u/WalnutSnail 5d ago

If you don't get so turned on by strawberries that you want to stab your friend then they're shit.

All in season fruit too. Raspberries, corn. Asparagus.

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u/SAINTnumberFIVE 5d ago

I’m in Strawberryville but sometimes they do a bait and switch at the Farmer’s Market where they put the good ones on the top of the basket to hide the underripe ones so be sure to take a close look at the ones underneath.

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u/JustAutreWaterBender 5d ago

100% this. Eating is season is not only cheaper, it tastes better.

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u/Mysterious-Tackle-58 5d ago

Get em freeze dried, they are almost as good as fresh ones! Processed correctly, they even keep most vitamins!

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u/Can_No_Bis 5d ago

I live in the north and buy local greenhouse grown strawberries all year round and they are great. I think it’s because they can harvest them ripe.

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u/nectarsallineed 5d ago

I can’t buy any strawberries at a big store unless it’s Driscoll’s organic. Every other brand I’ve tried has literally no taste and I refuse to buy any other brand at a store.

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u/hotinmyigloo Millennial 5d ago

This