Following the discussions a few months ago, I have finally tried root beer,
Hershey’s chocolate and Twinkies (my Mum visited the US and I gave her a
shopping list). So here’s a brief review:
Root Beer: Smells exactly like surgical spirit, and tastes much as I would
expect surgical spirit to taste. I can’t help thinking there’s a pleasant
taste in there somewhere, but it’s masked by the antiseptic flavour. I
managed 2 sips, which is twice as much as DW. We’ve just tried it on a
couple of the local kids and it was not a hit. Must be an acquired taste.
Hershey bar: I now know why a chocoholic former GF was put off chocolate for
the entire 6 months she spent in the US after a single taste of Hershey
chocolate. Imagine chocolate that doesn’t melt in your mouth and has a
slight flavour of vomit to it. After trying it on a couple of the local
kids, I’m thinking of saving the rest for next Hallowe’en as a trick.
Twinkies: These actually aren’t too bad. Imagine a very bland sponge cake
with a very bland buttercream-like filling, and that’s a Twinkie. Pleasant
enough, but with no flavour whatsoever.
Mum also brought back some Reese’s milk chocolate peanut butter cups. Very
nice, but so sickly that I regretted eating 2 of them in the space of half
an hour.
Somebody’ll be sure to pass all of that on to the respective manufacturers, so they won’t waste their resources at marketing attempts in the UK.
Root Beer: Who cares if Brits don’t like it? You’ll never catch me eating a pickled herring for breakfast, either, Oh Masters of Epicurean Delights.
Hershey’s Chocolate: I’ve tried Cadbury’s, and that vile stuff burns my mouth… literally! I get the same burning sensation from Cadbury’s chocolate that I get from eating spoiled potato salad. Kinda cancels out the endorphic pleasure one usually receives from eating Theobromine.
Twinkies: There is absolutely no defense for this “foodstuff”. It’s interesting that you like them, though, Danny! Kinda puts everything in perspective! “Pleasant enough, but with no flavour whatsoever.” I guess we know what to think of your tastebuds’ powers of discretion, eh?
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: Well, these are merely the poor cousin to Smoothies. If your Mum was so unfortunate as to tour the US without encountering Smoothies, I can only guess that she went to the least flavor/flavour-ful places. Smoothies! That’s all that can be said about these chocolate-peanut butter wonders… Smoothies!
Glutes
I hope everyone noticed that I said nothing about Marmite, OR peanut butter and BEANS on toast!
hershey bars are disgusting. they aren’t chocolate. i suppose theyre o.k. if you have never tasted realy chocolate,(which dosen’t include cadburys dairy milk) they are realy bitter and like all the good flavours of chocolate have been removed and replaced with some sort of chemical flavor enhancer.
reeses peanut butter cups are pretty vile too. they taste like they.ve been chewed by someone else.
and in america they sell newcastle brown ale in tiny little bottles,
that is the real sin. it still tastes about the same though.
still marshmallow fluff is almost enough to excuse the above misdemeanors, except the crime against nature that is the tiny bottles of newcastle brown ale.
and the chineese food (in new jersey anyway) doesent have any monosodium glutomate in it. yuck.
in china the food has monosodium glotomate in it so why take it out in america?
Way to go, Danny! Congrats on your ever-expanding cultural experience. I loved your critique, very informative and fun to read.
After our UNICON experience and subsequent discussions on cultural tastes and distastes, I can see how root beer could demand an acquired taste. Being born and raised in America, I never really thought about it before. Our little jar of Marmite is almost gone. We’d better hit the food store soon.
I’m glad someone agrees with me - even if only on an off Topic thread! When someone says Hershey Bars taste like vomit, they are using the language in a very precise and accurate way.
The other delicacies mentioned all fall into that small and exclusive category of ‘things on which I have no opinion’.
I had a Twinkie once in Jr. High then don’t think I had another until well into adult life. I distinctly remember wondering why I had ever liked them as a child because they had no taste. Maybe they had changed over the years, then again maybe my tastes had changed over the years. Either way, anything with a twelve-year shelf life is not on my favorite food list (as I sit here eating my Edy’s Grand Gourmet ice cream).
“The popular Idaho Spud Bar is a wonder combination of a light cocoa flavored marshmallow center drenched with a dark chocolate coating and then sprinkled with coconut”
"what is a corn nut? i knew you would say that Danny.
Idaho spuds are totaly gross,that was a joke but the corn nuts are tasty.go for the original flavor,dont mess with all that BBQ and ranch flavored stuff.
I dunno about Corn Nuts, they always seemed like chewing on salty gravel. Super hard, and bland except for the powdered fat substance they spray on them.
Root beer, however, yum. Get some good quality stuff, like Henry Weinhard’s root beer. Comes in a brown (glass) bottle.
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