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Comment by ricardobeat | Hacker News Reader

> Chubby, crackly American tacos may be unknown in Culiacán or Toluca, but they taste good. They may well seem “inauthentic” in Mexico, but they are deeply authentic in the minds and memories of millions in America.

Like any food item, it depends? To me Taco Bell tasted terrible. Having existed for 50 years doesn't make it any better or 'authentic'. Are pop tarts "authentic"?

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I think I may be the only person in the world who has fond memories of Pop Tarts, but only the un-glazed versions that I don't think they even make anymore.

One of two ;)

Apparently they still make 3 unfrosted flavors: https://www.poptarts.com/en_US/products/all-flavors.html

Now I'm going to be "that guy" who buys Pop Tarts on eBay to get the right flavor. Thanks! (said with equal parts sarcasm and gratitude)

Wait, people don’t have fond memories of pop tarts?

Had a pop tart for the first time in ~20 years recently. Did they change the recipe? Not nearly as good as I remembered from back when I practically lived off them in high school.

I have a friend who worked as a food scientist for Kraft and later Mondelez. One day were talking one day about how shelf-stable foods had suddenly gone through a fairly drastic shift in flavor. She told me a lot of that was a result of the banning of artificial trans fats. My guilty pleasure used to be Wheat Thins (hers was warm Oreos straight off the production line) until one day somewhere between 2013 and 2015 they began to taste like a crappier version of salted fried cardboard. I was sure this was a result of cost cutting and preparation to spin off Kraft's snack food division into Mondelez but she assured me that while that may have had something to do with it the major driving force was the shift to fats other than those based on artificial trans fats.

I can't say for sure if Pop Tarts suffered a similar fate but I'd say there's a pretty good chance.

wheat thins ruined my teenage life

Their meat is mostly oatmeal. It's never going to be great.

No, it's mostly beef. And the part that isn't beef is mostly water and seasonings, not filler. The taco beef I make from scratch is even less beef by proportion. That whole fuss was so stupid, but their response was too. They should've just said "Ya, it's taco beef. Not beef. Go make it yourself and measure the proportions."

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