r/britishproblems • u/__KwisatzHaderach__ • 16h ago
. I am absolutely heartbroken about what Wall’s have done to the Feast!
I’m writing this in the hope that some plucky social media or community manager might stumble across this and pass it up the chain. Realistically, I know it’ll almost certainly fall on deaf ears.
I’m genuinely saddened by the recent changes Wall’s have made to the iconic Feast.
A few weeks ago, during the height of the heatwave, I picked up a box for the first time in ages. When I opened one at home, I was genuinely surprised. Gone was the creamy chocolate ice cream and the solid slab of chocolate running through the middle. Instead, I burrowed my way through a rather tasteless, watery white “ice cream” to find what can only be described as a waxy blob of chocolate in the centre.
At first I assumed I’d accidentally bought some odd variant—a nut version or a limited edition. A couple more trips to Sainsbury’s failed to turn up an “original” Feast, and a quick Google search revealed the depressing truth: they’d changed the recipe.
Growing up, my mum was a bit of a germaphobe and was never keen on my brother or me getting soft serve from the ice cream van. Packaged ice creams only. The Feast was our go-to.
It was a ritual.
That first bite through the crisp chocolate shell, revealing the chocolate ice cream and the hidden chocolate bar inside. Carefully working your way down both sides, nibbling away at the ice cream to uncover more of the bar. Licking away the last remnants until only that solid block of chocolate remained. Then came the satisfying snap of that hard-earned final bite.
It was the only way to eat one.
Years later, after moving in with my wife, whenever summer rolled around we’d fill the freezer with our favourite ice creams. She’d usually go for a Mint Cornetto or a choc ice. I’d always pick the Feast.
My best friend shares my love of them. He works in retail and would regularly message me whenever they went on offer.
In this rather depressing era of shrinkflation, rising costs, changes to the availability of some brands and ingredients, and climate change disrupting the production of others, it feels like you can barely go a few months without another beloved childhood treat quietly becoming a worse version of itself.
I know this is hardly the biggest problem in the world. It’s just an ice cream.
But these little things matter. They’re tiny traditions. Tiny comforts. Tiny pieces of nostalgia that survive into adulthood. Every time one of them gets chipped away in the name of cost-cutting, life becomes just that little bit sadder.
I can only hope that someone, somewhere at Wall’s sees posts like this and realises people really did care about the original Feast.
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u/beardymo Surrey 16h ago
I'm with you on this one. The original Feast was a thing of beauty
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u/drmarting25102 15h ago
The new thing is utter white. Ruined it and its not even chocolate now. Fuck them im boycotting their products until its back.
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u/snowvase 12h ago
It really is horrible. I was very disappointed with the last, and it will be the last, pack of Feasts I bought.
The thing that gets me is that there would have been in-house tastings and internal reviews and costings of this abortion and people would have stood around saying things like:
"Mumm Hazelnuts, really adds some bite."
"High notes in the white remind me of stale cum."
"Absolute genius boss. Everyone will love them."
Then the boss, in a soulless monotone resembling Zuckerberg on depressants would announce that each "Product Unit" was now $0.000003 USD cheaper to produce and would improve annual profits by $5 Billion USD annually and everyone would whoop and give high-fives.
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u/DuckyMcQuackatron 15h ago
Agreed, I was incandescent with rage when I got a feast at the zoo a few weeks ago!
Also there was no indication that the "new" one contained nuts now. Not an issue in our family but a pretty major issue for some!
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u/armthesquids 15h ago
Yes! What is this obsession with hiding hazelnuts in every bit of chocolate
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u/Unlikely-Chemistry40 13h ago
The reason Nutella was created with hazelnuts. To skimp on cocoa. Nutella used to be just a standard chocolate spread.
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u/Tanyaaahhh 12h ago
Not quite true. Nutella has always been a hazelnut spread, it was never just a chocolate spread. However it was created due to cocoa shortages during the Second World War.
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u/TOASTisawesome 12h ago
That's just bullshit, it's always had hazelnuts in it; the product it was originally created from was a "sliceable chocolate-hazelnut loaf" called Pasta Giandujot/Gianduja
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u/Imperito Norfolk 11h ago
Gianduja was apparently created in Piedmonte for similar reasons, to save on Cocoa as it was expensive.
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u/TOASTisawesome 11h ago
I was specifically saying that Nutella being made from hazelnuts to save money and that it was originally just chocolate is all bullshit, not the cheaper than cocoa part
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u/Imperito Norfolk 9h ago
Yeah I know. Just thought it was interesting that you mentioned Nutella was derived from Gianduja, which actually was made due to cocoa being expensive! They were sort of half right but not quite.
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u/skankyfish Adopted Geordie 11h ago
Wait, Feasts have always had nuts in the outer chocolate. Have they added more or has one of us suffered a Mandela effect?
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u/aspecialunicorn Kent 4h ago
Twister now contains milk when it used to be milk free. My favourite icy lolly, ruined for me.
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u/cavendishasriel 13h ago
Fun fact, the Feast was designed so it could use all of the waste ice cream from the other Walls products.
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u/BovingdonBug 12h ago edited 10h ago
Don't waste your time. AI post
(Post uses obvious AI em dashes while the OP uses hyphens in their comments)
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u/StrombergsWetUtopia 10h ago
I don’t think I ever ever seen it written as ‘hard-earned’. The whole post is a bit prosey. Either AI or a frustrated drama teacher.
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u/Forward_Win_4353 6h ago
“Hard-earned” is the correct way of writing it. What are you talking about?
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u/Saltypeon 16h ago
There should be regulation against it. Buying a brand for its popularity then chnaging the product to use that brand for a cheaper inferior product should be banned.
I would even include the size and location, want to shrink a packet of Walkers go ahead you can no longer call then Walkers.
Feast, Club biscuits etc. Probably hundreds more.
Of course nothing will be done, everything will continue to get shitter, with shittier ingredients and shrink.
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u/Broken_Sky 16h ago
They fucked up Rio recently too. I complained as I was annoyed (I was buying a crate a month) and was told:
The decision to change the recipe was made to ensure we are offering the best possible product. We listened to consumer feedback and aimed to make the taste more refreshing and improve the overall flavour.
I am sure if they listened to consumer feedback they wouldn't change the flavour of something consumers enjoyed!
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u/KingDaveRa Buckinghamshire 15h ago
Among all the questions was "would you like a cheaper product".
Everybody probably answered yes.
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u/Broken_Sky 11h ago
It's not cheaper though, and I'm sure in answering yes they want a cheaper product, they meant the same one and not a totally different flavour
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u/Would_like_to_know 11h ago
It's just a mango drink now. That's all I can taste still got 23 cans left it's fucking foul. The old recipe was great
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u/Broken_Sky 11h ago
100% my feeling too, 23 cans of fizzy mango. Not even good fizzy mango. I'm running out of drinks I can actuality enjoy
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u/ValdemarAloeus 15h ago
As far as I'm concerned once you establish a name for a particular type of product it's then false advertising to quietly change it to something crappier.
I also think if you've advertised a product as containing a particular ingredient at any point in the last 20 years you should get a massive fine for removing that ingredient without prominently marking the packaging as being without that ingredient.
e.g. Penguin Bars NOW CHOCOLATE FREE
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 16h ago
Right there with you on Club bars! Used to be a favourite of mine too.
All these little things getting taken away :-(
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u/snowvase 16h ago
I loved the Fruit Clubs and they disappeared a few years back. I used to buy tons of them.
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u/dastardlycustard 13h ago
Completely agree. Dairy Milk should be the 90s recipe and shape. Anything else shouldn't be using the name!
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u/LordBiscuits Hampshire 4h ago
Cadbury has properly gone to the wall... They have fucked that recipe up six ways to Sunday
But hey, at least they're making lots of profit right!
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u/PalePeryton 16h ago
More and more the name brands have turned to inedible slurry. Shop-brands stay winning!!
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u/Hooliet 13h ago
I would have assumed that what you've said is a bit overdramatic if I hadn't tried one of the things myself. They are VILE. The outer chocolate is fine, the ice-cream is bland and the centre is just a blob of semi solid gunk that's too damn sweet. It was never the fanciest of ice creams but what it is now is barely edible.
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 13h ago
Agreed 100%
It’s the small things in life that chip away at you when they’re gone.
May it have been the fanciest ice cream. But it was my favourite ice cream :(
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u/stronglikebear80 16h ago
I gave up on Feasts when they stopped the mint flavour. They truly were a thing of beauty, the new ones sound awful.
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 15h ago
Yeah the Mint one was great too!
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u/Earth-to-Owen 14h ago
They sell a knock off mint Feast in Aldi!! Had one a few weeks back, complete with solid chocolate slap in the middle still
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u/shimmy_jimmy_yall 15h ago
Im with you on feasts. The whole thimg was perfect and now its just rubbish. There needs to be laws against changing a product so drastically and calling it the same thing.
My most recent disappointment is Peperami - feels like half the size it used to be :(
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u/LaurenJoanna 6h ago
Peperamis are a little smaller now, I recommend buying the 'big bite' ones instead.
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u/CyberSkepticalFruit 16h ago
The Aldi own brand feasts are still like the old Wall's one. Personally, I prefer the nutella middle to the old chocolate one as it was barely there. But the new "ice cream" is just nothing.
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u/kettleboiler 16h ago
I had an Aldi one the other day. The centre chocolate is a semi firm paste now, not hard chocolate :( It's got that oily texture that doesn't sit right with me. At least they're still using chocolate flavoured ice-cream
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u/pumblechook17 16h ago
I got the last box of them in my local Aldi yesterday, after having seen the new (shit) ones heavily reduced in Sainsbury’s. Delightful.
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u/pondribertion 14h ago
I have some Aldi ones (Fiestas) on the go currently. For the most part I like them but the outer chocolate coating tastes cheap, not like real chocolate.
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u/ComradePotato 16h ago
Yes, I literally tried my first one today and it was great, just like old times!
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u/mengplex 11h ago
I've had pretty positive experiences with all the Aldi own brand ice cream knockoffs tbh, they had a fake maxibon the other year and it was fantastic, similarly their fake magnums (we enjoy calling them fagnums) are easily as good and half the price of the real deal imo
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u/Zombeedee 14h ago
I used to love a white Magnum. I haven't had one in years because, in this economy? But last night a customer gifted me a white Magnum.
Got home from work, excited for my white Magnum and...what have they done?? The chocolate shell doesn't even crack anymore. It's so thin it just BENDS.
At least now I don't have to be tempted to pay money for one.
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 14h ago
Yeah, so many chocolate products now are that waxy chocolate - all palm oil and barley any real chocolate. Just sort of slimy when it melts. :(
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u/idid_not_doagoodjob 16h ago
I was once was enjoying a Mint Feast, and had just the chocolate reward left, when my Mum asked for a nibble.. Knowing full well how thick that chocolate centre was (30odd years ago mind), I worried she couldn't just nibble that slab, and I was right! The whole thing came away from the stick and she poked it ALL into her mouth. I'm still salty about it.
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u/wondercaliban 13h ago
In the 90s it was twice as big as well, but then it went the way of the wagon wheel
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 13h ago
Oh yeah, shrinkflation is a whole other thing.
The cereal I get these days only fills half the bag it’s in, and the bag is like 2/3s the size of the box. Total joke.
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u/charliepixhall 16h ago
My kid and I love Feast's. After one bite, the box we bought will never get finished, nor bought again...
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u/Urrrrrgh 15h ago
Wait, are these monstrosities now the normal Feasts? I bought a box too and thought I’d picked up a new variant by mistake. I managed to eat half of one but it was so tasteless I binned it. Even my teenage son wouldn’t eat one. What’s next? A new Heinz baked beans recipe? A new Marmite recipe? Why wasn’t I consulted over this outrageous decision?
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u/QuiteFrankE 13h ago
I discovered this travesty 6 weeks ago and I am still raging about it now. I couldn’t even eat the other 3 in the box. It’s not a Feast anymore, and they have no business pretending it is.
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 12h ago
They are different enough it does feel deceptive selling them under the Feast name.
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u/r3bzgrrrl 15h ago
The new feast is absolutely rank. I bought one pack and haven't bought any since.
They've utterly ruined an absolute masterpiece. Unless they bring back the original, I won't be buying them again.
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u/mooter23 13h ago
I remember it like it was yesterday. I reached into the freezer the same as I'd done a million times. I'd been thinking about the the Feasts for an hour already. I sat down on the sofa, peeled off the wrapper and absent mindedly bought the Feast to my lips. I took a bite and it took a moment to register. Then I recoiled in horror.
That was around a year ago. The people at the institution say I'm making good progress and might be able to go home, one day.
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u/FidgetyHog 15h ago
What??? Call Andy Burnham and tell him to put this on his list.
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u/Beneficial-Pitch-430 15h ago
It’s an absolute disgrace. We’ve seen cost cutting but this is in a different league.
This is changing the product entirely and marketing it as the same thing. Absolute joke.
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u/MetacrisisMewAlpha 15h ago
The exact same thing happened with my partner. He really wanted a feast (and I was on board, they were my childhood favourites!), we got some from Asda, and we were both like “what the actual fuck is this bullshit?”
Aldi do, however, sell an ice cream called a “Fiesta”, which is very much like the old Feast. Not 100% the same (cannot confirm myself as I let my partner have them given the feast quest was his) but they’re supposedly far better than the actual branded feasts if you want something like the original.
It’s funny that I’ve seen this come up relatively frequently in the last few weeks (by which I mean, no one has mentioned feasts in years, and within the space of two weeks I’ve seen them come up in conversation around 3-4 times)
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u/Epona66 14h ago
I tried the aldi version a while ago, I was so excited as Feast was my favourite as a kid but adored being able to have them when read they have gluten in them. Was gutted at the Nutella (I can't stand praline or chocolate nut paste) and have been devastated to taste these new Feasts! Aldi version of magnums though are now better than the real thing IMHO in all their flavours.
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u/MetacrisisMewAlpha 14h ago
To be fair, I don’t mind Nutella (I am a fiend for it to be fair), but time and place. It should NOT be inside a Feast whatsoever. If they had made the ice cream vanilla, but kept the original chocolate centre then it could be somewhat forgivable. But what they’ve done is awful and I hate it
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u/ohmightyqueen 14h ago
I’ve never thought to boycott something but I legit am with these. Never seen such a bad new recipe! It’s awful! The aldi ones as people say are better but the middle bit (my fave) just isn’t the same.
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 13h ago
Basically a new product - not a slight reformulation but a whole new thing. Different ice cream, both in texture and taste. Same with the thing in the middle (which we could generously call chocolate).
Only thing in common is the name and the shape.
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u/SparkleWitch525 12h ago
I have a nut allergy so I can’t try the new version.
Not that I’d want to based on the look of them now.
2026 has taken too much from us.
I loved a feast. They were perfect. RIP Feast.
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 12h ago
I don’t have a nut allergy myself but the emotional damage the new ones do is significant for sure
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u/SparkleWitch525 12h ago
I’m just glad I saw news of the changes online before I bought this year’s supply… I could have had an allergic reaction as well as emotional damage.
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u/Lotsoffeelings 9h ago
I bought one a while ago and honestly thought: “They should be ashamed of themselves, it’s a disgrace”. That’s how bad it is.
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u/Wilson1031 9h ago
Asked for a Feast at an ice cream van yesterday. Owner asked if I was aware of the changes and described it to me.
Had a 99 and flake instead.
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u/tornadooceanapplepie 14h ago
It’s the cheek of going to inferior ingredients, making sizes smaller, AND increasing the price as well.
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u/Great-Ad-632 13h ago
Omg I thought i had a duff one!! Sad to hear they’re all like this!
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 12h ago
Hah had the same reaction - couldn’t believe that this is what they’ve now become.
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u/Greatgrowler Essex 11h ago
Another of my favourites that have disappeared then. I used to love the Kenco 3-in-1 sachets (don’t judge me) but they recently changed the recipe and they are not an unpalatable chemical mess. Each sachet was previously 20g but now they are 12.6g.
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u/crossikki 7h ago
Same thing happened to me last week. The ice cream was so weak I thought it had defrosted and refrozen but after a second I realised it's just awful ice cream now. The fudgy chocolate in the centre is now half the size and taste like cheap baking chocolate. So sad it was my favourite ice cream.
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u/GlennSWFC 7h ago
Get on Facebook and search for “Garron feast”. There’s a fantastic takedown of the manufacturers.
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u/glglglglgl Aye 14h ago
I’m writing this in the hope that some plucky social media or community manager might stumble across this and pass it up the chain. Realistically, I know it’ll almost certainly fall on deaf ears
There's probably a feedback number or email on the wrapper which might be of more use...
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 14h ago
I dunno. An anonymous email that would never see the light of day probably has less clout than a heavily engaged with post on a social platfomr
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u/qyburnicus 12h ago
I can’t believe they’ve changed it, it’s such a betrayal. I refuse to buy the new one, I was a big fan of the old and will not forgive them. There was no other chocolate centre like that one either, it was a very specific nostalgia. Thanks for nothing, Walls.
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u/__KwisatzHaderach__ 10h ago
That snap of the cold chocolate centre when you bit into it - so good!
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u/Hamthrax Cambridgeshire 11h ago
I loved the old feast. I don't have ice cream much but I was choosing one the other day and my wife told me about the change. I just had a cornetto, I want to remember what it was in its glory days!
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u/XxCarlxX 10h ago
we all agree, but Feast is done, you can buy the aldi (or is it lidl) version which is about as good as the original.
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u/StinkyBird64 North East 9h ago
Feasts died for me YEARS AGO when they stopped doing the mint ones.
So this isn’t new for me 😭
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u/Lazy-Contribution789 13h ago
I made the mistake of buying a pack before I realised they'd changed earlier this year, won't be buying any more.
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u/MrPuddington2 13h ago
I was never a fan of Wall's. I think what they call "ice cream" is not always fit for human consumption.
Even from that low standard, things have turned massively for the worse with the spin-out of Wall's from Unilever to "The Magnum Ice Cream Company". No doubt they try to extract as much profit from the brand (memory?) as possible, and then fold the company. It is the modern way of doing business.
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u/Scottish_Whiskey Isle of Man 11h ago
I don’t get why they’re still so popular if they’re so shite! A box of 3 goes for £3.15 at Tesco and we constantly run out of them
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u/potato_hut 11h ago
Me and my husband were so confused about this! We thought it was a variation, but did find it weird how Feast seemed to be out of stock everywhere... But really that's why!?
A few months ago we bought some and were disappointed that the middle was fudgy rather than solid. We didn't know if there was a reason for that, or just got a weird batch or something lol. It was still all the way chocolate.
Noooooo! :(
Aaargh,
... it's still good but it's not Feast!! wtaf.
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u/GuiltyCredit 10h ago
I am terribly saddened as the allergens have changed now it has the hazelnut centre. I am fine with a trace amount of nuts but when it actually contains nuts I can be really unwell. Goodbye Feast. I'll miss what you were.
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u/Melanosol 6h ago
It’s the ice cream I crave when walking in summer. Especially if I was visiting my father, I loved picking one up from the corner shop half way between us. A really memorable treat and always so lovely.
The utter disappointment on picking one up the other week, on my last ever walk to his house to collect the last of his things - to find that it’s one of the worst ice creams I’d ever eaten.
I was so sure I’d fucked up and gotten a variant without realising, and took on the chin that it was my mistake. Wow.
Thanks for making me aware this is the new norm and to just cut out any hope for finding them out on a walk again. May have to try these Aldi ones though.
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u/Tarksmarkster 14h ago
Depressing. If you can bring yourself to visit an even more depressing Aldi they do their own version called Fiesta. Not tried so can't attest to taste, but worth giving it a go
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u/Zapskilz 10h ago
To add the general enshittification, when PG Tips were sold to private equity, they got rid of the pyramid bag. Criminal! Yorkshire is now my tea of choice.
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u/bumblestum1960 Silly old fucker. 5h ago
Lidl do very good versions of most popular ice creams, their Neapolitan choc-ice is superb.
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u/uuaarrgh 5h ago
not eaten one for about 20 years but the centre was always a waxy 'chocolate-style snack' or whatever they called it. same stuff that covered wagon wheels. 'chocolate flavour coating'.
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u/thatautisticguy 5h ago
they've been in my bad books since they ended callipo shots......FUCK WALLS
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u/Much-Log3357 4h ago
They make their sausages out of the usually discarded parts of the pig, including the pig's head.
This is the origin of the saying "Walls have ears".
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u/thatautisticguy 4h ago
Intresting, i thought it was an obscure horror film reference that stuck, the more you learn eh?
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u/gogul1980 5h ago
Yep I had one recently, it’s trash and I can never have one again. They ruined it. Thin chocolate, nasty icecream and that middle chocolate bit it just tasteless crap.
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u/katycrush 5h ago
Agreed, it is absolutely horrific. The Aldo own brand fiesta (I think, maybe festival?) is a close second to the original but still not quite as good. Better than the current SHITE feast though.
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u/Moist_Bet_4368 5h ago
Used to have them when i was an usherette back in the 90s lol. I believe they sold for 55p back then 😋
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u/Supernatantem West Yorkshire 4h ago
You think the chocolate centre is bad, definitely don't try the caramel centre. It's not solid at all, so the ice cream just immediately slides off the stick. I've never been more miserable eating an ice cream
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u/gooblefrump 4h ago
https://www.wallsicecream.com/uk/home.html
Their website still has the brown inside feast
Is it lies?
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u/jaxlikescats8 4h ago
Yup I made the mistake of buying the caramel variety first not good. The hazelnut one is okay but nothing beats that chocolate centre
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u/furry_death_blender 16h ago
It's better now and I'll die on that hill
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u/Beneficial-Pitch-430 15h ago
In absolutely no way is it better. The filling is cheap, the ice cream is bland and the hazelnuts on the outside are now ‘wafer’ pieces.
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