As we grow older, we look back and realize the quality of everything was better when we were younger. This may even apply to some of our favorite childhood treats. After one woman unwrapped her S’mores Pop-Tart, she blasted the lack of frosting and reminisced on how they used to look.
A Pop-Tart letdown
“POV: you’re 30 and you KNOW they used to be better,” TikTok user Hannah Lynn Ganschow (@hannahlynnganschow) writes in the text overlay of her video. The TikTok now has 1.3 million views.
In the clip, she holds two S’mores Pop-Tarts. Both have little chocolate frosting smeared on the graham cracker crust.
“I cannot stress to you enough how much [expletive] this is,” she says. “They didn’t use to look like this. These are name-brand Pop-Tarts.”
“Look at the icing on this. Are you [expletive] kidding me?” she continues.
She breaks one open to check if the filling is up to par.
“Let’s look at the inside,” she says as she breaks the Pop-Tart in half, exposing the chocolate and marshmallow filling.
She is pleasantly surprised. “You know what, respectable. I’ll take that,” she says.
The Daily Dot reached out to Ganchow via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment as well as to Kellogg via press email.
Viewers condemn Pop-Tarts
Like Ganschow, some reminisced on the morning breakfast treat from the past.
“They were bigger. The frosting went edge to edge. EDGE TO EDGE,” one viewer recalled.
“Pop tarts used to be cute! The icing used to be even, and they would have sprinkles or icing zigzags, now they’re just chunks of oil,” a second reminisced.
“I practically lived off poptarts in my early teens and [smores] were my FAVORITE I’ll tell you first hand that was just a bad batch they usually have 15% more icing,” a third remembered.
Others encouraged Ganschow to buy the off-brand versions.
“The aldi brand pop tarts are a MILLION TIMES BETTER QUALITY and cheaper too!!! one user commented.
“The off-brand are better now,” another agreed.
Do they have less frosting?
Despite the manufacturer never confirming if the morning snack has less frosting now, consumers have levied complaints about this for years.
Another TikTok user named Kyla recently called out the company. “Um, Pop-Tart? What the [expletive] is this?” she asked in her own video. She took matters into her own hands by reaching out to Kellogg and complaining. She said she received an expired coupon and was redirected to another email address. As a result, she stopped buying Pop-Tarts and turned to alternative brands.
And two years ago, a Redditor posted a photo of their strawberry Pop-Tart in the r/shrinkflation subreddit. They claimed that the treat is smaller now and has less frosting. “What is this BS? They don’t put barely any frosting on Pop Tarts anymore,” the Redditor wrote. Commenters shared similar experiences and also recommended off-brand options.
This post made its way to Twitter, now X, and Pop-Tart addressed it.
“This is embarrassing. Please send us a DM and we’ll get to the bottom of this,” Pop-Tart responded.
@hannahlynnganschow #poptarts #capitalism ♬ original sound – Hannah Lynn Ganschow
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