There are times when journalists have to do something that is in the best interests of wider society but causes the individual journalist personal angst.
Today, that conundrum falls to me. The following article is in your interest but it comes at a great personal cost to me.
I had to eat a bar of chocolate as I wrote this.
It was Aero. Mint Aero. I’ve always liked the combination of milk chocolate and mint. Cadbury’s mint crisp would be my go to choice but Nestlé’s Aero gives it a run for its money and is readily available from the serpent-like vending machine that sits in Newstalk Towers.
I don’t usually examine chocolate before I eat it. The pre-bite aesthetic leaves me cold. Today was different. As I broke of the first piece I noticed was the shape. In my childhood, each piece was shaped like a mini wind tunnel. Now the aerodynamic look has gone.
It is now replaced by a shape that would set off teenage boys giggles. Yes, they do have a passing resemblance to the female breast.
It’s not just Aero. The basic bar of Dairy Milk used to be a nice flat rectangle. In recent years it has also become rounder.
Is the taste affected? No.
Does the taste still bring you back to your childhood? Indeed.
So why the change?
Filthy lucre.
Slinkflation. That’s what behind it. The price may stay the same but the bar imperceptibly shrinks. They do it all the time. THE MEN. One or 2 less chocolate fingers.
That really cool redesigned cornflake box? Smaller.
Everywhere you look.
Shrinkflation.
They have us over the barrel. Do we stop buying? In an ideal world we would but then one bite and all is forgiven.
Sad but true.
