brownie batter blues

I don't have real proof of this, just a growing hunch. You know that Ben and Jerry's flavor Brownie Batter? I love it. At least I used to. I've been eating it now for about a year and have noticed a disturbing trend. When the flavor first came out it had goobs of brownie batter mixed in with the ice cream. It was possible to scoop up a heaping spoonful of nothing but rich batter...mm, mm. As of late (like the last 8 months or so) the amount of lovely batter has been steadily decreasing. Now you'll get a little wisp here and there, just to tease you, make you think that thick spoonful is just around the corner. But then you're at the bottom of the pint and you realize you've just been tooled.

Again, I have no real proof of this (except for an old pint I ate once which was about to expire in three months but I ate anyway and found that thick, glorious batter I had come to love). But maybe it was just me being a typical addict: getting hooked and then wanting more, and my lack of satisfaction just had me coming back in the hopes of the next pint giving me the kick I was craving.

Which started me thinking about all the other products that I remember loving and now not loving so much. Did my tastes change or did the custodians of the product start to skimp on an original, successful formula?

Here's an incomplete list of products which may or may not fit the above profile (please feel free to add to this list):

• Sweet Tarts (the ones in the paper packs of 3) - COMPLAINT: no more tart
  
• Frosted Mini-Wheats - COMPLAINT: where's the frost? (btw - quit your Vanilla Creme disgusto-ness -- same with you, Special K, with your Vanilla Almond BS - it all stinks of the noxious fumes of exurbia).
  
• Snapple (why did we ever think these were good for us?)