Some things really were better in the good old days. It’s not just nostalgia but scientific fact, for example, that tomatoes used to taste a lot better. Somewhere over the course of the late 20th century, they lost their tomato flavour.
How tomatoes went from a sweet-savoury summer treat to something watery and bland presents not just a chemical and genetic mystery, but an economic and cultural one. Call it a fruit (the botanically correct term), or a vegetable (the way it’s regarded in American and European cooking), and either way, the tomato is a global favourite. When the flavour disappeared, why didn’t consumers rebel, the way they do when soda-makers change their formulas and the new version disappoints?