| I agree entirely, Adrian. When I read last week that sales of HP had declined disastrously, I rushed out and bought a bottle, just to keep the faith. Whilst growing up in Birmingham the HP factory was close to my school and, depending upon which way the wind was blowing, you had the smell of either the sauce or Ansells beer. When they later built the A38M motorway through Aston it cut right through the middle of the factory, and they had to have a pipe over the motorway to carry the sauce from one side to another. HP was such a part of everyday life, on bacon or egg sandwiches, that I can still remember word-for-word the inscription in French on the back of the bottle "Cette sauce d'haute qualité est un mélange... etc. etc." But the sauce I bought last week is insipid rubbish, no relation to the garnish of my childhood. It's been ruined by Heinz, who bought out the company around 2006 and moved it to Holland. No wonder no-one buys the stuff any more. |