A proper stainless steel one rather than just iron or bronze will save you money in the long run.

>>441098

Stainless steel is fine if you want to clean your brand after use, but for optimum heat conductivity and durability I'd have to recommend good old cast iron. It's the chef's choice for a reason.

U wot m8?

This depends on if you want your Brand to sound like Jess Phillips and look like a knackered Panto Dame (Jo), or sound like Frank Spencer and look like a knackered Glam Rock Merchant (Russell).

Weetos. The Professor has yet to let me down.

Cola drinks. Supermarket versions of sprite, fanta etc are usually great, if not better than the brands, but rip off coke is horrific compared to actual Coke and Pepsi.

I also get about 4mpg more out of Shell or BP fuel than I do Asda/Tesco etc.

>>441106
Really? I always found Aldi's own brand Topstar Cola to be superior to Coke/Pepsi. The diet version is shit though.

Supermarket own brands of Wensleydale are a fucking misery to eat. Nothing beats the proper stuff.

>>441106>>441107
Just drink dandelion and burdock and you won't have this issue.

>>441107
I had own brand Wensleydale from either Aldi or Lidl and it was fucking awful. I'm not entirely convinced it was actually cheese.

>>441108
But which one? I fall in with the AG Barr Batallion against the Ben Shaws Squad in the D+B Blood War.

>>441106
This stuff used to be less than 20p a bottle. I think for the amount I drank through my twenties I'm surprised I have any teeth left.

Cheap bread is generally horrible.

>>441112
Iceland's bloomer bread is probably the best.

>>441112

Supermarket own-brand is usually fine, but the extra value stuff at 39p a loaf is fucking grim.

Always buy branded power supplies - cheapo computer PSUs and phone chargers have an awful habit of catching fire. Anker chargers are a safe bet at a reasonable price; Seasonic power supplies aren't necessarily the best value, but they're never dangerously bad, which can't be said for most brands.

>>441097
Just this one.

>>441115

I see you, Beanus.

>>441113

Hands down my favourite bread for general purposes is Nutty Krust, but you can hardly find it outside of NI. It's awkwardly shaped and you may or may not hate the crusts but it tastes supremely bready and makes great toast once you figure out how to toast it.

>>441115
Branston > Heinz.
Aldi's own brand beans > Heinz.

>>441120

Does that mean Branston = Aldi's own brand beans?

>>441121
a > c
b > c
Does not imply a = b

>>441121
No, but they're not too far off. I think Aldi's are the only own-brand beans that try to taste like Branston so they're probably made in the same factory.

>>441123

>Does not imply a = b

if both a and b are greater than c, it at least warrants the question if otherlad perceives a and b as equal. It is mathematically possible, even if the probability may be low.

>>441097

>>441097
>>441127
Why are those cheap ciders so much worse than spirits? I have had to write off 3 days once, just because of the hangover and everything else that follows it. I have never had that issue with vodka or gin, unit for unit.

>>441127

This picture must be almost as old as .gs itself.

>>441132
I think we have some of the top results on Google for that image but it definitely predates here.

>>441127

I'd place this photo as 2006-2007

The pastel colours and the velcro straps on trainers were being pushed by the USC branch I worked at during this time.

It was also just prior to the ubiquity of smartphones, so people were documenting their lives publically online more than at any previous time but hadn't yet figured out the ramifications of doing so and thus being more selective in what they post.

Fjallraven is a brand that is definitely worth the cost if you can afford it. Good, sturdy, coats and shirts and capes.

>>441136
I think the earliest I can find this image online is it being uploaded to Wikipedia April 2006 so it must have been floating around for a little while beforehand.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Scottish_Wikipedians%27_notice_board/New_images/Archives/March_and_April_2006

I like a cup of coffee every now and again, but the gulf in quality between £1/jar and £3.50 Kenco or Douwe Egberts is absolutely staggering, it's a difference between burnt liquorice and that actually nice rounded bitterness you expect. This is more so than with teas, where some own brand red labels are actually nice and often sold in cash and carries for greasy spoons. All cheap coffees I've encountered are plain horrible.

>>441130
The fermentation process creates methanol, ethanol and acetone, all of which give you a hangover. Ethanol is the bit we like, it gets you drunk and is only a little bit poison. Acetone doesn't really get you drunk, it's just a poison. Methanol does get you drunk but it's double-poison.

Non-distilled, normal-level-of-alcoholic drinks are still mostly water, so you don't end up drinking a lot of either.

Cheap, high-alcohol, non-distilled drinks have lots of all three, so they get you drunk on the ethanol and poison you with the other two.

Spirits are distilled. When done properly, that will separate the parts containing methanol and acetone ("foreshots" and "heads") from the parts containing ethanol ("hearts") then you just drink the latter.

If you wanted to be really fancy you could distil some cider then add the hearts to some apple juice for quite a high-class cider that won't poison you so much but it'd be a really involved process.

>>441146
These ones are worth buying almost for the jar alone. Once you finish the coffee and take off the labels they look great on your shelf with herbs or whatever in and you'd pay almost as much as that if you were just buying a new, empty jar.

>>441147

Douwe Egberts jars are the best way to store your cannabis, bar none.

Isn't cheap vodka basically just ethanol mixed with water? Wouldn't the "best" way to get drunk, in theory, be getting laboratory grade pure ethanol and mixing it with whatever drink of your choice?

>>441151
>Isn't cheap vodka basically just ethanol mixed with water?
I can't see how the process of fermenting then distilling ethanol to a high purity before adding it to water would be cheaper than just making vodka the normal way, as you'd be making something you could sell as vodka in the process. Possibly, if the ingredients are in short supply and it works out cheaper to distil something else and remove the aromatics than use the things you should.
>Wouldn't the "best" way to get drunk, in theory, be getting laboratory grade pure ethanol and mixing it with whatever drink of your choice?
I suppose. It's not cheap.

I've just had Sainsbury's own brand cornflakes for breakfast. Not a patch on Kellogg's.

>>441137
Well done, that's the source. "Young men in Glasgow photograph taken on 5 April 2006 by User:Dave souza".

I'd love to believe that the man in OP's image is the youth on the right, but it unfortunately doesn't seem like 15 years would be enough time.

Maybe his dad. Thas yer da that is.

>>441151

Cheap spirits are fermented on an absolutely massive scale, using whatever type of starchy material is most cheaply available (potato, wheat, barley, sugarcane, or a mix of everything). It's distilled and then diluted to the correct strength.
Mid-priced to expensive vodka, gin, and many flavoured spirits, is produced in the exact same factory, but sold on to smaller companies who add flavourings and bottle it. Or in the case of vodka it's filtered or distilled again to make sure they've got rid of any trace of the assorted garbage it was fermented from, and then add gimmicks like mixing it with spring water or adding gold sparkly bits or claiming there's something special about their filtering process to make it stand out.

Some types of spirits are protected by law in most countries around the world, for example Scotch Whiskey by law has to be fermented from barely and aged in wooden barrels for a minimum of 3 years, without that law manufacturers would be able to just take clear spirits and dunk some woodchips in a tank for a few weeks to add the colour and flavour.

Vodka doesn't have the same legal protection, the big industry leaders have over the years spent a lot of money on marketing to make people in the West believe that the best quality of vodka is completely tasteless, so the market is stacked against anyone who wants to set out as an independent artisanal vodka distiller.
I've been lucky enough to have visited Poland a couple of years ago and tasted some locally produced naturally flavoured vodkas and they are delicious, I can drink them neat quite happily, but smirnoff or anything like that is no good to me except for mixing with something else.

>>441156
If it is all the same, then why does Glens taste so much worse than Smirnoff? It is more likely to give me a worse hangover as well.

The best vodka I've ever had was the gold Russian Standard one but I'm not claiming to be a connoisseur as most of what I've had was Glen's between the ages of 14 and 16.

>>441156

It's not dissimilar to rum then. Most of the world thinks that (white) rum is always the same kind of watered down stuff as Bacardi, but Bacardi is really one of the worst, most tasteless and mass produced brands of rum you can get.

There are countless local distilleries dotted around the Caribbean that produce artisan rum that you can't buy in Britain, and if you've ever had some of their stuff, you will never want to drink Bacardi again. And even most commercial local brands you can buy in tourist supermarkets there are much better than Bacardi.

>>441157
That would be because Glen's vodka is definitely made in Scotland's grubbiest bathtub. On the other hand, paying a bit more for quality, while we're on the subject of Scottish vodka, Blackwoods is by far and away superior to overpriced and overrated brands like Grey Goose. In the case of the latter, it's definitely not worth the extra £~25 for a bottle of vodka.

Blackwoods is one of those rare vodkas that is beautiful just sipped neat and cold.

>>441157

Because even though thatlad implies there isn't, there are different ways to filter a vodka, and Glenns does whichever way is he quickest, cheapest or worst.

>>441119
This is a "plain loaf" in Scotland, and the brand is Mother's Pride. It's a different shape, but it's the same. You might be able to get that in England, not sure.

>>441153

>you'd be making something you could sell as vodka in the process

Fair, I didn't really think of that. For some reason I'd always sort of assumed that getting hold of a reasonably basic hydrocarbon like straight ethanol, methanol or what have you is done just using some cold unfeeling chemical process in a German factory using leftover petroleum or something.

I might start a brand of artisan alcohol called Alcohol. It's just pure C2H6O diluted 1:4 in deionised water. See how much I can rinse hipsters for. Market it towards those cocktail bars that use dry ice and labware and shit.

>>441156
It's Scotch whisky mate, whiskey is *everything else*.

>>441165

Call it Alcohol 2.0 or something slightly less generic while still being completely generic and I reckon you're on to a winner there.

>>441167

Raw Alcohol.

>>441170

Raw Spirit.

>>441163
I didn't mean to imply that there wasn't, see: >in the case of vodka it's filtered or distilled again to make sure they've got rid of any trace of the assorted garbage it was fermented from.
What I really meant to say is that when you get to the more upmarket ones with an nth number of filtrations and distillations you hit the law of diminishing returns then after that the difference comes down to how much marketing wank there is.

>>441165
>I'd always sort of assumed that getting hold of a reasonably basic hydrocarbon like straight ethanol, methanol or what have you is done just using some cold unfeeling chemical process in a German factory using leftover petroleum or something.
It can be synthesised from fossil fuels, but its still far cheaper to ferment biomass.

>>441166
Sorry, my bad

Forgot to add a picture earlier.

Have you set of radged cunts calmed down enough?

Happy New Decade You Cunts!

>>441161
I've had some Mauritian rum and you are right. I'm by no means a spirits connoisseur, but Bacardi is McDonalds level of dreck when it comes to rum. That combined with their dubious history and politcking makes me avoid them like the plague.

>>441208
>Happy New Decade

You'll be needing the "Resting Actors" thread.

I guess I'll tell you about a subject I know about... mountaineering.

Specifically moutaineering coats... North Face summit series. A lot of north face stuff has become just overpriced branded 'streetwear' clothing. But the summit series is one of about 5 brands that makes outdoor clothing you would want to wear whilst facing off death on top of an Alp, and of they are the best value and probably the only one you might find on a normal high street. Arc'teryx is actually the best mountaineering clothing brand but they cost twice as much as anyone of the other real brands and everyone else was already charging way more than you would think these things should cost. The others are Rab, mammut, and the uncreatively named mountain equipment and mountain hardware.

Anyone else selling you clothes that look similar are usually of dubious quality or practicality.

I think brand-name tea is worth the additional cost. I switched to Lidl's generic tea for a while when I was unemployed and proper skint, but if you buy commercial-brand tea in bags or leaf, then the little bit of extra cost is absolutely worth it.

I was a real tea snob though for a while. There was a small Indian tea shop in my old neighbourhood where you could buy loose leaf and where they had about 25 different black and green tea flavours in boxes behind the counter. Always smelled delicious when you walked in. If you didn't mind paying up to £7 for 125g of their finest Earl Grey, it was your kind of place.

>>441214

Echoing this sentiment for motorcycle clothing. Fashion trends will regularly cycle in and out of moto-looking aesthetics, but it should go without saying that their protective value is virtually zero. It sounds obvious, but sometimes even clothing manufacturers will deliberately blur the line between fashion and riding leathers (Barbour, Belstaff, and Schott spring to mind).

There is a growing market for motorcycle gear that looks more like every day clothing and a lot of little leaps forward have been made in achieving decently protective gear that it doesn't feel odd to wear off-bike. Knox is a good place to start. The YouTube channel "FortNine" also has some very good videos on safety ratings and clothing recommendations that meet a decent standard.

>>441214

If I can add to your list Buffalo and Montane - their pile and Pertex smocks and salopettes are phenomenally good in extreme weather. Not cheap, not attractive, but virtually indestructible.

>>441216

Co-op 99 > *.

I bought Little Duck toilet roll from Farmfoods as it worked out as <20p per roll and supplies were running low.

It's surprisingly durable, no risk whatsoever that my finger will poke through it, but it isn't the most comfortable. I've now used it all up and gone back to Cushelle, which feels so soft in comparison it's like having a cherub caressing my arse.

Cadbury hot chocolate is shit compared with Lidl's own brand version.

I decided to try Morrisons own brand cornflakes, what with the cost of living rising and everything, but it turns out they're shit.

>>445513

Anything Cadbury is shit now mate, they couldn't even get something basic like white chocolate right* even before getting bought by the Seppos and being forced to make eveything else taste like brown, slightly gritty peanut-butter-textured grease.

* "Dream" chocolate was a huge mistake, the raw materials were best used to give Marble Bars purpose

I used to work at Thorntons.
Most of the Moser Roth stuff at Aldi is Thorntons.
Same for an awful lot of M&S chocolate.
However on the turnaround, Thorntons Ice Cream is actually from Nestle'.

What sort of things do most people think are shit but that's only because they've tried low quality versions of them?

I'm generally not a big fan of gingerbread but about 10 years ago I tried a gingerbread man at a Michaelmas fair and I've been chasing that high ever since. Nothing else has come close.

>>455018

I think most people know this now, but for me butter, cheese, and proper coffee were revelations after a childhood of margarine, cheddar, and instant granules.

Well, actually, I still quite like cheddar.

>>450581
About 20 years ago(?),Asda used to do these knockoff frosties in a plastic bag, no box. They were far superior to actual Frosties. I miss them.

While we're on about cereal, I've tried M&S cornflakes and they're the closest I've found to Kellogg's.

>>455018

To bring this thread full circle, cider. There's white "cider" for street drinkers, the generic pasteurised stuff you get on draft and the weird fruity stuff that's basically just a posh alcopop. Outside of the southeast, the market is saturated with pretty terrible cider and most people don't get the chance to try good cider. The market for real ale has grown massively in recent years, but there's still a real lack of availability and knowledge when it comes to real cider and perry.

>>455038
I always found it bizarre that The Town Near Wakefield has a decent craft beer shop with a surprisingly good selection of cider. It works for me as I betray my Yorkshire roots by being a cider drinker, though.

I've had the same conversation over and over; people associating cider with teenage and vomit, or maybe sickly sweetness at best, since Proper Cider is difficult to come by.

>>455038
If you go deep into cider country and ask for a pint of cider, they'll give you an odd look and ask if you're sure you don't want it cut with lemonade. The proper stuff is lethal.

I've had to buy Lurpak because it was literally the only spread left in stock in the shop and now that I've tasted it I'm not sure I can go back to the alternatives. Shame it's ridiculously expensive.

>>455038
>Outside of the southeast

Fuck right off. The West Country has the most cideries per capita of anywhere in the world. Take your posh Suffolk piss and shove it up your arse, you London-centric little ponce.

>>455795

I'll have a nice glass of zydurr and a cream cake

I don't think I've ever had nice cottage cheese that wasn't Longley Farm.

>>456893
I can second this, and this chive variation on a hot jacket spud is godly.

Apparently the best baked beans as Asda's, followed by Branston, Aldi, Co-op, M&S, Sainsbo's and Lidl. Heinz are tied with Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose's budget range.

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/best-baked-beans-aXGSI9h5ueLR

ALDI HAVE REPLACED THEIR CORALE BEANS WITH AN INFERIOR AND MORE EXPENSIVE PRODUCT. THIS IS A COMPLETE OUTRAGE.

Amazon's bog roll is surprisingly decent, a lot softer than supermarket own brand and it only cost me 38.4p a roll (200 sheets).

Where do I get nice pillows from?

>>458788
John Lewis

>>458788
Tempur

Are there any cheaper versions of this oat milk that taste similar?

>>458880
The Minor Figures one tastes pretty much the same. They tend to rotate which is cheaper or on offer. Always take them from the baking section not the refrigerators, they're significantly cheaper. Flat tops not ridges.

I know supermarket meal deals aren't exactly good value unless you can't be arsed to make a sandwich. At which point they become surprisingly good value compared to the other office drone alternatives.

But what about 'meal deal upgrades' where you pay £5 and get a fancier sandwich? I've been thinking about it.

>>458882
>But what about 'meal deal upgrades' where you pay £5 and get a fancier sandwich?

You fucking what?

>>458882

> But what about 'meal deal upgrades' where you pay £5 and get a fancier sandwich? I've been thinking about it.

Worth it. The fancier sandwiches are a lot better.

>>458883
A lot of places offer a better meal deal for an extra £1.50. A little something extra for us managers. The sandwiches get better bread and more complex ingredients and if you want there is sometimes also a few exclusive items for the meal deal like Starbucks coffee and big bags of hula hoops.

>>458885
Where does this? I haven't noticed Morrisons or Sainsbos creating a two tier system for their sarnies.

>>458886
You haven't ever noticed these?

>>458887
Nope.

>>458887
"Inspired": I can't stand that word on food packaging, it's always a bad sign.

>>458889
It's quite a nice sandwich actually. They've done some black magic on the "bread" so it doesn't come out floppy and soggy like the poverty butties.

>>458882
I'm a picky bugger and don't like most cheeses or vegetables, so my choices for meal deals are incredibly limited. The only fancy ones I can deal with are beef & horseradish, and smoked salmon and cream cheese.

>>458887
I like all those things but the tomatoes ruin it. I could take the tomato out, yes, but it leaves a tomato residue rendering the whole thing inedible.

>>458891
I would pay good bottle caps to see videos of your meal times post-collapse.

>>458893
I'd happily eat cooked rat meat over tomatoes.

>>458894
Aren't the tomatoes supposed to go on top? And I thought you didn't like tomatoes?

>>458897
Tomatoes are vining plants so probably rope brats not for sub topping.

>>458891
Serious question: if you ate something and really enjoyed it only to be told that one or several ingredients you vehemently hate were included, how would you react?

I had a missus that said she hated mushrooms. Made her a stroganoff and she couldn't say enough good things about it... until I told it had a few types of mushrooms in and she went ballistic.

>>458900
I never used to like mushrooms until the local Chinese takeaway mixed up my chicken and sweetcorn soup with a chicken and mushroom one, which tasted nice enough that I kept ordering it. Eventually I just started liking them in general.

Conversely I've tried all year to break through my dislike of nuts (peanuts, walnuts, cashew nuts, whatever) and I just can't do it. To me they genuinely taste like something my brain's hardwired not to want to eat.

>>458900
>if you ate something and really enjoyed it only to be told that one or several ingredients you vehemently hate were included, how would you react?
Depends. Did I just happen to pick it on a menu with nobody around to warn me about the ingredients, or did someone I trust intentionally trick me into eating something they know I have strong feelings about avoiding? I know it's not an allergy thing and you didn't really do anything wrong but I can see someone having an emotional reaction.

Mitchum deodorant is much better in terms of preventing sweat and stink than cheaper brands. Also nicer smell. I bought Aldi's own brand roll on, I think it cost about 75p, but it smells like industrial cleaning products which is a bit grim.

>>458900
It depends on the context really. I say I hate tomatoes, but I like them in pizza sauce, I like sundried tomatoes, it's just fresh tomatoes have a bad taste and texture. I used to only like mushrooms raw, but taught myself to like cooked ones too. I've got a weird palate. Bell peppers, cucumber, red onion and many types of cheese are bad foods; but I like stuff like anchovies, olives, capers, kimchi, stuff that's a bit of an acquired taste. But there are certain dishes where bell peppers are prepared in such a way I do like them. I'm funny with textures because I'm a sperg.

Cushelle definitely isn't as soft as it used to be.

Do you reckon this would be terrible on your ringpiece?

https://nakedsprout.uk/products/unbleached-bamboo-and-recycled-toilet-roll

>>458972
If you've got a spare kidney to sell or you're eligible for a remortgage Andrex is as good as it ever was.

>>459313
Asda do giant double rolls now. If you put your bog roll in a holder, they won't fit, but if you just leave the roll near the bog like all normal people, that's the way forward.

>>459317
Use the bog roll holder you absolute psychopath.

After trying Mutti, I can't go back to own brand chopped tomatoes.

>>459318

I have a vertical toilet roll holder, purely to avoid arguments about which way the roll should hang.

Away from the wall is obviously correct.

>>458788
>Where do I get nice pillows from?

Premier Inn pillows.

https://www.premierinnathome.com/

>>466053
From £36 a pair? Holy fuck mate, I'm still using a 10 year old yellow stained pillow. What's with you office wanks?

>>466055
Do you want a good night's sleep or not?

Crosta & Mollica pizzas are the shit.

>>470494

They're really not though are they, they're just Chicago Towns that you're less embarrassed for the neighbours to see the Ocado bloke dropping off. I tried one once, the Aldi's fancy top shelf salami and nduja was nicer.

I am convinced sourdough is a hoax too. What's the big deal. What's supposed to be better about it. It's just bread. Tastes like bread. It's nice bread, sure, but it's still just bread.

>>470495
They ruined Chicago Town when they changed the sauce.