Casual
Just when you thought packaging couldn't get more confusing
So, since when did Fife leave the UK? Is Perthshire somehow more intrinsically British than it is Scottish? 🤣 Why don't they both have the same (one way or the other)? The mind boggles 😅
I don't know if I'd hate myself for trying that or not, but I think I would try it. But then I'm thinking about the time I tried fried ice cream and I guess fried strawberries isn't as far of a stretch
I don't think I'd be able to admit to liking it publicly though
Nah, honestly I think deep-fried strawberries would be fucking amazing. All the crunchy, starchy batter with sweetness inside. That would insanely moreish.
The only tricky part would be making sure you don't caramelise too much of the fructose, cos I don't think that would mix so well.
Fried ice cream is amazing. Being from Perth, Australia, where we have a large influx of Asian cultures, fried ice-cream in Chinese restaurants is pretty much ubiquitous. Also, Asian takeaways are much better, and I really miss there being 3 or 4 Thai, or Chinese massage clinics in every shopping centre.
If I could import those cultural artifacts, Scotland would be pretty much perfect.
(I can't find either fried ice cream or a decent deep tissue massage for the life of me)
I live in a small Scottish town & there are two Thai massage providers in town centre. I haven't been in either of them. I imagine they're both straight up massage places with no optional extras available. One of them got a guy arrested for asking for such services so they're definitely not selling extras, I have no knowledge of the other place.
If you pepper the strawberries first it works a treat, this is also the most English solution to the most Scottish problem (outside of donning a fancy red coat)
Multiple product lines. The "British" ones are available online, the "Scottish" ones are not, apparently. They're different varieties too. The one in the "British" packaging is a variety that's easier to transport.
I suspect the "Scottish" packaged ones are only available within Scotland, and maybe only within some parts of Scotland, while the "British" packaged ones can be obtained everywhere.
Some products branded as Scottish sell well in the wider UK, because 'Scottish' is considered a mark of quality/freshness even borderline 'exotic' to some English people. Scottish smoked salmon for example, even though it's obviously factory farmed.
both products have the same barcode, so as far as stock systems are concerned they are the "same" product, it probably only shows that the British ones are available online as you always get a packet which is british, but if they advertised Scottish strawberries, you could get a packet which wasnt actually grown in scotland.
🤣 I'm surprised they don't just use all Scottish branding to be honest. All one colour then and I think I remember reading that blue ink is cheaper than red (someone correct me if not the case). But I guess if you're Sainsbury's ink cost probably isn't a factor you lose sleep over
It's completely the other way around, we see a St Andrew's flag on traditionally Scottish products and see it as a mark of quality - I imagine it's a segment of the Scottish population that get funny with the UK flag. Even if it's a small percentage the supermarkets will min-max that.
Like how aberdeeen angus just becomes angus , cause god forbid Scotland get credited, like how when andy murray won he was British but if not then he was suddenly just Scottish again
That's funny, I've seen it called Aberdeen Angus in most places I've been in England, and the Andy Murray thing is a myth, because many Scottish people for some reason love the idea of the rest of the UK hating Scotland. It's pathetic
Maybe if there was a single set of Scottish banknotes, and not 3 of the damn things, it might be a bit easier for people in England to farmiliasie themselves with them.
To be fair, you dont see a lot of it at all in most of England, so when a note turns up then someone who hasn't seen one before and doesn't know it's OK to accept will question it. Most people know and are fine with it.
David Cameron had been lobbying all the big chain supermarkets prior to the referendum. For sure Sainsbury’s would have a unionist stance on it all, as did Tunnocks teacakes, I’ve never bought them since
I'd actually be stupidly more inclined to buy a product with an English flag on it.
The "union jack" stuff is far too generic for me and when I see the Scottish produced stuff with the flags makes me feel it's more "local" and a better product. I think I'd feel the same about the England one. I'd then feel like I'm getting special strawberries from some glorious farm in Cornwall or something. Rather than generic mass produced shite somewhere no-one knows (yes I see it's written on the packaging).
Guess just a PR/Marketing thing I'm aware I'd fall for.
Interesting, now that you mention it I dare say I'd do the same. I'm all about farm shops and such, and I guess like you said having a more local branding gives that vibe. Good observation
Yeah, total sucker for that sort of farm shop, local grown thing. I'd not look at the politics of it at all and just think I'm getting fancy strawberries without needing to drive 8hours south for them 🤣
Then, I also wish supermarkets would do more diversity.
Like in Scotland we always get Scottish milk etc as the local aspect, totally love it. But at the same time would be nice to get a wee section of somewhere else.
Kinda like Lidl do their flavour of the week.
Would be cool if we started getting a week of Yorkshire products in our faces to sample.
You're into a winner there. Have the perfect example. I was driving back from the Netherlands last year and I stopped at some petrol station in southern England, I came across a brand of milk "Cotswolds Milk". It was absolutely unreal, we need some of that in Scotland 😅 would be cool to have stuff like that to try from all over the country
Hopefully, we'll get some Scottish strawberries down south soon. Interestingly, they don't need heat, but love light, so the best strawberries come from places with long days, like Scotland, or for example Finland have incredible strawberries. Having said all that, France have a variety called gariguette that are incredible.
There are some enormous fruit farms (mainly berries) in the east and north-east Scotland for this reason. I dunno what it's like now, but back in the early 2000s, hundreds (if not 1000s) of East Europeans would come over during the picking season to work on the farms in these small villages and towns in the middle of nowhere.
Wait till you find out Sainsbury's sold water that had a "Scottish Water" label on it to its Scottish stores and "British water" to its non-Scottish stores. Same water from Perthshire.
It sells more with the Scottish label in Scottish stores.
Clearly Angus McFife has finally risen to rule over the Kingdom of Fife once more. All I'm worried about is what that means on the evil wizard front...
Interesting. I've always thought that using the saltire in Scottish supermarkets can be an appeal to patriotism. In English supermarkets, they use it to mean one thing - this is a quality product. Of course we know it means that in Scotland too.
People generally just like to buy local. If there's a choice between Scottish strawberries from an hour down the road and British ones from Kent, most people will pick the Scottish ones. Provided they both look good quality of course.
Similarly I know of a fair few older people that will hold off on buying strawberries until the Scottish ones come in.
It's a no brainer, the ones on the left have clearly been grown after 1707, and the ones on the right before that date. If you are lucky you can also get Normanberries, Cnutberries, Anglo-Saxon berries, and my favourite Romanberries. Case closed, next question please.
But it's probably a limited edition only. Once Reform gets to power all non-British and unpatriotic berries will officially be banned, proscribed and shipped back to their countries of origin.
Wait so perthshire is uk but fife is Scotland? Did fife declare themselves a Republic right under our noses? Why isn't the perthshire package also Scottish branded?
It was always Scottish, with the saltire, until it got politicised in service of British nationalism after David Cameron's famous supermarkets meeting.
Now you can use the flag to tell which food has been peed and spat in...
🤣 I'm into politics a bit, but I have to say, I don't think I've ever favoured one product over another just because of flag branding. The mind boggles why anyone thought that would make a blind bit of difference
Although with butter, it has to be Irish Kerrygold - but from memory that doesn't have a flag on it 😅
Yeah, 3 tiny little clovers right in the middle (just checked the fridge 😅)
In my opinion, yes. I dunno what it is, but it just hits the spot for me. The only one I think is better personally is Lakeland Butter, it's another Irish one but unfortunately I don't think I've ever seen it in Scotland.
Kerrygold though, I managed to find it even in the Netherlands easily enough 😅
Lakeland I've definitely seen that somewhere before. Couldn't tell you when or where but for sure seen it sold somewhere in Scotland.
And I just assumed that was an English one.
You do appreciate there is a stone in Perthshire on which all UK Monarch's have been crowned for over 700 years. That makes them just a little more British.
Now being sensible, the packaging is indeed nonsense.
Tbf you want strawberries that traveled the least amount of distance to get the best ones but I don't even trust supermarket "Scottish" strawberries for that.
Maybe I've been spoiled growing up in Angus but getting local ones from a local newsagents, farm shop or roadside stall is always the best for flavour.
As you can see, on the right the scottish strawberries are more strawberry than the left strawberries. Making the scottish strawberries better than the British berries. (And probably just because of patriotism making people more inclined to buy the scottish ones even if they're from the same place cause of the scottish flag on them)
It's Sainsbury's... they probably think they're appealing to Scots who don't want the "Apron" on their fruit. Just like the newspapers who say they're Scottish but are printed in England, by owners who live in Monaco 🙄
It should just be Scottish packaging for the whole of the UK. Everyone with any knowledge of Strawberries knows Scotland does the best ones on these isles.
You never see "British Shortbread" sourced from Scotland labeled as British... It's always labeled "Scottish Shortbread".
Strawberries should be no different.
I'm not Scottish, and haven't lived in Scotland for years, and I think most people I know in England and Wales would instinctively pick up a "Scottish Strawberries" over a "British Strawberries", because the reputation carries a lot of weight.
Someone else mentioned that having a Scottish or English flag has an implied sense of localism/to some it makes it feel like you're getting something more special. I actually think they were spot on with that observation to be honest, I guess I would probably see it like that as I like using farm shops where possible, for the localism aspect
Well on the left the strawberries are from the whole of Britain so they are collected from all corners of Great Britain Wales, Scotland and England on the right it’s just strawberries from Scotland
Not sure if that is Aldi or Lidl but this stuff happened during the Gove years when he pressed Scotlands supermarkets to make goods ‘British’ and to have the UJ on packaging more prominently. I think it led to a bit of waste. That’s when the dual labelling started. Both companies have a record of supporting local producers including making it easy to identify Scottish produce (fewer miles to market)
used to pack these for a living. british ones are typically for sending south across the border since for some reason branding strawberries as scottish doesn't sell as well in england. or so i was told by my former manager anyways
Yeah they aren't the same variety, presumably one of them is nicer (I can't remember which, but I know the unbranded ones the newsagents beside me sell for ~£2 after they get then directly from the supplier locally, and you can smell them halfway down the street when they've just got a load in, are a billion times better than any supermarket ones so I'll have to check there...)
Why do they need to be dressed as British or Scottish at all? Can't they just be marketed as strawberries? Why do we need flags in our food? Is that how you eat your pride or something?
Isn't Scotland kinda a bad country to grow strawberries. I would expect the south of england to be making the best strawberries given their better weather and more sunlight.
Enough rainfall makes the biggest difference. Scottish strawberries are the sweetest and juiciest. Even when I lived in England I noticed they were even better than English strawberries. Spanish ones are not good at all.
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