I asked him whether he'd toasted them.

that barely helps, toasting "cardboard" doesn't taste much better

Controversial take, but on the rare occasions I have Pop Tarts I prefer them microwaved.

That's strange, they had toasting instructions on them in the 70's. Wonder why they'd remove them.

I do wonder if pop tarts have been enshittified over the years. Over the last couple years I’ve tried them a few times, as a comfort food from my childhood. While I wasnt fooling myself about them being good, were they always this bad?

You have to get frosted, so it’s not all cardboard. I rarely bothered toasting - it’s an improvement to the jelly filling but then you burn your tongue. But it’s still all cardboard and the filling is generally flavorless. I mean I always liked “blueberry” because it never tasted like blueberries but I remember it as having some generic jelly taste and it really doesn’t. There was never much filling but did they cut it back? Did the jelly used to have actual fruit that is now just hfcs and food coloring?

Such an American thing to do. Warning signs on everything, but can't be bothered to print the value on half their coins. Just force every child to memorize the values in school instead. There are tons of examples of this kind of thing if you look for them.