Tesco will stop selling crescent-shaped croissants - here's its explanation
The supermarket giant Tesco has ditched curved croissants and is now selling only straight versions of the French pastry - even though "croissant" translates to "crescent" in English.
The change took effect Friday and will affect nearly a million of the Tesco brand's croissants made each week, according to a news release.
Demand for the crescent-shaped pastries has dwindled recently, with 75% of the supermarket's customers preferring straight croissants, the release says.
"At the heart of the move away from curved croissants is the spreadability factor," Harry Jones, Tesco's croissant buyer, said in the release. "The majority of shoppers find it easier to spread jam, or their preferred filling, on a straighter shape."
The release also says Tesco customers "believe straighter croissants are more sophisticated and are of a better quality." For fans of French pastries who disagree, there's a little good news: Tesco is adding more chocolate chips to its brioche.
Despite being widely identified with French culture, the croissant actually originated as a "kipfel," which is German for "crescent-shaped," in Austria in 1683, made after the Ottomans' defeat in Vienna. As croissant expert Jim Chevallier told The Smithsonian, "the croissant began as the Austrian kipfel but became French the moment people began to make it with puffed pastry."
Wherever you stand on the matter, if you want a traditional curved croissant, you know one place not to find it.