Champagne Rhubarb - tasteless?

When I took on my second half plot in spring, folks told me to look out for the Champagne Rhubarb somewhere on the plot. Well I had to get things going and I found the Champagne Rhubarb growing up through the middle of my compost bin!

Having dug it out, I took some of the forced stems home to have a taste of this promised delicacy. How dissapointing - it was tasteless and without much body and somewhat slimy when cooked.

Is this about it for this delicacy? If so, I prefer the denser more fibrous and stronger tasting common rhubarb on my old half plot - and this new discovery will go on the shares table for someone else to enjoy!

i agree forsed rhubarb is no match for just letting it grow. cheers bailz

We've had this variety in at work, plus another newish one called Raspberry Red.  They are supposed to be less sour than the old varieties.

Pinched a couple of stalks to have a crafy taste and they are noticably milder in flavour, but I would rather have the traditional rhubarb taste and just add an extra bit of sugar   

I grow champaign rhubarb a find it delicious. 

I think it might be that the stems I tried were the ones that had naturally forced their way up through the compost heap.

I have since transplanted the root to open ground and will try it this year before deciding to give away or not. I do like the original type rhubarb though.

I harvested some Forced Rhubarb today for a Crumble, its totally tasteless.
In fact it rather unpleasant. I've done the FR before and got the same result, I tried it again this season in case I got it wrong last time. I didn't FR is Yuk!.

For me that's it, from now on I'll leave it to grow as it should.

That seems odd to me , have been harvesting unforced for 3 weeks .

Have also been harvesting mine for the last few weeks.
Never forced it.
It is timperley early, it starts early but keeps producing till August.

Did make me laugh on Gardeners World, Monty had some forced rhubarb, the first pot looked quite a poor crop, but then the next pot he pulled had quite a good spread but just collapsed as he picked off the lid. Did not look at all appetising.