CMV: Describing a baked good as "not too sweet" is a bad descriptor and a cop-out.

My opinion on this matter is that people that describe baked goods as "not too sweet" often use that to mean "it's good, I recommend this pastry".

But that same group of people only use "not too sweet" to describe 'good' pastries. That doesn't tell me anything about the pastry except that you can handle it.

I feel like it's too similar to someone going to a szechuan restaurant and telling you "Oh, it's so good, it's not too spicy".

Not the whole point, but a lot of the point of sweet pastries is historically to be sweet. Many pastries only came about because of the distribution of flour [making it cheaper], and the distribution and farming of sugar as a cash crop.

As palettes grew to incorporate more sugar into the diet these pastries became sweeter, but even if your palette is accomadating less sugar, using "not too sweet" or "too sweet" as the primary filter for if you like a pastry or not is a cop out for describing things well.

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Plus, there's an argument to be made that going to an american pastry shop and complaining that it's too sweet [or a non-american shop and complaining it's not sweet enough] is more of a failure of your palette in relation to that shop and not the pastry itself.