The problem with breeding sweetcorn is that they are from Central America - not the highlands either (which gives runner beans and potatoes a head start and makes them relatively easy to manipulate).
The story of how they emerged in the first place is a real humdinger - there are endless legends of how it happened involving the local gods but basically they were breeding the local grass 8000 years ago and they suddenly got this chromosomal fluke that made sweetcorn.
The basic stock was therefore a long shot in the first place - that kind of thing leaves little leeway in the genes. On top of that they were almost entirely unsuitable for the UK. This helps to explain why it took decades to breed the necessary earliness into them, to my mind it was sheer luck that any flavour was retained at all!
The odds get longer and longer every time you try to breed for something else. I think the 'retain sweetness' gene broke the bank.
It's always possible to get the exact mix of genes you want - just like it's possible to win the lottery. In 20 years time you might get a tendersweet variety that retains the old sweetcorn flavour (or at least as much as we ever had in this country) - but why should that bother us?
We don't need to wait for the lottery to make a big win - we can take the old varieties, pick them, eat them - all within 30 minutes - it's not rocket science...
Cheers
