I’m not going to go out on a limb to defend fucking Hershey’s but I can say with confidence that the mixed bags of candy are universally a step down in quality.
It’s shitty candy meant to be given to children who don’t care. Individual bars will be better. Still fuckin Hershey’s don’t get me wrong but better.
Also, if you get them around Halloween, or full size near 4th of July, they’ll be fresh and much better. Still not great comparatively, but much better than a random bar in August.
Yeah, I think this is a bigger deal than most people realize. US went through a generation of unfettered corporate search for the bottom line, with no restrictions, and we got what we deserve.
Things are finally swinging back the other way: we do have good chocolate, beer, bread, etc, but it’s ”premium”, expensive. So, do you choose the bread you can afford or the bread with texture, fiber, nutritional value, and less sugar? Somehow we need to get past this market segmentation, so better quality items can be more commonly available. I no longer eat mass market candy, bread, or beer, and I don’t think that’s pretentious partly because it also means I do without more often, and I don’t miss that swill
That’s fair, Europe has also plenty of cheap and subpar chocolate.
But none of the cheap European stuff is disgusting. It’s overly sugary, grainy, or dull-tasting. But still miles better than my Hershey’s experience.
Milka comes to mind for me. I can have one piece and I’m good. It’s flavor is certainly better than Hersheys but ffs it’s so sweet it tastes like they forgot to add the chocolate.
I heard of Hershey’s just like other brands of American descent I was incredibly poised to try them (MTN dew, taco bell (this was the nineties, they weren’t in Europe yet).
Travelled to America, tried Hershey’s and spat it out, vile stuff.
Yeah it’s not great. I grew up with it and even then I only like it on smores. And I’m sure that’s more nostalgia than anything. By itself it’s just gross.
I keep seeing this about chocolonely and I am starting to wonder if I had a bad bar of it. The bar I had was chalky, mealy, and honestly one of the grossest things I have ever had in my mouth.
Being honest, it’s not worth calling home about it, but it’s above par with everything else you may find on a candy store.
It’s mostly their free trade policies that’s giving them so much hype.
That said, some people go nuts for certain candy bars that I’ll rather lick dry cum out of a subway tile than eat one.
I’ve heard American chocolate tastes different because they originally used spoiled milk to save money and eventually people got used to the taste and it became the norm.
I think I heard that on either How it’s Made or Modern Marvels
Well, I’ve heard something akin to that and I checked it very recently. I heard before (even read it) that because milkeries in the US are far from chocolate factories, butyric acid was used to preserve milk for a long journey, but as Europe is tiny and can fit on the back of a large pick up truck, they didn’t have such problem.
That was a misunderstanding from the journalist that published that (AFAIK).
That’s exactly correct. It gave the milk a slightly spoiled taste which resulted in the chocolate being more bitter in flavor. I simply misremembered all the details.
I’ll give you this one, most “European” milk chocolate tastes better when there’s no lipolysis involved, which is common in Hershey’s.
Then again, there’s Chocolonely which blows the competition out of the water.
Yeah, I got a bag of mixed Hershey’s minibars from the US and that stuff was vile.
The mixed bags of candy always taste bad.
I’m not going to go out on a limb to defend fucking Hershey’s but I can say with confidence that the mixed bags of candy are universally a step down in quality.
It’s shitty candy meant to be given to children who don’t care. Individual bars will be better. Still fuckin Hershey’s don’t get me wrong but better.
Also, if you get them around Halloween, or full size near 4th of July, they’ll be fresh and much better. Still not great comparatively, but much better than a random bar in August.
You gotta wait until just before Halloween.
Don’t want to jump on that bag early and get last year’s left overs.
There’s no “last years leftovers” it’s not worth it to store it for a year. That’s why it always goes on clearance the day after Halloween.
It’s the cheapest commonly available option, of course it’s not good. (We have even worse stuff but it’s pretty much only seen around Easter)
The US has terrible and incredible options for pretty much everything. Beer, chocolate, beaches, whatever. It’s just never the mass-marketed stuff.
Yeah, I think this is a bigger deal than most people realize. US went through a generation of unfettered corporate search for the bottom line, with no restrictions, and we got what we deserve.
Things are finally swinging back the other way: we do have good chocolate, beer, bread, etc, but it’s ”premium”, expensive. So, do you choose the bread you can afford or the bread with texture, fiber, nutritional value, and less sugar? Somehow we need to get past this market segmentation, so better quality items can be more commonly available. I no longer eat mass market candy, bread, or beer, and I don’t think that’s pretentious partly because it also means I do without more often, and I don’t miss that swill
That’s fair, Europe has also plenty of cheap and subpar chocolate.
But none of the cheap European stuff is disgusting. It’s overly sugary, grainy, or dull-tasting. But still miles better than my Hershey’s experience.
Milka comes to mind for me. I can have one piece and I’m good. It’s flavor is certainly better than Hersheys but ffs it’s so sweet it tastes like they forgot to add the chocolate.
I heard of Hershey’s just like other brands of American descent I was incredibly poised to try them (MTN dew, taco bell (this was the nineties, they weren’t in Europe yet).
Travelled to America, tried Hershey’s and spat it out, vile stuff.
Yeah it’s not great. I grew up with it and even then I only like it on smores. And I’m sure that’s more nostalgia than anything. By itself it’s just gross.
I keep seeing this about chocolonely and I am starting to wonder if I had a bad bar of it. The bar I had was chalky, mealy, and honestly one of the grossest things I have ever had in my mouth.
Being honest, it’s not worth calling home about it, but it’s above par with everything else you may find on a candy store. It’s mostly their free trade policies that’s giving them so much hype.
That said, some people go nuts for certain candy bars that I’ll rather lick dry cum out of a subway tile than eat one.
Lmao that’s a visual
I’ve heard American chocolate tastes different because they originally used spoiled milk to save money and eventually people got used to the taste and it became the norm.
I think I heard that on either How it’s Made or Modern Marvels
Not true. What it can happen is that some producers utilize lipolysis, which may cause the formation of butyric acid (AFAIK): https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/finding-flavor-chocolate
I highly doubt anyone would use “spoiled” milk, as powder milk exists since 1802.
Hey man when you’re right you’re right.
That’s my bad I remembered it wrong.
Well, I’ve heard something akin to that and I checked it very recently. I heard before (even read it) that because milkeries in the US are far from chocolate factories, butyric acid was used to preserve milk for a long journey, but as Europe is tiny and can fit on the back of a large pick up truck, they didn’t have such problem.
That was a misunderstanding from the journalist that published that (AFAIK).
I can’t find the original, but this also talks about it: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/hersheys-chocolate-tastes-like-vomit_l_60479e5fc5b6af8f98bec0cd
That’s exactly correct. It gave the milk a slightly spoiled taste which resulted in the chocolate being more bitter in flavor. I simply misremembered all the details.