I took two bites and had to spit it out
That’s how I reacted the first time I tasted Hershey’s chocolate.
Well obviously it sucks that the fake cocoa is disgusting, but I have to say I kinda am for the effort of trying to create an alternative, given how the cocoa producers are notorious for exploiting child labor and how terrible it is for the environment
Yeah I bought small container of bakers cocoa bout a month ago and it was half the size it used to be and almost three times the price.
“One German brand, the Nestlé-owned Choco Crossies, recently announced it was eliminating cocoa altogether from its new Snack Vibes line, replacing it with ChoViva, a lab-grown chocolate alternative made from fermented sunflower and grape seeds.”
How the fudge did we end up in this dystopian nightmare? ಥ_ಥ
Child slavery is frowned upon just enough that they have eliminated real cocoa. People won’t pay for non-slave rates, so they have to go with synthetic product.
Lab-grown? Lab-GROWN? What fucking part of the metal tank has the growing area?
WARNING: May contain traces of real cocoa.
… I just buy bags of ghiradelli dark chocolate baking chips, and eat a handful, when I feel like snacking on chocolate.
They have 72% cacao chips, but that is bit too rich for my taste and my wallet, 60% seems to hit the spot.
Much cheaper per weight than actual ghiradelli chocolate squares or whatever.
And you can just toss a few into some fresh hot coffee, stir for a minute, kablamo choco-coffee.
Anyway, yeah, most US ‘chocolate’ is disgusting.
most US ‘chocolate’ is disgusting.
Most by sheer volume because four companies make damn near every candy bar in the grocery store? Sure. Most by percent of discrete chocolatiers? Nah. There’s tons of good chocolate in the US, it’s just priced as the luxury good it should be (turns out slavery is great for keeping prices down)
Yes, yeah, the former is what I meant there.
There indeed are tons of proper local chocaltiers in a lot of places, but sadly they do not have too much of the overall market volume.
I can’t tell if this is a moment from your real life or a bit of creative writing about a dystopian future.
Plot twist: it’s a Ghirardelli ad.
And I’m confused about how you found anything in that comment dystopian. Though I’m assuming that name I didn’t recognize is a brand name for an actual chocolate producer. Hopefully it isn’t a brand name for something similar to chocolate but not lol.
You are eating baking choco chips instead of the chocolate that is for sale and also talking about how you can’t afford the richer baking chocolate all while putting it all in a faux sounding positive light. It actualy reads much like things I read written in the dustbowl and depression.
This is not a normal state of affairs and phrasing the work a rounds like some uplifting lifehack makes it seem dystopian
It was a different commenter, though I also like snacking on dark chocolate chips. Baker’s chocolate is also good, but the consistency of the squares isn’t great for snacking.
I just read it as a tip for how to get chocolate anyways, even if all the chocolate bar makers stop using it. The chocolate-like but cheaper stuff they are using instead of chocolate sounds more like the dustbowl/depression era tricks to enjoy food while you can’t afford it.
Though part of my perspective is from getting my cooking to a level where store bought prepared stuff is just the easy/convenient option, not the high quality one (for health or taste). I also love dark chocolate and prefer the high cocoa content ones over must chocolate bars.
EU has laws stating how much raw cocoa a product that calls itself chocolate must have.
US has none of that
The US, UK and EU all have government regulations about how much – or how little – cocoa an item can contain and still be considered “chocolate”, but those regulations are much stricter in Europe. In the UK, for instance, after Pladis reduced the amount of cocoa bean-derived ingredients in its McVitie’s Penguin and Club bars to below 20%, both treats were officially demoted from “chocolate” to “chocolate flavour”. In the US, the threshold is 15%, and low-cocoa items like the Unwrapped Mini Hearts can still be described as “chocolate candy”.
From the article, this is where the other answer probably got they link.
That’s how I’ve felt about soft drinks in the UK since they pulled the sugar tax, now every drink just tastes of sweeteners. I’m guessing most people can’t taste them or something but I can’t stand them.
Seems like the tax is working then
You aren’t alone. Artificial sweeteners are disgusting with a capital D.
Yeah, I think sucralose is the only one that doesn’t taste awful to me. Like I’ve always been skeptical of the defense of aspartame because it tastes like something I shouldn’t be eating. I was looking forward to stevia back when it got popular, but it also has that taste (I’m guessing from leftover solvent, since it’s not water soluable like sugar).
There’s plenty of ways to make things taste great without relying so heavily on sweetness. I hate the western food industry’s obsession with it along with the capitalist obsession with selling as much as possible, because it’s resulted in the less sugar I’ve wanted to see instead meaning the sugar is replaced with other chemicals that taste sweet (and “chemically”).
And I doubt safety studies looked at anything beyond “does it so obviously cause issues that we’ll be sued the moment we try to sell this?”
Most sweeteners don’t bother me but stevia has a very distinct flavor that I dislike.
As for safety, aspartame is extremely well-studied and understood. It’s been used for over 50 years now. Sucralose for 30 years. We also know a lot about the dangers of high sugar intake. The no-calorie stuff is probably healthier overall in the amounts people actually consume.
i mean i taste it. i started trying to give up soda in general, and the sweetened waters definitely have something about them. like the preservatives in MRE’s. it’s hard to describe the taste, and there is nothing ‘wrong’ with it, but there is also something wrong with it
Next up, saw dust in candy and chocolate!
Wood is too expensive for that.
This has been that way for a while now. Reeses and Hershey’s suck. They use a PINCH of cocoa powder and their chocolate tastes and feels like wax. The peanut butter filling is basically peanut flavored sawdust. They spend crazy amounts of money reduce ingredient costs while still maintaining a somewhat edible product. They end up with “chocolate favored wax/oil and sugar”. Boycott them. You can get way better chocolate at Aldi.
Hershey’s chocolate tastes like wax and vegetable oil.
you can get better chocolate at aldi and make your own peanut butter cups at home, it’s fairly easy
edit, Ive made pot peanut butter cups before, is delightful.
low dose, but, infuse the marijuana bud with coconut oil and use the coconut oil in the chocolte when you melt it. You cant put much, but it’s fun none the less
I was getting some melting wafers the other day and grabbed a bag of Ghirardelli, which has been pretty reliable in the past. I didn’t catch that they were “chocolate flavored” wafers until I was at checkout. Chocolate was the 8th ingredient.
dear lordt
Reeses Cups are the absolute worst candy these days. They are so terrible now, and I used to love them. The peanut filling is gross.
And then use scare tactics to convince everyone that we have to use their products for Halloween.
It’s fascinating how hard some sectors are fighting to forbid replacement meats or milks to call themselves steak or milk. But those products barely resembling the original name are completely allowed to call themselves chocolate or fruit juice (based on some concentrate and some other stuff).
This might be the case in the US. In the EU, chocolate is taken much more seriously. This vomit-flavored abomination called Hersheys “chocolate” is probably illegal and unfit for human consumption here.
The reason Hersheys tastes like vomit actually isn’t because of the (lack of) cocoa. It’s because they use intentionally soured milk in their chocolate.
Basically, a company as large as Hershey strives for consistency instead of quality. And that means they need a consistent source of milk. The problem is obviously that milk sours fairly quickly. So rather than using inconsistent milk (which may be in various states of souring), they use butyric acid to intentionally sour the milk. And butyric acid is also found in vomit.
So when Europeans try American chocolate, they’re often disgusted by the taste. Americans have grown up expecting that tangy taste in chocolate, but Europeans haven’t. So it’s all they focus on, and it inevitably ends up with them thinking that all American chocolate just tastes like vomit.
Aware, I only buy european chocolate now. From Aldi or the local Polish grocery.
it’s about marketing.
people don’t buy what is not familiar. so it’s very much in their interest to market these replacements as familiar products.
food is a emotional thing, it’s not logical of thoughtful. people typically only eat what they know or perceive to be good based on what others eat.
They aren’t. Next time you’re at the store, actually look at what the label says. It’ll be a big “CHOCOLATE” and then a smaller “flavored candy”.
Fruit juice from concentrate is still 100% fruit juice though. It just had the water removed and re-added.
But they do often make it “cranberry juice cocktail”, which is some part cranberry juice and mostly apple juice.And just this week I saw orange juice that was also part pear and apple juice, but that’s probably because of citrus greening killing the orange groves.
When you can taste the enshittification of everything.
Taste is in accordance with the color.
I bought a caramello bar a week or two ago
Threw it away after two bites. If i wanted to chew on wax id go find those sugar water filled coke bottle shaped ones.
Why did you take a second bite?
“We are proud to announce our products are completely free of any natural ingredients!”
Reminds me of CHOW, the “food-free food” marketed by Famine in Good Omens.
…but no slavery
I wonder…
It’s like a full synthetic oil change, but for your gut.
I didn’t know Hershey’s used Cocoa, I thought the main ingredient was vomit.
It’s fine, it’s only sold in the US.
I’m assuming you of course are aware, but that is a tasting note. As in hersheys will specifically call out that tasting note as intentional if you do a tasting tour. It explained why I only ever liked their special dark and hates their regular bar.
It was very word for me. Like with most American products that were in TV series, but weren’t available in Europei was anxious to try them first time I went to the states.
Mountain dew was amazing. Taco Bell was not all I imagine it to be, but Hershey’s was just straight up disgusting.
It’s a tasting note, because the original Hershey’s milk chocolate chemist accidentally spoiled the milk as part of his process.
It took a decade or two to figure out what was wrong, but by then the American public was used to vomit tasting milk chocolate.
No. It’s part of their process because it makes it more shelf-stable. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231221-why-british-chocolate-tastes-the-way-it-does
That may be what it is now, but the original cause was spoil d milk. Because Hershey refused to use powdered milk, he had just bought a massive dairy farm and insisted on using fresh milk.
Accidentally? I thought he had a large batch of spoiled milk powder and was looking for a way to use it up.
Hershey doesn’t use powdered milk. Hershey himself stubbornly insisted on the recipe using fresh milk because he had ignorantly bought up a bunch of cows before getting the recipe nailed down.
And that’s why American chocolate is bad, or so the legend goes.
Source: I’m from Pennsylvania and have taken the Hershey factory tour many times since childhood.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hersheys-chocolate-tastes-like-vomit_l_60479e5fc5b6af8f98bec0cd
Even if you are familiar with the process, I’ll leave this here for anyone interested in the why. Article is a bit apologetic to Hershey’s, but still seems to be good info.
