Re: American Chocolates?
 

I think generalizing all "US chocolate" on the basis of Hershey's is a bit unfair.

Re: American Chocolates?
 

I got a delivery yesterday and it's not even my birthday or anything. These were good, the chocolate didn't taste like sick which is always a bonus. Like a posh malteser. Tried the jelly belly ones too, not great but bette than a whopper!

Re: American Chocolates?
 

As the husband of a pastry chef, this drives me nuts. "Ooooo. Hershey's! They make the best chocolate!". Dammit, people please, it TASTES LIKE SPOILED MILK! That is not what chocolate tastes like! Even as a kid, I knew something was wrong (wrong, wrong, wrong) with Hershey's.

As I mentioned above, Hershey's makes plenty of excellent (world class even in the case of Dagoba or Scharffen-Berger) chocolate. Many of the top restaurants in the US use top end Hershey products in making pastries. It's just the standard Hershey bar, Hershey Kisses, Mr Goodbar and Hershey Special Dark (yes, even that one) that they're ruined. Even some of the "drugstore" chocolate Hershey's uses in stuff like Nuggets or Pot of Gold hasn't been lipodized and is actually pretty good.

Also, note that due to US FDA regulations, all US chocolate can only be called "chocolate" if it's made with cacao butter and not (the far cheaper) vegetable oil. Most mass market European chocolate is made with vegetable oil. As such, most mass market European chocolate needs to be reformulated for sale in the US. As a result, ironically a Hershey's bar is arguably more "real chocolate" than, say, a UK-made Dairy Milk. This also explains why European branded chocolate sold in the US is often produced under contract by an American firm and tastes completely different than the European version. (My wife and I are chocolate nerds, sorry about all this).

This reminds me of American beer in the late eighties: people just don't know any better so they tolerate crap... until you get a glass of proper beer. A similar revolution is coming, I hope.

Re: American Chocolates?
 

So we have either something that tastes like chocolate but isn't (the UK had an argument with the European Onion, back in the 1980s IIRC, over what could be sold as "chocolate", with the Belgians and the French having a rather different view from the big British "chocolate" manufacturers), OR something that is chocolate but tastes of vomit. :unsure:

Personally I don't like Cadbury's DM (or other British "milk chocolate") either. The only chocolate to be found in our house when I was a child was plain ("dark") chocolate. :)

Re: American Chocolates?
 

It's a benchmark, a chocolate that most are familiar with. Thing is, people are saying that the US premium chocolate is good - fair enough - and then comparing it to everyday UK chocolate. So US premium = UK average.

I saw a discussion years ago about cheese - again, Americans were saying how wonderful their [premium] cheese was and saying it was on a par with middle of the road UK cheese. They didn't seem to grasp the fact that everyday US cheese is equivalent to UK economy cheese. To buy a cheddar that actually tastes of something requires me to browse the premium chillers in the US.

It's all personal opinion anyway, whether you agree or not! ;)

Re: American Chocolates?
 

Mr Bubblechog starts having a fit when he see's me heading towards the fancy cheese section. I can't help it. I miss real cheese sometimes. i got a really nice cheshire cheese last weekend. It cost 10% of our weekly shopping bill...

Re: American Chocolates?
 

I'm willing to bet you that the price of "premium" cheese, chocolate etc in the US is roughly the equivalent of "middle of the road" UK.

Also, top of the line American cheese or chocolate is far superior to British "middle of the road". Get ye to Whole Foods.

Re: American Chocolates?
 

Absolutely no way that is true for cheese. As Geoff says, bog-standard cheddar is in the 'premium' chiller here with a price to match. When I visit my mum, she casually has a fab range of cheeses from the local supermarket on hand as a matter of course.

Not a great chocolate eater so not sure, but suspect you're wrong.

Re: American Chocolates?
 

I find most foods boil down to what your used to and grew up with. I've had real UK made chocolate imported from the UK, and I don't really care for it, edible, but not my favorite. I can tolerate Hershey Bars, they taste fine to me, not the grandest, but tolerable.

If I can recall correctly Hershey bar was the deigned to be massed produced cheaply and made available to the masses as back in the day chocolate wasn't an everyday thing, and Milton Hershey came up with a cheaper way to make chocolate but it tasted different, but was cheap so did well, and it still lives up to what it was designed for, to be a cheap, mass produced chocolate bar.

The Canadian Hershey bar is apparently different, creamier I find then the US counterparts.

Re: American Chocolates?
 

You are wrong.

Re: American Chocolates?
 

Partly true, but I think the more things we try, the more we can appreciate better quality.

We grew up with awful things like 'Vesta' instant rice meals, but over the years I learned to appreciate proper Indian food, for example.

Re: American Chocolates?
 

Um no. In the tiny specialty corner of the dairy section of my local supermarket I can indeed find some decent cheeses - but not at a decent price by a long shot.

Kinda missing the point here...

And therein lies the problem. Why should I go to a small section of a specific store to pay high prices just to get something that I could get for a couple of quid at one of 50,000 crappy corner shops in the UK?

(Sorry if that sounded like I'm getting at you - I'm trying not to; just seems you have different tastes to me and the others that have already replied to your post)

Re: American Chocolates?
 

Funnily enough it was the same for me with my parents eating tinned curry. I never wanted to try it until I was away at University - and then realised what I had been missing. My mum said she couldn't afford anything better which is fair enough.

Changing tack slightly, I hate tomato. Well, I used to but have slowly tolerated more and more, albeit only when cooked. Obviously Indian curry dishes frequently have tomato but it's overpowered by spices. Over here in the US I find I can eat more restaurant dishes without inwardly groaning as the UK definition of spicy seems to mean tomato++, whereas the US version of spicy is - well, mild, but - not necessarily tomato. So that's a +1 for the US! :)

Re: American Chocolates?
 

There ya go! :rofl:

Re: American Chocolates?
 

Our family always liked Reese's peanut butter cups, and most of us still do.

I was shocked to hear Hershey owns Reese's (since the 60s). I find the chocolate in the PB Cups very different from the regular Hershey chocolate, as if it's a totally different recipe. (Melts faster for one thing.)

Then there are M&Ms. My kids always said they were different from Smarties or Buttons, but I was never addicted to any of those, so don't feel qualified to form an opinion. :)