Why is American chocolate so bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because the American food industry supports big business, not the end user.

Palm oil. Blech.

The anti-seed oil thing is distinctly American ATM. If you go to any market in Europe and actually check the labels you'll see almost everything has palm oil, seed oil, rapeseed oil, etc. Even in organic markets.

The idea that all food in Europe is hand churned with fresh cream by a milkmaid in a Dutch cap is a quaint, outdated American fantasy. The reality is far different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well yes, Hershey's sucks, probably because it's so sugary...but you can get Lindt at Giant here, just like you can in France, Belgium, Germany etc...and of course you can get nicer stuff as well too, it's just that you can't walk down the street, like you can in Brussels and get really nice stuff.

We can't walk down the streets at all, but that's fodder for a different thread.

[Anonymous]

I love American chocolate and can afford whatever I want. My favorite is sees but I really love the Hershey’s gold nugget toffee ones or almond ones (rip the one that had pecans).
For European chocolate I like toblerone, Lindt , rutter, ferret rocher. Cadbury is okay but I think they’ve got too much milk fat in it — it loses the chocolate taste.

I absolutely hate those fancy French chocolates that taste like lavender or other herbal or liquor flavors. So gross.

It’s super easy to find good chocolate in America now. But many Americans prefer cost over quality when it comes to candy for small children particularly. Many of the major companies are cutting back on the cocoa fat in their chocolates because cocoa has become wildly expensive and the American consumer wants the option of a cheaper product.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well yes, Hershey's sucks, probably because it's so sugary...but you can get Lindt at Giant here, just like you can in France, Belgium, Germany etc...and of course you can get nicer stuff as well too, it's just that you can't walk down the street, like you can in Brussels and get really nice stuff.

We can't walk down the streets at all, but that's fodder for a different thread.

You can in many, many places. But if you live in dumpy Herndon or something then that that's a you problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheap ingredients make American chocolate taste gross. If you’ve never tried genuinely good chocolate, you have nothing to compare it to. Even when my dd was a toddler, she wouldn’t touch American chocolate. To think, a small child would eat most sweet things.

+1

Trying cheap grocery chocolate in Europe vs USA is eye opening

[Anonymous]

There’s a “cheap” version of everything. Just because the USA doesn’t focus on the high end chocolate market overall isn’t really an issue. If you want to fix that then start a high end chocolate company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheap ingredients make American chocolate taste gross. If you’ve never tried genuinely good chocolate, you have nothing to compare it to. Even when my dd was a toddler, she wouldn’t touch American chocolate. To think, a small child would eat most sweet things.

+1

Trying cheap grocery chocolate in Europe vs USA is eye opening

Yeah, because you realize there's not much difference. I hate to tell you this and shatter your illusions, but they sell snickers and dreaded KitKats in oh-so-sophisticated Europe too. And gasp! Europeans actually buy and like them.

But it sounds like you're only able to buy cheap stuff so I think you should be posting in the finances section of DCUM and getting some advice on how to afford a $3 lindt bar.

[Anonymous]

Hershey’s is a unique type of chocolate because Milton Hershey invented a new way to process the milk so he didn’t need to rely on fresh milk. I think it stays popular because it’s cheap and/or we’re nostalgic for other Hershey’s candies that aren’t so focused on just plain chocolate (think Reese’s).

Ecuador produces some of the best cocoa in the world but the chocolate most people get is Hershey’s quality or lower. My in laws always send me some top quality chocolate but what I eat first is the crappy chocolate bars that we can’t get here.

[Anonymous]

OP, order See's candies, dark chocolate. yum

[Anonymous]

I think OP has watched too many Lindt commericals, or maybe the movie Chocolat, and truly thinks the streets of Europe are lined with endless sweets shops ran by kindly, handsome chocolatiers hand drizzling freshly ground cacao over their culinary masterpieces.

[Anonymous]

I agree OP. We Americans have accepted lower quality food for decades. In Europe people demand high quality food and they get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think OP has watched too many Lindt commericals, or maybe the movie Chocolat, and truly thinks the streets of Europe are lined with endless sweets shops ran by kindly, handsome chocolatiers hand drizzling freshly ground cacao over their culinary masterpieces.

We always laugh at this commercial. It’s so quaint, romantic and fake. I am willing to bet they have a U.S. production facility…probably in Hackensack, NJ.

For the record, I don’t eat a ton of chocolate, but don’t think o would turn down a Hershey’s bar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hershey’s is a unique type of chocolate because Milton Hershey invented a new way to process the milk so he didn’t need to rely on fresh milk. I think it stays popular because it’s cheap and/or we’re nostalgic for other Hershey’s candies that aren’t so focused on just plain chocolate (think Reese’s).

Ecuador produces some of the best cocoa in the world but the chocolate most people get is Hershey’s quality or lower. My in laws always send me some top quality chocolate but what I eat first is the crappy chocolate bars that we can’t get here.

I don’t think this is historically accurate. Hershey was founded in western Pa specifically so they could get fresh milk from the Lancaster dairies and they continue to bring in fresh milk daily. Nestle and Lindt actually together invented modern chocolate making by figuring out a way that the milk would not separate when the chocolate was stored and it was based upon the chemical processes that nestle invented to make baby formula — so did not rely on fresh milk.
I do think Hershey invented a different process as far as reincorporating the cocoa fat but I can’t remember it now. For the price point Hershey is very good chcoooate. It’s less waxy than the similarly priced nestle bars.

Lindt is a massive conglomerate that now owns Ghirardelli and Russell Stover and basically ruined RS by swapping out their chocolate for cheaper stuff. So the Swiss are t so perfect when it comes to chocolate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hershey's does taste like puke. America goes for volume, not quality.
The big companies that sell Mars/Snickers control what you can buy in supermarkets. In Eu supermarket I can pick up chocolates from many countries. There supermarket control more what they buy in, not the big money companies.

+1

I hate the chocolate here. Just compare a US kit kat vs a euro one. I wish we could get euro chocolate easily.

You can, quite easily. you're just too lazy, broke, or stupid to figure out how to shop at a legit grocery store not a dollar general or gas station

Well isn’t that the point OP is making? In Europe the gas station/grocery chocolate is inexpensive and still amazing. Here to get the same type of chocolate you have to go to a specialty store and spend triple the price. Instead of spitting out nasty comments, perhaps actually understand what the thread is about.

it’s not cheap

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why we accept gross chocolate like Hershey’s when it tastes so much worse than ‘real’ chocolate/ chocolate from Europe? Aren’t we meant to be a wealthy country with access to the best products? It smells like someone spilled milk in the car then parked it in the sun.

There are flights to Europe.
I think you can even relocate there if you wish. Bye.

Oh shut up. The idea you can’t criticize one thing about America is so puerile. Your chocolate sucks. Admit it.

And you are on an American message board because? Nothing comparable in quality in your country?