“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
… 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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Is carob more sustainable than chocolate? Does it have the same ethical problems?
If it doesn’t, it will.
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.
I don’t understand how they cant see that once we leave we leave. If you bite into that and hate it its a cycle broken and we we unlikely to trust the product ever again.
Stupidity and short term money.
The New Coke fiasco begs to differ.
The cynic in me imagines that they switch away from real chocolate, everyone will hate it, they’ll release a new product line that proclaims it uses real chocolate, but charge a premium for it, and people will buy it.
It’s what happened with Bassets Winegums. Used to be my absolute favourite candy. Wife came back from the UK with a box,I opened it and the taste was… Different. Googled - turns out they changed the recipe after being purchased by some large conglomerate. I haven’t had one of their candies since 13 years ago. Fucking idiots.
Well if they all do it, who are ya gonna run to?
Trader Joe’s has giant Belgian chocolate bars, and far far better peanut butter cups with normal PB.
I eat candy because it tastes good. If it all tastes like shit they why should I eat it?
i will have to give it up. it will be easier if its crap anyway. Learning to pay for what you actually want vrs you think you want are two different things.
There are plenty of companies still selling actual chocolate, and since it’s chocolate and not chocolate-flavoured sweets I think it’ll just become smaller and/or more expensive. Which is fine.
Ozempic!
That’s what happened to me and Oreo’s during the switch from soy oil to trans-fat-free oils. They were NASTY during that transition.
Perfectly describes my reaction when I first tried Hersheys “chocolade”. If people used to that already vile stuff react to a new product like that, it must be horrible.
They’ll phase anything but sugar.
But the real appeal of mass market chocolate like Hershey’s has always been its cheapness.
There it is.
They ain’t even that cheap anymore.
I’ve had some products that use ChoViva (fake chocolate made from sunflower seeds and oats) and they were ok. On the other hand my only memory of Hershey’s chocolate is just pain, even 30 years ago (last time I was in the US). So maybe it’s not replacing cocoa as such that’s the problem.
US chocolate…presumably Cadbury will also be affected though.
Cadbury has been garbage for years now unfortunately.
