Everyone knows that global economic woes are eliminating things like gas-guzzling cars and rising prices have forced many changes in our daily lives, even as there’s been forced belt tightening in countless households. But now they’ve come for our candy. It seems that due to rising prices, Hershey has stopped putting cocoa butter in some of its products…forcing a change in labeling :
Products such as Whatchamacallit, Milk Duds, Mr. Goodbar and Krackel no longer have milk chocolate coatings, and Hershey’s Kissables are now labeled “chocolate candy” instead of “milk chocolate.”
What’s going on here? On Friday, TODAY consumer correspondent Janice Lieberman reported that Hershey’s has switched to less expensive ingredients in several of its products. In particular, cocoa butter — the ingredient famous for giving chocolate its creamy, melt-in-your-mouth texture — has been replaced with vegetable oil.
The removal of cocoa butter violates the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s definition of milk chocolate, so subtle changes have appeared on the labels of the Hershey’s products with altered recipes. Products once labeled “milk chocolate” now say “chocolate candy,” “made with chocolate” or “chocolatey.”
“Chocolatey.” “It’s chocolatey.” Can you imagine it??? Here at Stately Beat Manor, Krackel has long been one of our favorite treats, especially in those mini sizes so prevalent during the Halloween season. However, we will not — CAN not — condone this switch over to the waxy, vaguely chocolate-like substance that so many American candies have become. We know milk chocolate — or even better, dark chocolate — when we taste it, and if this is what it’s come to, we’ll just do like Charlie did, and only allow ourselves one anxious bite a day of the real thing–until it’s gone.
I feared I was getting numb to outrage until you posted this. That is effing unacceptable. And if it’s thickened vegetable oil, that means it’s partially hydrogenated, which means it’s poison (those evil trans fats). Attention trick-or-treating kids in my neighborhood: you like baby carrots?
Ugh! I can accept that I work in an industry where I pay for my own health care – ka-ching! I accept that the economy is screwed & so much for my setting up any kind of retirement..but pleeeeease..don’t take the chocolate outta my chocolate! *sob*
Vote with your wallet/purse. Only buy the good stuff.
hmm, i wonder if that makes the formerly-milk-chocolate chocolate non-dairy now? can vegans and lactose intolerants finally eat milk duds?
Hershey bars with almonds. Special Dark. That is all.
I stopped buying candy bars a long time ago. If I’m going to indulge then I’m indulging in the fuckin’ gourmet explosion of the boutique chocolatier.
from what I hear about the horrible labor conditions and low price Hershey pays for chocolate in africa (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12754) this might be a good thing. Maybe it’ll encourage some of the market to go to responsible companies who make (edible) chocolate.
Trader Joe’s makes a 70% chocolate bar, I believe.
I’d also like to point out the marked overall superiority of British choccies. More cocoa, more sugar, more MORE. MMMMM. Aero bars. Also, the Kinder Bueno, made from fine Italian chocolate but manufactured in Luxembourg, fulfills all chocolate needs.
After eating continental choccies, quite frankly, Hershey and Nestle suck worse than ever.
However, I still mourn for the Callard & Bowser licorice toffees of my youth….
You can still buy “real” chocolate candy. It’s just a matter of paying more for the good stuff. I’ve tried the various kinds of premium M&Ms. They’re all delicious, although I’d have to say that “Triple Chocolate” is my favorite.
SRS
Heidi… Hershey’s has always been lacking in the “milk chocolate” category. I find a plain Hershey’s chocolate bar to be very dry and inedible. If something is added to the mix, I find it palatable. Their Symphony bars are creamy, but their Cadbury bars (made under license) are still less creamy than those from overseas.
I do not know about the rest of the country, but in New York, one can find German Ritter Sport brand chocolate bars in most delis, in a delicious variety of flavors. (Mmmm…. Whisky Truffel…) They even make diet and “organic” bars!
http://www.ritter-sport.com/#/en_GB/home/
(For more fun, visit the German section!)
That is disgusting. Hershey is a mere 30 minutes away from my native PA town…so ashamed.
The German “Ritter Sport” chocolates are also available in department stores here in the U.S. The local SuperTarget had packages of them on clearance this month.
SRS
I second you on the Kinder Buenos, Heidi. So f’ing good. I found white chocolate ones this summer and they are worth their weight in gold. There’s also a little known Irish candy called the Moro bar, which might just be the most delicious chocolate bar on earth.
Moro is made by Cadbury, and can be found most easily in the Woodlawn neignborhood at the top of the Bronx. There are various delis which sell British sweets, and might carry this as well.
I recommend a trek to Woodlawn (take Metro North) during Easter. The Irish groceries in that neighborhood import all sorts of delicious sweets (and crisps)!
Panama City has a chocolate specialty shop with European chocolates (yum yum YUM!) – and the owner (a Ukrainian woman) makes the effort to find sugar-free chocolates for diabetics such as her husband and me. Chocolates from Spain, Belgium, Germany, UK, Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland … oh joy! And World Market recently opened a store in the local mall and carries Green & Black, Sports Ritter, and a few other European brands. You can find the good stuff even down here in the Redneck Riviera. In our household, we prefer dark chocolate (good for the heart, and even my doctor allows me to eat a little bit every day). Just gotta forget about Hershey and only get the good stuff.
This totally explains why the last Mr. Goodbar I bought tasted awful. I thought my taste buds had changed – a sign of getting OLD – but now I don’t have to blame myself.
I guess this explains why my wife only likes Cadbury and Symphony bars…
they can take my freedom, but they cannot take my CHOCOLATE.
my fiance’s chocolate, rather. i forwarded her this article and saw what it would look like if an email could cry.
As a season ticket holder for the AHL “chocolate and white” Hershey Bears, I hope they don’t tinker with the team’s jerseys and make them “less chocolately.”
Why is everyone being so mean to Hershey’s? Heck,…you’re only talkin’ about the biggest gosh-danged choclate manufacturer in these here United States!!!! Heck,…biggest in all North A-goddamned-merica!!!! And let’s not forget the part they played in the second World War!!!! If it weren’t for a Hershey bar and a pair of dad-blamed Nylons, half of us wouldn’t even be here!!!!
(A little respect for the luvva-pete!)
Oh, you should have seen what they gave out at our Sony Pictures Television Emmy party:
Dove chocolate with Cranberry and almonds and Blueberry with Hazlenuts.
Never seen that kind of stuff before.
~
Coat
I may never eat Hershey’s again.
Seriously.
Torsten, I’ve been looking for a place in America that carries Moro bars for 12 years! If I can actually find them in Woodlawn, (within train distance!) I owe you.
I’ve moved over to the real chocolate bars now, the ones that list their cocoa content as a %.
I eat a few squares during a day, then through sheer willpower, manage to stop. I find them really tasty when the cocoa content is around 60%, finding the, say, 85% too powdery and bitter for my tastes.
And chocolatey has been around for awhile, in cookies and such. “Chocolatey”, or “reminiscent of chocolate,” or “infused with chocolate-like materials,” sound like low level snacks to me.
In Brazil all I see on the shelves are Hershey’s and Nestle :(
Most of the cocoa grown here must get exported but adding veg oil is just a sin!
Oh for a slab of Green and Black
Green and Black may be ‘organic’ but it ain’t that good.
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