my brother the priest was just visiting and gave my wife a slew of boxes of chocolates that he had been given recently. he is clueless about normal life and had no idea what a 1 pound box of godiva chocolates was. there are two chocolatiers in the town he is currently stationed who attend his church. i always thought milk chocolate could be a whole lot better and these two did it.
It’s not my favourite, but Dairy Milk is still superior to Hershey’s and all the other crap I ate in the US. But no it’s not worth mouthing off over, not when we have Thornton’s and Green and Blacks. Then there’s all the european makers who are frickin geniuses.
Cadbury’s is just greasy brown muck, I’m the first to admit. Everything seems to be sweetness-driven these days. Gimme something tangy, spicy, a bit sharp, a bit of bite. Palates awake!
There’s a large part of american chocolate bars that are made up of different waxes that are used as fillers to make the chocolate mixture go farther (ergo, more profit).
The us chocolate industry isn’t sugar driven, it’s pure profit driven; like everything else in this country, quality and taste take a back seat to quantity and profit.
I buy organic, fair-trade, dark (>70%) chocolate imported from Central or South America, preferably single-origin. I’ve said it before: milk chocolate ain’t chocolate.
(I tried a small bar of 99% dark chocolate once. Talk about bitter! I stick with 70% to 90% now.)
Hershey’s chocolate is fairly unique. Fatty acids in milk can go rancid via lipolysis, and Hershey’s puts their chocolate through controlled lipolysis in order to give it the unique flavor it has.
It’s really a lot like the “sourdough” of chocolates. While a lot of us in the US like it, I don’t, and I thought i was going to hurl the one time I had molé sauce made with Hershey’s syrup!
Apparently lots of people eat it; not being one of them, I don’t really understand it. My tastes are not that of the typical American. We joke in my family that any product I really like (especially foods) will be discontinued by its maker, or at the very least, our local grocery stores will stop carrying it. Sadly, it seems to be true.
I’ve tasted European milk chocolate and it’s fine – actually milky and not so overpoweringly sweet as US milk ‘‘chocolate.’’ However, even with good chocolate, I prefer dark. My sister once sent me a big box of various dark chocolate bars from France, much better than anything I’ve ever gotten here.
But then, I’m one of those American citizens who doesn’t approve of our government invading foreign countries, either. Of course, I play folk music, on instruments that most people don’t even recognize, so I’m obviously a little weird. One thing I CAN say in favor of being American is that I have the freedom to reject large chunks of the popular culture as I see fit, and I appreciate that. The freedom to be our own weird selves is something we value in American culture, and especially in Alaska. (But traditional Alaskan sweets are horrid: what they call ‘‘Eskimo ice cream’’ is definitely something that you have to grow up eating to love; I find it horrifying.)
Ghiradelli’s isn’t really very good and I don’t think anybody who really likes chocolate would tell you otherwise. It’s just that they have the “factory” there in San Fran so it’s like a tourist thing. But you have to admit you at half the bar, so it did take you more than one bite…
They could have brought you a bar of Lindt, but then you can get that over there, can’t you.
I like the single origin South American bars myself, and the Lindt, especially the one with pear in it. My god that is to die for.
Oh, and most food in the US is horrible. Don’t come here for the food except to gawk at the portions. If you want good food, eat at an ethnic restaurant where the menu isn’t in English.
Me too. I went into a local shop to ask for a tub of very nice local ice cream that I’d bought there before. The lad behind the counter said they had none as there was no demand for it.
Yes, we have SOME excellent dark chocolate in the U.S. but like many things, it’s not what the majority eats in quantity. By the way, iis ALL Brit beer just like Watney’s out of a bottle?
Scharfenbergers is pretty good stuff, but watch out, they were recently acquired by a mega-corp…My son tried to film a documentary there, but it ended up being about how they wouldn’t let the kids in… My kid is in the beginning, on the phone.
Joseph Schmidt, Cocolat, there are other options. Even Ghirardelli makes a decent dark, though not conossieur quality. it has to have some numerical percentage of something, as I recall to be truly premium.
My theory is that corps like milk chocolate because you can eat lots and they can sell it to you. Really strong dark chocolate, to me, can only be consumed in nips, not loads. Which is just better all around, health-wise.
The places in the U.S. where you get really good dark chocolate, and the people who love it, are the lefty Euro-snob enclaves, like Berkeley… I have long wondered by those who are so pre-occupied by the oppressed of the world also happen to be so keen on consuming the most hand-labor intensive products, chocolate and coffee…especially as the former is so much a product of colonialism.
Ouch, a blow to the heart there! The days of Watney’s “beers” were dark days indeed, but thankfully they are long-gone. As I type I have before me a pint of Doom Bar bitter, made in Cornwall, which is an exquisitely good beer made with tender loving care. Of course, if all Brits suddenly decided to drink our best ales there would be a major supply problem. As things stand at the moment, supermarkets desperately fall over themselves to give huge discounts on mass-produced rubbish like Stella Artois, Grolsch, Carlsberg and Miller. I have a theory that if all our hooligans stopped drinking all that muck and went on to real ales the country would return to a civilised state within days.
There is a company by the name of Palmer which manufactures holiday-specific “chocolate,” such as hollow Easter bunnies and foil-wrapped eggs. If you have not placed a sample in your mouth then you know nothing of horrific American chocolate.
I must add that I rather like a 2 lb box of Godivas. Especially the ones with raspberry filling. I do not like the 2 lb headache I’m guaranteed to have for the next 3 days so I no longer indulge.
No, that would go for most people I know who have eaten in the US who have had better (especially the French - man, they go ballistic when they talk of how bad the food tastes in the US).
I actually rather liked Watney’s from the keg - a thick, rich, yeasty taste - not that fairy pee like sombody’s Heiny-kin.
Sadly, it seems to be true.
Of course, I play folk music, on instruments that most people don’t even recognize, so I’m obviously a little weird. One thing I CAN say in favor of being American is that I have the freedom to reject large chunks of the popular culture as I see fit, and I appreciate that. The freedom to be our own weird selves is something we value in American culture, and especially in Alaska. (But traditional Alaskan sweets are horrid: what they call ‘‘Eskimo ice cream’’ is definitely something that you have to grow up eating to love; I find it horrifying.)
