# Hershey's Special Dark Dutch Cocoa

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hersheys-special-dark-dutch-cocoa/294236>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 12, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hersheys-special-dark-dutch-cocoa/294236 "2005-03-12T21:12:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hersheys-special-dark-dutch-cocoa/294236/1 "2005-03-12T21:12:45Z")

</div>

What makes this product different from their regular Dutch cocoa (silver label)? I googled around and couldn’t find any exact explanation.

I did find that the Hershey’s special dark chocolate bar has more than 3 times the caffeine and more than twice the theobromine than a regular milk chocolate bar. I’d say that’s possible for the special dark cocoa as well just from noting its effects on me.

[http://www.hersheys.com/nutrition/caffeine.asp](http://www.hersheys.com/nutrition/caffeine.asp)  
[http://www.hersheys.com/nutrition/theobromine.asp](http://www.hersheys.com/nutrition/theobromine.asp)

So what causes this increase?

I also found the cocoa can be alkalized to different degrees.

[http://www.dutchcocoa.nl/spec03.htm](http://www.dutchcocoa.nl/spec03.htm)

Here are the differences in their nutrition facts on the containers.

substance - Hershey’s regular Dutch cocoa, special dark

Sodium - 0 mg., 95 mg.  
Dietary fiber - 1g., 2 g.  
Iron (% PVD) - 10, 15.

Is the increased sodium is due to more alkalizing agent - sodium bicarbonate, perhaps?

In summary: what are the causes of the different color, taste, amounts of caffeine, theobromine, and other substances between the two cocoas?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hersheys-special-dark-dutch-cocoa/294236/2 "2005-03-13T01:00:53Z")

</div>

I don’t know anything about this product. But the reason dark chocolate has considerably more caffeine (and flavor) than milk chocolate is simply that it has more chocolate. There’s no milk solids, less sugar, and usually less fat in it taking up valuable space between bits of chocolaty goodness. Thus the name of this product doesn’t make much sense, since cocoa is nothing but chocolate as it is. (And I doubt it actually has any more caffeine in it, unless they spike it, and that seems really unlikely.)