The main issue: Hershey’s absolutely sucks ass as chocolate. I try not to be snobbish in life. I’m not the guy who thinks only 110% cacao single origin fair trade organic chocolate by that one tiny company and you can’t find it anywhere chocolate is good and everything else is crap.
No. But Hershey’s is fucking abysmal, man! I lerve chocolate; it’s really my only vice in life right now. But even if I am choco-jonsin’ and my kid’s “fun size” Hershey bars left over from Halloween are lying around, I will not, cannot eat that shit. I will sit there unsatisfied instead. It doesn’t even count as chocolate.
It tastes like sugar mixed with, um, sand? mixed with wax mixed with scrapings from the floor of some other legitimate chocolate factory.
Back when I was a kid in the 70s and early 80s, I appreciated the Hershey’s with almonds bar. I didn’t really dig the regular bar, but I don’t remember it tasting horrible, either. I suspect the quality has greatly fallen since that time period. My standards have probably also improved at the same time, but I doubt that’s the entire reason for why Hershey’s is inedible to me now.
So who eats Hershey’s now (I’m referring to the standard bar; the company also makes other products like Symphony that are at least OK)? If you are a chocolate lover, definitely not, I would say. But if you are not a chocolate lover, why would you bother? Just pop some Skittles or something.
I understand that some people can’t afford pricey chocolate, and some of the bars out there are absurd (I’m thinking of some of the offerings in the Whole Foods candy aisle). But Hershey’s would now seem to be at a level below even what even people who don’t care about quality can tolerate.
Yeah, you are! As you say, you’re not “trying” to be snobbish, but I believe you’ve failed. There’s nothing terrible about Hershey’s chocolate and lots of people eat and enjoy them. You don’t. That doesn’t mean you’ve divined some secret of the universe, you’re just snobbish about your chocolate.
I have no idea how there could be a human being who can put a hershey bar in their mouth and not thing it’s delicious. It’s not as delicious as toblerone though.
I don’t think so. I find the basic bars by Nestle and Meiji (Japanese brand) to be fine (the latter is actually really good, but still a basic supermarket bar over there). Ghiradelli I can also eat without pain. Hershey’s is uniquely bad.
Hershey’s chocolate do have a slightly sour aftertaste you don’t notice in other chocolates. It’s not to everyone’s liking, but you can’t argue with success.
Well, I bet the chocolate from back in the 70s tasted better. That’s just my guess, and I could be wrong. I think the quality has gone down. I would be curious to see how their sales have done over the year with the basic bar. I know that the price of cacao beans has gone up and that candy makers have had to do things to adjust.
I actually like Hershey’s bars just fine (and sometimes I crave one), but they do have a subtle, oddball vomit taste to them, so it’s pretty easy for me to see why some people would think they’re terrible (besides the mouthfeel/textural issues and the like). Apparently, it’s caused by a part of their chocolate process that makes butyric acid. It’s only in their milk chocolate products that I notice this taste (and it wasn’t until about five years ago that I noticed it at all. One day I was sitting and getting into a Hershey’s bar and noted a faint, but distinct, undertone of vomit to it. Wondering if I was going crazy, I googled it, and, apparently, it’s not a unique observation.)
I meant over the years. And it would be interesting to see the change in domestic sales. I have to assume that their market share of the basic bar has gone down (there used to be a lot more choices), but perhaps the market overall has grown bigger and sales of it have stayed level or even grown.
I’m the ‘chocoholic’ of the family. In fact, I just bought something like 8 pounds of M&M’s because they were on sale. I was the one that for my b-day or Xmas people would always get me the darkest chocolate they could find to which I’d mumble to my aunt (the other chocoholic) ‘just because I love chocolate doesn’t mean I want the darkest crap you can find, I like milk chocolate’. Come to think of it, that’s like saying ‘John loves beer and gin, let’s get him some grain alcohol for his birthday!’.
Anyways, I LOVE hershey’s bars. I have no idea what the hell people are talking about when the say it tastes like ‘puke’ or has a ‘sour aftertaste’ or ‘it’s bitter’. I also like Symphony Bars and Lindt chocolate (though I believe Lindt qualifies as a step up from cheap chocolate).
I think the reason I’ve never been a fan of the more expensive stuff is that even the milk chocolate tends to lean more towards the dark end and I’m not a big fan of dark chocolate.
At work we got a giant box of samples from Guittard, most of it was flavored, but it was all pretty good.
ETA FTR I simulposted with pulykamell and didn’t see the vomit comment, I only said that because I’ve seen it mentioned before on this board.
Yeah, I dunno what it is, but I never noticed it until five years ago. And once you notice it, you can’t unnotice it. That said, I still eat them, despite the weird sour/vomit undertones. Sometimes I actually crave that flavor. But, like I said, that flavor is only in the milk chocolate, so far as I can tell.
And my favorite cheap chocolate, (Hershey’s) Chocolate Santas. I’m sure it’s the same chocolate, but they’re a but denser then the bars. I have three siblings and my mom still puts out stockings for all of us. I’ll ransack everyone’s for these at Christmas time, plus eat them for the next few weeks as I find them leftover in her pantry.
I’m not a fan either, but I think it’s because prefer chocolate when there’s a nut involved. Or nougat. I like almost the other Hershey products, but none of the Hershey bars or Kisses.
