Posted on 09/19/2008 6:07:45 PM PDT by Daffynition
Oh, milk chocolate. Wherefore art thou?
Apparently not in some Hershey’s products that contained milk chocolate for years, and that has passionate chocolate aficionados fighting mad.
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.”
Some say the label changes are too difficult to spot.
“A lot of people don’t notice it. The package looks exactly the same,” said Cybele May, who has chronicled the changes in detail on her Candy Blog. “I feel betrayed by Hershey’s. They’re giving me an inferior product and they’re not even telling me …
“I call it mockolate, which is basically a fake chocolate product.”
Crunched by rising costs In a statement, Hershey’s told TODAY that consumers love its products and all its candies are clearly labeled. It still offers real milk chocolate in Hershey’s Kisses, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and its classic chocolate bar.
“And recently it put back the milk chocolate in Almond Joy because consumers complained,” Lieberman said Friday in her report.
Experts say that while many manufacturers cope with higher costs by increasing their prices or reducing their product sizes, Hershey’s change was meant to be ... [snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Sometimes I put half a bag of the tiny chocolate chips in my oatmeal cookies. And, like you, nothing less than a whole pound in a batch of chocolate chips. Yum.
I like to buy it so I can have it right away ... m/o seems so anti-instant-gratification ... anticipation I don’t do so well!
“I miss the foil wrap ... that plastic baggie is awful! I liked being able to cover the left overs. ;-(”
Leftovers?
Tatt ; p
I regretted my attempted poisoning of this fine young man!
Oh yes! it’s soooooooooo good though.
“Anybody remember the candy counter in Sears and Roebuck? Everytime we went there, I begged my parents for that chunk of milk chocolate in the display case!”
You just brought back many fond memories.
Mmmmm, Russell Stover is very good, and Dove tastes/feels like Hershey USED to : \
Tatt
I bet Sears Roebuck was a different company back then..I just took a job there, and their training is filled with PC gobbledy-gook!
i love dark chocolate best, too... i’m a Godiva gal, myself... dark chocolate and red wine are a good way to load up on antioxidants!
Hersey’s is not the Hershey’s we knew as children. It used to be a family owned privately held company, that really cared about the product, the workers, and the town. Now it is no longer privately held, and they are trimming costs and cutting quality to maximize profits.
Not that this is not their right. It just means the chocolate sux.
They are going to squander the goodwill built up over a century in a few short years. Ten years from now, the Hershey name will be synonymous with lousy candy, and they’ll change it to something new to re-launch the brand.
Mr Goodbar used to be my favorite. I stopped buying it when the taste went bad. I thought it was due to some kind of chinese chocolate.
I agree, their chocolate really isn’t that good. But, it sure as hell beats chocolate from Turkey and the Middle ages East! You can get some of the best and some of the worst chocolate in Europe.
I remember when chocolate tasted like chocolate, anyone else remember that?
GRAB YOUR PITCHFORKS AND YOUR SHOTGUNS! THESE GUYS WILL BE THE FIRST WITH THEIR BACKS AGAINST THE WALL WHEN THE REVOLUTION COMES!
I agree. Transfats are one of the three basic foodgroups. The other two are pizza and coffee. Everyone knows this.
I remember the smell of that popcorn mixed with the smell of perfume from the perfume counter. It's been 40 years, but I smell it even now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.