What is wrong with American chocolate?

[Dauphin]

I've been to the US on numerous occasions, and to numerous states. One thing that I have noticed is that the general quality of US chocolate on a like for like basis is decidedly poor. This is of course only an opinion.

Take KitKats for example. In the UK they are made by Nestle and have crisp chocolate taste that doesn't melt too much in the mouth. US KitKats are made by Hershey (?), and they taste more like a chocolate butter and it melts far too easily. I really like KitKats but I avoid them when in the US.

I thought it was just me who thought this abot American chocolate, until my brother's (American) girlfriend and several of her friends were in the UK. After tasting Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate they agreed that it tasted far better than standard US chocolate.

When comparing UK chocolate to the continental Europe I find the quality the same. Belgium of course makes the finest chocolates I've ever tasted, but I'm not going to go to a chocolatiers just for an after lunch snack.

So is it a matter of taste and opinion, or is US chocolate lagging behind Europe in the taste of its chocolate.

[DaShi]

I don't know. I bought chocolate in China and all of it was blah except Dove (R), which is always quite rich and creamy. I suppose that it depends on the brand. But sometimes my boss bring chocolate from Europe, and it is always great.

[Boris Godunov]

It's not just you, it's true. American chocolate is overwhelmingly bad. Even our premium brands like Godiva are crap compared to what one can get in Europe.

My boss recently came back from Europe with a box of Belgian chocolates. When I had one, I nearly cried it was so good. I'm glad we can't get good chocolate like that easily, though--I'd probably be a huge fatass if we did.

I'm betting it has to do with the quality of the ingredients, the freshness of the chocolate and the care put into making it. American companies are about mass-producing huge quantities at rapid speeds with minimal expense.

[BeBMan]

Re: What is wrong with American chocolate?

Originally posted by Big Crunch
So is it a matter of taste and opinion, or is US chocolate lagging behind Europe in the taste of its chocolate.

Nah, US chocolate is inherently inferior

Not that I ever had the slightest idea about how it tastes.....

[Drogue]

Hershey's actually tasted like the taste you get in your mouth when your almost sick. I can't stand the stuff. In it's favour however, See's Candies and Ghiradelli (sp?) is great stuff. See's is like Thornton's here but much better IMHO, and Ghiradelli is sweater and creamier but great range of flavours. None of them beat a great Belgium or Vahrlona (my favourite) but they can be great.

Mass produced American chocolate sucks, but they do some great handmade stuff

[FrustratedPoet]

Agreed, Hershey's tastes like puke.

/me waits for alva to show up and tell us all how awful British chocolate is and how we should all be putting more cocoa and less milk in there.

[Solly]

The best way to ruin chocolate is to put crap inside it like "cremes", truffles, nuts, or whatever. Pure chocolate is so much better.

Swiss all the way.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
Agreed, Hershey's tastes like puke.

* FrustratedPoet waits for alva to show up and tell us all how awful British chocolate is and how we should all be putting more cocoa and less milk in there.

Dark chocolate all the way. Especially with nuts and raisins.

I also really love the hard bitter dark chocolate that you can get.

[*End Is Forever*]

Dark chocolate is vile. White, or milk.

[The Andy-Man]

i'll tell you whats rong with american chocolate! Its american, made out of the blood and toil of enslaved citizens opressed by the evil federal govt

[Boris Godunov]

White? White? It's not even chocolate, it's some sort of putrid mutant crap. Blech, I never understood why anyone could like white chocolate.

[raghar]

White choco is one of best. You never had good white choco ain't ya. Almonds or Menthol filling... thats the way. Big almonds of course.

[Imran Siddiqui]

White chocolate . Good stuff indeed!

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by *End Is Forever*
Dark chocolate is vile. White, or milk.

I wouldn't expect any different from you, pickiest eater in christendom Speaking of white chocolate, I can see a resemblance with the milky bar kid now I think of it

There is nothing to beat a good Belgian or Swiss chocolate and they are common enough over here. As for American chocolate, it's reputation has spread far and wide, and I've heard it is pretty crap.

[rah]

Most americans don't know good chocolate so producers don't see the need to spend the extra money on the ingredients to make it. But there are quite a few really good specialy companies that produce the GOOD stuff.

RAH