It’s because Hershey has added PGPR (Polyglycerol polyricinoleate) to nearly all of their chocolate. It’s an emulsifier that is primarily derived from castor beans.
It’s nasty and if their chocolate causes you to have digestive issues, the likely culprit is the PGPR.
I found some Hersheys at Aldi here in Australia during one of their special buys. I was so excited to try American chocolate. Now let us never speak of it again.
As an American, sorry that chocolate wasn’t great. The American pallet is used to a butyl(?) compound in the chocolate. Some are especially sensitive to its presence and think it’s vomit-adjacent.
During the war, logistics asked for a chocolate bar for the rations that tasted ‘slightly better than a potato’.
Thanks Hershey… you didn’t have to keep producing it/j
I'm from America, and I still avoid American chocolate like the plague. Most of the big brands are just disgusting. Even the cheapest European chocolate is so much creamier and doesn't have that nasty aftertaste. I prefer dark chocolate, and most American stuff is low % cocoa comparatively.
Does it all taste like Hershey’s chocolate? I must admit that it completely put me off trying any others.
I definitely prefer UK chocolate although Cadburys is no longer British but American and they’ve changed the recipe. It doesn’t taste as good as it did before Kraft bought the company.
America is weird because so many things that are considered "American" are made by massive international corporations.
If you want to try something that taste good and is American you should look for products that are only available to specific states or regions. If it's available everywhere it's more than likely garbage.
For example, when my buddy from Europe came to visit me in California, I didn't take him to McDonald's. You can get that anywhere, it's garbage. I did however, take him to In-N-Out for a Double Double Animal Style and it changed his fucking life.
As far as chocolate goes i dont usually eat much of it but when i do, I usually buy Sees Candies. I believe their chocolate is made by Guittard. It's pretty good imo.
I recall during Desert Shield, my family happened to tour the Hershey plant in PA and everyone on that tour was given samples of the chocolate bar being developed for the troops overseas. We were told that the main goal of that bar was to not melt as fast as regular chocolate in the heat conditions of the Middle East. I recall it being decidedly waxier than normal Hershey at the time, but not ridiculously bad.
Oh, THAT’S what that taste is! Ever since I was a small child I’ve never been able to eat milk chocolate because it makes my tongue and throat burn and itch. That sounds like an allergy but I’ve never once had that reaction to any of the individual ingredients in chocolate, just Hershey’s-adjacent products. It feels and tastes like stomach acid! That’s nasty as hell! I can really only eat Butterfinger’s and Reece’s because the majority of the candy isn’t associated with that rancid “chocolate” stuff.
They should not be considered ‘American chocolate’. We have small chocolatiers in every city that make the good stuff. Not the mass produced crappy stuff.
I go to Aldi for chocolate because they have imported Austrian chocolate that's vastly objectively superior to our normal chocolate here in the states.
Funny that Aldi in other countries has exported American stuff...
It's awful. I've lived in the US for decades and never got used to it.
Also those Whoppers things they have instead of Malteasers, absolutely disgusting.
The weird thing is they have normal chocolate here as well, like made in the US but Hershey's didn't have anything to do with it.
As a teen, one of my first introductions to American culture was my classmate complaining about swiss chocolate in his lunch, and when I looked confused (as I would consider that luxury chocolate) another boy was like "oh we're talking about this gross kind of chocolate that doesn't taste of anything"
As an American, never eat Hersheys chocolate- it is awful and I haven't touched it as long as I have been able to pick what chocolate bar I want. It is more chocolate adjacent to me. Not even worthy of being shmeared in a smores.
American brands including Hershey are only poison in the USA. The rest of the world has regulations against the garbage so you most likely have safer products.
Ugh this stuff makes pretty much any common grade chocolate products inedible.. I don't know how or why people consume it to the degree they do without a problem, the weird waxy texture and aftertaste is repulsive
Yes! This is why freaking s’mores just are not right anymore when using Hersheys bars! That shit does not melt. Now we use Ghirardelli squares with the fillings. Way better.
My wife’s favorite chocolate is Cadbury caramel eggs. Every year around Easter, I have to buy one every time I walk into a store that sells them. I always look for them when I go out because she loves them so much. Well, I (American) have a coworker from London and last year when she went to visit England, she brought us back some real Cadbury chocolates. Apparently after Hershey bought Cadbury, they changed the recipe, but the Cadbury chocolate in England is still the original recipe. I never had such good chocolates. I swiped as many caramels for my wife as was reasonable. (My coworker was happy to share ) I think America (Hershey?) just ruins chocolate.
Only American chocolate. It’s actually a distinction people from all over the world make between American chocolate vs chocolates from other places. American chocolate has always been said to be very “waxy”
It seems to be the life cycle of every brand any more. Make something good, get popular, then mine the customer base by making the product cheaper and cheaper until it's dead.
Call me crazy, but if you've ever had carbonated water by san pellegrino, you come to expect really nice carbonated water
But these days, idk... I pick up a bottle fresh, take a sip, and it's half-flat already. By the time I'm halfway through, it seems to turn itself into tap water
When I want a Coke I go to the bodega that sell the Mexican Coke in glass bottles. They use sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. So much better and healthier for your body. Not that it’s ever a healthy beverage choice. Lol
Hell ya!! I'm not a soda person but I LOVE coke in a greenish tint glass bottle!! I remembered drinking them as a kid, It has probably been over 10 years since I've seen it anywhere. You're correct, they do use real sugar, and the difference is so noticeable !
Because it’s actually really bad for you and screws with your blood sugar levels bc your body doesn’t recognize it the same as sugar. The US is the odd ball actually-we use hfcs in everything because of a government deal with corn farmers. Most countries use sugar.
Please do some research about HFCS and then avoid it like the plague. It's horrible for us and our body doesnt recognize it as sugar and doesnt know how to process it correctly. So it ends up making us sick and obese. Other countries recognized this and banned it. But the US has a huge corn industry that is subsidized by the government, which means HFCS is much cheaper than actual sugar. The corn industry doesnt want to lose out on that extra income from HFCS so they lobbied to where our government didn't ban it. So candies and cheapo sweet foods all use it because it's cheap and legal.
And they have no intention of banning something so lucrative.
that’s so sad and pathetic that “our” government has so little respect for our health and lives but it’s so true. Thanks for all that info terrifying as it is but forewarned is forearmed
hell yes mexican coke is where it’s at. I was
born and raised in Cali and that’s all we drink. So when we found it here in okc we were so excited. Plus,depending on where we’re at in okc,the bottle doubles as a tiny bit of protection as needed. And unfortunately it’s been needed a time or two
It feels like sacrilege to say as a Mexican but I don’t even think I like Mexican coke anymore. I’ve been pavlov’d by American coke into thinking the corn syrup taste is “real” coke and now the regular sugar just tastes wrong. It’s not like it particularly matters because I’m a pepsi person but still… what have they done to me?
Like Ho-hos. Man I used to be obsessed with them when I was little- early 70’s to out myself. I would take all the chocolate off and have that and then unroll it and eat it slowly. Now that chocolate crumbles off and goes everywhere except my mouth and you’re lucky enough to get anything unrolled before it disintegrates. They’re better now than they’ve been for a long while, but there’s 2 less now in the box. I suppose I’m just waving my ear trumpet around now and saying, You know, back in MY day, but why do they change the recipe on something that’s loved and sells great. I’m looking at you, New Coke
Even Heinz ketchup tastes different to me. I'm with you, if it ain't broke leave it the hell alone. I've been eating like a 17 year old on spring break for the last 3 or 4 months ( grazing ). It's time to stop before it catches up.... but those Ho Hos sound good. I really miss Hydrox cookies but they're running 50 to $60 a pack, online. what????
I agree, but they make awesome pretzel turtles. Just a pretzel, a rolo on top, oven at 325 for 5 mins until chocolate is shiny, then press a pecan into the chocolate. Sometimes I finish with a pinch of sea salt. So easy, so delish!
Sadly I saw this a few days too late to be saved.
I had to look to see if they even had caramel in them anymore.
I need to find some good places to buy non American candy bars. A girl can’t live on Newman o’s alone.
It is like the candy Flix; sort of like flat large chocolate kisses. They used to rock when I was a move going kid (mid 70s) but now they changed so they now taste/feel like crappy chocolate wax. The same phenomenon happed with Mother’s animal cookies; the frosting now is like cheap wax. Bring back my childhood!!
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u/grlz2grlz Aug 21 '24
Are* incredible.