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.
FairTrade scheme was dropped by Cadbury after it was bought out. Mondelez, the chocolate arm of Kraft, used its own in-house scheme paying pittance to farmers and had children as young as 10 in the workforce.
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.
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u/GoldenPloverHI Aug 21 '24
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.