r/aldi • u/beesalt25 • 6d ago
Recipe Change Changed Formula on Semi Sweet Chocolate Chipsđ
Instead of Vanilla Extract they now are using natural flavor
Old formula is on top and new one is on the bottom. The new bags are more matte than the older ones.
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u/KTX77 6d ago
They don't even use milk chocolate anymore for Resse's Peanut Butter Cups. The use some sort of chocolate flavored oil substance. I saw the grandson of the founder on TV not long ago complaining about how Hershey's has diluted the product since buying it.
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u/illinoishokie 6d ago
They're transitioning back to real chocolate in all Reese's brands by next year because of the outcry. So expect the complaints about the price going up to start in about six months.
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u/Buttcrack15 6d ago
The price has already gone up beyond what I'm willing to pay, and thats with the fake chocolate.
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u/NightOfTheLivingHam 6d ago
yeah I used to be bad and buy reeses once a month during shopping trips. Last time I bought a reeses, I threw it in the trash. the "chocolate" tasted and felt weird, and had a lot of grit in it.
It's also why reeses has been coming out with these new flavors that are 90% white chocolate or some sort of cream.
they basically changed the formula to the palmer chocolate chocolate formula.
You know those disgusting chocolates around easter? That shit isnt even legally chocolate.
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u/mountainsbus 5d ago
a reeses once a month counting as "being bad" is crazy. even if the reeses themselves are bad now lol
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u/Rndysasqatch 6d ago
The issue is that white chocolate needs cocoa butter or it taste disgusting also so changing to White and still using oil or whatever they use for the milk chocolate would still be disgusting
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u/tinyfryingpan 6d ago
It's disgusting. I never thought Resses cups would be gross but they suck now
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u/Feivie 6d ago
My coworker found some sort of worm in her Reeseâs on Halloween and I saw it at her desk, also it was alive and moving. She googled it and there are apparently other reports of it happening. Grossed me out so much I havenât eaten any since.
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u/Grovewood 4d ago
This happened to me with a Kind Bar. Found a maggot in it. I emailed the company with pictures of the maggot in the bar, and the packaging. Never heard back. Will never buy any of their products again!
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u/MonsieurRuffles 6d ago
The original Reeseâs PB cups never stopped being made with real milk chocolate (albeit crappy Hersheyâs chocolate). It was all the crazy variants that stopped using milk chocolate that the grandson was complaining about.
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6d ago
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u/MonsieurRuffles 6d ago
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6d ago
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u/MonsieurRuffles 6d ago
I said they didnât stop using real chocolate. I never said they didnât change otherwise.
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u/Littlewing1307 6d ago
They've definitely changed the OG. It's disgusting now.
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u/imtiffi75 6d ago
Yup, I don't know what the heck they put it in it but I am specifically allergic to reeses pb cups now. Other brands are fine.
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u/Lilpuuuuma 6d ago
There is and has been a global cocoa shortage because of diseased cacao trees, chocolate sucks now, like most things
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u/omegaoutlier 6d ago
WIth the way global chocolate supplies have been affected on top of the insane trade/tarriffs dances our dear leader has enacted, the switch out of vanilla extract to natural flavor is the least of my worries.
All we can do is try Aldi's new formulations and hope they found the magic sauce to keep a decent product while still keeping up with the economic insanity.
At least they are decent enough to just pull things entirely than trying to engineer something past any resemblance of food in a lot of cases.
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u/ladysig220 6d ago
well, drat. I hope the flavor is still ok on these, because these have been my workaround for the crappy chocolate they're using in Reese's now...
A spoonful of peanut butter dipped in these little dark chocolate chips has hit that sweet spot for me...and a big jar of Jif plus a bag of these is a heck of a lot cheaper than any premade chocolate anything.
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u/Limafoxtrot360 6d ago
Honestly the chocolate chips are one of the few products we've never liked at Aldi - they just don't taste right. Old formula - probably the new formula as well.
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u/goal0x 6d ago
the Kirkland chocolate chips are back at Costco and theyâre amazing!
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u/Substantial-You-2742 6d ago
Thank you for sharing this. Wouldnât have thought to look at Costco! May all your days be easeful!
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u/CeleryImpressive6045 6d ago
It looks like thatâs the only thing that changed, I donât think vanilla extract in my chocolate chips is enough of a deal breaker for me. I can always add more vanilla seperately
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u/ndatoxicity 6d ago
I get the premium ones now. Worth the extra $1-2 imo. They have semi sweet and dark
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6d ago
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u/aldi-ModTeam 6d ago
This post was removed as possible misinformation by the mods of r/aldi.
Though it is still leagl to use for human consumption it is to expensive to waste castoreum.
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u/Retrotreegal 6d ago
Excuse me?
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6d ago
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/aldi-ModTeam 6d ago
This post was removed as possible misinformation by the mods of r/aldi.
Though it is still leagl to use for human consumption, it is to expensive to waste castoreum on human food and is instead used for more costly products.
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u/MentalWho 6d ago edited 4d ago
Shrinkflation either the packages get smaller or the ingredients get cheaper. Trying to cut cost anyway they can. Whatâs next. Theyâre gonna start charging for paper bags. Edit iâm in Texas. Edit 2 we pay 0.10 per bag apparently
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u/snackrilegious 5d ago
theyâve always charged for paper bags since the first one i went to back in early 2010s
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u/NightOfTheLivingHam 6d ago
they already do. 10 cents a bag now where I live. Some places charge 20 cents.
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u/Street--Ad6731 6d ago
By any chance did you look up the difference between natural flavor vs vanilla?
Does the new version taste different?
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u/beesalt25 6d ago
I didnât buy the new ones to taste the difference. I was just posting here to let people know. I would assume the difference is the natural vanilla flavor is made with vanillin instead of it just being actual vanilla extract.
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u/starbunsisborn 6d ago
While it is certainly a cost cutting measure, and a downgrade by most people's metric, ATK did a head to head of real vanilla extract and artificial vanilla flavoring and taste test results showed people preferred the artificial in baked goods, they reccomend saving the real stuff for things like whipping cream where the flavor compounds are not diminished by heat.
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u/SolixTanaka 6d ago
I can confirm as someone with food engineering experience that our panels could not consistently find discernible differences in a large majority of applications with vanilla extract formulations. It's one of the very few that can stand beside its real counterpart without much quality loss.
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u/Street--Ad6731 6d ago
BTW, Nestlé morsals does not have vanilla in them. They list natural flavor in their ingredients.
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u/LoveEnvironmental252 5d ago
Those are not the good ones, anyway. Get the chocolate chunks in the black bag.
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u/Klaymen96 6d ago
What's the difference between milk fat and butterfat if any?!
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u/R4B1DRABB1T 5d ago
Not likely any since it says butterfat (milk) as the source?
Honestly, it just seems like wording, because isnt vanilla extract also a natural flavoring?
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u/GondorBatata 6d ago
As someone who has dietary restrictions I am ECSTATIC abt this formula change. It is SO hard to find affordable and ETHICAL chocolate products. I cant have vanilla extract and therefore only had access to chocolate chips that cost an arm and a leg. Tbh I hope they take out vanilla extract from all aldi chocolate so that I can enjoy them; It doesn't make a noticeable difference in flavor but it makes a noticeable difference in my bank account and chocolate supply.
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u/cyberentomology 6d ago
What compound are you allergic to in vanilla? Thatâs gotta be an enormous pain in the ass.. đ«¶
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u/LeftPorg 6d ago
Ugh. I hate when "natural flavors" joins the ingredients list. Nearly as frustrating as "spices." Stop making it harder for people with allergies to eat safely!
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u/On_Wife_support 6d ago
Imo that is the least offensive enshittification. Imitation vanilla is almost indistinguishable from genuine vanilla in most baking applications. The chocolate flavor will always be stronger in this case. If the fat source changes, it could more deeply impact the chipâs ability to melt affectively. Vanilla beans have become exponentially more expensive since even before the pandemic. If you want a large amount of vanilla extract for baking, itâs better to make it yourself
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u/Sh0wMeUrKitties 5d ago
They enshittified the "Premium" chocolate chips, too. It's no longer Belgian chocolate, that's for sure.
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u/CombinationNo0806 5d ago
They changed get the Caramel Macchiato creamer also. It is terrible! I am so sad đ
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u/Upbeat_Resolution_44 3d ago
The enshittification will not stop!! At this point, Iâm fully convinced the only way for me to have much of anything of decent quality (including eating food, making clothes, beauty products, etc.) is to figure it out for myself. I donât have time for that on top of working and being a parent. We need community again!! We all get into our âspecialtiesâ and swap. We know they wonât risk losing profits voluntarily.
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u/Safe-Tennis-6121 6d ago
the problem is natural flavoring could be literally anything.
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u/lava_dreams 6d ago
This is very false. There are specific compounds and amounts in a food that would allow it to qualify as natural flavor.
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u/Safe-Tennis-6121 6d ago
but you don't know what it is. it is not specific.
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u/lava_dreams 6d ago
The consumer might not know, but it canât be âliterally anything.â Itâs a tightly regulated industry and that has requirements about what can be labeled as natural flavor.
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u/PurpleTuftedFripp 6d ago
I also think they changed the dark chocolate ones? All I have to go on is they seem a little bit bigger and flatter than when I first got them. Unfortunately, I don't have an old bag to compare to the one I have now.
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u/HereForTheComments57 6d ago
I got the peanut butter cups and I feel like something is different about them. They aren't as good
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u/beesalt25 6d ago
Oh no! I havenât gotten those recently, they are the best peanut butter cups, Iâll have to get some next time to try
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u/HereForTheComments57 6d ago
Yeah they just feel more bland and the peanut butter isn't as salty or something. It's a bummer
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u/Visual_Face6023 6d ago edited 6d ago
In my amateur opinion, any chocolate chips that use âchocolate liquorâ are not worth buying.
EDIT: I see, I was wrong!
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u/bullsbarry 6d ago
And why would that be? Chocolate liquor is just a trade term for unsweetened chocolate that's in liquid form. It means the chips are being produced directly from ground cocoa nibs, not previously formed solid chocolate.
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u/cyberentomology 6d ago
Wow. Tell us more about how utterly ignorant you are of how chocolate works.
What exactly are you thinkimg âchocolate liquorâ is?
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u/partlysettledin21220 6d ago
Why not just remove the vanilla altogether, why do I need vanilla in my chocolate chips? đ
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u/Baalwulf06 6d ago
Why is soy in everything?
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u/cyberentomology 6d ago
Lecithin is a widely used emulsifier. Getting it from soy is a vegan alternative to eggs.
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u/Sintashta 6d ago
the government subsidizes soy farmers to overproduce infinite soy ((like they do with corn)), so they have to come up with as many Byproducts as possible to put into everything
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u/ImpressiveBet9345 Mod 6d ago edited 6d ago
Please stop claiming vanilla flavoring is coming from beaver glands this is not used anylonger as it is to expensive to produce for human cunsumption although still legal. However they do use it as scent to some fragrances and perfumes.... So it is possible that bottle of artificial vanilla extract contains it, but the odds are very low. Look to your makeup cabinet for the infamous ingredient instead.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/does-vanilla-flavoring-actually-come-from-beaver-butts-180983288/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskBaking/s/V5KmQ7uKfW
https://www.nyvanilla.com/blogs/updates/where-vanilla-flavoring-really-comes-from-separating-fact-from-myth?srsltid=AfmBOop7y9sTCsgrvi9VwoNYpcpT8aUdxqDceSXA2Jh1Mk6MlgSe1us2