Due to the volatile cocoa market, companies like Hershey are using replacement ingredients such as sugar, oil, milk and nuts

Just before Valentine’s Day, Brad Reese bought a bag of Reese’s Unwrapped Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts from his local convenience store in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was a brand-new product, released especially for the holiday, tagline: “We’ll never break your heart.”

Reese is a Reese’s aficionado who makes a point of trying everything the company produces. This isn’t a coincidence: he’s one of the Reeses, a grandson of HB Reese, the former Hershey dairy farmer who invented the peanut butter cup in 1928. Although he’s never worked for Reese’s or Hershey, which acquired the peanut butter cup company in 1963, Reese considers himself a custodian of HB’s legacy. He also takes an avid interest in the Hershey company and its leadership.

The Unwrapped Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts proved to be a disappointment. “I took two bites and I had to spit it out,” Reese says. “I’ve never had that happen to me, ever, in the 70 years of my life. There was no taste. It was inedible.”

Reese took a closer look at the packaging, specifically the ingredients. He noticed that instead of milk chocolate, the mini hearts were covered in a chocolate-flavored coating that was mostly sugar and vegetable oil; the list of ingredients contained a disclaimer that the candy contained less than 2% cocoa. He visited the candy aisle at a nearby supermarket to investigate further and found that several other Reese’s and Hershey products, including Take 5, Mr Goodbar, and Heath bars, also lacked milk chocolate.

  • TehPers@beehaw.orgEnglish
    9·
    12 hours ago

    These “chocolates”, at least in the US, taste like ass. That’s not really new, sadly.

    It’s hard to find good chocolate in the US. Locally made chocolate is good, but expensive. Importing chocolate in bulk can be more affordable, but it’s hard to justify buying 10Kg chocolate.

    I’ve found a few local candy stores that sell imported chocolate. The most common I’ve seen is Milka. If you haven’t given that a taste yet, it’s all over Europe, and tastes just as good in the US.

      • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPMEnglish
        2·
        4 hours ago

        Imagine, if you will, that you grow up only knowing Swiss chocolate, and then you learn what passed for “chocolate” in the '80s in the U.S.

    • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPMEnglish
      1·
      11 hours ago

      I find Milka to be the Hershey’s of Europe. I used to buy Lindt, but the quality has gone significantly downhill in the past couple of decades. Now, Lindt is only one half of the Lindt-Spruengli operation, and I do get a tin of Spruengli from my uncle each December. Pretty certain that now runs CHF60 for 285g.

      I’ve basically given up on chocolate stateside. It costs twice what it did a few years ago, there are no longer sales (I’d frequently take HEB up on their B2G1 coupons that made a bag of Reese’s something like $2.80 for 12 ounces). They’re now $5.79 and objectively worse (oh, and 10.2 ounces).

      I swear, corporations are tripping over each other to create the next Ford Pinto.

      • TehPers@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        11 hours ago

        Milka is definitely far from the best chocolate in Europe or even the US. The reason I even brought it up isn’t because it’s some kind of gold standard, but just because it at least tastes like chocolate, which puts it above most other grocery store chocolate in the US.

        Imported Lindt still tastes good by the way, but you’d have to import it. I have a friend who actually does import ~10Kg at a time, but he eats far more chocolate than I do.

        US-based grocery store chocolate is a lost cause.

        • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPMEnglish
          1·
          10 hours ago

          You make getting decent chocolate sound like a drug deal! Does he wear a trenchcoat while getting chocolate deliveries?