[Doc HM]

So, UK chocolate makers Cadbury's are struggling to fight off advances from US based confectionary (and cardboard snacks) maker, Kraft foods. Perpetrator of Hershey's amongst other crimes. So, do you dig the sweet, sticky taste of US chocolate of the smooth Cadbury version?

ie what does everyone think of US chocolate?

[SpaceMonkey]

I wouldn't necessarily expect Kraft to change anything about Cadbury's signature products if the takeover is successful.

[Doc HM]

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey 

I wouldn't necessarily expect Kraft to change anything about Cadbury's signature products if the takeover is successful.

Maybe, maybe not. I was just interested in how many people thought that Americans could make chocolate.

[Uncle Skeleton]

I like chocolate with nuts in it

[iM@k]

I do like Hersy's however I also like Lindt.

There's something about Cadbury Chocolate that i just don't care for. Nor do I like Ghirardelli Chocolate

[BlueSky]

Ah, Kraft....purveyor of plasticfood mediocrity and therefore a resounding success in the USA. Hershey's bad, Cadbury good.

[Shaddim]

Both are mediocre, but Hersey's is worse. The best is Amedei, hands down. Their Toscano Brown is the best milk chocolate I've ever tasted.

[imitchellg5]

I always like a Cadbury chocolate bunny at Easter time.

[CharlesS]

Cadbury is of course better than Hershey (what isn't?), but if you want really good chocolate, get something Belgian.

[voodoo]

Best Kraft chocolate is the Norwegian Freia. I don't like Hershey's. Nor Cadbury's.

Freia chocolate is very good actually.

Anyway, best chocolate is of course Valor.

[Chuckit]

I much prefer Cadbury, though neither is my favorite. For non-luxury American sweets, I prefer Mars. Dove chocolate (known as "Galaxy" outside the US, I'm told) is actually pretty good.

[Doc HM]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

I much prefer Cadbury, though neither is my favorite. For non-luxury American sweets, I prefer Mars. Dove chocolate (known as "Galaxy" outside the US, I'm told) is actually pretty good.

Yes Galaxy is pretty good.Very smooth. One of my regular clients is a Belgian company so I have had quite a lot of hand made Belgian chocolate, which is of course superb.

[Thorzdad]

Hershey chocolate is a nasty, gritty thing. Cadbury is much nicer, for a daily-driver chocolate.

[Doofy]

Doof was Galaxy man, until Mars decided to switch from veggie to non-veggie without telling anyone. Even though they've switched back now, they've lost trust.

So, Cadbury's all the way.

[Oisín]

Kraft chocolate is so much different stuff, it’s hard to lump into one. As voodoo said, Freia is very good, despite being owned by Kraft. Hershey’s is, of course, mislabelled mud excrement. Then again, Cadbury’s isn’t much better.

Actually, apart from a few brands (Hershey’s in particular, but Cadbury’s also included on the list, as is every brand of Chinese ‘chocolate’ I’ve ever tasted), I’m not picky about my chocolate, as long as it’s not too dark. I can appreciate a good Valrhona or Vosges, but I can easily gobble down a plate (squared, of course) of Ritter or a Mars bar with fervent enjoyment, too.

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Dove chocolate (known as "Galaxy" outside the US, I'm told)

Not sure if it’s the same—however, we have no chocolate named Galaxy, but we do have Dove. With caramel. Quite good.

Speaking of Chinese chocolates, there are two different brands of Dove in China: one is called 多芬 (Duōfēn) and the other is 多芙 (Duōfú). Their English logo is the same, and the packaging is almost identical. One of them is sort of edible and distinctly recognisable as chocolate (I suspect this is the foreign, imported brand); the other tastes like it’s made from Chinese chocolate (which, in turn, tastes like it’s made from mud that someone’s cat peed in). The trick is to remember which is which.

[slugslugslug]

I can’t remember the last time I had any Hershey’s or Cadbury’s chocolate, but I remember the former being gross. Not to say that Americans can’t make chocolate, but Hershey’s doesn’t count. I like Wilbur chocolate from Lititz, PA (though I think some big conglomerate bought them out).

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

Doof was Galaxy man, until Mars decided to switch from veggie to non-veggie without telling anyone. Even though they've switched back now, they've lost trust.

So, Cadbury's all the way.

Wait, what? You mean non-vegan, or they actually had dead animal parts in their chocolate?

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Wait, what? You mean non-vegan, or they actually had dead animal parts in their chocolate?

I mean non-veggie. You'd be surprised the amount of choccy has dead animal bits in it.

BBC NEWS | Business | Mars starts using animal products

Also affecting brands such as Snickers and Maltesers, owner Masterfoods said it had started to use animal product rennet to make its chocolate products
...
Rennet, a chemical sourced from calves' stomachs, is used in the production of whey.

Masterfoods said it had started using rennet from 1 May and non-affected products had a "best before date" up to 1 October.

And the bastards didn't tell anyone until two weeks after they did it, thus for two weeks veggies were eating dead bits in products which were previously known as "safe".

Masterfoods said the change was due to it switching the sourcing of its ingredients and the admission was a "principled decision" on its part.
...
"If the customer is an extremely strict vegetarian, then we are sorry the products are no longer suitable, but a less strict vegetarian should enjoy our chocolate," said Paul Goalby, corporate affairs manager for Masterfoods.

Bastards. So, like a "less strict vegetarian" only eats certain kinds of processed meat but is still a vegetarian? Did I call them bastards yet?

Colgate also did this with their toothpaste when they switched production from UK to Poland.

[Eug]

For mass produced easy to get chocolate, I like Lindt.

[turtle777]

Both, Hershey's and Cadbury's, suck donkey balls.

-t

[nonhuman]

I've yet to find a chocolate that isn't disgustingly sweet. Well, a good mole, I suppose (although I once had a mole that tastes like it was made from Hershey's chocolate syrup, but that's another story)...

[Phileas]

Neither.

There are so many good chocolate crafters these days, why buy mass produced garbage?

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by Phileas 

UK chocolate, isn't.

It's been a while since I ate chocolate that was actually bought in the UK, but the UK chocolates imported into the US are just as horrible as the US chocolates in my experience (well, maybe not that bad...).

Licorice, on the other hand, is absolutely better outside the US. The stuff I bought while in Iceland completely changed my opinions about licorice.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by Phileas 

Neither.

There are so many good chocolate crafters these days, why buy mass produced garbage?

I wouldn't call Lindt garbage. Anyways, the little chocolate shops around here cost about 3X the price of Lindt chocolates.

[CharlesS]

And they're likely about 3X as good, too.

(not that Lindt is bad...)

[Rumor]

My local Chocolatier uses Amedei chocolate. I never liked chocolate until I had his use of it.

[Rumor]

Besides that, neither the US nor the UK is known for chocolate. For chocolate produced from the home country, don't they both suck compared to Germany or Switzerland (or a couple other Euro places I do not remember at the moment)?

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey 

I wouldn't necessarily expect Kraft to change anything about Cadbury's signature products if the takeover is successful.

if they can shave a couple cents off their cost per ton, hell yeah they will.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

if they can shave a couple cents off their cost per ton, hell yeah they will.

Okay, so just expect a few more insect bits in your chocolate. No big change.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

And they're likely about 3X as good, too.

(not that Lindt is bad...)

Well, I like the local chocolate shops, but only for very specific stuff. For simple chocolate bars, I don't think the price premium is worth it. In fact sometimes I just prefer Lindt, as the taste is just simpler. The chocolate at the speciality shops is certainly different, but not necessarily "better" for everyday eating. However, for very specific types of chocolate candies the only place to get half decent ones are at those chocolate shops.

Same goes for chocolate cakes and stuff. You have to go to a good pastry shop, because most shops make terrible ones.

It kind of reminds me of wine. I'm no wine connoisseur, but I don't like the swill either. When I was Italy I went to a shop where I was able to try about 20 different wines. The super cheap stuff was not so good, but the lower to moderately priced stuff was my favourite. The really expensive stuff was good, but it wasn't the sort of thing I'd want to drink with every meal, because the flavours were much stronger and tended to dominate everything, whereas the lower mid-priced stuff was often more "mainstream" as it were.

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

Licorice, on the other hand, is absolutely better outside the US. The stuff I bought while in Iceland completely changed my opinions about licorice.

Oh yes, the Icelandic licorice is most excellent. Their chocolate is far too creamy to be good (IMO)

I approve very much of the Icelandic licorice. Good stuff.

[hayesk]

Originally Posted by Shaddim 

Both are mediocre, but Hersey's is worse. The best is Amedei, hands down. Their Toscano Brown is the best milk chocolate I've ever tasted.

I saw some show on TV once about Amedei - it was considered the world's best chocolate. I don't remember who actually considered it the world's best, but I've had it, and it's easily the best chocolate I've ever eaten.

Lindt is my favourite mass market brand, but Amedei is noticeably better.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Oh yes, the Icelandic licorice is most excellent. Their chocolate is far too creamy to be good (IMO)

I approve very much of the Icelandic licorice. Good stuff.

Oh yes. And this from someone who’s not crazy about liquorice in general.

I quite like the creaminess of Icelandic chocolate, too—and the chocolate/liquorice combination is divine.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by hayesk 

I saw some show on TV once about Amedei - it was considered the world's best chocolate. I don't remember who actually considered it the world's best, but I've had it, and it's easily the best chocolate I've ever eaten.

Lindt is my favourite mass market brand, but Amedei is noticeably better.

I like Callebaut, myself. Belgian chocolate... mmm. My chocolate cake gets amazing when I use that stuff.

[Paco500]

Damn- are you all going to start discussing who makes your favorite tampons next?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Paco500 

Damn- are you all going to start discussing who makes your favorite tampons next?

With chocolate falvor ?

-t

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Paco500 

Damn- are you all going to start discussing who makes your favorite tampons next?

Tampax. Good, solid, dependable, absorbent product.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

Tampax. Good, solid, dependable, absorbent product.

You're only saying that because an advertisement influenced you to believe it.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

You're only saying that because an advertisement influenced you to believe it.

Or because two girls I spent an afternoon with thought it'd be fun to throw them out of the car window at passers-by.

[Rumor]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

Or because two girls I spent an afternoon with thought it'd be fun to throw them out of the car window at passers-by.

While this is gross, I can't help but laugh.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Rumor 

While this is gross, I can't help but laugh.

Was only water-engorged, so not as gross as it sounds.