I've had some incredibly good American chocolate. But if you're eating Hershey's, you're not looking for that, sometimes you just want junk for cheap. As for the taste, we don't notice it, other than just that there's something different about mass produced chocolate.
Maybe it’s just a culture thing, but do other countries not have like, “convenience” brands? Yaknow they aren’t the best, but they’re widely available and cheaper than the real good stuff. It’s a very common thing in the US.
No shade, but I think you're going for "convenience" brands, as in "quick and easy" or "from the convenience store."
Just a little heads up that the similarly spelled but way less common word "connivance" means something very different, like being passively guilty in an illegal or immoral act.
Because like, yeah, Hershey's can be kind of bleh, but it's not so bad that we're guilty of a crime just for buying it, right?
we do but the standards are different. for example look up[ what legally can be called bread in america compared to poland. its a similar story with most food related things.
I can’t really take this seriously when Europeans constantly mock stricter standards that the US has for inedible items concealed within food, which feels like a more important law than the definition of bread.
this is like buying the cheapest garbage chocolate available in Europe (like Cadbury or smth) then saying "wow, I'll give you europeans good chocolate from America you deserve it".
We also get basically all European chocolate brands, but for reference Hersheys actually has more cocoa solids and 100% cocoa butter / milk fat while Cadbury can't legally be called chocolate in the US due to the use of vegetable oil + emulsifiers.
But even Ghirardelli is just mass market junk. America has other niche specialty brands that are leagues ahead of the Europaupers. Brands like Good Now Farms are industry leaders and winning insane amounts of global awards for their chocolate.
Just look at how Europeans insist we only have kraft singles and wonder bread in America. In international food and wine competitions America consistently places well, but Europeans are convinced that our cheap convenience foods are what we consider to be the height of culinary excellence. 🙄🙄🙄
I had a lot of fun showing an internet friend in Europe what the bread and cheese selection is at HEB with a little video tour. It was mind blowing for them, and ridiculously fun for me.
"Oh hi, sorry, I'm just showing HEB to my European friends!"
Butyric acid is a byproduct of fat breakdown and Hersheys uses a process they call controlled lipolysis which creates butyric acid and causes that flavor profile.
It's funny that Euros react so strongly to Hershey's though when they eat numerous foods that are high in butyric acid and would have the same "vomit" profile (parmesan and other hards cheeses, grass fed butter, fermented foods like sauerkraut).
I think because it costs more to use milk that doesn't have butyric acid in it.
Milk contains lipids and it also contains lipase, a protein that breaks down lipids. When that happens, smaller free fatty acids float to the top of the milk. Butyric acid is a byproduct of this process.
We did a lab on this in my biology class. We used Sudan III reagent because it binds to free fatty acids, so if the milk develops a uniformly pink layer on top instead of a lot of loosely associated pink dots spread evenly throughout, then it's undergone significant lipolysis (fat breakdown) that it's going to taste "off," and you should probably toss it.
So the first problem is this: milk contains both tasty lipids and the lipid-breaking enzyme that is an agent of its own destruction. You have to use extremely fresh milk (and possibly high quality cattle feed and not a lot of refrigeration, if we trust the search engines) to not get butyric acid buildup in the milk before it goes into the chocolate.
The second problem is this: we tend to have a cognitive bias where we see other cultures as monolithic and uniform, but our own as varied and complex. So Hershey's being the biggest brand name of chocolate in the US, partly due to advertising, partly to sales volume, and even partly to it being included in rations in the second World War and shared with locals to boost goodwill, we end up with a world outside the US where everyone is inclined to believe that Hershey's chocolate represents all US chocolate.
In reality, America has vastly superior chocolate. American companies like Good Now Farms are winning a lot of medals at the international awards ceremonies.
Shoutout to Endangered Species Chocolate for appearing to have a very lefty, earth-friendly meeting while "secretly" pouring money and resources into an anti-trans, anti-LGBT, pro-fascist agenda alongside other Indianapolis small businesses in league with noted Trumper and general assface Scott Wolfe of Wolfie's fame!
I know 100% ethical consumption is impossible in late stage capitalism, but as far as targeted boycotts that make a difference, Endangered Species Chocolate and Chik-Fil-A are both right up there on the list of companies with a public paper trail to supporting anti-LGBT hate at home and abroad. They just rely on the fact that there's too much info for people to focus in on them.
My brother once got to take a trip throughout Europe and brought back some chocolate for us, it was the best chocolate I had ever experienced and nothing has even come close in comparison. I think the only "good" chocolate we really have access to here is Ghirardelli.
I don't think most of the flavors involve actual chocolate, and you need a high bitter tolerance to really truly enjoy the matcha one, but they are similarly exquisite!
They have:
classic chocolate
matcha
roasted matcha
whole wheat
And in the "less sweetness because it's for adults" lineup, they also have:
deep matcha (it is powerful, be warned!)
strawberry (lightly sweet, not heavy at all!)
melty caramel
dark chocolate
You should get you to an H-mart or something and try those out. If you like lightly sweet flavors, you'll be in heaven!
Wait, are you both calling me an idiot for stating a documented fact and claiming that people consume breast milk every day? I am not feeling good with it. ☹️
Also, it's 2026. We have mods on Reddit and act like grownups on the internet now. Get with the times, fam. And don't say a single bad word about Italian foods where Italians can hear, it never goes well.
Yes, the stuff that makes your tool handles smell like unfettered ass.
Would you notice small amounts of it were produced as an unfiltered byproduct during lipolysis (breakdown of fats) in the milk that goes into your chocolate?
Would you still notice that tiny quantity if you'd been eating it every day since your first Hershey bar?
Or would you only notice it if you'd gone of chocolate for a while, started back up with fancy non-vomity chocolates for a while longer, and only then picked up a Hershey bar and chowed down?
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u/Material-Imagination 6h ago
Apparently it's butyric acid and we're all used to it in the US