Tuesday, April 03, 2007


hershey's by far

in the battle of the anti-oxidant candies, my husband easily and by far goes with this new hershey's product over the cocoavia. surprised me, but da man don't lie.

objectively, the hershey's comes packaged in small one-serving squares covered with bright foil, more like valrhona or ghirardelli than the cocoavia's hachez longs approach.

opening the foil, it's easy to see the hershey's does have better sheen, crisper type, and sharper molding. there are some pooling marks on the back of each square -- again, typical of a mass-market candy.

the snap is better than the cocoavia, but still far from first rate, and the break is cleaner, but not as clean as say even lindt. the cocoavia may have a better chocolate aroma on opening the package tho.'

when it comes to mouthfeel and chocolate taste, my husband instantly claimed hershey's superior to the cocoavia. until the aftertaste -- he really disliked the aftertaste, and in fact wouldn't finish the square.

when i tasted the square the soy-ness of the lecithin seemed really prominent -- and there's something else in the aftertaste too. i'm not quite just what it is, but it's a tad different.

and by different i don't mean slitti. or the domori porcelana.

still if had to eat one or the other, he flatly said he preferred the hershey's, hands down.

we then moved on to the other new hershey's product, the "whole bean" chocolate with extra healthy fiber. this contains something called inulin, which despite its unusual name does actually appear in nature.

it's a naturally sweet kind of fiber and is said to have little or no adverse effect on your blood sugar, making it better for diabetics and others who watch that kind of thing. low-carb people too i guess.

i preferred this to the anti-oxidant candy, actually. it seemed like normal milk chocolate until the very end, when there was a moment of slight graininess on the tongue.

if they made this product in a real dark -- not some 60% thing, but 70% -- i might actually consider eating this. if i was out of valrhona. . .

both of these chocolates appeared to be a somewhat higher quality than i last remember "regular" hershey's being. overall, i'd say it's a step forward for them.

also -- since now we live in a world where corporate social good is an important consideration for many consumers -- don't forget that hershey's has nearly a century of social activism. the milton hershey school provides free top-drawer fancy-boarding-school-type education to underprivileged american children and has done so for many many years.

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posted by fortune | 6:25 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments