British versus American Chocolate
Why the American standard tastes like wax to other countries.
As many a California native might agree, the American Hershey bar was a childhood staple. To assume that the taste is universally appreciated, though, is as confusing to the ears of British citizens as it might be to an American to hear other countries call their beloved chocolate wax-like in flavor. But, according to a New York Times article, "World's Best Candybar? English of Course," on the subject of American and British treats, the world does have grounds to question the standards of quality when it comes to American taste.
Besides citing several opinions, the New York times also substantiated the article's "sour" comments against American chocolate flavor with the facts--as far as cocoa content, British candy simply has more of it. American chocolate substitutes some of the coca for sugar.
For example, though the Cadbury bar looks practically identical in America and Britain, the nutrition label on the Cadbury bar that Britain knows changes after it crosses the Atlantic ocean and arrives in Hershey, Pa. Further processing adds more to the mix--most of which isn't nutritious at all. The ingredients list on both wrappers reveals the first big difference: higher sugar content in American chocolate. Tony Bilsborough, a spokesman for Cadbury-Schweppes in Britain, was cited as saying that the company changes the taste to appeal to the preferences of that country.
“I imagine it’s down to the final processing and the blending,” Bilsborough said, further pointing to the Hershey bar and its artificial flavors as the standard that causes the change.
The American diet is to blame for the preference for sweeter, less pure chocolate, according to chemist and teacher Ernest Capraro, a writer for Helium.com. In his article, "An American's Guide to Buying European Chocolate," he explained why Americans might mistakenly think that the fault is with European chocolate for tasting bitter to them.
"Europeans don't tend to saturate their diet with corn syrup sweetened foods the way we do, and don't need everything to be artificially sweetened," Capraro wrote. "This also contributes to the slight bitterness that Americans may perceive when eating European chocolates. There's less sugar covering up the actual flavor of the chocolate. (Pure cocoa is bitter.)"
To join the American versus British chocolate debate, contribute to Yahoo! answers, where one poster asked, "Why is British Chocolate so much nicer than American?." And so it seems that, label differences aside, the debate for the truly best-tasting chocolate continues is simply a matter of that--taste.
American Cadbury Bar
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British Cadbury Bar
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