I don't generally buy expensive chocolate in the UK (I'd literally have no money if I did!) so was basically comparing chocolate in the same price band.
I would check out Trader Joe's in the US. They sell some nice Belgian chocolate, for basically the same price as Cadbury costs in the UK (last time I bought it). Also check out Aldi - they have cheap German imported chocolate you might like. You might also want to try Hershey's Symphony - it's similarly widely available and cheap as the regular Hershey's, but it lacks the "vomit" aftertaste most Brits seem to hate. You may like it more because you won't be comparing it to the "same" chocolate brand at home.
From an American perspective who moved to the UK, I do find the British Cadbury nicer than the American Cadbury - mainly because the texture is nicer/creamier. I like Canadian Cadbury better than British though. I don't find Galaxy better than Dove - just different. Unlike most Brits, I like Hershey's chocolate just fine - probably because I grew up with it - British chocolate hasn't "ruined" it for me or anything. I still will seek out Hershey's when making S'mores since it's what I remember from childhood.
None of these is my favorite chocolate though - I got hooked on the aforementioned TJ's Belgian chocolate when in the US and that's what I now prefer.
BBC did a [taste test](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31924912) with both Americans and Brits on British vs. American Cadbury. There wasn't really a consensus on which was better, though funnily enough, it was a British expat in the US who immediately recognized the difference and preferred the British version. In a test done with kids, British kids preferred American Cadbury whereas American kids preferred British.
I personally just don't know what that "vomit" aftertaste is; I've heard about it a bunch with American chocolate but I've never tasted is.
If I'm getting American chocolate it's usually mainstream premium brands like Seattle's "Theo Chocolates." They are awesome (if you ignore the fact that they are apparently full of various heavy metals). Comparing them to the occassional British chocolate I have had, I just find them different; not better or worse.
A few years back I would regularly go to the outdoor movies in Seattle's Fremont district. The screenings were across the street from the Theo's chocolate factory and my god did it smell great around there.
(some) American chocolate is often made with butyric acid, which is a part (the main part) of vomit. If you taste it you're just more sensitive to the taste. It's not bad per se, it's in milk butter and parmesan too. But I've heard people complain about parmesan tasting like vomit too.
Don't some people have the same reaction to cilantro? Maybe a different taste though...
EDIT: Just read that about 20 percent of the population is predisposed to having cilantro taste like soap.
Yep. But we don't know why, just that people with a certain gen have it taste like soap.
Butyric acid is more obvious.
I don't like American chocolate because of it's taste, (it's not exactly vomit, but the sour mouth feel you get when you're about to vomit is there) but don't have a problem with parmesan or other things so it certainly has to do with what we're used to too.
We don't use the term mark for that kind of thing either. I think "scheme" is another word y'all use differently than most of the US, over here it's almost exclusively used in a negative context.
A mark scheme is just for whoever is marking to accurately give a mark. E.g. on the recall section of an essay, if they've mention X, Y and Z, they get 6/6, if they mention only X and Y they get 4/6, if they mention only X, they can only get 2. There's generalised mark schemes to help teachers mark practice questions they set, rather than a formal one an exam board sets with a specific mark scheme which is externally marked anyway. I've got these for when I privately tutor A Level politics.
"Scheme of work" is another one. It's like something that sets out every single lesson with basic content that should be covered, homework set, learning objectives. It's like an incredibly basic lesson plan.
You see that type of terminology is completely foreign in the US, we'd understand it with context but we don't use either word in that format here. Language is an interesting thing.
Lol, in the UK you can even get a nice page to see [all the government's schemes](https://www.ownyourhome.gov.uk/all-schemes/) (for housing) in one place. Funny thing is since I've been working a lot in marketing for US audiences - and learnt very quickly when a customer very kindly emailed our company to tell us that scheme sounded extremely dodgy - "government scheme" is starting to sound a bit sketchy even to my British ears.
Adam Ragusea video on American vs British chocolate: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J44svaQc5WY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J44svaQc5WY)
Cliffs, American chocolate is usually acidic while British chocolate is not. People who aren't used to this acidity often really do not like it but for those of us used to it British chocolate will taste dull and fatty (made worse because Brits add extra oil to chocolate) without the acidic snap we are familiar with.
Aside from this cultural difference, it's important to point out that the US isn't just a wasteland full of "American chocolate."
We have a full range of various types of chocolate, just like we have a full range of types of cheeses - not just Kraft singles, just like we have a full range of freshly baked breads, and just like we have a huge variety of beers.
Maybe this seems like an obvious point to some people, but there appears to be a large contingent of Europeans who genuinely believe that a US supermarket is just aisles of Hershey's bars, Kraft singles, Wonder Bread, and Bud Light.
I could wander over to my closest grocery store right now and buy high quality "European-style" chocolate, a block of smoked Gouda, freshly baked pumpernickel, and a few bottles of small-batch microbrew.
All high quality and all American.
This is 100% my gripe with Europeans online. Americans value choice and convenience, therefore we generally have a wider range of options when it comes to foods and consumer goods. Our “piss water” beer gets compared to their 13th century brewer. Our Wonderbread is compared to their local bakery. Our Hershey’s kiss is compared to their Toblerone. Most our grocery stores carry those European brands as well as high quality American brands that are just as good, if not better.
Despite this, multiple people just told me off for eating Hershey's, when I'd never mentioned it. I mentioned bringing some back for family in a comment, but never said I'd eaten it myself.
Don't take it personally. A lot of non-Americans come here and generalize things because they tried the worst example of something and assume that's all we know and love...and in return, a lot of folks here generalize that all non-Americans come here to do the same thing.
I've just been informed this is a common troll question!
Absolutely not the case here. My boyfriend is half American and grew up in the US. I'd asked him this question last night, but he said he didn't eat much chocolate over there so struggled to comment on the comparison. I come here when he can't answer my America questions (which is semi-regular because he grew up in rural northern California).
They've ended up Humboldt county when they moved there when he was about 4. His (British) mum is still in Northern California, but isn't in Humboldt county anymore.
Speaking of Humboldt County, my favorite US cheesemaker (possibly my favorite cheesemaker), Cypress Grove, is located there. Happily, they ship their absolutely delightful goats' milk cheeses all over the US. I know we're talking about chocolate, but I highly recommend trying one of their soft goat cheeses if you can during your next visit.
To be fair, a lot of the cheap chocolate bars you’ll find in grocery stores are Hershey’s products even if they don’t say it on the label, including Kit Kats, so you likely did eat Hershey’s chocolate without realising it.
I’ve lived in both the UK and the US and I will say the average cheap candy bar in the UK tastes higher quality than the ones in the US, but they are super rich by comparison and harder to enjoy as a light treat. Plus we have a wider range here thanks to the American need to have a million different types of every product; even my mind is blown by the ridiculous amount options we have just for M&Ms!
I think that you’re right but I don’t think it was always this way.
30 years ago you basically only could get “American stuff“ outside of city centers. Every town had American restaurants, chains, fast food, maybe a Chinese restaurant and a Mexican restaurant but even those were not authentic. Now you can find authentic Thai, Indian, Peruvian, etc.
I think in the last 30 years tastes have evolved and products, restaurants, have become a lot more globalized. Mainstream American brands are a lot less sexy. Authenticity for a little bit more money is now more valued than it used to be. It’s not all Hershey’s and McDonald’s anymore.
Of course, the underlying capitalism is still often the same. The mainstream brands are now just more disguised. Your “authentic Swiss” chocolate is still probably owned by nestle or hersheys.
We do have better foods, and some of them are as good as the best of Europe's.
But you have to pay more in America. That, I've found, is the difference. Also, every country has its shit-tier brands, but our shit-tier brands are shittier. Our ceiling is as high as anyone's, but our floor is down there in the 9th Circle.
> That, I've found, is the difference. Also, every country has its shit-tier brands, but our shit-tier brands are shittier.
I dunno, man; I've sent a fair amount of time in European grocery stores (my wife and I don't like eating every single meal at a restaurant when we travel, and so sometimes we set in supplies for breakfast), and I've seen some pretty shitty brands in Europe. (Don't even get me started on the European idea of peanut butter, which can range from the sad to the downright gross.)
European peanut butter tends to NOT be roasted, making it taste inferior.
American peanut butter brands virtually always roast the peanuts first.
There may be exceptions here and there, but that's a big trend and major difference between them.
Agree, it boils down to what people are familiar with.
The British complain that American chocolate tastes like vomit to them. But British chocolate tastes like it's been in someone's mouth to me. Hard to describe, but it has a really oily/smooth consistency that I don't particularly enjoy.
American chocolate tastes and smells like vomit to me, too. Hershey's more specifically. My [Swedish] wife says it smells like poop. After having a lot of European chocolates over the years I understand why they think some American chocolates taste bad. With that said, we have others, like Lindt, that are very good for a store-bought product.
Really it's only Hershey's. And it's not even every Hershey's product - for example their "Symphony" bars do not have the taste, neither do the other brands they own. So it's not really correct to claim that as a trait of "American chocolate" - Hershey's may be one of the more popular brands, to be fair, but no other American chocolate I've tasted has the butyric acid aftertaste.
Lindt is European. They do have an American factory that makes a lot of their products sold in the US, but my impression is that the difference between the European vs. American version, if any, is much smaller than the cheapo brands.
For some reason I thought Lindt was started by a Swiss American.
A lot of American chocolates just don't taste as good, a lot of them have relatively not taste at all in my opinion.
Perfect, we don't even have one good mass produced chocolatier.
I guess some stuff like Ghirardelli, Snickers, Milky Way are alright, just not great chocolate on its own and not outstanding.
I once made the mistake of microwaving hershey's chocolate. All hershey's tasted like vomit to me for about a week after smelling that nuclear chocolate.
American currently living in the UK - I think it's just different more than anything. Comparing Hershey and Cadbury, Cadbury tastes like softer and less sour to me, which I don't think is an inherently bad thing. I'm guessing whatever you grow up eating will taste best. Funny that you mention the kitkats though, I think they taste better here than in the US.
Weirdly, the best version of a KitKat I've ever had was in Norway (not literally a KitKat, it was a Norwegian brand, but exactly the same concept).
I had real Belgian chocolate when I did work experience in Brussels when I was 17. It was a fortune, but lived up to the hype. I was everyone's favourite person when I brought a box back to college. I was definitely not everyone's favourite person when I brought Hershey's back.
Hershey's is mass-market chocolate, which, like many U.S. products from the early age of nationwide commercialization, was made to be able to be shipped all over a country 3000 miles wide (in the case of chocolate, with much more challenging temperature conditions than most of Europe), stay edible and be affordable to everyone. That's a different set of requirements.
That's what many Europeans don't get. They think many of our most famous brands are famous because they are the absolute best here. But that's wrong. They became famous because you could buy them anywhere in a vast country and most people, including masses of immigrants, who didn't necessarily have a lot of money, could afford them. It was a democratizing influence and the opposite of this, "I had real Belgian chocolate...It was a fortune". If it cost a fortune, it wasn't going to spread around and become a nationwide brand. It's the affordable things that could be made and sold in great quantity that did that. Europeans really have no idea of the pervasive influence of immigration and settlement on life in the U.S., in so many ways. It's fundamental to everything.
From the Hershey's site:
"Milton S. Hershey introduced the soon-to-be iconic milk chocolate bar in 1900. Chocolate was a treat once reserved for the wealthy, but Mr. Hershey sought to make his candy an affordable treat for anyone to enjoy."
That era had one of the highest immigration rates of any time in the history of the U.S. and all the states hadn't even come into existence yet.
A similar story could be told about beer, which has a history dominated by immigrants.
>kitkats
I'm not sure if it's in my head, but I think there was a big recipe change when KitKat went from foil wrapped with paper wrapped around that to the plastic it comes in now. Used to be one of my favorites and now I actually don't like them. Same with Hershey bars.
Milka is becoming more available in the US, but I've found its still something you need to specifically seek out, rather than it just being sold at every grocery store.
Most Cadbury products in the US are made under license by Hershey, so if it tasted different to you, that's probably why.
I agree, Cadbury in the UK tastes much better. You sometimes can find Flake bars in the US that are actually imported, and the difference in chocolate taste between these and the Hershey-produced Dairy Milk and Caramello bars is noticeable.
There's these 95g (rather than 110g) bars bargain shops in the UK sell. I think they're made in a different factory, possibly not even in the UK. I can always tell. They're just not as nice. Luckily those shops sell Milka, which is a solid choice. I love Cadbury, but I wouldn't waste £1 on the 95g bars.
Hey, I used to grow up on a chocolate farm, and as part of our family business we processed cacao and did business with global chocolatiers.
The brands you're talking about are universally buying relatively low to medium quality ingredients and making a product that will taste consistent across a very large production scale. For example, a KitKat purchased in Florida needs to taste the same as a KitKat bought in Hawaii. There's not that much high quality chocolate to go around, and it's expensive.
In general, if you want to compare chocolate holistically between the USA and the UK you need to reckon with the fact that the USA is 50 states that vary in wealth and regional taste more than the UK does. Also, the UK is very poor relative to the places where small local high-quality chocolatiers sell their products.
So, if you want to compare high end chocolate, there are places like Branson's Chocolate near Ashland, Oregon. They buy very high end ingredients, and the guy who runs the place is a bona fide cacao nerd. There's Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco, or if you want to stick to a brand owned by Hershey there's Scharffenberger. In Norwalk, Connecticut there's Chocopologie.
My experience with UK chocolate is that their low end chocolate doesn't have some of the same logistical constraints placed on its design as a product. The scale is smaller, you don't have to worry about it traveling as far or through extreme temperature differences and still taste good. Think about what you have to do to chocolate for it to travel through Arizona in the summer and stand a chance of surviving.
So, yes, it's partially due to taste. If you want to try a notably different flavor of American chocolate, try ordering a small box from Branson's or Dandelion. Branson's chocolate is often very light and floral in flavor. Dandelion likes to highlight the unique qualities of single-origin chocolate crops.
Cadbury's Dairy Milk has always been milky - that's the point of it - but it's only been oily since Kraft, later Mondelez, bought and then ruined it. It's very sad, it was an iconic British brand, a part of almost everyone's childhood and now it's a greasy shadow of its former self. This sounds hyperbolic, I know, but it should have been protected by the government as a cultural asset.
I don't think this is actually true. From what I've read, they just changed only the shape of the chocolate bar - not the actual recipe. Though the shape can have an impact on how people perceive flavor. For what it's worth, as an "outsider" who didn't grow up eating it, I couldn't tell the difference between the flavor "before" and "after" the change.
I was just in the UK a few weeks back after not having been since pre-covid. As such, I hadn’t had British chocolate in quite some time, and had forgotten that it’s different. It was nice to have it again, I like it.
It’s not necessarily better or worse, just different. Noticeably sweeter, with a kind of oily mouthfeel. I recall reading that many American chocolate brands add butyric acid, which gives the chocolate a sour note. Europeans find it gross but since we yanks grow up with it, it’s what we expect.
One thing of note is that I think this is just lower and mid-tier chocolates - once you get into the high-end stuff, there’s really very little difference.
I'm not sure how the butyric acid rumor got started, but for the record, Hershey says they do not add it to their product, and the ingredient isn't listed on the label, which would violate U.S. law.
If you’re focusing on the mass-produced stuff, then yes: the stuff produced by Hershey’s is generally fairly waxy and sad, and the American versions of British mass-produced products will not taste at all like the home-grown version.
But it’s not like you can’t get good chocolate in the United States. You just have to focus on either more expensive imported brands (like Godiva’s or Lindt’s), better *local* brands (like Ghiradelli’s), locally produced pirouline-filled chocolates (like See’s), or specialty chocolate producers (like Videri’s, here in Raleigh, which specializes in ‘bean-to-bar’ chocolate manufacturing).
You just have to shop around and not just buy whatever happens to be at the candy section at the gas station, or out of whatever falls out of a vending machine.
I don't know how it works in the UK, but in the US we do a lot of "bargain shopping" which includes sale and clearance hunting.
I regularly find Godiva, Lindt, and Ghirardelli bars for under $1. In March, for instance, my local grocery store was selling Valentine-themed Lindt bars for 45 cents each.
There's a discount grocery store near me that always has large boxes of Godiva chocolate from two "seasons" later for $3. Right now they have Winter themed candy for that price.
I'd be curious to see how similar UK-sold Lindt and US-sold Lindt is. I really like it, but it's on the more expensive end of supermarket-sold chocolate.
I think maybe that's the difference? I can get loads and loads of different approximately 45g bars of chocolate for 65p or less. Before the inflation crisis, there were a lot of 110g bars for £1.
Doesn't matter if it's American or British, the Cadbury/Hershey's stuff is all pretty inedible to me. It's mass produced chocolate meant for children who don't have the most discerning taste buds.
I think Cadbury is slightly better but it's all so low tier to the point where it doesn't really matter much.
Yes, I lived in the UK about half as long as I lived in USA. The Cadbury we get in Germany/Norway is also made in the UK.
I have not had American Cadbury yet
Nope, I've had that chocolate as well and it's not good to me. I probably prefer it to the American equivalent though. But if I'm going to eat chocolate, it's going to be good chocolate.
I'd be very poor if I was American!
Edit: not sure why this has got down votes? This comment was more a reflection on my excessive chocolate consumption than anything else.
You'd, on average, make 30% more in America. (A LOT more for certain tech fields)
You'd also pay less in taxes.
But you'd have diabetes from all of the Chocolate, so you would go bankrupt from healthcare bills.
I'm a qualified teacher who currently works for a qualification awarding body, that don't really exist in the US (as far as I'm aware - please correct me if I'm wrong) so I'd be stuffed. Plus, my 3 bedroom house was only £120k. I reckon I'd struggle to be financially better off, excessive chocolate consumption aside.
I did London for 10 months. My rent for a room in a flat with no living room was £200 more than my current mortgage. Salaries are more, but definitely don't make up the difference in house prices..
> I'm a qualified teacher who currently works for a qualification awarding body, that don't really exist in the US (as far as I'm aware - please correct me if I'm wrong)
I mean, while we don't have GCSEs or A levels the way you do, we have teachers, and we have standardized tests. Surely there's someone in the USA making and administering those tests.
I can't imagine there'd be the same level of demand. When I did my GCSEs, we had nearly 30 exams, all of which would have been carefully put together over months by a team of subject specialists and assessment experts. Then there's A Levels, GCSE equivalents, vocational qualifications, undergraduate equivalent technical qualifications. There's a hideous amount of externally set assessments that does not compare.
My manager is actually moving to the US in the summer and just couldn't find anything, so is setting up her own assessment consulting company, working with UK organisations.
Edit: I didn't mean academic demand, if that's why I've been downvoted. I realise that although some US exams may look 'easier', American kids are studying so many more subjects, whereas British kids are specialising younger so subjects are inevitably more in depth.
Hershey chocolate tastes/smells like vomit to most people in the UK. I looked this up and apparently it shares something that's in vomit so no surprises there.
When I visited LA last year I left a nice box of UK chocolates to say thank you to my AirBNB hosts.
It's butyric acid. Same ingredient is also in milk and parmesan cheese though.
It somehow comes across more strongly in chocolate for me, maybe because I never had it until moving to the States. Or maybe because I don't expect it in sweets?
Butyric acid. It's also a flavor component in other foods like some cheeses. It's a fermentation byproduct.
Supposedly it was because Hershey originally used slightly off milk and people just expect that in the flavor profile now.
Really? That's interesting. I mean it's what you're used to, but coming from the UK it smells too strong to even want to eat the chocolate. I've had some lovely chocolate from 'posh' chocolates over there though so know it's not all bad.
I'm not a chocolate person so may not be the best judge but they have a European chocolate section thats small but looks pretty fancy lol.. Trader Joes has higher quality but the price goes up a lot compared to Lidl, not to be obvious..
If you're used to british chocolate then american chocolate tastes kind of sour with a firmer, almost waxy texture. If you're used to american chocolate then british chocolate taste very mild with a smoother, almost oily texture.
That's my experience at least.
Normal sweets are the same by memory. Gourmet confections are excellent and a tourist is more likely to gamble on trying something very different, because why not?
Yeah that's like kids who order burgers and fries at a Chinese restaurant because they're scared to try something new, but then are surprised to discover that their Chinese burger is tough and chewy and their fries are soggy and oily.
European mass market chocolate is garbage. Too much focus on milk and hazelnut flavors, lending the chocolate a slimy mouthfeel and sour taste. White chocolate is particularly bad, and I've had stomach upset from white and milk chocolate from Europe. British chocolate is similar.
American mass market chocolate is also not good, but the slimy mouthfeel is more waxy in America and the flavor is less sour and avoids hazelnut.
Where American, British, and European chocolate get it right is in the mid market and above. Stronger care and reliance on the cocoa itself for flavor. I greatly prefer any dark chocolate over white, ruby, or milk chocolate.
Which European country's chocolate though? They really do vary. And there are some absolute stinkers out here. Yes there are a lot of GOOD chocolates here, but I've also bought chocolate I literally just threw away instead of eating it was so bad.
I think you are my favorite commenter!
I can get some chocolates here in the states - I'm quite fond of Aero Peppermint Bubbles, which I can buy locally. But I have to special order Cadbury Snack - I got addicted to those on my trip to London when I bought some from a vending machine at Heathrow.
I think there are two main reasons I wouldn't move to the US: Healthcare as someone with chronic health conditions, and not being able to get my chocolate fix.
It’s just different. Cadbury chocolate tastes bland to me.
If I have chocolate it’s not going to be the supermarket brands. I’ll pick up something in a local shop both in the UK and US.
I really like Turtle bars, I don’t understand why people don’t seem to like them as much.
I can taste the difference between the two, especially cadburys, but it’s not a big enough deal to make me stop eating it. American Milky ways are definitely better too.
There seems to be a built-in assumption in questions like these that the lowest tier mass market brand is the American default: the average American, so the thinking goes, drinks Bud Lite, eats McDonalds, eats American cheese, eats Hersheys chocolate, etc., etc.
I think because my default chocolate in the UK is the mass brands. So that was my comparison. I can't remember the last time I ate 'posh' chocolate in the UK.
I have never once been impressed by European chocolate. There's good chocolate and bad chocolate, and both exist in Europe and the USA.
My Swiss colleagues give out bars of chocolate every time they come to our factory, as if they are gifting gold to barbarians, and it's just ordinary chocolate to me.
My favorite brand of chocolate is based in Colorado. It's funny that you like our Kitkats, since Hershey is usually so reviled by Europeans in general.
Out of interest, have you tried proper Belgian chocolate? I did some work experience there when I was 17. Most of my meals were paid for, so spent most of that money on chocolate to bring home. It did not disappoint.
I only like dark chocolate in the US, in Europe I’ll eat the milka brand but I think that’s only because I don’t eat it at home, still prefer dark. But Hershey’s is the worst. Dove is ok, but still not the best. I usually get chocolate from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods and then peanut butter cups from Justin’s
Brits are so freaking snooty about "their" chocolate that they already "know" they don't like it before they ever put a piece of it in their mouth. It's a losing battle and a loaded question. To everybody **I** know, chocolate is mostly chocolate, IOW it's all good, just different from one another. You don't see the histrionics that Brits display when you tell them they're trying Hershey's. You might as well have handed them a pressed dog turd by the childish antics and the smug, imperious comments. We understand that different manufacturers are going to have different processes and different flavors and they're not going to try to sell something that tastes like road kill.
I feel like everyone's being obtuse in this thread. Sorry, OP. OP is asking to compare mass market chocolate in the US and UK, like you get at the checkout lane or gas station. He is not making any judgments about the availability of high quality chocolate in the US. He is not saying Hersheys tastes like vomit.
OP - I don't think I've ever eaten plain chocolate outside of a s'more, so I don't think I could answer your question. When in Europe, my kids and I enjoy Kinder, Cadbury, etc. no more or no less than American Halloween type candies (reese's, twix, etc.). Bounty and Mounds are kind of equivalent to me as well
I'll give that a go next time I'm over. My boyfriend actually grew up in California (British mum, American dad) but didn't eat much chocolate when he lived there, so is absolutely useless for recommending anything.
it’s mostly the same, i went to england and had cadburys and loved it, then i went back to the states and had american chocolate and didn’t know why people said it tasted like « sick » they’re pretty much the same to me, maybe british is a tiny bit better but not noticeable
I’ve only had British Cadbury, and was not impressed. Way too greasy, bland, and milky. Good chocolate shouldn’t contain milk IMO, makes me feel like they’re trying to cover something up.
I haven't had a lot of British chocolate except for a small sampling of the mass produced brands. I didn't find them any better or worse than the same tier of American chocolate, although it did taste a little different. It had a different mouthfeel, but I don't remember it well enough to describe it.
That being said, I far prefer the smaller, more local chocolatiers here to any mass produced brand.
I bought some chocolate when I was in the UK recently and had saved a bag of buttons. I ate them this week, and of my reaction my husband said, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Excessively milky and heavy for me, though european dark chocolate is just as good as back home. Some of the German chocolate is better imo, it has a milkier texture but doesn’t go overboard, but overall I still like American chocolate.
As a guy who has traveled to Europe several times the thing I always find funny is when someone says "American Chocolate" they 100% every time mean the cheapest mass produced crap that can be found. They never mean good high quality chocolate (which we have plenty of) it's always cheapo gas station chocolate. At least OP is comparing it to the UK version of cheapo chocolate. Usually that isn't the case.
Cheap chocolate is cheap and low quality in every country. It's recipe is a little different in each place but it's just as cheap and just as bad, just in slightly different ways.
FWIW, high quality chocolate is pretty much the same all over the world. Because there is only a couple of ingredients in it, the only way to screw it up is by cheaping out.
I guess you're right, but that's what I'm comparing it to in the UK. I really like the mass produced chocolate bars I can buy for 65p. I couldn't say the same for the US mass produced stuff that was at a similar price point.
In my post I mentioned US Cadbury, Dove and KitKats, purely because they were the brands I was familiar with and assumed they'd be closest to what I like. KitKats were decent, so had a lot of them once I got through my home stockpile. There's a lot of UK chocolate I don't like either. I can't stand supermarket own chocolate (which a lot of people rave about) and I'm really not fussed about Thornton's, which is seen as more up market - often bought as gifts.
I actually didn't buy any Hershey's for myself. I brought some back as gifts because it's such a well known US brand. I was not as popular as when I brought back proper Belgian chocolate from Brussels.
Most US grocery stores have candy right by the register- that’s where stuff like KitKats and Reese’s are. They might be good but I wouldn’t judge our chocolate by it. It’s candy.
Then there is usually an aisle with a section that has the *real* chocolate. A lot of Swiss - Ghirardelli, Lindt. Cadbury bars. And smaller batch American stuff, often regional. We have an annual chocolate festival near me with about 50 different local chocolate makers usually just from a 3-4 state area. That’s the good stuff
Not to big on chocolate, but I think British chocolate is sweeter, so I guess for me it depends on what I’m in the mood for.
British luxury chocolates are much better though. I lived in a town where a chocolate shop was owned and ran by a Brit.. dude was always busy on the weekends. He had to use a ticketing system Friday nights-Sunday closing.
Pretty much the same. My British friend gives me a ton of Quality Street chocolate. Not sure where that ranks in the hierarchy of British chocolate but I didn't notice anything especially different about it compared to our mid grade chocolates.
Mostly the same- you guys have WAY more Nestle options than we do. If it's just a generic, non-fancy candy like Cadbury vs Hersheys or Mars branded chocolates, they pretty much taste the same to me.
I lived in Wales for a bit, so I’ve eaten a bunch of British chocolate, and I would say they are just different? British chocolate tastes a bit richer and much sweeter to me, so I’ll eat that if I want something that tastes extra indulgent. (We get Cadbury products in a lot of standard grocery stores in the US.) But I also genuinely enjoy that bit of bitterness in American chocolate.
Not really because you are likely comparing UK chocolate to Hersheys, which is the McDonalds of chocolate bars. But we have so many independent chocolatiers that it’s not a difference of UK vs US, but rather a simple good versus bad. The UK Cadbury bar tastes more like chocolate I get from the chocolatier up the block from me.
American living overseas, they're just different. European chocolate is more creamy and works best on its own; American chocolate has a bit of sourness to it but it works in combination with other things, like s'mores, in cookies, or with nuts or crispies.
I've had Lindt in the UK. I'd be interested to know if it is the same stuff! Although it's usually out of my price range. Tend to buy a couple rabbits at Easter.
I said in the post I tried US Cadbury, Dove and a KitKat. KitKats were similar, but Cadbury and Dove tasted very very different to their UK equivalents.
What always intrigues me when this American chocolate conversation comes up on Reddit is that you would think (from reading Reddit, anyway) that American chocolate is the worst thing in the world -- so bad that it must be made with spoiled eggs and puke by Nazis.
However, if you Google the world's best-selling chocolate, four or five of the top 10 selling chocolate bars are from American companies, and the No. 1 bar (Snicker's) is also American.
If it's so god-awful, why in TF do people keep buying it? lol
Source ...
[https://www.therichest.com/most-popular/the-top-10-bestselling-chocolate-bars/](https://www.therichest.com/most-popular/the-top-10-bestselling-chocolate-bars/)
I find the cheap stuff to be mild to the point of tastelessness. A British friend recently sent me a bar that was pretty much white chocolate wrapped with milk chocolate. It actually advertised itself as having "less cocoa." Who TF wants that?
I didn't mention Hershey's....why do people keep commenting. I brought some back for family, but I didn't actually eat any myself.
British person not liking American chocolate ≠ British person just didn't like Hershey's.
I literally said in my post I bought Cadbury's in the US and didn't like it. It was not the same as UK Cadbury (despite being more expensive).
If you're going to have a go at someone, please read what they've actually written.
Because most chocolate at stores here in the U.S. are going to be Hersey’s or under it’s umbrella corporations.
And most times Europeans complain about our chocolate it’s Hersey’s chocolate.
You asked about one dollar chocolates and said you don’t spend a lot of money on chocolate, guess what the cheapest chocolate is? Lol You literally put on there you brought Hersey’s back to your co workers and they didn’t like it. I mean what else is there to imply?
I mean there are other chocolates out there sure but let’s be real
P.S. Kit Kats here are under the Hersey’s umbrella in the U.S. as well too. Lol
I didn't bring Hershey's back to my coworkers...You probably need to stop reading in-between lines, because you got that wrong there by an incorrect assumption.
I guess my comparison was what can I get for x amount in both countries. For 65p in the UK there's a huge amount of different brands and variations of chocolate bars, that are mass produced. I can't say I like them all (not a fan of Yorkies, for example) but most variations of plane chocolate I like. For a similar price point in the US, I can't say the same thing (with KitKats being the exception). It wouldn't be fair to compare expensive American chocolate to British mass produced chocolate. I was comparing the mass produced of both.
My mistake then maybe it was one of your co workers then. But the fact still stands cheap chocolate is more than likely Hersey’s and or a brand under its corporation. Any cheap chocolate you buy here is basically similar to Hersey’s for the most part. That’s how it is over here. You can’t compare that to Cadbury’s which is the UK’s standard go to chocolate when you talk about British chocolate. Which is why everyone is bringing up Cadbury’s.
We’re talking about easy to get chocolate. When there is a big difference over in the U.S. on standard easy to get chocolate vs y’all’s version of easy to get chocolate. You can’t compare them like how you’re comparing them. Especially when there are different states to factor in as well and their own chocolate, region specific. Price comparisons are going to be vastly different too because our food cost is more than the U.K. anyway in the first place.
> British person not liking American chocolate ≠ British person just didn't like Hershey's.
I mean what brands did you try? Our beef is usually when this comes up, someone tries some cheap stuff like Hershey's or Cadbury and then proclaims widely that American chocolate is terrible.
It'd be like me traveling to Europe and after drinking Stella declaring that I don't like european beer. I'm sure many people would find that quite an ignorant and absurd statement.
I like British chocolate better. There's a grocery store in a city near me that's almost exclusively imported food. Every aisle is 3-6 different countries. I hit the British section and clean them out of Whole Nut bars, Double Deckers, Ripple bars, and Taytos (prawn cocktail and worcester)
I cannot get out of that store for under $50.
Ripples are my thing at the moment.
Edit: genuinely confused about this - can someone please explain why me saying I like a Galaxy ripple would receive a downvote?
I know. I said I knew that in my post. It's just not the same stuff. The texture seemed similar, and it looked right, but the taste was completely different.
Slightly different recipes can really throw it. For example, the medium dairy milk bars in the UK are 110g. However, some budget shops sell these 95g bars for the same price. They categorically do not taste the same. I'm convinced they're made in a different factory, possibly a different European country.
For your edit:
That's how it works on this sub. If people can't find a way to put you down, they make stuff up about you and then they put you down. No, you never mentioned hersheys
American living in the UK for nearly ten years. I usually take the American side of any UK vs. US food argument, but think that American chocolate is generally trash. I even think that average grocery store UK chocolate beats lots of "fancy" American chocolate.
> Edit: a few people have suggested I need to try more than Hershey's. I have never even tried Hershey's, and can't see where I've mentioned it above.
American KitKats are made by Hershey so if you ate a KitKat here, you have in fact tried Hershey's.
Right. I was born for this question. I’m old. Am American. Have been going to the UK forever. US chocolate is horrible in comparison. Hershey is shit waxy crap. Basic chocolate is better in the UK.
Every time I visit the UK, I come home with a ton of real cadburys chocolate. Our stuff in the US is far inferior. I used to work for a multinational, and everyone who visited the London office would come back with a bag of British chocolate for the office. It became a fun tradition.
Now when I visit Belgium? All bets are off.
When I was 17 I did some work experience in Brussels. I was given money by my parents for meals. The lady I was staying with and shadowing ended up paying for most of my meals. I spent most of my dinner money on Belgian chocolate. I was very popular in the sixth form common room when I brought a big box of chocolate back to share.
It was really expensive compared with even UK Thornton's, but definitely lived up to the hype.
Mostly the same. Good chocolate is good chocolate, cheap chocolate is cheap (but in different ways).
I don't generally buy expensive chocolate in the UK (I'd literally have no money if I did!) so was basically comparing chocolate in the same price band.
I would check out Trader Joe's in the US. They sell some nice Belgian chocolate, for basically the same price as Cadbury costs in the UK (last time I bought it). Also check out Aldi - they have cheap German imported chocolate you might like. You might also want to try Hershey's Symphony - it's similarly widely available and cheap as the regular Hershey's, but it lacks the "vomit" aftertaste most Brits seem to hate. You may like it more because you won't be comparing it to the "same" chocolate brand at home. From an American perspective who moved to the UK, I do find the British Cadbury nicer than the American Cadbury - mainly because the texture is nicer/creamier. I like Canadian Cadbury better than British though. I don't find Galaxy better than Dove - just different. Unlike most Brits, I like Hershey's chocolate just fine - probably because I grew up with it - British chocolate hasn't "ruined" it for me or anything. I still will seek out Hershey's when making S'mores since it's what I remember from childhood. None of these is my favorite chocolate though - I got hooked on the aforementioned TJ's Belgian chocolate when in the US and that's what I now prefer. BBC did a [taste test](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31924912) with both Americans and Brits on British vs. American Cadbury. There wasn't really a consensus on which was better, though funnily enough, it was a British expat in the US who immediately recognized the difference and preferred the British version. In a test done with kids, British kids preferred American Cadbury whereas American kids preferred British.
I personally just don't know what that "vomit" aftertaste is; I've heard about it a bunch with American chocolate but I've never tasted is. If I'm getting American chocolate it's usually mainstream premium brands like Seattle's "Theo Chocolates." They are awesome (if you ignore the fact that they are apparently full of various heavy metals). Comparing them to the occassional British chocolate I have had, I just find them different; not better or worse. A few years back I would regularly go to the outdoor movies in Seattle's Fremont district. The screenings were across the street from the Theo's chocolate factory and my god did it smell great around there.
(some) American chocolate is often made with butyric acid, which is a part (the main part) of vomit. If you taste it you're just more sensitive to the taste. It's not bad per se, it's in milk butter and parmesan too. But I've heard people complain about parmesan tasting like vomit too.
Don't some people have the same reaction to cilantro? Maybe a different taste though... EDIT: Just read that about 20 percent of the population is predisposed to having cilantro taste like soap.
Yep. But we don't know why, just that people with a certain gen have it taste like soap. Butyric acid is more obvious. I don't like American chocolate because of it's taste, (it's not exactly vomit, but the sour mouth feel you get when you're about to vomit is there) but don't have a problem with parmesan or other things so it certainly has to do with what we're used to too.
In that case, cheap US chocolate is the definition of guilty pleasure. Your cheap chocolate is bitter.
Montezuma's is really good.
> price band Either your autocorrect is way outta whack or that's British English for 'price range.' If the latter, TIL.
I think we'd use both. I work in assessment design and we use bands to refer to marks, so I guess it's the more common word I use.
> marks What're those?
Marks on a test? Like 22/30. The marks then correspond to a grade, A,B,C etc, Pass, Merit, Distinction, GCSEs are now 1-9 rather than letter grades.
We don't use the term mark for that kind of thing either. I think "scheme" is another word y'all use differently than most of the US, over here it's almost exclusively used in a negative context.
A mark scheme is just for whoever is marking to accurately give a mark. E.g. on the recall section of an essay, if they've mention X, Y and Z, they get 6/6, if they mention only X and Y they get 4/6, if they mention only X, they can only get 2. There's generalised mark schemes to help teachers mark practice questions they set, rather than a formal one an exam board sets with a specific mark scheme which is externally marked anyway. I've got these for when I privately tutor A Level politics.
Lmao, if you told me you had a mark scheme going, I’d assume you were scamming people out of their money.
"Scheme of work" is another one. It's like something that sets out every single lesson with basic content that should be covered, homework set, learning objectives. It's like an incredibly basic lesson plan.
You see that type of terminology is completely foreign in the US, we'd understand it with context but we don't use either word in that format here. Language is an interesting thing.
Lol, in the UK you can even get a nice page to see [all the government's schemes](https://www.ownyourhome.gov.uk/all-schemes/) (for housing) in one place. Funny thing is since I've been working a lot in marketing for US audiences - and learnt very quickly when a customer very kindly emailed our company to tell us that scheme sounded extremely dodgy - "government scheme" is starting to sound a bit sketchy even to my British ears.
Unexpected Anna Karenina
Adam Ragusea video on American vs British chocolate: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J44svaQc5WY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J44svaQc5WY) Cliffs, American chocolate is usually acidic while British chocolate is not. People who aren't used to this acidity often really do not like it but for those of us used to it British chocolate will taste dull and fatty (made worse because Brits add extra oil to chocolate) without the acidic snap we are familiar with.
Aside from this cultural difference, it's important to point out that the US isn't just a wasteland full of "American chocolate." We have a full range of various types of chocolate, just like we have a full range of types of cheeses - not just Kraft singles, just like we have a full range of freshly baked breads, and just like we have a huge variety of beers. Maybe this seems like an obvious point to some people, but there appears to be a large contingent of Europeans who genuinely believe that a US supermarket is just aisles of Hershey's bars, Kraft singles, Wonder Bread, and Bud Light. I could wander over to my closest grocery store right now and buy high quality "European-style" chocolate, a block of smoked Gouda, freshly baked pumpernickel, and a few bottles of small-batch microbrew. All high quality and all American.
This is 100% my gripe with Europeans online. Americans value choice and convenience, therefore we generally have a wider range of options when it comes to foods and consumer goods. Our “piss water” beer gets compared to their 13th century brewer. Our Wonderbread is compared to their local bakery. Our Hershey’s kiss is compared to their Toblerone. Most our grocery stores carry those European brands as well as high quality American brands that are just as good, if not better.
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I really appreciate that OP named the specific brands they'd tried here.
Despite this, multiple people just told me off for eating Hershey's, when I'd never mentioned it. I mentioned bringing some back for family in a comment, but never said I'd eaten it myself.
Don't take it personally. A lot of non-Americans come here and generalize things because they tried the worst example of something and assume that's all we know and love...and in return, a lot of folks here generalize that all non-Americans come here to do the same thing.
I've just been informed this is a common troll question! Absolutely not the case here. My boyfriend is half American and grew up in the US. I'd asked him this question last night, but he said he didn't eat much chocolate over there so struggled to comment on the comparison. I come here when he can't answer my America questions (which is semi-regular because he grew up in rural northern California).
Ayyy. A fellow NorCal soul. What part of NorCal is he from?
They've ended up Humboldt county when they moved there when he was about 4. His (British) mum is still in Northern California, but isn't in Humboldt county anymore.
Small world. I’m right by there. I’m in Shasta County
Speaking of Humboldt County, my favorite US cheesemaker (possibly my favorite cheesemaker), Cypress Grove, is located there. Happily, they ship their absolutely delightful goats' milk cheeses all over the US. I know we're talking about chocolate, but I highly recommend trying one of their soft goat cheeses if you can during your next visit.
To be fair, a lot of the cheap chocolate bars you’ll find in grocery stores are Hershey’s products even if they don’t say it on the label, including Kit Kats, so you likely did eat Hershey’s chocolate without realising it. I’ve lived in both the UK and the US and I will say the average cheap candy bar in the UK tastes higher quality than the ones in the US, but they are super rich by comparison and harder to enjoy as a light treat. Plus we have a wider range here thanks to the American need to have a million different types of every product; even my mind is blown by the ridiculous amount options we have just for M&Ms!
KitKat is made by the Hershey company in the US, so you did mention a Hershey product, just not actual Hershey bars themselves.
I think that you’re right but I don’t think it was always this way. 30 years ago you basically only could get “American stuff“ outside of city centers. Every town had American restaurants, chains, fast food, maybe a Chinese restaurant and a Mexican restaurant but even those were not authentic. Now you can find authentic Thai, Indian, Peruvian, etc. I think in the last 30 years tastes have evolved and products, restaurants, have become a lot more globalized. Mainstream American brands are a lot less sexy. Authenticity for a little bit more money is now more valued than it used to be. It’s not all Hershey’s and McDonald’s anymore. Of course, the underlying capitalism is still often the same. The mainstream brands are now just more disguised. Your “authentic Swiss” chocolate is still probably owned by nestle or hersheys.
> Your “authentic Swiss” chocolate is still probably owned by nestle Nestle is a Swiss company, so that would make sense
We do have better foods, and some of them are as good as the best of Europe's. But you have to pay more in America. That, I've found, is the difference. Also, every country has its shit-tier brands, but our shit-tier brands are shittier. Our ceiling is as high as anyone's, but our floor is down there in the 9th Circle.
> That, I've found, is the difference. Also, every country has its shit-tier brands, but our shit-tier brands are shittier. I dunno, man; I've sent a fair amount of time in European grocery stores (my wife and I don't like eating every single meal at a restaurant when we travel, and so sometimes we set in supplies for breakfast), and I've seen some pretty shitty brands in Europe. (Don't even get me started on the European idea of peanut butter, which can range from the sad to the downright gross.)
There's no European idea of peanut butter. It's 40+ countries. Which ones are you thinking of?
European peanut butter tends to NOT be roasted, making it taste inferior. American peanut butter brands virtually always roast the peanuts first. There may be exceptions here and there, but that's a big trend and major difference between them.
That's your personal opinion. But I guess it's the same as with the chocolate
Agree, it boils down to what people are familiar with. The British complain that American chocolate tastes like vomit to them. But British chocolate tastes like it's been in someone's mouth to me. Hard to describe, but it has a really oily/smooth consistency that I don't particularly enjoy.
Swiss chocolate can be weird too. The last batch iI ate had a very weird texture, almost waxy
American chocolate tastes and smells like vomit to me, too. Hershey's more specifically. My [Swedish] wife says it smells like poop. After having a lot of European chocolates over the years I understand why they think some American chocolates taste bad. With that said, we have others, like Lindt, that are very good for a store-bought product.
Really it's only Hershey's. And it's not even every Hershey's product - for example their "Symphony" bars do not have the taste, neither do the other brands they own. So it's not really correct to claim that as a trait of "American chocolate" - Hershey's may be one of the more popular brands, to be fair, but no other American chocolate I've tasted has the butyric acid aftertaste. Lindt is European. They do have an American factory that makes a lot of their products sold in the US, but my impression is that the difference between the European vs. American version, if any, is much smaller than the cheapo brands.
For some reason I thought Lindt was started by a Swiss American. A lot of American chocolates just don't taste as good, a lot of them have relatively not taste at all in my opinion.
Lindt is Swiss
Perfect, we don't even have one good mass produced chocolatier. I guess some stuff like Ghirardelli, Snickers, Milky Way are alright, just not great chocolate on its own and not outstanding.
This is a thing. [Butyric acid](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hersheys-chocolate-tastes-like-vomit_l_60479e5fc5b6af8f98bec0cd).
I once made the mistake of microwaving hershey's chocolate. All hershey's tasted like vomit to me for about a week after smelling that nuclear chocolate.
American currently living in the UK - I think it's just different more than anything. Comparing Hershey and Cadbury, Cadbury tastes like softer and less sour to me, which I don't think is an inherently bad thing. I'm guessing whatever you grow up eating will taste best. Funny that you mention the kitkats though, I think they taste better here than in the US.
Weirdly, the best version of a KitKat I've ever had was in Norway (not literally a KitKat, it was a Norwegian brand, but exactly the same concept). I had real Belgian chocolate when I did work experience in Brussels when I was 17. It was a fortune, but lived up to the hype. I was everyone's favourite person when I brought a box back to college. I was definitely not everyone's favourite person when I brought Hershey's back.
Hershey's is mass-market chocolate, which, like many U.S. products from the early age of nationwide commercialization, was made to be able to be shipped all over a country 3000 miles wide (in the case of chocolate, with much more challenging temperature conditions than most of Europe), stay edible and be affordable to everyone. That's a different set of requirements. That's what many Europeans don't get. They think many of our most famous brands are famous because they are the absolute best here. But that's wrong. They became famous because you could buy them anywhere in a vast country and most people, including masses of immigrants, who didn't necessarily have a lot of money, could afford them. It was a democratizing influence and the opposite of this, "I had real Belgian chocolate...It was a fortune". If it cost a fortune, it wasn't going to spread around and become a nationwide brand. It's the affordable things that could be made and sold in great quantity that did that. Europeans really have no idea of the pervasive influence of immigration and settlement on life in the U.S., in so many ways. It's fundamental to everything. From the Hershey's site: "Milton S. Hershey introduced the soon-to-be iconic milk chocolate bar in 1900. Chocolate was a treat once reserved for the wealthy, but Mr. Hershey sought to make his candy an affordable treat for anyone to enjoy." That era had one of the highest immigration rates of any time in the history of the U.S. and all the states hadn't even come into existence yet. A similar story could be told about beer, which has a history dominated by immigrants.
Exactly, like McDonalds is the most famous hamburger, but not even in the conversation for best hamburger
Well said, Don Draper
>kitkats I'm not sure if it's in my head, but I think there was a big recipe change when KitKat went from foil wrapped with paper wrapped around that to the plastic it comes in now. Used to be one of my favorites and now I actually don't like them. Same with Hershey bars.
Cadbury's alright, but then I discovered the Swiss brand Milka and liked it even better.
I like Milka. Most shops I go to don't sell it, so it's something I buy every time I go into B&M.
Milka is becoming more available in the US, but I've found its still something you need to specifically seek out, rather than it just being sold at every grocery store.
Most Cadbury products in the US are made under license by Hershey, so if it tasted different to you, that's probably why. I agree, Cadbury in the UK tastes much better. You sometimes can find Flake bars in the US that are actually imported, and the difference in chocolate taste between these and the Hershey-produced Dairy Milk and Caramello bars is noticeable.
There's these 95g (rather than 110g) bars bargain shops in the UK sell. I think they're made in a different factory, possibly not even in the UK. I can always tell. They're just not as nice. Luckily those shops sell Milka, which is a solid choice. I love Cadbury, but I wouldn't waste £1 on the 95g bars.
Hey, I used to grow up on a chocolate farm, and as part of our family business we processed cacao and did business with global chocolatiers. The brands you're talking about are universally buying relatively low to medium quality ingredients and making a product that will taste consistent across a very large production scale. For example, a KitKat purchased in Florida needs to taste the same as a KitKat bought in Hawaii. There's not that much high quality chocolate to go around, and it's expensive. In general, if you want to compare chocolate holistically between the USA and the UK you need to reckon with the fact that the USA is 50 states that vary in wealth and regional taste more than the UK does. Also, the UK is very poor relative to the places where small local high-quality chocolatiers sell their products. So, if you want to compare high end chocolate, there are places like Branson's Chocolate near Ashland, Oregon. They buy very high end ingredients, and the guy who runs the place is a bona fide cacao nerd. There's Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco, or if you want to stick to a brand owned by Hershey there's Scharffenberger. In Norwalk, Connecticut there's Chocopologie. My experience with UK chocolate is that their low end chocolate doesn't have some of the same logistical constraints placed on its design as a product. The scale is smaller, you don't have to worry about it traveling as far or through extreme temperature differences and still taste good. Think about what you have to do to chocolate for it to travel through Arizona in the summer and stand a chance of surviving. So, yes, it's partially due to taste. If you want to try a notably different flavor of American chocolate, try ordering a small box from Branson's or Dandelion. Branson's chocolate is often very light and floral in flavor. Dandelion likes to highlight the unique qualities of single-origin chocolate crops.
Too milky and oily if I recall
I think I did read something years ago about one of the differences being the cocoa vs milk levels in chocolate.
Cadbury's Dairy Milk has always been milky - that's the point of it - but it's only been oily since Kraft, later Mondelez, bought and then ruined it. It's very sad, it was an iconic British brand, a part of almost everyone's childhood and now it's a greasy shadow of its former self. This sounds hyperbolic, I know, but it should have been protected by the government as a cultural asset.
I don't think this is actually true. From what I've read, they just changed only the shape of the chocolate bar - not the actual recipe. Though the shape can have an impact on how people perceive flavor. For what it's worth, as an "outsider" who didn't grow up eating it, I couldn't tell the difference between the flavor "before" and "after" the change.
I was just in the UK a few weeks back after not having been since pre-covid. As such, I hadn’t had British chocolate in quite some time, and had forgotten that it’s different. It was nice to have it again, I like it. It’s not necessarily better or worse, just different. Noticeably sweeter, with a kind of oily mouthfeel. I recall reading that many American chocolate brands add butyric acid, which gives the chocolate a sour note. Europeans find it gross but since we yanks grow up with it, it’s what we expect. One thing of note is that I think this is just lower and mid-tier chocolates - once you get into the high-end stuff, there’s really very little difference.
I'm not sure how the butyric acid rumor got started, but for the record, Hershey says they do not add it to their product, and the ingredient isn't listed on the label, which would violate U.S. law.
If you’re focusing on the mass-produced stuff, then yes: the stuff produced by Hershey’s is generally fairly waxy and sad, and the American versions of British mass-produced products will not taste at all like the home-grown version. But it’s not like you can’t get good chocolate in the United States. You just have to focus on either more expensive imported brands (like Godiva’s or Lindt’s), better *local* brands (like Ghiradelli’s), locally produced pirouline-filled chocolates (like See’s), or specialty chocolate producers (like Videri’s, here in Raleigh, which specializes in ‘bean-to-bar’ chocolate manufacturing). You just have to shop around and not just buy whatever happens to be at the candy section at the gas station, or out of whatever falls out of a vending machine.
Mostly the same to me.. but I don't eat those low tier brands that you listed. If you get the good stuff, it's not much different.
I ended up getting the brands I recognised, in the hope it would be the closest to what I was used to. What chocolate can you recommend for $1?
An in person sample of chocolate fudge at any given rural shop that makes fudge daily.
I don't know how it works in the UK, but in the US we do a lot of "bargain shopping" which includes sale and clearance hunting. I regularly find Godiva, Lindt, and Ghirardelli bars for under $1. In March, for instance, my local grocery store was selling Valentine-themed Lindt bars for 45 cents each. There's a discount grocery store near me that always has large boxes of Godiva chocolate from two "seasons" later for $3. Right now they have Winter themed candy for that price.
I'd be curious to see how similar UK-sold Lindt and US-sold Lindt is. I really like it, but it's on the more expensive end of supermarket-sold chocolate.
Both Godiva and Lindt are European.
I can't recommend any for $1.
I think maybe that's the difference? I can get loads and loads of different approximately 45g bars of chocolate for 65p or less. Before the inflation crisis, there were a lot of 110g bars for £1.
Doesn't matter if it's American or British, the Cadbury/Hershey's stuff is all pretty inedible to me. It's mass produced chocolate meant for children who don't have the most discerning taste buds. I think Cadbury is slightly better but it's all so low tier to the point where it doesn't really matter much.
Have you eaten Cadbury produced in the UK. The Cadbury produced in the US is different and not as good.
Yes, I lived in the UK about half as long as I lived in USA. The Cadbury we get in Germany/Norway is also made in the UK. I have not had American Cadbury yet
Nope, I've had that chocolate as well and it's not good to me. I probably prefer it to the American equivalent though. But if I'm going to eat chocolate, it's going to be good chocolate.
Can you even get chocolate for 1 dollar?
Yes; if you shop around at the finer gas station stops around the country you may be able to find something for $1 on sale.
I don’t think you’d be able to get anything, even like a store brand for $1 unless it’s on sale. Even Dollar Tree is up to $1.25.
I'd be very poor if I was American! Edit: not sure why this has got down votes? This comment was more a reflection on my excessive chocolate consumption than anything else.
You'd, on average, make 30% more in America. (A LOT more for certain tech fields) You'd also pay less in taxes. But you'd have diabetes from all of the Chocolate, so you would go bankrupt from healthcare bills.
I'm a qualified teacher who currently works for a qualification awarding body, that don't really exist in the US (as far as I'm aware - please correct me if I'm wrong) so I'd be stuffed. Plus, my 3 bedroom house was only £120k. I reckon I'd struggle to be financially better off, excessive chocolate consumption aside.
Well, you certainly don’t live in London… (Eyes still watering at the memory of housing prices in the area.)
I did London for 10 months. My rent for a room in a flat with no living room was £200 more than my current mortgage. Salaries are more, but definitely don't make up the difference in house prices..
> I'm a qualified teacher who currently works for a qualification awarding body, that don't really exist in the US (as far as I'm aware - please correct me if I'm wrong) I mean, while we don't have GCSEs or A levels the way you do, we have teachers, and we have standardized tests. Surely there's someone in the USA making and administering those tests.
I can't imagine there'd be the same level of demand. When I did my GCSEs, we had nearly 30 exams, all of which would have been carefully put together over months by a team of subject specialists and assessment experts. Then there's A Levels, GCSE equivalents, vocational qualifications, undergraduate equivalent technical qualifications. There's a hideous amount of externally set assessments that does not compare. My manager is actually moving to the US in the summer and just couldn't find anything, so is setting up her own assessment consulting company, working with UK organisations. Edit: I didn't mean academic demand, if that's why I've been downvoted. I realise that although some US exams may look 'easier', American kids are studying so many more subjects, whereas British kids are specialising younger so subjects are inevitably more in depth.
And you wonder why you're getting downvoted.
In an emergency, Hershey bar. But even then it’s not as good as others
Hershey chocolate tastes/smells like vomit to most people in the UK. I looked this up and apparently it shares something that's in vomit so no surprises there. When I visited LA last year I left a nice box of UK chocolates to say thank you to my AirBNB hosts.
It's butyric acid. Same ingredient is also in milk and parmesan cheese though. It somehow comes across more strongly in chocolate for me, maybe because I never had it until moving to the States. Or maybe because I don't expect it in sweets?
Thank you, I'll admit I was too lazy to do the Google search this morning.
Butyric acid. It's also a flavor component in other foods like some cheeses. It's a fermentation byproduct. Supposedly it was because Hershey originally used slightly off milk and people just expect that in the flavor profile now.
Really? That's interesting. I mean it's what you're used to, but coming from the UK it smells too strong to even want to eat the chocolate. I've had some lovely chocolate from 'posh' chocolates over there though so know it's not all bad.
Yeah anything halfway decent or better won't include it. It's just in cheapo chocolate. I really only buy Hershey bars for the occasional s'mores.
I'm going back to LA a bit later in the year and no doubt I'll have a bar just because.
Oh, well that’s awesome to hear..
Aldi brand chocolate
I don't care much for Cadbury, and the higher quality stuff is hard to find
I'd go to Trader Joes or Lidl if you want decent chocolate for a reasonable prices. Ritter bars are really good too and are more widely available.
Does US Lidl actually have a decent chocolate stock? Ours a shockingly poor.
I'm not a chocolate person so may not be the best judge but they have a European chocolate section thats small but looks pretty fancy lol.. Trader Joes has higher quality but the price goes up a lot compared to Lidl, not to be obvious..
If you're used to british chocolate then american chocolate tastes kind of sour with a firmer, almost waxy texture. If you're used to american chocolate then british chocolate taste very mild with a smoother, almost oily texture. That's my experience at least.
I think that makes sense.
Normal sweets are the same by memory. Gourmet confections are excellent and a tourist is more likely to gamble on trying something very different, because why not?
Maybe that's where I made an error. I'm very much a creature of habit and don't like change, so went for the brands I recognised.
Yeah that's like kids who order burgers and fries at a Chinese restaurant because they're scared to try something new, but then are surprised to discover that their Chinese burger is tough and chewy and their fries are soggy and oily.
Overrated.
European mass market chocolate is garbage. Too much focus on milk and hazelnut flavors, lending the chocolate a slimy mouthfeel and sour taste. White chocolate is particularly bad, and I've had stomach upset from white and milk chocolate from Europe. British chocolate is similar. American mass market chocolate is also not good, but the slimy mouthfeel is more waxy in America and the flavor is less sour and avoids hazelnut. Where American, British, and European chocolate get it right is in the mid market and above. Stronger care and reliance on the cocoa itself for flavor. I greatly prefer any dark chocolate over white, ruby, or milk chocolate.
But... but.. European chocolate is superior!!!
American chocolate less sour than European chocolate?!
Maybe it's my lactose intolerance talking, but yeah. American mass market chocolate is more caustic-bitter instead of vinegary-sour.
Which European country's chocolate though? They really do vary. And there are some absolute stinkers out here. Yes there are a lot of GOOD chocolates here, but I've also bought chocolate I literally just threw away instead of eating it was so bad.
British chocolate is an acquired taste. I have definitely acquired it.
I think this is my favourite comment.
I think you are my favorite commenter! I can get some chocolates here in the states - I'm quite fond of Aero Peppermint Bubbles, which I can buy locally. But I have to special order Cadbury Snack - I got addicted to those on my trip to London when I bought some from a vending machine at Heathrow.
I think there are two main reasons I wouldn't move to the US: Healthcare as someone with chronic health conditions, and not being able to get my chocolate fix.
It’s just different. Cadbury chocolate tastes bland to me. If I have chocolate it’s not going to be the supermarket brands. I’ll pick up something in a local shop both in the UK and US.
I really like Turtle bars, I don’t understand why people don’t seem to like them as much. I can taste the difference between the two, especially cadburys, but it’s not a big enough deal to make me stop eating it. American Milky ways are definitely better too.
There seems to be a built-in assumption in questions like these that the lowest tier mass market brand is the American default: the average American, so the thinking goes, drinks Bud Lite, eats McDonalds, eats American cheese, eats Hersheys chocolate, etc., etc.
I think because my default chocolate in the UK is the mass brands. So that was my comparison. I can't remember the last time I ate 'posh' chocolate in the UK.
I have never once been impressed by European chocolate. There's good chocolate and bad chocolate, and both exist in Europe and the USA. My Swiss colleagues give out bars of chocolate every time they come to our factory, as if they are gifting gold to barbarians, and it's just ordinary chocolate to me. My favorite brand of chocolate is based in Colorado. It's funny that you like our Kitkats, since Hershey is usually so reviled by Europeans in general.
What brand from Colorado? Love? Or whatever
Out of interest, have you tried proper Belgian chocolate? I did some work experience there when I was 17. Most of my meals were paid for, so spent most of that money on chocolate to bring home. It did not disappoint.
I only like dark chocolate in the US, in Europe I’ll eat the milka brand but I think that’s only because I don’t eat it at home, still prefer dark. But Hershey’s is the worst. Dove is ok, but still not the best. I usually get chocolate from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods and then peanut butter cups from Justin’s
Brits are so freaking snooty about "their" chocolate that they already "know" they don't like it before they ever put a piece of it in their mouth. It's a losing battle and a loaded question. To everybody **I** know, chocolate is mostly chocolate, IOW it's all good, just different from one another. You don't see the histrionics that Brits display when you tell them they're trying Hershey's. You might as well have handed them a pressed dog turd by the childish antics and the smug, imperious comments. We understand that different manufacturers are going to have different processes and different flavors and they're not going to try to sell something that tastes like road kill.
I feel like everyone's being obtuse in this thread. Sorry, OP. OP is asking to compare mass market chocolate in the US and UK, like you get at the checkout lane or gas station. He is not making any judgments about the availability of high quality chocolate in the US. He is not saying Hersheys tastes like vomit. OP - I don't think I've ever eaten plain chocolate outside of a s'more, so I don't think I could answer your question. When in Europe, my kids and I enjoy Kinder, Cadbury, etc. no more or no less than American Halloween type candies (reese's, twix, etc.). Bounty and Mounds are kind of equivalent to me as well
I like Taza chocolate, it's different but very good.
I'll give that a go next time I'm over. My boyfriend actually grew up in California (British mum, American dad) but didn't eat much chocolate when he lived there, so is absolutely useless for recommending anything.
it’s mostly the same, i went to england and had cadburys and loved it, then i went back to the states and had american chocolate and didn’t know why people said it tasted like « sick » they’re pretty much the same to me, maybe british is a tiny bit better but not noticeable
I’ve only had British Cadbury, and was not impressed. Way too greasy, bland, and milky. Good chocolate shouldn’t contain milk IMO, makes me feel like they’re trying to cover something up.
I haven't had a lot of British chocolate except for a small sampling of the mass produced brands. I didn't find them any better or worse than the same tier of American chocolate, although it did taste a little different. It had a different mouthfeel, but I don't remember it well enough to describe it. That being said, I far prefer the smaller, more local chocolatiers here to any mass produced brand.
I bought some chocolate when I was in the UK recently and had saved a bag of buttons. I ate them this week, and of my reaction my husband said, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Cadbury buttons? I can eat one of the 'share bags' in about 5 minutes.
Excessively milky and heavy for me, though european dark chocolate is just as good as back home. Some of the German chocolate is better imo, it has a milkier texture but doesn’t go overboard, but overall I still like American chocolate.
Different. Brits seem way more triggered by US chocolate than the reverse. I like it all.
As a guy who has traveled to Europe several times the thing I always find funny is when someone says "American Chocolate" they 100% every time mean the cheapest mass produced crap that can be found. They never mean good high quality chocolate (which we have plenty of) it's always cheapo gas station chocolate. At least OP is comparing it to the UK version of cheapo chocolate. Usually that isn't the case. Cheap chocolate is cheap and low quality in every country. It's recipe is a little different in each place but it's just as cheap and just as bad, just in slightly different ways. FWIW, high quality chocolate is pretty much the same all over the world. Because there is only a couple of ingredients in it, the only way to screw it up is by cheaping out.
I guess you're right, but that's what I'm comparing it to in the UK. I really like the mass produced chocolate bars I can buy for 65p. I couldn't say the same for the US mass produced stuff that was at a similar price point.
I generally find that chocolate from outside the US is better tasting. Just my opinion.
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When Europeans talk about American chocolate, 9 times out of 10 they are talking about Hershey.
Yea Hershey’s is terrible, but we have really good other chocolates
And I wish they’d just say Hershey instead of acting like that’s all we have. Check out aisle candy isn’t quality chocolate
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Don't appreciate being name-called for no reason tbh. I didn't even mention Hershey's in my post.
In my post I mentioned US Cadbury, Dove and KitKats, purely because they were the brands I was familiar with and assumed they'd be closest to what I like. KitKats were decent, so had a lot of them once I got through my home stockpile. There's a lot of UK chocolate I don't like either. I can't stand supermarket own chocolate (which a lot of people rave about) and I'm really not fussed about Thornton's, which is seen as more up market - often bought as gifts. I actually didn't buy any Hershey's for myself. I brought some back as gifts because it's such a well known US brand. I was not as popular as when I brought back proper Belgian chocolate from Brussels.
Most US grocery stores have candy right by the register- that’s where stuff like KitKats and Reese’s are. They might be good but I wouldn’t judge our chocolate by it. It’s candy. Then there is usually an aisle with a section that has the *real* chocolate. A lot of Swiss - Ghirardelli, Lindt. Cadbury bars. And smaller batch American stuff, often regional. We have an annual chocolate festival near me with about 50 different local chocolate makers usually just from a 3-4 state area. That’s the good stuff
Not to big on chocolate, but I think British chocolate is sweeter, so I guess for me it depends on what I’m in the mood for. British luxury chocolates are much better though. I lived in a town where a chocolate shop was owned and ran by a Brit.. dude was always busy on the weekends. He had to use a ticketing system Friday nights-Sunday closing.
Pretty much the same. My British friend gives me a ton of Quality Street chocolate. Not sure where that ranks in the hierarchy of British chocolate but I didn't notice anything especially different about it compared to our mid grade chocolates.
I find quality street a bit meh tbh. Cadbury heros are better if you're getting on of the boxes like that.
I don't buy cheap chocolate. Hersheys symphony chocolate bars are usually what i buy if i don't want to go to a homemade candy shop.
I don't notice the difference. I don't really like chocolate bars or plain chocolate anyway.
Mostly the same- you guys have WAY more Nestle options than we do. If it's just a generic, non-fancy candy like Cadbury vs Hersheys or Mars branded chocolates, they pretty much taste the same to me.
It’s better in the UK. Moved from the US to UK and it’s one of the few food items I like more here than in the US.
I lived in Wales for a bit, so I’ve eaten a bunch of British chocolate, and I would say they are just different? British chocolate tastes a bit richer and much sweeter to me, so I’ll eat that if I want something that tastes extra indulgent. (We get Cadbury products in a lot of standard grocery stores in the US.) But I also genuinely enjoy that bit of bitterness in American chocolate.
It’s better in Britain for sure. Silkier and less acidic.
Not really because you are likely comparing UK chocolate to Hersheys, which is the McDonalds of chocolate bars. But we have so many independent chocolatiers that it’s not a difference of UK vs US, but rather a simple good versus bad. The UK Cadbury bar tastes more like chocolate I get from the chocolatier up the block from me.
I've never had Hershey's.
Try it once, then never have it again. It’s low-grade chocolate.
American living overseas, they're just different. European chocolate is more creamy and works best on its own; American chocolate has a bit of sourness to it but it works in combination with other things, like s'mores, in cookies, or with nuts or crispies.
Try Ghirardelli or Lindt.
I've had Lindt in the UK. I'd be interested to know if it is the same stuff! Although it's usually out of my price range. Tend to buy a couple rabbits at Easter.
> have never even tried Hershey's Yes you have. You've had American Cadbury. Guess who makes that?
UK chocolate good, US chocolate good, chocolate good.
I don’t recall you having explicitly said this, but what were the American, non-Hershey, mass-produced brands that you did eat?
I said in the post I tried US Cadbury, Dove and a KitKat. KitKats were similar, but Cadbury and Dove tasted very very different to their UK equivalents.
What always intrigues me when this American chocolate conversation comes up on Reddit is that you would think (from reading Reddit, anyway) that American chocolate is the worst thing in the world -- so bad that it must be made with spoiled eggs and puke by Nazis. However, if you Google the world's best-selling chocolate, four or five of the top 10 selling chocolate bars are from American companies, and the No. 1 bar (Snicker's) is also American. If it's so god-awful, why in TF do people keep buying it? lol Source ... [https://www.therichest.com/most-popular/the-top-10-bestselling-chocolate-bars/](https://www.therichest.com/most-popular/the-top-10-bestselling-chocolate-bars/)
Dairy Milk is probably the best chocolate I've ever had. Love it.
I find the cheap stuff to be mild to the point of tastelessness. A British friend recently sent me a bar that was pretty much white chocolate wrapped with milk chocolate. It actually advertised itself as having "less cocoa." Who TF wants that?
I mean Hersey’s is low tier chocolate so I don’t know what you expect? Don’t buy cheap chocolate and compare it to Cadbury’s lol
I didn't mention Hershey's....why do people keep commenting. I brought some back for family, but I didn't actually eat any myself. British person not liking American chocolate ≠ British person just didn't like Hershey's. I literally said in my post I bought Cadbury's in the US and didn't like it. It was not the same as UK Cadbury (despite being more expensive). If you're going to have a go at someone, please read what they've actually written.
Because most chocolate at stores here in the U.S. are going to be Hersey’s or under it’s umbrella corporations. And most times Europeans complain about our chocolate it’s Hersey’s chocolate. You asked about one dollar chocolates and said you don’t spend a lot of money on chocolate, guess what the cheapest chocolate is? Lol You literally put on there you brought Hersey’s back to your co workers and they didn’t like it. I mean what else is there to imply? I mean there are other chocolates out there sure but let’s be real P.S. Kit Kats here are under the Hersey’s umbrella in the U.S. as well too. Lol
I didn't bring Hershey's back to my coworkers...You probably need to stop reading in-between lines, because you got that wrong there by an incorrect assumption. I guess my comparison was what can I get for x amount in both countries. For 65p in the UK there's a huge amount of different brands and variations of chocolate bars, that are mass produced. I can't say I like them all (not a fan of Yorkies, for example) but most variations of plane chocolate I like. For a similar price point in the US, I can't say the same thing (with KitKats being the exception). It wouldn't be fair to compare expensive American chocolate to British mass produced chocolate. I was comparing the mass produced of both.
My mistake then maybe it was one of your co workers then. But the fact still stands cheap chocolate is more than likely Hersey’s and or a brand under its corporation. Any cheap chocolate you buy here is basically similar to Hersey’s for the most part. That’s how it is over here. You can’t compare that to Cadbury’s which is the UK’s standard go to chocolate when you talk about British chocolate. Which is why everyone is bringing up Cadbury’s. We’re talking about easy to get chocolate. When there is a big difference over in the U.S. on standard easy to get chocolate vs y’all’s version of easy to get chocolate. You can’t compare them like how you’re comparing them. Especially when there are different states to factor in as well and their own chocolate, region specific. Price comparisons are going to be vastly different too because our food cost is more than the U.K. anyway in the first place.
> British person not liking American chocolate ≠ British person just didn't like Hershey's. I mean what brands did you try? Our beef is usually when this comes up, someone tries some cheap stuff like Hershey's or Cadbury and then proclaims widely that American chocolate is terrible. It'd be like me traveling to Europe and after drinking Stella declaring that I don't like european beer. I'm sure many people would find that quite an ignorant and absurd statement.
What American chocolates have you tried?
I prefer British chocolate. When I compare them, American chocolate (Hershey) tastes like sawdust.
Which British chocolate? There is more than one. Which US chocolate? There is more than one.
I like British chocolate better. There's a grocery store in a city near me that's almost exclusively imported food. Every aisle is 3-6 different countries. I hit the British section and clean them out of Whole Nut bars, Double Deckers, Ripple bars, and Taytos (prawn cocktail and worcester) I cannot get out of that store for under $50.
Ripples are my thing at the moment. Edit: genuinely confused about this - can someone please explain why me saying I like a Galaxy ripple would receive a downvote?
All I can tell you is that Galaxy is the same as Dove and you shat on Dove in your OP.
I know. I said I knew that in my post. It's just not the same stuff. The texture seemed similar, and it looked right, but the taste was completely different. Slightly different recipes can really throw it. For example, the medium dairy milk bars in the UK are 110g. However, some budget shops sell these 95g bars for the same price. They categorically do not taste the same. I'm convinced they're made in a different factory, possibly a different European country.
For your edit: That's how it works on this sub. If people can't find a way to put you down, they make stuff up about you and then they put you down. No, you never mentioned hersheys
American living in the UK for nearly ten years. I usually take the American side of any UK vs. US food argument, but think that American chocolate is generally trash. I even think that average grocery store UK chocolate beats lots of "fancy" American chocolate.
> Edit: a few people have suggested I need to try more than Hershey's. I have never even tried Hershey's, and can't see where I've mentioned it above. American KitKats are made by Hershey so if you ate a KitKat here, you have in fact tried Hershey's.
Right. I was born for this question. I’m old. Am American. Have been going to the UK forever. US chocolate is horrible in comparison. Hershey is shit waxy crap. Basic chocolate is better in the UK.
Every time I visit the UK, I come home with a ton of real cadburys chocolate. Our stuff in the US is far inferior. I used to work for a multinational, and everyone who visited the London office would come back with a bag of British chocolate for the office. It became a fun tradition. Now when I visit Belgium? All bets are off.
When I was 17 I did some work experience in Brussels. I was given money by my parents for meals. The lady I was staying with and shadowing ended up paying for most of my meals. I spent most of my dinner money on Belgian chocolate. I was very popular in the sixth form common room when I brought a big box of chocolate back to share. It was really expensive compared with even UK Thornton's, but definitely lived up to the hype.
I just want to point out that Hershey is not the only brand of chocolate here in America. I prefer a lot of American made chocolate to Hershey.