Hershey change leaves chocolate lovers distraught

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

In 1985 Coca-Cola executives came up with the brilliant idea of changing the formula of Coke. The result was a complete and utter disaster, probably one of the biggest corporate blunders ever hatched in a board room. The company quickly restored the recipe to the original "classic" formula after a major public outcry. Well, now comes another attempt by a venerable American company to change a classic. In case you haven't heard, Hershey's recently decided to replace cocoa butter -- the ingredient which gives chocolate its creamy texture -- with less expensive vegetable oil in some of its products. If you are a fan of Whatchamacallit, Mr. Goodbar, Krackel, Kissables and Milk Duds, you're no longer eating a product made with "milk chocolate." You see, removing cocoa butter violates the U.S. Food and drug Administration's definition of milk chocolate. If you look carefully at the packaging, it now says "chocolate candy" or "made with chocolate" or "chocolately." The change has chocolate lovers in a tizzy and even prompted one industry analyst to call it "mockolate" because it's basically a fake chocolate product. Hershey's counters that 85 percent of its candy line still contains real milk chocolate. The change to a cheaper ingredient does not affect its core brands like Hershey's Kisses, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kats, York Peppermint Patties and its traditional Hershey's chocolate bars. Gee, that's a relief. I don't know about you, but that's little comfort. Why on earth would a company like Hershey's mess with our sweet tooth? There is something about eating a candy bar made out of vegetable oil that just doesn't sit right with me. I am what you would call a choc-o-holic. I love chocolate. I can eat a whole bag of Lindor truffles or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in a day or an entire Cadbury bar. I love plain Nestle chocolate bars but they are hard to find, so I usually settle for a Nestle Crunch instead. I have to agree with the critics though that using lower-cost ingredients cheapens the products. I know a lot of people who love to get a box of Milk Duds at the movies. But Milk Duds made with vegetable oil? Now why did they have to go and do that? The NBC "Today Show" which broke the news, conducted a blind taste test. About half of the participants said they liked the new Kissables better than the ones made with cocoa butter. However, some of the taste-testers were shocked to learn that they were made from vegetable oil. One woman went so far as to say she felt "cheated." I guess that's the way I feel. And I doubt Milton Hershey would approve of the change.

To Read More
Subscribe Sign In
Continue reading with a subscription
Renews automatically. Call 870-763-4461 for questions.
Subscribe now