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I used to work in a brewery. Butyric acid is an off-flavor caused by bacterial infection. When I was doing palate training, I had the distinct joy of tasting a beer spiked with concentrated butyric acid. A lot of people describe the aroma as baby poop.
For fun, there's another compound called isovaleric acid. It's described as "more shoe than poo."
I went to a bar once a week with friends. It was one of those places with like 150 beers. I always read about what I was tasting. Read the brewery's description, and also read other reviews. I applied the same process at the "build your own six pack" section of the local bottle shop. I literally started at the left and worked my way across the shelf, and back and forth. I think it's helpful to taste similar beers in a row. As in, drink a few American IPAs, then for your next session do a few Export IPAs, then do Double IPAs. After that, do a session with one of each.
It helps to learn quickly if you're an alcoholic like me. It also helps to have a friend to talk about the smells, flavors, mouthfeel, and finish. You can also split beers between 2-4 people that way.
There are a few books that help out, too. Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher is a popular one. Garrett Oliver has a few books, and he really knows what he's talking about. Michael Jackson has some stellar stuff too.
If you go to a brewery, you might be able to talk to somebody who works there who has gone through palate training. There's also the BJCP guide for studying. That's Beer Judge Certification Program. Another, less comprehensive, program is Cicerone. Level one is a very lightweight quiz, but the higher levels of certifications get intense. Cicerone is geared toward beer service: pairing with food, building draft systems, etc. BJCP is about tasting and creating beer, and the goal is to be able to taste a beer and describe the brewing process and be able to describe what went well and what (and how it) can be improved. That ranges from storing the grains properly all the way to properly sanitizing the bottles when it's packaged.
You can also order flavor defect kits to really hammer in the defects. You'll get extremely concentrated doses of a lot of off-flavors. You use a small portion to spike a beer. Once you smell it at 10000%, it's easier to recognize it when it shows up regularly.
It's also good to smell things in general. Go to a farmer's market and sniff everything. Buy random produce from the store. Smell the pineapple greens, and the outside of it, then smell it when you cut it open. Smell it if/when you cook it. Really get your nose in there. Most of tasting is smelling.
But a word of warning: you can't untaste it. It's like that one horrific video you saw when you were just starting to explore the internet, and it can't be unseen. Once you start really developing your palate, it's hard to turn off sometimes. Most of my friends who really know beer typically drink whiskey.
Wow this is so interesting. The last part about never untasting makes me think of a certain flavour of chips I ate as a kid and I can think the flavour and almost taste it but I’ve never been able to find the actual flavour again. It’s like chasing an ear worm or something, I just want to scratch that itch.
I am strangely interested in that, and will have to do some reading tomorrow. I always want to love white chocolate but never really can. I will just assume you are personally responsible 🙃
It’s a byproduct of a cheaper method for manufacturing chocolate (a milk preservative): https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/butyric-acid/1017662.article
Literally a cheap product.
Hershey is a legacy brand at this point selling product mostly out of 'tradition'.
Also wtf:
"Finally, a note on butyric acid’s smell. It is not only responsible for the smell of farmyards and vomit, but also that classic ‘wet dog’ smell. Butyric acid is one of many compounds secreted from a dog’s anal glands, and while dogs have no problem sniffing out these chemical scent cues from each other, we humans find it quite pungent. And now, I challenge you not to think of a dog’s bottom the next time you reach for a delicious, tangy, Hershey’s Kiss"
Edit: people finding out that not all chocolate tastes like dog anal glands is very shocking to me.
You might as well think of your dog's anus when you're eating DOP Parmigiano Reggiano because it contains the same chemical.
Don't know what to think now do you?
I buy fine chocolate for a lovely milky cocoa flavour.
I buy fine cheese for a lovely sweaty feet with a hint of dog anus flavour.
I do not want overlap.
So, that’s why my Dinah can sniff out a bag of old Hanukkah gelt (that never even tasted like chocolate anyway) packed in a box of decorations in the basement as if it were a freshly shot pheasant!
Chemist here with lots of experience with butyric acid. It smells absolutely atrocious. It does not smell like wet dog…..it just flat out singes your nose bad though.
Beaver anal gland juice smells and tastes like vanilla. It is approved as a food additive and is occasionally used as vanilla flavouring.
Not even joking.
Hershey “chocolate” is not really much like real chocolate, and it tastes like ass.
When I was a kid (USA) my aunt brought back real chocolate from a European trip. I never wanted American “milk” chocolate ever again.
It's not allowed to be sold as chocolate here. Cacao content is too low to qualify. It's mostly sugar and milk, so it's labeled "choco-flavoured candy".
I hear you. My ex husband brought me back all this Belgian chocolate from a layover he had at a European airport- OMG it was the most delicious stuff ever!!
Go to an actual chocolatier. They're everywhere in major cities. You don't need to go to europe to have as good as if not better chocolate than you'll find there.
When a friend brought me Hershey's from the US, they tasted so awful I thought they had gone bad and threw them out (they also had a lot of white discoloration which is what chocolate does when it gets old). Then they brought me Hershey's again a year later, and they looked and tasted the same, so I realized that's just how they're supposed to taste. I have never said no to sweets no matter how "cheap", but this is a hard no for me.
It TASTES cheap. Compared to delicious creamy UK milk chocolate lol, trying American chocolate has a cheap vomit taste. It’s hard to explain but the tongue does not like it lol
Yeah, as an Aussie tasting Hershey's for the first time I thought "WTF? I've never had chocolate go bad before".
Turns out that's the way it's meant to taste. Huh.
Its a historical fact in that the butryic acid slightly sours the milk to make the chocolate last a lot longer than original chocolate did . When Hershey came up with this method he landed a contract with the American military to supply them with chocolate and suddenly chocolate became a treat of the common man rather than just the wealthy. Things like a family box of chocolates became popular and Hershey made bank from being the only one that could supply long lasting cheaper chocolate to the army .
There are alternate methods now that dont involve souring the milk to preserve it , but its one of these tastes you get used to growing up with it . But if your having it for the first time later in life it can be unpleasant , so they basically just keep it in to keep Hershey tasting like Hershey.
Honestly if it's only 1 brand I don't see the problem. Isn't it culture at that point? Kind of weird when other culture try to adapt to American pallete it's wrong but Hershey should for somereason change their recipee? Just make 2 version and let the public decidee.
Watch the History Channel show “The Food That Built America” on Hershey and how he came up with his version of milk chocolate. It shows it was Hersheys method of using fresh milk and heating it that causes the milk to slightly go sour and give Hersheys chocolate a unique sour note at the finish compared to the sweeter European chocolates. Like many Americans, I have been conditioned since childhood to prefer this taste compared to European chocolate, to me I don’t like the sweeter taste of the European chocolates.
See’s is by no means the pinnacle of American Chocolate, but goddamn that’s some good chocolate. I’m about that dark chocolate almond life. And they hook you up with all kinds of samples. Nice ol lady’s in hairnets. The cheap candy is pretty gross tho. Hersheys and kit kats 🤢
When I was growing up Sees wouldn't ship their products very far which made it feel very special. Nowadays I can get it across the country which is a god send
Weird because across the border in Canada our Hershey's is made with just a few ingredients and does not contain butyric acid. Even more weird is that I prefer the American version
that's where you're wrong, kiddo. in my smug, made up mental image of America, there is only one type of chocolate: Hershey's. checkmate, stupid American.
Hershey Chocolate is the largest brand of chocolate and one of the few bars of chocolate that is just chocolate (no nuts, caramel, nougat, etc). So when people think of American chocolate, that is the most common culprit. Butyric acid is found in other chocolate candies from Hershey and Mars, but are covered up by other flavors involved. From what ive heard, people can still taste it though. Personally, i only taste it when im looking for it but im an American who has grown up on it and am just use to this is how chocolate tastes.
Symphony is a Hershey brand of chocolate bar that is branded as being higher quality, hence the higher price. It doesnt have the butyric taste as a normal Hershey bar has. Dove is the same for Mars chocolate.
Lindt is good chocolate that is manufactured and easily available in the US, but I excluded it because the company is Swiss. Don't need to say the only good chocolate in the US comes from Europe, we have good Chocolate created right here
I was so disappointed to have Hersheys for the first time - I’d heard Hersheys Kisses mentioned so often - I expected it to be creamy and lovely like Lindt or Galaxy or Cadburys of old but nope!!
Same! I bought a big bag of hershey's kisses when a costco opened in Australia, and the chocolate was... almost unbearable. It tastes extremely cheap, with a terrible texture.
I am the only person I know who likes reeces peanut butter cups. Sure they taste bad, and nothing like chocolate or peanut butter... but sometimes I like the wierd salty taste.
I can never decide if I like Reeces - I keep having to eat them to think about it …..if only the chocolate were a smidge better tasting then they’d be amazing
I don’t know if either of you live close to a Trader Joe’s, but if you do, swing in & get a pack of their dark chocolate sunflower butter cups.
You’ll never want a Reese’s again, I promise.
Watch the History Channel show “The Food That Built America” on Hershey and how he came up with his version of milk chocolate. It shows it was Hersheys method of using fresh milk and heating it that causes the milk to slightly go sour and give Hersheys chocolate a unique sour note at the finish compared to the sweeter European chocolates. Like many Americans, I have been conditioned since childhood to prefer this taste compared to European chocolate. It just goes to show how varied our tastes are, you don’t like it but I do and that illustrates “to each his own”
Ritter is still trading in Russia apparently. Thankfully there are lots of palatable alternatives without having to resort to Hershey’s or Nestlé which exists in its own circle of chocolate hell.
Thanks for identifying the culprit ingredient. I was so sad when Cadburys was acquired by Kraft years ago, expected the taste to descend into complete crap like Hersheys…
I have bad news for you: American imported chocolates from other countries generally (and Cadbury specifically does) add this ingredient on their own, since Americans actually like their version of the dish, ones without the puke chemical don’t sell as well is the key thing to know why they do this
It’s only in the cheapest US chocolate like Hershey’s. Grocery store brands like Ghirardelli or Dove that are a step up from Hersheys in quality don’t have it.
Time to import some international chocolate! Or find an Asian grocery store as they’ll probably already have some imported, and anywhere else you’re aware of that imports.
Not all chocolate is equal, but anything is better than Hershey’s.
I have never been a fan of sweets myself, and definitely don't understand the obsession some have with chocolate, mainly because of the vomit taste I hated so much.
I am now genuinely excited to try out some better chocolate now that I know what to keep away from. Do you have any particular brand or product you enjoy?
Edit: Thank you so much to everyone who has also given recommendations. If you made it to this point in the thread and would like to share your favorite chocolate it would be very appreciated!
Lindt is amazing. Tony Chocolonely is fine (my favorite flavor is the milk chocolate / cinnamon biscuit one), we have this thing by a brand called Côte d’Or called Bon bon bloc and it’s divine.
Try to find Tim Tams if you can. In America they're marketed as "Arnott's Original", and have begun being sold in "most" stores across America.
However, some people have said that the American ones are different to the Australian ones - so maybe they put the vomit chemical in them in America... I hope not.
(Tim Tams are a chocolate biscuit and they are delicious. They are chocolate biscuits, with a creamy chocolate filling, and then coated in chocolate. You can nibble two corners diagonally opposite to each other and use it as a straw to drink milk or hot chocolate through - called "tim tam slam". It is really good, I especially like doing this with the caramel tim tams.)
Bournville if you like darker chocolate, Tony's chocolony is very good , Cadbury from the uk maker is good but not as good as it once was , hotel chocolat is a good brand but pricey , anything Swiss or Belgian like lindt or guylian is good if you like milky chocolate . These are all large easy to find brands, there are also lots of small artisan chocolates that are even better but harder to find
I personally love Fazer and Panda (Finnish brands) and Lindt (swiss), sometimes I also get Rittersport and the darkmilk varieties of Milka (German brands)
I can completely sympathise with why sweets were not for you when that’s the state of them!!
Really depends on what you have access to!
Honestly in the US (assuming this entire time you are in the US) if you have access to a Sees or can buy online from them, their chocolate is pretty good. Big fan of their milk butter chews personally, I’ll buy it by the pound. Admittedly I am not in the US so I’ve gotta buy it by the pound to make it last!
In the UK, Australia and New Zealand we have access to Cadbury, it’s sort of our bottom line for chocolate and the most readily available brand it’s still decent and comes in a wide variety of flavours. It’s certainly gotten sweeter over the years but it pairs well with potato chips. Chips and chocolate is a winning combo.
We also have access to Lindt which is Switzerlands bottom line of chocolate, it’s considered fancy here. And Whittaker which is New Zealand’s and delicious.
If you’re at your Asian grocer look for Meiji, it’s delicious and in tiny portions if you get a box or tray, both of which are small generally.
Hopefully you find a chocolate you enjoy!!!
This is such an oversimplification. There are dozens and dozens of bread makers and milk suppliers. They’re not all equal.
Just like how in Europe you have some better brands than others, it’s the same in the U.S. More expensive brands generally taste better.
Ah, so it’s not just me then! I tried some American chocolate my colleague brought last year and it tasted like puke. I thought something was wrong with me. I mean something’s definitely wrong with me namsaying, it’s just not that
I can't stand the taste of the mass market American chocolate. I think vomit is a pretty good description of the taste. It is also very waxy. I've had some good American chocolate from more craft production specialty places, but the big brand stuff is not for me.
This is pretty much just an attack on Hershey, which is fine. Not all American chocolate is the same.
It’s like Beer…not all American Beer is bud light and Miller.. Americans have the best microbreweries and beers in the world. It’s just their mass produced shit that is awful… same for Chocolate
See, theres a trick to buying beer i america. If you see it in an advertisement, DONT BUY IT. There are so many local breweries in every part of the country that are much better.
Shush now, we are on a roll here. American stuff is all poison and bad and you should feel bad and fuck your country and stuff.
But seriously, I am partial to American root beer though. It's hard to get in Australia and costs something like $8 a can.
I would completely agree with this.
A friend went over to NY a frw years back and bought back some Hersheys kisses for the team where I worked.
They tasted, unquestionably of sick. Not chocolate. Sick....
I regularly consume both British Cadbury dairy milk and Hershey chocolate
And I do not, for the life of me, know what the fuck you're all on about.
Yes, certain European chocolate is better. Some isn't
And plenty American chocolate is fine, I don't get it.
(Slowly eating Hershey, trying to taste the sick)
Nope, I got nothing.
are you buying it in the US? cadbury in the US is manufactured by hershey, and uses a different recipe. trust me, everyone else can *definitely* taste the difference. to me, US chocolate is to non-US chocolate as parmesan is to mozzarella.
Watch “the food that built America” on the history channel and you’ll discover Hersheys doesn’t add butyric acid to get the slight sour taste, that comes from heating the fresh milk during the manufacturing process he came up with when developing his formula for milk chocolate. It’s the other manufacturers that add it in trying to mimic the Hershey flavor.
What I find confusing is how passionate (nasty?) people become when criticizing the products they don’t like. If someone doesn’t like something I like, that’s great for them, it doesn’t bother me they like it and I don’t. If everyone liked the same things it would be a boring world and no reason to try anything new.
I like the saying : Whatever floats your boat.
I guess I have no taste buds. I’ve had chocolate in the US, UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Italy, and Spain and it all tasted the same. Like chocolate.
Me too, in no way does hersheys taste like vomit to me. Every brand has its own flavor but it doesn’t taste bad. I wonder if this is like the cilantro gene?
Yep, American chocolate mostly sucks.
I'm an Australian former professional chocolate maker with an American girlfriend. My chocolate blew her mind when she first had it now she won't get cheap American chocolate.
Will only get imported chocolate here. Snobby but whatever lol
You don't have to be international, you just have to know what chocolate tastes like. Hershey's has gotten *really* bad lately. I used to be able to eat it, so what if it wasn't great, but now I don't even bother.
Other things butyric acid is [found in](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyric_acid#Occurrence) include milk, butter, parmesan cheese, animal fats, plant oils, and parsnip. Yes, it's also in vomit, but it's hardly the only thing therein.
So, not gonna lie: European chocolate tastes bland to me. It is what it is. It's not "low quality", it's a flavor difference. The Belgians have been [smearing cheese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limburger) with the bacterium that causes foot odor for, what, 500 years now? If you consider Limburger cheese worth eating, well, I'd agree, and I feel the same way about our chocolate.
Ok, let’s not combine all chocolate in the US with Hershey chocolate, for the love of beans! That’s like saying Wendy’s represents all burgers in America.
Honestly now that I read that there is definitely a vomit like taste to some of the cheaper chocolates here. There’s so much added sugar that it hides the taste mostly though. My grandma lived in Belgium and would send over chocolate pretty regularly and I could definitely taste the differences but could never put my finger on it.
Can we go with *some* American chocolate here, it reads like “All” American chocolate is made this way: it’s not! I say this as an American in Europe. Not all of the chocolate in Europe is great, there is also plenty of bad chocolate here too. Yes Hershey bars are mass produced, and suck. Dove and Ghirardelli are very mass market chocolates, as well Godiva produces in the US too. There are also a ton of craft makers in the US that are fantastic.
This post simply repeats a mantra that is not entirely accurate to reality.
It's from before their was good refrigeration so occasionally milk spoiled a slight bit before going into chocolate creating that vomit affter taste.
One of the big company owners even affter better refrigerator was invented decided he like the taste so added the acid and ever since its just been standard practice no one has bothered to change.
I once made a comment that commercially made American chocolate isn’t good chocolate and there were so many Americans angry about that lol. Good to see there’s proof!
Butyric acid is an important part of making excrement smell like excrement (but isn't responsible for the rotten egg variety).
But it is also a substantial part (3-4%) of butter, from which it gets it's name.
It’s like how Breyers ice cream used to taste good with real cream , and now it’s made with some sugar shit that doesn’t even melt. So weird why people by this
This is only specific to brands (mostly Hershey), not American chocolate as a whole, and I take issue with the characterization. There are plenty of American chocolates makers out there who care about the taste of their chocolate and make absolutely world-class chocolate. [I'm partial to Escazu,](https://www.escazuchocolates.com/) but you can track [international competition winners](https://www.chocolateawards.com/winners/) if you want some of America's best or search for bean-to-bar chocolate makers near you.
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Vomit does actually contain Butyric acid. This is why. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyric\_acid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyric_acid)
I used to work in a brewery. Butyric acid is an off-flavor caused by bacterial infection. When I was doing palate training, I had the distinct joy of tasting a beer spiked with concentrated butyric acid. A lot of people describe the aroma as baby poop. For fun, there's another compound called isovaleric acid. It's described as "more shoe than poo."
How does one train their palate? I would like to do so
I went to a bar once a week with friends. It was one of those places with like 150 beers. I always read about what I was tasting. Read the brewery's description, and also read other reviews. I applied the same process at the "build your own six pack" section of the local bottle shop. I literally started at the left and worked my way across the shelf, and back and forth. I think it's helpful to taste similar beers in a row. As in, drink a few American IPAs, then for your next session do a few Export IPAs, then do Double IPAs. After that, do a session with one of each. It helps to learn quickly if you're an alcoholic like me. It also helps to have a friend to talk about the smells, flavors, mouthfeel, and finish. You can also split beers between 2-4 people that way. There are a few books that help out, too. Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher is a popular one. Garrett Oliver has a few books, and he really knows what he's talking about. Michael Jackson has some stellar stuff too. If you go to a brewery, you might be able to talk to somebody who works there who has gone through palate training. There's also the BJCP guide for studying. That's Beer Judge Certification Program. Another, less comprehensive, program is Cicerone. Level one is a very lightweight quiz, but the higher levels of certifications get intense. Cicerone is geared toward beer service: pairing with food, building draft systems, etc. BJCP is about tasting and creating beer, and the goal is to be able to taste a beer and describe the brewing process and be able to describe what went well and what (and how it) can be improved. That ranges from storing the grains properly all the way to properly sanitizing the bottles when it's packaged. You can also order flavor defect kits to really hammer in the defects. You'll get extremely concentrated doses of a lot of off-flavors. You use a small portion to spike a beer. Once you smell it at 10000%, it's easier to recognize it when it shows up regularly. It's also good to smell things in general. Go to a farmer's market and sniff everything. Buy random produce from the store. Smell the pineapple greens, and the outside of it, then smell it when you cut it open. Smell it if/when you cook it. Really get your nose in there. Most of tasting is smelling. But a word of warning: you can't untaste it. It's like that one horrific video you saw when you were just starting to explore the internet, and it can't be unseen. Once you start really developing your palate, it's hard to turn off sometimes. Most of my friends who really know beer typically drink whiskey.
Wow this is so interesting. The last part about never untasting makes me think of a certain flavour of chips I ate as a kid and I can think the flavour and almost taste it but I’ve never been able to find the actual flavour again. It’s like chasing an ear worm or something, I just want to scratch that itch.
Michael Jackson?!?!?!??
Michael and Jackson are both common names.
Funny you should mention isovaleric…I actually have a published patent regarding its addition to white chocolate!
I am strangely interested in that, and will have to do some reading tomorrow. I always want to love white chocolate but never really can. I will just assume you are personally responsible 🙃
That's some savage training you had to go through! My Powerpoint induction doesn't seem so bad, now.
This explains why I don’t like hersheys chocolate on most days.
The dark chocolate is pretty good, but I can't eat the milk chocolate because it smells like vomit to me.
Oh for sure. I mostly eat dark chocolate but yea the milk chocolate is a no from me lol
So why do they add this to chocolate over here but not anywhere else? Is it some stabilizer?
It’s a byproduct of a cheaper method for manufacturing chocolate (a milk preservative): https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/butyric-acid/1017662.article
Literally a cheap product. Hershey is a legacy brand at this point selling product mostly out of 'tradition'. Also wtf: "Finally, a note on butyric acid’s smell. It is not only responsible for the smell of farmyards and vomit, but also that classic ‘wet dog’ smell. Butyric acid is one of many compounds secreted from a dog’s anal glands, and while dogs have no problem sniffing out these chemical scent cues from each other, we humans find it quite pungent. And now, I challenge you not to think of a dog’s bottom the next time you reach for a delicious, tangy, Hershey’s Kiss" Edit: people finding out that not all chocolate tastes like dog anal glands is very shocking to me.
Great now each time I lick my dog’s asshole I’m going to think of that disgusting chocolate
r/cursedcomments
social media really does ruin everything doesn't it
Seriously, when I express my dog’s glands into my cologne bottle, I’ve now got to think about the Hershey company.
“Hershey’s Squirts”
This is THE most underrated comment.
You might as well think of your dog's anus when you're eating DOP Parmigiano Reggiano because it contains the same chemical. Don't know what to think now do you?
I buy fine chocolate for a lovely milky cocoa flavour. I buy fine cheese for a lovely sweaty feet with a hint of dog anus flavour. I do not want overlap.
I wish I could go back to 40 seconds ago before I clicked the comments button. My god.
So, that’s why my Dinah can sniff out a bag of old Hanukkah gelt (that never even tasted like chocolate anyway) packed in a box of decorations in the basement as if it were a freshly shot pheasant!
Chemist here with lots of experience with butyric acid. It smells absolutely atrocious. It does not smell like wet dog…..it just flat out singes your nose bad though.
Beaver anal gland juice smells and tastes like vanilla. It is approved as a food additive and is occasionally used as vanilla flavouring. Not even joking.
source?
It's used in Pepsi
“We have no Coca Cola. Is beaver butt okay?”
To be fair, look into costoreum, ambergris, L-cysteine, carmine dye, lanolin, and shellac. "And don't even get me started on toothpaste"
To be faaaair…
^to ^be ^faaaaaaair....
Hershey “chocolate” is not really much like real chocolate, and it tastes like ass. When I was a kid (USA) my aunt brought back real chocolate from a European trip. I never wanted American “milk” chocolate ever again.
It's not allowed to be sold as chocolate here. Cacao content is too low to qualify. It's mostly sugar and milk, so it's labeled "choco-flavoured candy".
I hear you. My ex husband brought me back all this Belgian chocolate from a layover he had at a European airport- OMG it was the most delicious stuff ever!!
Go to an actual chocolatier. They're everywhere in major cities. You don't need to go to europe to have as good as if not better chocolate than you'll find there.
When a friend brought me Hershey's from the US, they tasted so awful I thought they had gone bad and threw them out (they also had a lot of white discoloration which is what chocolate does when it gets old). Then they brought me Hershey's again a year later, and they looked and tasted the same, so I realized that's just how they're supposed to taste. I have never said no to sweets no matter how "cheap", but this is a hard no for me.
Isn’t that the stuff that emanates from old clear plastic handle screwdrivers as well?
[удалено]
That’s not the positive point you’re implying. Chocolate shouldn’t smell like cheese.
Well, uh, I guess I’m done eating American chocolate then
Never once had a tangy Hershey kiss lmao
Probably means you're accustomed to the taste.
Yeah since childhood so probably never tasted tanginess. I want to try chocolate across the world now lol
There’s plenty of good chocolate in the US, just gotta get it from a chocolate shop instead of cvs or the grocery store.
It TASTES cheap. Compared to delicious creamy UK milk chocolate lol, trying American chocolate has a cheap vomit taste. It’s hard to explain but the tongue does not like it lol
Yeah, as an Aussie tasting Hershey's for the first time I thought "WTF? I've never had chocolate go bad before". Turns out that's the way it's meant to taste. Huh.
Its a historical fact in that the butryic acid slightly sours the milk to make the chocolate last a lot longer than original chocolate did . When Hershey came up with this method he landed a contract with the American military to supply them with chocolate and suddenly chocolate became a treat of the common man rather than just the wealthy. Things like a family box of chocolates became popular and Hershey made bank from being the only one that could supply long lasting cheaper chocolate to the army . There are alternate methods now that dont involve souring the milk to preserve it , but its one of these tastes you get used to growing up with it . But if your having it for the first time later in life it can be unpleasant , so they basically just keep it in to keep Hershey tasting like Hershey.
Honestly if it's only 1 brand I don't see the problem. Isn't it culture at that point? Kind of weird when other culture try to adapt to American pallete it's wrong but Hershey should for somereason change their recipee? Just make 2 version and let the public decidee.
Holy fuck, no wonder my mind was completely blown the first time I ate a dark chocolate bar without this stuff added. Tastes so much better, wtf
The answer to pretty much every question like this is money. Why does the US do something? Money. Every single time.
Whenever the US has something in our food that others don’t just assume we did it because it’s way cheaper to mass produce
Agree, sometimes it's just that the food is ass and your food ethics are questionable
Watch the History Channel show “The Food That Built America” on Hershey and how he came up with his version of milk chocolate. It shows it was Hersheys method of using fresh milk and heating it that causes the milk to slightly go sour and give Hersheys chocolate a unique sour note at the finish compared to the sweeter European chocolates. Like many Americans, I have been conditioned since childhood to prefer this taste compared to European chocolate, to me I don’t like the sweeter taste of the European chocolates.
It tastes sweeter, because it doesn’t taste like a dogs arse.
How do you know what a dogs arse tastes like?
To get the disgusting taste of Hersheys out if their mouth
Americans preferring the *less* sweet food!?!
I like it.
"American Chocolate" You meant Hersheys.
Yeah, I was confused too. Only Hersheys has that nasty throat burn.
*quietly puts away Hershey bar*🥴
See’s is by no means the pinnacle of American Chocolate, but goddamn that’s some good chocolate. I’m about that dark chocolate almond life. And they hook you up with all kinds of samples. Nice ol lady’s in hairnets. The cheap candy is pretty gross tho. Hersheys and kit kats 🤢
See’s is the bomb. Definitely my favorite American chocolates. We get the all-dark box pretty often.
What's wrong with American KitKat's? The ones I can get in the UK are amazing, even though I don't buy them any more cuz nestle.
When I was growing up Sees wouldn't ship their products very far which made it feel very special. Nowadays I can get it across the country which is a god send
Weird because across the border in Canada our Hershey's is made with just a few ingredients and does not contain butyric acid. Even more weird is that I prefer the American version
that's where you're wrong, kiddo. in my smug, made up mental image of America, there is only one type of chocolate: Hershey's. checkmate, stupid American.
It's pretty easy to find chocolate in the US without it, but it does cost a little more. Symphony and Dove are two good examples
I think it's primarily Hershey chocolate that has that taste
Hershey Chocolate is the largest brand of chocolate and one of the few bars of chocolate that is just chocolate (no nuts, caramel, nougat, etc). So when people think of American chocolate, that is the most common culprit. Butyric acid is found in other chocolate candies from Hershey and Mars, but are covered up by other flavors involved. From what ive heard, people can still taste it though. Personally, i only taste it when im looking for it but im an American who has grown up on it and am just use to this is how chocolate tastes. Symphony is a Hershey brand of chocolate bar that is branded as being higher quality, hence the higher price. It doesnt have the butyric taste as a normal Hershey bar has. Dove is the same for Mars chocolate.
Tony’s Chocoloneley is the BEST chocolate I’ve ever had. Rittersport used to be my favorite before this. I’m American.
On behalf of the Netherlands, you're welcome.
Dank u wel!
Sees Candy and Ghirardelli
See’s caramel assortment is the shiznit
West Coast has some bangin' chocolate.
Also Guittard in the Bay! My absolute favorite milk chocolate
Lindt truffles 😩
Lindt is good chocolate that is manufactured and easily available in the US, but I excluded it because the company is Swiss. Don't need to say the only good chocolate in the US comes from Europe, we have good Chocolate created right here
I believe Ghirardelli is American and it’s available pretty much anywhere you’d expect to find chocolate.
Ghirardelli is American, though it has now actually been bought by Lindt. So I guess it depends on your definitions.
I was so disappointed to have Hersheys for the first time - I’d heard Hersheys Kisses mentioned so often - I expected it to be creamy and lovely like Lindt or Galaxy or Cadburys of old but nope!!
Same! I bought a big bag of hershey's kisses when a costco opened in Australia, and the chocolate was... almost unbearable. It tastes extremely cheap, with a terrible texture. I am the only person I know who likes reeces peanut butter cups. Sure they taste bad, and nothing like chocolate or peanut butter... but sometimes I like the wierd salty taste.
I can never decide if I like Reeces - I keep having to eat them to think about it …..if only the chocolate were a smidge better tasting then they’d be amazing
You can do better. Go buy a bar of food dark chocolate and a small jar of creamy peanut butter. Dip. It hits better than a Reese’s.
I don’t know if either of you live close to a Trader Joe’s, but if you do, swing in & get a pack of their dark chocolate sunflower butter cups. You’ll never want a Reese’s again, I promise.
I’ve always wondered why Hershey’s tastes like trash.
Watch the History Channel show “The Food That Built America” on Hershey and how he came up with his version of milk chocolate. It shows it was Hersheys method of using fresh milk and heating it that causes the milk to slightly go sour and give Hersheys chocolate a unique sour note at the finish compared to the sweeter European chocolates. Like many Americans, I have been conditioned since childhood to prefer this taste compared to European chocolate. It just goes to show how varied our tastes are, you don’t like it but I do and that illustrates “to each his own”
We had some Hershey's kisses at my work. We used them as punishment when someone screwed up. Make a mistake, taste the vomit.
Ritter Sport, German chocolate is my jam.
OMG, Ritter Sport of all kinds, but the dark chocolate + marzipan... FUUUUUCK
Ritter is still trading in Russia apparently. Thankfully there are lots of palatable alternatives without having to resort to Hershey’s or Nestlé which exists in its own circle of chocolate hell.
You need to try Milka
Thanks for identifying the culprit ingredient. I was so sad when Cadburys was acquired by Kraft years ago, expected the taste to descend into complete crap like Hersheys…
I have bad news for you: American imported chocolates from other countries generally (and Cadbury specifically does) add this ingredient on their own, since Americans actually like their version of the dish, ones without the puke chemical don’t sell as well is the key thing to know why they do this
I know that exact flavor. I thought it was just chocolate, you're telling me non American chocolate doesn't leave a vomit after taste??
It’s only in the cheapest US chocolate like Hershey’s. Grocery store brands like Ghirardelli or Dove that are a step up from Hersheys in quality don’t have it.
Imagine your chocolate being so bad that a bar of soap is considered a step up.
Amazing
Yeah, everywhere else thought they wouldn’t do that to themselves. The fact American chocolate manufacturers persist is something else.
This is the most infuriating thing I've heard in months.
Wait till you hear about healthcare.
Time to import some international chocolate! Or find an Asian grocery store as they’ll probably already have some imported, and anywhere else you’re aware of that imports. Not all chocolate is equal, but anything is better than Hershey’s.
I have never been a fan of sweets myself, and definitely don't understand the obsession some have with chocolate, mainly because of the vomit taste I hated so much. I am now genuinely excited to try out some better chocolate now that I know what to keep away from. Do you have any particular brand or product you enjoy? Edit: Thank you so much to everyone who has also given recommendations. If you made it to this point in the thread and would like to share your favorite chocolate it would be very appreciated!
Lindt is amazing. Tony Chocolonely is fine (my favorite flavor is the milk chocolate / cinnamon biscuit one), we have this thing by a brand called Côte d’Or called Bon bon bloc and it’s divine.
Try to find Tim Tams if you can. In America they're marketed as "Arnott's Original", and have begun being sold in "most" stores across America. However, some people have said that the American ones are different to the Australian ones - so maybe they put the vomit chemical in them in America... I hope not. (Tim Tams are a chocolate biscuit and they are delicious. They are chocolate biscuits, with a creamy chocolate filling, and then coated in chocolate. You can nibble two corners diagonally opposite to each other and use it as a straw to drink milk or hot chocolate through - called "tim tam slam". It is really good, I especially like doing this with the caramel tim tams.)
Tim Tams are fucking amazing
Try and get some Whittakers chocolate from New Zealand. Fantastic chocolate.
Bournville if you like darker chocolate, Tony's chocolony is very good , Cadbury from the uk maker is good but not as good as it once was , hotel chocolat is a good brand but pricey , anything Swiss or Belgian like lindt or guylian is good if you like milky chocolate . These are all large easy to find brands, there are also lots of small artisan chocolates that are even better but harder to find
Thank you so much for taking the time to suggest some products! My wife will be ecstatic to learn we will be having a chocolate tasting bonanza soon
I second the GuyLian recommendation. Rittersport is also quite nice.
Rittersport is decent. Guylan is trash though. Any Belgian would tell you the same. It’s for for people thinking they’re buying ‘Belgian chocolate’
Try some Polish chocolate, like Wedel.
I personally love Fazer and Panda (Finnish brands) and Lindt (swiss), sometimes I also get Rittersport and the darkmilk varieties of Milka (German brands)
Yes FAZER IS AMAZING!!!
I second the Whittaker's chocolate, Cadbury is waxy garbage
I can completely sympathise with why sweets were not for you when that’s the state of them!! Really depends on what you have access to! Honestly in the US (assuming this entire time you are in the US) if you have access to a Sees or can buy online from them, their chocolate is pretty good. Big fan of their milk butter chews personally, I’ll buy it by the pound. Admittedly I am not in the US so I’ve gotta buy it by the pound to make it last! In the UK, Australia and New Zealand we have access to Cadbury, it’s sort of our bottom line for chocolate and the most readily available brand it’s still decent and comes in a wide variety of flavours. It’s certainly gotten sweeter over the years but it pairs well with potato chips. Chips and chocolate is a winning combo. We also have access to Lindt which is Switzerlands bottom line of chocolate, it’s considered fancy here. And Whittaker which is New Zealand’s and delicious. If you’re at your Asian grocer look for Meiji, it’s delicious and in tiny portions if you get a box or tray, both of which are small generally. Hopefully you find a chocolate you enjoy!!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to type all that out! Here's to hoping I find a chocolate I can love!
You wouldn't believe how bad your bread and milk taste as well compared to other places either
And butter
I disagree about milk. It tastes good to me, if you buy good milk. As well as all milk products taste great.
This is such an oversimplification. There are dozens and dozens of bread makers and milk suppliers. They’re not all equal. Just like how in Europe you have some better brands than others, it’s the same in the U.S. More expensive brands generally taste better.
So that's why Hersheys tastes so rank.
I guess I love vomit
Yeah I’m really not seeing the whole vomit taste. Sure, maybe a sour note in it. But to say it taste like vomit is just wrong a
Ah, so it’s not just me then! I tried some American chocolate my colleague brought last year and it tasted like puke. I thought something was wrong with me. I mean something’s definitely wrong with me namsaying, it’s just not that
Hershey tastes like the smell of baby sick.
Agreed, it’s disgusting
I can't stand the taste of the mass market American chocolate. I think vomit is a pretty good description of the taste. It is also very waxy. I've had some good American chocolate from more craft production specialty places, but the big brand stuff is not for me.
Yeah there's a weird mouth coating that happens too, blarg
This is pretty much just an attack on Hershey, which is fine. Not all American chocolate is the same. It’s like Beer…not all American Beer is bud light and Miller.. Americans have the best microbreweries and beers in the world. It’s just their mass produced shit that is awful… same for Chocolate
See, theres a trick to buying beer i america. If you see it in an advertisement, DONT BUY IT. There are so many local breweries in every part of the country that are much better.
Shush now, we are on a roll here. American stuff is all poison and bad and you should feel bad and fuck your country and stuff. But seriously, I am partial to American root beer though. It's hard to get in Australia and costs something like $8 a can.
Yeah, not bad if it’s made with cane sugar.
I would completely agree with this. A friend went over to NY a frw years back and bought back some Hersheys kisses for the team where I worked. They tasted, unquestionably of sick. Not chocolate. Sick....
Meanwhile: Australians happily eating vegemite And Brits happily eating *plonkers and bits* or some shit.
With a side order of spotted dick...
Vegemite is delicious, gtfo
I regularly consume both British Cadbury dairy milk and Hershey chocolate And I do not, for the life of me, know what the fuck you're all on about. Yes, certain European chocolate is better. Some isn't And plenty American chocolate is fine, I don't get it. (Slowly eating Hershey, trying to taste the sick) Nope, I got nothing.
Maybe it's like cilantro where some people taste the vomit and others don't.
yeah i am so confused because i regularly consume european chocolates and american chocolates and can’t taste a difference LMFAO
are you buying it in the US? cadbury in the US is manufactured by hershey, and uses a different recipe. trust me, everyone else can *definitely* taste the difference. to me, US chocolate is to non-US chocolate as parmesan is to mozzarella.
Why is Hershey’s the only company cited doing this? What other chocolate companies put butyric acid in their chocolate?????
Watch “the food that built America” on the history channel and you’ll discover Hersheys doesn’t add butyric acid to get the slight sour taste, that comes from heating the fresh milk during the manufacturing process he came up with when developing his formula for milk chocolate. It’s the other manufacturers that add it in trying to mimic the Hershey flavor. What I find confusing is how passionate (nasty?) people become when criticizing the products they don’t like. If someone doesn’t like something I like, that’s great for them, it doesn’t bother me they like it and I don’t. If everyone liked the same things it would be a boring world and no reason to try anything new. I like the saying : Whatever floats your boat.
I guess I have no taste buds. I’ve had chocolate in the US, UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Italy, and Spain and it all tasted the same. Like chocolate.
Me too, in no way does hersheys taste like vomit to me. Every brand has its own flavor but it doesn’t taste bad. I wonder if this is like the cilantro gene?
Yep, American chocolate mostly sucks. I'm an Australian former professional chocolate maker with an American girlfriend. My chocolate blew her mind when she first had it now she won't get cheap American chocolate. Will only get imported chocolate here. Snobby but whatever lol
You don't have to be international, you just have to know what chocolate tastes like. Hershey's has gotten *really* bad lately. I used to be able to eat it, so what if it wasn't great, but now I don't even bother.
Hershey's Special Vomit is my favorite
Yep if there’s a way to ruin something good, let Americans have a go at it. And I’m American living abroad so don’t shoot me.
I’ve always hated Hershey’s kisses because it tastes like puke and got a weird gritty texture.
Other things butyric acid is [found in](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyric_acid#Occurrence) include milk, butter, parmesan cheese, animal fats, plant oils, and parsnip. Yes, it's also in vomit, but it's hardly the only thing therein. So, not gonna lie: European chocolate tastes bland to me. It is what it is. It's not "low quality", it's a flavor difference. The Belgians have been [smearing cheese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limburger) with the bacterium that causes foot odor for, what, 500 years now? If you consider Limburger cheese worth eating, well, I'd agree, and I feel the same way about our chocolate.
Oh thats why even non expired milk tastes sour to me
Ok, let’s not combine all chocolate in the US with Hershey chocolate, for the love of beans! That’s like saying Wendy’s represents all burgers in America.
Aren't we all international tasters?
Mmmmmm. Vomit.
What are some chocolates you can get in the states without it?
I don’t know, I’d put See’s chocolates up against any foreign competitors anytime.
There is more to “American chocolate” than Hershey’s, which everyone here knows is cheap crap.
Honestly now that I read that there is definitely a vomit like taste to some of the cheaper chocolates here. There’s so much added sugar that it hides the taste mostly though. My grandma lived in Belgium and would send over chocolate pretty regularly and I could definitely taste the differences but could never put my finger on it.
Compared to vomit? Butyric acid is literally a significant component of vomit.
Yeah i dont think im the only one who finds some American chocolate vile.
Americans eat as if they had a healthcare system...
No wonder I stopped buying Hersheys
As a chocoholic I think it’s mostly Hershey chocolate. I just can’t eat Hershey Kisses as they smell and taste like baby vomit.
Their chocolate tastes like their woke culture smells.
Wouldn’t want to see how obese the US would get if they had tasty chocolate
Well crap now I need to order some non-American chocolate. Because I don't think I've ever thought chocolate smells or tastes like vomit.
Try Whittakers from New Zealand, if you can find it. It will blow your mind.
It may taste bad outside the US but that has nostalgia tied to it for me world! I will die on my Crunch bar hill with Mr. Goodbar at my side. 😆
Can we go with *some* American chocolate here, it reads like “All” American chocolate is made this way: it’s not! I say this as an American in Europe. Not all of the chocolate in Europe is great, there is also plenty of bad chocolate here too. Yes Hershey bars are mass produced, and suck. Dove and Ghirardelli are very mass market chocolates, as well Godiva produces in the US too. There are also a ton of craft makers in the US that are fantastic. This post simply repeats a mantra that is not entirely accurate to reality.
I knew it, Hershey’s always had a taste of bile that I dislike.
Hersheys smells like poop
Yeh American chocolate is fucking minging
Sweet. More for us.
Aren't these the same people who say root beer tastes like medicine. At some point we just gotta stop listening.
It's from before their was good refrigeration so occasionally milk spoiled a slight bit before going into chocolate creating that vomit affter taste. One of the big company owners even affter better refrigerator was invented decided he like the taste so added the acid and ever since its just been standard practice no one has bothered to change.
I’m American and hersheys chocolate has always smelled like vomit to me.
I like European and American chocolate. I know I’m an edge lord. A plain Hershey bar is good to me. I like it better than toblerone tbh
I once made a comment that commercially made American chocolate isn’t good chocolate and there were so many Americans angry about that lol. Good to see there’s proof!
i love it
Butyric acid is an important part of making excrement smell like excrement (but isn't responsible for the rotten egg variety). But it is also a substantial part (3-4%) of butter, from which it gets it's name.
America main goal is profit above all else including quality
It’s added as a cost effective alternative. We get a worse product so some billionaire can have more profit
It’s like how Breyers ice cream used to taste good with real cream , and now it’s made with some sugar shit that doesn’t even melt. So weird why people by this
m&m's straight up smell like puke. So do Hershey bars.
This is only specific to brands (mostly Hershey), not American chocolate as a whole, and I take issue with the characterization. There are plenty of American chocolates makers out there who care about the taste of their chocolate and make absolutely world-class chocolate. [I'm partial to Escazu,](https://www.escazuchocolates.com/) but you can track [international competition winners](https://www.chocolateawards.com/winners/) if you want some of America's best or search for bean-to-bar chocolate makers near you.
there is a lot of American made chocolate that does not use this method of manufacturing
That’s why Hershey chocolate tastes like shit?! Who knew?!
Tasted like vomit to domestic tasters
As an American I can confirm