butters
High on a Hill
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2009
- Posts
- 85,960
A whole lot of Americans are horrified when they hear how poor their chocolate brands taste when compared to euro brands, with terms like 'vomit', 'sour, 'wet dog' and even 'ear wax' being used as descriptors! Born and raised with it as the standard flavour profile, Americans are so inured to it they don't even taste it till they try the good stuff. To them, it tastes like chocolate should taste.
I only recently found out the actual reason behind this yesterday, and it all came down to Mr. Hershey's production of the product back before WWII. If you already know this stuff, great, but I'm pretty sure a whole lot of people don't.
He was already producing the bars and its growing popularity meant he had to find a way of mass producing to meet demand, so took a page out of Henry Ford's book and set up an automated line. This allowed him to boost production. However, back in the day they were only allowed to store milk for the product for 72 hours, after which it had to be tossed out, meaning losses.
So european producers also had the same problem about keeping their milk fresh enough to use, but they went the route of using preservatives. Now a scientist had investigated why butter smelt so bad when it spoiled, and he discovered Butyric Acid to be the reason. It also occurs naturally in human stomachs and can be found in vomit, especially babies' vomit. So Mr. Hershey decided to add this acid to the milk prior to creating the chocolate products; this resulted in a semi-souring of the milk but also it preserved it past the 72-hour stage making manufacturing at such levels less wasteful, physically and financially.
Then came WWII, and while the Cadbury's company in the UK stopped production, turning its manufacturing over to the war cause to build much-needed hardware for the fight, Mr. Hershey seized the opportunity to pump out extra chocolate... chocloate which found its way to American troops on a regular basis.
When they arrived back home after the war, the soldiers were very nostalgic for the taste of Hershey's chocolate, and other American chocolate companies found it wise to add Butyric acid to their own brands or lose their market shares. This resulted in a homogenisation of the 'flavor' of American chocolate, but Europe resisted and went their own way.
Even today, now that advances in science mean Euro chocolate has dropped the preservatives and still manufactures much as it ever did, American chocolate manufacturers still add that acid to their brands since it's what Americans feel right at home with. They deliberately make their milk smell like vomit. Weird, huh?
Having said all that, just about every single American I know or have seen tasting Euro chocolate is gobsmacked by the difference in flavour and how Euro chocolate is just so so much better.
I only recently found out the actual reason behind this yesterday, and it all came down to Mr. Hershey's production of the product back before WWII. If you already know this stuff, great, but I'm pretty sure a whole lot of people don't.
He was already producing the bars and its growing popularity meant he had to find a way of mass producing to meet demand, so took a page out of Henry Ford's book and set up an automated line. This allowed him to boost production. However, back in the day they were only allowed to store milk for the product for 72 hours, after which it had to be tossed out, meaning losses.
So european producers also had the same problem about keeping their milk fresh enough to use, but they went the route of using preservatives. Now a scientist had investigated why butter smelt so bad when it spoiled, and he discovered Butyric Acid to be the reason. It also occurs naturally in human stomachs and can be found in vomit, especially babies' vomit. So Mr. Hershey decided to add this acid to the milk prior to creating the chocolate products; this resulted in a semi-souring of the milk but also it preserved it past the 72-hour stage making manufacturing at such levels less wasteful, physically and financially.
Then came WWII, and while the Cadbury's company in the UK stopped production, turning its manufacturing over to the war cause to build much-needed hardware for the fight, Mr. Hershey seized the opportunity to pump out extra chocolate... chocloate which found its way to American troops on a regular basis.
When they arrived back home after the war, the soldiers were very nostalgic for the taste of Hershey's chocolate, and other American chocolate companies found it wise to add Butyric acid to their own brands or lose their market shares. This resulted in a homogenisation of the 'flavor' of American chocolate, but Europe resisted and went their own way.
Even today, now that advances in science mean Euro chocolate has dropped the preservatives and still manufactures much as it ever did, American chocolate manufacturers still add that acid to their brands since it's what Americans feel right at home with. They deliberately make their milk smell like vomit. Weird, huh?
Having said all that, just about every single American I know or have seen tasting Euro chocolate is gobsmacked by the difference in flavour and how Euro chocolate is just so so much better.
