Yeah, I think this is a bigger deal than most people realize. US went through a generation of unfettered corporate search for the bottom line, with no restrictions, and we got what we deserve.
Things are finally swinging back the other way: we do have good chocolate, beer, bread, etc, but it’s ”premium”, expensive. So, do you choose the bread you can afford or the bread with texture, fiber, nutritional value, and less sugar? Somehow we need to get past this market segmentation, so better quality items can be more commonly available. I no longer eat mass market candy, bread, or beer, and I don’t think that’s pretentious partly because it also means I do without more often, and I don’t miss that swill
That’s fair, Europe has also plenty of cheap and subpar chocolate.
But none of the cheap European stuff is disgusting. It’s overly sugary, grainy, or dull-tasting. But still miles better than my Hershey’s experience.
Milka comes to mind for me. I can have one piece and I’m good. It’s flavor is certainly better than Hersheys but ffs it’s so sweet it tastes like they forgot to add the chocolate.
I’m not going to go out on a limb to defend fucking Hershey’s but I can say with confidence that the mixed bags of candy are universally a step down in quality.
It’s shitty candy meant to be given to children who don’t care. Individual bars will be better. Still fuckin Hershey’s don’t get me wrong but better.
Also, if you get them around Halloween, or full size near 4th of July, they’ll be fresh and much better. Still not great comparatively, but much better than a random bar in August.
Yeah, I got a bag of mixed Hershey’s minibars from the US and that stuff was vile.
It’s the cheapest commonly available option, of course it’s not good. (We have even worse stuff but it’s pretty much only seen around Easter)
The US has terrible and incredible options for pretty much everything. Beer, chocolate, beaches, whatever. It’s just never the mass-marketed stuff.
Yeah, I think this is a bigger deal than most people realize. US went through a generation of unfettered corporate search for the bottom line, with no restrictions, and we got what we deserve.
Things are finally swinging back the other way: we do have good chocolate, beer, bread, etc, but it’s ”premium”, expensive. So, do you choose the bread you can afford or the bread with texture, fiber, nutritional value, and less sugar? Somehow we need to get past this market segmentation, so better quality items can be more commonly available. I no longer eat mass market candy, bread, or beer, and I don’t think that’s pretentious partly because it also means I do without more often, and I don’t miss that swill
That’s fair, Europe has also plenty of cheap and subpar chocolate.
But none of the cheap European stuff is disgusting. It’s overly sugary, grainy, or dull-tasting. But still miles better than my Hershey’s experience.
Milka comes to mind for me. I can have one piece and I’m good. It’s flavor is certainly better than Hersheys but ffs it’s so sweet it tastes like they forgot to add the chocolate.
The mixed bags of candy always taste bad.
I’m not going to go out on a limb to defend fucking Hershey’s but I can say with confidence that the mixed bags of candy are universally a step down in quality.
It’s shitty candy meant to be given to children who don’t care. Individual bars will be better. Still fuckin Hershey’s don’t get me wrong but better.
Also, if you get them around Halloween, or full size near 4th of July, they’ll be fresh and much better. Still not great comparatively, but much better than a random bar in August.