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It didn't taste waxy enough? What a stupid decision.

typical! if its not broken by all mean fix it. oh well thats ok I prefer Dove dark when i need a choc fix anyway.

Make your own candy! It's much more delicious, because YOU control the quality of the ingredients, and it's not processed... you know what's in it, so it's healthier, too.

It's not hard at all.

I hate to say this but I never eat Hershey chocolate. I don't even eat the kisses. I was always a Nestle's kid. The chocolate was waxy and now its going to be waxier. They can keep it.

I can say that as a food regulatory specialist,

This is a move many large companies take to reduce production costs. And actually as a consumer; always check the label for "CHOCOLATE" or "CHOCOLATE FLAVOUR"...that's the difference ; )

Brownie - Hershey's does not own Godiva. (They do own Scharffen Berger, Dagoba and Joseph Schmidt though.)

hungry - the thing about Hershey's is that they're continuing to say that their products are "made with chocolate" even though they've diluted it with vegetable oils. So it's confusing, especially when the packaging isn't obvious.

Jerzee - I've heard a few folks say they prefer Nestles - which products do you like (I want to know what I should start trying).

LunaPier - the thing that wasn't mentioned in that story is that Hershey's has raised their wholesale prices twice this year. So they are charging more and that's what's sad. When the price goes up, I expect to at least get what I used to get, not something inferior.

Thanks for the update cybelle;
for sure the package decieves the consumer, I hope Hershey's are aware that there are some of us (their market) that value the fact that their chcolate is original and true to it's name;
Also, I knew they bought out Dagoba; and I hope the quality remains the same--they're great especially for baking.

Hey, it's the Candy Queen herself, Cybele. :)

For those not aware, Cybele is the founder/creator of the Candy Blog and the person being interviewed during that story on The Today Show.

capndesign - Hershey's other mockolate products: 5th Avenue, Payday Chocolatey Avalanche*, Reese's Nutrageous, ReeseSticks, Reese's Whipps*, Reese's Crispy Crunchy Bar*, Take 5 & Whoppers*.

(* were never real chocolate products)

While they say their packages are clearly labeled, I've found instances where they're mislabeled, and their website is a huge mess of contradictions - mostly erring on the side of misleading the consumer that they're eating a product with cocoa butter.

As for Hershey's statements, they also said:

Hershey’s spokesman Kirk Saville told the Harrisburg Patriot-News that “there are high-quality oils available which are equal to or better than cocoa butter in taste, nutrition, texture and function, and are preferred by consumers.”

I don't know what these preferred high-quality oils are, but Palm Oil is not one of them and that's what they're using in combination with safflower, sunflower and palm kernel oil.

The local paper to Hershey, the Harrisburg Patriot News did a follow up story on the NBC piece:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/09/a_consumer_segment_on_nbcs.html

The Mr. Goodbar formula was changed to allow the peanut flavor to come through, Saville said.

"Consumers love this, and people prefer the change," he said.

In other news, Hershey's has changed their Milk Chocolate recipe. It started in 2006 with the addition of PGPR (an additional emulsifier) to some chocolate coatings like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and KitKat, then Hershey's Kisses. It is not found in most new Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bars (though both versions are on shelves if you look sharp).

hungry - as far as I know Dagoba is as good as ever. Some folks have told me that Scharffen Berger isn't the same, I don't think that has as much to do with Hershey's involvement as the fact that they are simply growing and don't make all the chocolate in one place any longer.

Is that even chocolate anymore? The thought of mockolate, chocolate flavored product or what not is nauseating...

For various reasons, I've ended up with a copy of Milton Hershey's 1959 biography. The comapny has seen hard times before, even when he was still around. However, the company adjusted while leaving the formula alone. For a man who figured out his own formula for milk chocolate over a period of years, having someone so blatantly change things for the purposes of accounting would have driven a stake through his heart.

Well, I've always thought Hershey's was grainy, waxy, and nasty anyway. This just gives me another reason NOT to eat it. I'll stick with Dove, Lindt, and Ghirardelli's and be happy to pay whatever they charge.

LOL izatryt: what? chocolate body wrap???!!! Sounds extremely dangerous [in a semi-sweet way] :)

ohh yeah babyyyyy I have the body scrub at the spa and ohh did I smell GOOD! I wanted to lick my skin all day :)

http://luv2cooktoomuch.blogspot.com/ ">luv2cook

"I get the chocolate sugar scrub, followed by the chocolate wrap, a chocolate oil massage... "

"ohh yeah babyyyyy I have the body scrub at the spa and ohh did I smell GOOD! I wanted to lick my skin all day"

Personally, I feel all women should be covered in a thin edible layer of chocolate.

Wookie!

Hey, nice to see you! :)

"...fairly thick layer of chocolate. completely edible, I thought about a bacon bikini but settled on chocolate instead. hmmm maybe a bacon bikini over a layer of chocolate?"

Ohhhhhhh.... my... YES. :-o

@FFC ~ You know what they say about women and chocolate! You ARE encouraging the temptresses!

Some day after a couple of chocolate martinis I will tell you all about the first chocolate conversation I had with my husband when we were dating. ;-O

@FFC, I think a serious issue would be that you specialize in rapidly-completed edibles ... ;-)

What's happening with Hershey is, unfortunately, more widespread in companies that are swallowed up by others. Rubbermaid is moving the Calphalon pot-and-pan plant from its founding location in Perrysburg, OH. This morning it was announced Merillat's founding plant in Adrian, MI is closing with a few employees relocating to the new parent company., So how long before Hershey, now being obviously run by accountants and out-of-touch execs, gets swallowed up by, say, Kraft, and ends up closing the original factory to consolidate operations elsewhere at their convenience?

I always thought hershey's tasted liked waxed chocolate flavor dirt. So no big loss.

wookie--it's funny, I was just contemplating what I should get kids for Halloween--I really hate pure sugar candy, though, so I think I will stick with Mars (M&Ms and so forth) and apprpos Jerzee Nestle (Butterfingers).

I usually only get very high quality, high concentrated dark chocolate for myself (like Endangered Species 88%) but the only think that might make me think twice this Halloween are Reeces PB cups which seem to= Halloween for me, even though they are Hershey's. In the case of the cups, it's the grainy pb, not the chocolate that is the draw.

I've never liked the taste of Hershey's chocolate straight up, even as a kid--I wonder why they are doing this, given how stiff the competition is now, even for lower-priced chocolate. I thought they were trying to market more 'high end' rather than low end stuff, given most of their newly released lines.

Hershey's sucks the big weenie anyways. I only use their semi-sweet chips for cooking/baking anyway.

I got a box of Whoppers the other day as a "welcome treat" when I checked into a hotel. First Whoppers I've had in at least 5 years, and I wondered why they tasted so weird & nasty and not at all how I remembered them. Guess the absence of actual chocolate explains the difference.

Alas, we live in fallen times.

I was always a Nestle gal. Their plain chocolate bars always tasted sweeter and melted faster in your hand than the waxy Hershey counterpart. Now I eat the good stuff, although I had a chocolate emergency the other night. All I had on hand were Hershey semi-sweet morsels. Ugggg! They just didn't cut it. I vow, as God is my judge, to never eat crappy chocolate again! (posing with fist in air like Scarlet O'Hara) :P

Great. Now I've got a serious jones for Lindt truffles, and we're all out. Better run over to Rite Aid.

I seriously hope that this doesn't drive more people to become loyal Nestle fans. Does anyone recall the boycott of Nestle product that started in the 70s?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestlé_boycott

i dont even eat the stuff, but thats still depressing.

so what will hersheys kisses say on them? milk chocolate flavored kisses?

maybe they wouldnt have to worry about this is they didnt come out with so many obscure, unadvertized, stupid new candies. it seems every time i enter wallgreens i see a new, unnecessary hersheys product. has anyone else noticed this?

I love dove milk chocolates, and the dark chocolates for that matter. It's very smooth and rich. We always keep a couple bags of the morsels in the freezer and panic ensues if there's only 1/2 a bag left.

Also, I discovered a wonderful thing while I was at Rite Aid getting my Lindt truffles :) Lindt has a chocolate bar made of 70% cacao with chocolate mousse and cherry-chili filling. Oh. My. God.

Want to know something even worse? Call Hershey's and ask them if anything in their products is imported from China? You will NOT get the answer, which, I assume, means that it does. Need your des of melaie today? If so, have a few Hershey bars.

I will NEVER buy this crap again.