SAVE THE HERSHEY'S KISSES!

[Me.]

Now they want to mess with chocolate. In fact if they have their way, what we buy will no longer be chocolate. Is there anything these people won't ruin or corrupt? Scroll down, it's the 10th srory on the page.

“The federal Food and Drug Administration is proposing to redefine the very essence of chocolate and to allow big manufacturers such as Hershey to sell a bar devoid of a key ingredient - cocoa butter. The butter's natural texture could be replaced with inferior alternatives, such as vegetable fats. And consumers would never know.

Chocolatier Gary Guittard said it best: "No one can afford to sit back and eat bonbons while America's great passion for chocolate is threatened."

For every defender of traditional chocolate, there are powerful proponents who want to replace cocoa butter with vegetable oil: the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Snack Food Association. These industry titans have filed a "citizens petition" to the FDA, as the Los Angeles Times recently reported, as if there were some groundswell in society to water down chocolate.

At the moment, chocolate requires two basic ingredients - cocoa and cocoa butter. Cocoa provides much of the flavor; cocoa butter, the texture. So if, say, Hershey wanted to make a chocolate bar without cocoa butter, it can under today's rules. The product has to be labeled "chocolate flavored" (for it still has the cocoa in it) rather than "chocolate." That gives the consumer a signal that something less than chocolate lies beneath the wrapping. To help defend chocolate, visit www.dontmesswithourchocolate.com and learn how to submit feedback to the FDA.”

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

[entanglement]

1. Mccandy?

[SoCalDem]

4. Frankenkisses

:(

[Me.]

5. You Got It

It seems these bastards can't leave anything alone. Fake rezident, fake food, fake news, now fake chocolate. They can't handle any type of real.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Well that will be my final excuse to plain stop eating the shit.

It's not good for me anyway, with my health issues.

I don't have a lot of the stuff but when I do I at least want it to be the real thing.

[NightWatcher]

3. oh come on!

Why dont they just cut to the chase and start pumping us with soylent green. If they screw up chocolate, my family's gonna go nuts. They are the biggest chocoholics on the planet.

Why do they wanna mess with hershey's kisses? why, why, why, god why?

[wildhorses]

6. you gotta be kidding me??

:wtf:


:cry: messing with my chocolate...say it ain't so, joe

[iamjoy]

7. Just Like Corn Syrup Instead of Sugar

what, about twenty odd years ago they started using "high fructose corn syrup" instead of sugar to sweeten soft drinks and other "goodies." Why? Corn syrup is cheaper.

Now they want to ruin our chocolate.

Women with PMS Unite!

[Me.]

9. That Corn Syrup Business

is one of the reasons for the hike in diabetes cases

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

29. HFCS is already in chocolate

The kind you buy at grocery. It all tastes the same to me now - too sweet and gummy. I don't eat Hershey's or Nestle's chocolate any more.

[trotsky]

36. It's not always a black-vs-white deal.

Why is corn syrup cheaper?

* Corn can be grown in more places, including all over the contiguous 48.
* On a related note, it costs less to ship. (Less distance to travel, which also means less environmental damage.)

A diet of pure fructose as your sweetener would be very bad. But most of the HFCS in food is just 55% fructose, 45% glucose. (For reference, our bodies break regular sugar down into 50/50.)

Now I don't support using vegetable oils in chocolate, and I'm not a big fan of corn syrup, but there ARE some significant advantages and the jury's still out on it being a slam-dunk killer.

[Me.]

38. The Main Problem I Have With It

Is that it's put into so many things that don't need it, as a cheap way of heightening flavor. Is sit really necessary to put it in Campbell's soup, etc.?

[trotsky]

41. People like sweet things.

We can't help it - we evolved to crave sweet and fatty foods. Those were most likely to pack the highest energy back in our hunting & gathering days. HFCS is much cheaper than sugar, and it's sweeter to boot, so you use less. It makes a lot of economic sense to use it as a sweetener, and that's both good and bad.

[StarryNite]

48. Exactly

Little by little they are lowering the standards. Remember the old Coke? The stuff made with real sugar instead of fructose that you can still occasionally get from Mexico. That was "the real thing."

[Sonicmedusa]

8. Screw Hersey's

Apparently, they don't care about saving American jobs.

[terisan]

10. Alas, and as the Bush Dollar plummets, chocolate imports will be too expensive

[Gregorian]

11. This is just one in a long succession.

Since about 1980, this is what I have termed "Life lite".

I suppose I've burdened this forum with enough negativity for a day. After all, I'm not a big fan of one day we call earth day. So it might be smart for me to go reflect on what was otherwise a beautiful day. Neighbor cats coming over to be friendly with my Farnsworth. And he is quite in need of a cat friend.

My latest discovery was when I began renting a house after selling my last place. I usually bake my own bread. So I went to buy what was the staple of my youth- Orowheat whole wheat bread. And to my surprise not only was it $4 per loaf, but the loaf was nearly half the size as it was when I last bought it. They rely on people not noticing these changes too much. But when one makes a 20 year break in a product, it is more than obvious. The bottom line is, I won't buy it.

I'll also refrain from what I know to be the cause of the trouble we're talking about here. There's no point in wearing myself out. But I will say this, we vote with our pocketbooks. That's one vote that absolutely cannot be stolen.

Sorry folks. We asked for this.

[Me.]

17. Looked At A Jar Of Hellman's Mayonnaise Lately?

Where did the missing ounces go? Now it 30oz. and sold in plastic containers. Not biodegradable I'm sure.

[charlie]

12. Chickenshits

It's their job to "sell" whatever concoction they come up with, not legislating new definitions for commonly accepted terms. The dairy industry does bangup business with their American "singles", the chocolatiers could easily do the same. Chickenshit fuckers.

When I was a kid, I actually preferred Sixlets over M&Ms because its chocolate flavor was more bracing and less cloyingly sweet.

[DemGa]

13. I'd like to think that real chocolate will beat them out

But sadly I think the American consumer could be duped on this one.

[DFW]

14. Why bother when Hershey won't save Hershey?

A friend of mine happens to be a member of the Pennsylvaina state
government--as in Lieutenant Governor. She helped turn a state
budget deficit, inherited from Republicans, around into a surplus.
You'd think some PA businesses would reward the good news by sticking
around, maybe even getting a tax break down the road for helping the
state economy do so well.

Pennsylvania's reward is the Hershey chocolate company moving three
thousand jobs from Hershey, PA to Mexico. My friend was devastated to
say the least. What the hell is she working so hard for, anyway?

Time to kiss Hershey chocolate goodbye and buy directly from the Belgians.
Cote d'or if that's all you can find, and Café-Tasse if you are lucky
enough to find a place that sells it. Godiva, Leonidas and Neuhaus are OK,
too, as is France's Debauve et Gallais. Hershey Chocolate can go kiss
something else for all I care.....

[Canuckistanian]

22. I'll never buy Hershey's again

One of the plants they moved down to Mexico (Smiths Falls) is very close to where I live.

I know many people who've worked there practically all their adult lives.

Fortunately, there's a store near me where I can buy Cote D'Or, Ghirardelli and Lindt.
:)

[hedgehog]

54. FIrst Nestle's, now Hershey's!

Nestle products have been banned from my house since they shut down their chocolate plant here in Fulton, NY. This is the place where chocolate morsels were first made. I switched to Hershey's, now I'll have to switch to saomething else.

[Frogger]

15. Thanks.

This a horrible example of what can go wrong when the government has too much power, and the wrong people control it.

Save our chocolate.

Although, I would say that if the people really couldn't tell any difference, then either they have no taste, or maybe it doesn't matter taste and texture wise. I'm far more willing and able to believe the former than the later.

[Me.]

19. Problem Is

Some won't, and they'll (corporate squeezers) think they can get away with this nonsense. I hope this and the Hershey move gets shouted out all over the place. I'd love to see a boycott.

Welcome Frogger.

[Frogger]

23. Thanks for the welcome.

I agree, the corporations will try to screw you anytime they think that they can, as will the bureaucracy, the school system, the judicial system, and your next door neighbor.

It really is a dog-eat-dog world, and we have to make it better, somehow.

[B Calm]

16. Hershey's moving to Mexico, Cutting 1,500 Jobs

They now need to rename Hershy, PA to Outsource, PA...

http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=60296

[Jamastiene]

18. Oh, hell no!!!

They can fuck with many many things and I won't complain, but chocolate, Dr Pepper, and milk are three things I will fight to keep intact. I'm visiting the web site to let them have a piece or two...of my mind.

[Mojorabbit]

20. I sent the FDA

my comments. Thanks! Fake chocolate indeed. Bleh.

[riverdeep]

21. Real dark chocolate is a health food

in moderate amounts. Key word being moderate and not replacing another healthful food with it.

"Those who ate dark chocolate had a significant drop in blood pressure (by an average of 5 points for systolic and an average of 2 points for diastolic blood pressure). Those who ate white chocolate did not."

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20030827/dark-chocolate-is-healthy-chocolate

Once you experience real dark chocolate, you cannot go back to the putrid, mass market chemical experiments posing as food. I also had a long break in eating a certain kind of food. It was the Hershey bar. I'd had enough of them as a kid, but the modern ones tasted different. I never bothered investigating as to why, but switched to good dark stuff.

This is currently my favorite, Chocovic. But look elsewhere for price comparision. I can find these at Trader Joe's for about $1.50.

http://www.themeadowflowers.com/chocolate/chocovic.htm

[Ino]

24. Our chocolate is already horrible.

Get a Kit-Kat bar that's been imported from England, and compare it to an American one. Unbelievable difference in the quality of the chocolate (and taste).

[Me.]

25. !

:kick:

[Greyhound]

28. Europe has laws against corporations poisoning their people.

Too "socialist" for us.:eyes:

[KoKo]

34. Just had to return box of Godiva Chocolates (gift) because

something was wrong with the texture and taste in some of them. I think they maybe already are "experimenting." :-(

[spoony]

49. Absolutely

Hershey's has always seemed really bitter to me. I grew up on Cadbury chocolate and am amazed by the difference.

[Me.]

50. Cadbury's! Now There's Another Choice

Still have cocoa butter?

[spoony]

51. Yep!

They still use cocoa butter. I'm not sure if everything sold here is imported though, so you might have to look in a specialty or all-sweet shop for the real deal.


Edit: found this on the Cadbury site:

"Cadbury products in the USA are manufactured and distributed under a franchise agreement by

Hershey Chocolate USA,
19 East Chocolate Avenue,
PO Box 819,
Hershey,
PA 17033-0819

Hershey do not, however, include all the British products in their range."

:(

If all else fails, I like this shop: http://www.englishteastore.com I buy PG Tips in bulk from them, lol. Never bought chocolate from them but they're a good company.

[Me.]

52. Could Be Though

That Cadbury's determines the ingredients and not Hershey's. I'll look on the wrapper.

[Hersheygirl]

26. I hate to be the bearer of bad news,

But they have already changed the original recipe that Milton Hershey created to make chocolate. I live in Hershey, my mother worked for Hershey Foods along with other various relatives. Around 20 years so ago they built a huge plant that makes the chocolate than ships it to the original plant where the various products are made and to Reese's for their cups. That is when the formula was changed. It started with small changes to save money, and over time the taste changed. Oh, it still tastes like chocolate, but not as creamy as used to be, it's more waxy now. Those who are younger won't taste the difference, but if you had tasted it about 30 years ago, you would notice a difference.

Milton Hershey was a friend of my grandparents, who have since passed away many years ago, and he would be extremely upset with what is going on now in Hershey. One of the big things would have been what has happened to the park. He built that park for the people of Hershey and for his employees. He would have never approved of what is going on today, the corporatization of his name.

As far as them building a plant in Mexico, well the local employees had better get used to it, because, when the corporate bigwhigs see how much more money they can make for their stockholders by doing this, the bet is all Hershey chocolate will be produced out of this country. But, I cannot feel sorry for them, because they voted for Bush (I would say 90% of them) and now they are getting what they voted for. Too late to cry over spilled milk.

[Me.]

31. Pitiful

They should be forced to eat their own chocolate

Welcome Hersheygirl

Edited to add: How outrageous that the post office would devote a stamp to this fraud!

[Locrian]

32. not like it used to be

The stuff today certainly isnt like it used to be. Its sad too - when did they switch to corn syrup? That stuff is the worst - I can spot it a mile away in foods. I still remember when soda was made with sugar. Much better taste. I cant drink the stuff today with HFCS in it.

[Greyhound]

27. Hershy's is the Yugo of chocolate anyway.

Only fit for pawning off on Halloween beggars (of which I am one).:shrug:

[Matsubara]

30. Sounds yucky, but...

Isn't cocoa butter one of the worst saturated fats there is? Or am I confusing it with coconut oil?

[DFW]

33. Coconut oil is the bad one

I have arteiral sclerosis, just escaped a major infarction
(heart attack) by an accute awareness of minor symptoms an
a very heads-up cardiologist. I was read the new laws of the
land (penalty for violation was death by heart attack) by the
hospital nutritionist, and coconut ANYthing was right up there
with pork sausage and Brie on the Taboo list.

[yodermon]

35. that's it, i'm moving to Belgium, n/t

[DFW]

37. I have to be in Belgium once a week for work

The choices alone will make your head swirl around.......

[Heidi]

42. Same here. I've never seen so many varieties of _real_ chocolate in my life.

Alas, I'm not a big fan of chocolate. x(

[mcscajun]

39. Another item down the memory hole: the Taste of Real Chocolate

...she felt in the pocket of her overalls and produced a small slab of chocolate. She broke it in half and gave one of the pieces to Winston. Even before he had taken it he knew by the smell that it was very unusual chocolate. It was dark and shiny, and was wrapped in silver paper. Chocolate normally was dullbrown crumbly stuff that tasted, as nearly as one could describe it, like the smoke of a rubbish fire. But at some time or another he had tasted chocolate like the piece she had given him. The first whiff of its scent had stirred up some memory which he could not pin down, but which was powerful and troubling. -- Chapter 2, "1984" by George Orwell

OTOH, So long as it's imported to this country and we can afford it (how long that will be remains in question) there's European Chocolate: Droste, Lindt, Toblerone! :p

[Me.]

40. Perfect

That's it, isn't it? Not just the taste and texture, but the aroma, how you can tell what it is even before you taste it. It always been said that it's the little things that combine to create a quality of life and it's becoming clearer that the quality of our lives is being eroded for no good reason, but for the sake of greed.

[jmowreader]

43. I can think of two reasons they'd want to do this

One is that the cosmetics companies will pay a pretty penny for cocoa butter--probably more than they can make from it by selling it in chocolate. A LOT of skin creams, especially the ones they sell to ethnic markets, have cocoa butter in them.

The other is that it will cut down the production cost of whatever in hell you want to call this product. Chocolate that contains cocoa butter requires conching (a grinding process) and tempering (melting it and bringing it back to the solid state in a controlled fashion), and this Bushocolate wouldn't because the fat is different. Okay, it's gonna taste like one of those 99-cent hollow Easter bunnies, but they'll be able to reduce the price of a dollar bar by a Whole Nickel! Won't that be nice? And the chairman of Hershey will be able to trade in his shitty little Gulfstream IV for a new G550!

[durablend]

59. They're definitely NOT going to reduce the price

No way, no how...even if they were to make them with liquified dog crap, you'll still be paying as much (if not more)

[magellan]

44. Who cares? Hersheys exploits the child slave trade in Africa!

Hersheys exploits the child slave trade in Africa, where it gets its cocoa. Instead of trying to save Hersheys Kisses you should boycott them along with all of Hersheys products. I don't buy anything of theirs anymore.

[Me.]

45. You Make Good Points

However the kisses issue extends beyond those bites to a quality of life issue where nothing is left untouched or uncorrupted. I can remember a time when getting a candy bar in a trick or treat bag was a huge delight. A small pleasure in the scheme of things I'll grant you but like a mustard seed, the small things make a difference. It would also be more satisfying to know that the food we eat and the shoes we wear etc., didn't come at the cost of true hardship to anyone else, child or adult.

[magellan]

47. That's easy -- buy Fair Trade chocolate

Hersheys isn't the only chocolate manufacturer that profits from Africa's child labor cocoa. Nestles and M&M/Mars do too -- all the major chocolate manufacturers are guilty.

So I'll say again that rather than stressing over a change in the chocolate formula, we ought to first boycott chocolate from ANY manufacturer who doesn't support FAIR Trade and the elimination of child labor.

Why not buy Fair Trade chocolate? http://www.newdream.org/consumer/cocoa.php

[Little Wing]

46. Hershey's is crappy enough in the first place

No need to help them dig their own Chinese graves

[rosesaylavee]

53. They are truly evil

Don't mess with my chocolate!

Best chocolate I know can be ordered here: http://www.candinas.com/chocvar.html It redefines the chocolate experience. (end spontaneous commercial) :7

[Me.]

55. Thanks Rose

Those look yummy

[rosesaylavee]

56. I sent them to a friend once who

ate them one at a time over a week - hiding herself in a closet so she didn't have to share with her sons... she is an amazingly thoughtful and generous person but these chocolates will do it to anyone.

The man who owns this business trained in Switzerland and Brazil. Why he's in Verona, Wisconsin beats me - but his chocolate is world class.

[yellowcanine]

57. Hell if they want to sell fake chocolate and call it chocolate let them.

They still have to list the ingredients and people can still taste the stuff. If I want chocolate and it says "vegetable oil" instead of cocoa butter I just won't buy it. Besides it won't be long until rivals start advertising "chocolate with real cocoa butter" and Hershey's will suffer in the market place which is as it should be.

[durablend]

58. Reading PA Hershey plant to close (just reported)

Couple of hundred more jobs out the window come 2008.