In the US, we’ve gotten some really good chocolate over the last couple of decades and I’ve mostly avoided Hersheys over that time. We especially have some excellent dark chocolates. Your “bad chocolate” stereotype was all too true and may still be on average, but things are changing.
High amounts of criollo beans can grant a sour taste if I recall correctly particularly if they are lower quality as can the method you choose for conching (one of the steps in chocolate making) that Milton Hershey created. If they are thinking of something like Hershey’s Special Dark that has a bit of that sourness to it.
American chocolates (like Hershey’s) tend to taste more sour because they have more sugar and less cacao. The milk also tends to have a more butyric acid taste for some reason. Perhaps the difference is how the milk is treated, but those are trade secrets.
IIRC, this “accident” is simply because chocolate producers figured out it’s cheaper to make the milk slightly taste like vomit (something the Americans apparently didn’t mind too much) than cooling it properly. I think nowadays that wouldn’t really fly but back then cheaper chocolate was maybe so desirable that consumers didn’t mind the weird taste.
Adam Ragusea did a great video about the history of Hershey’s and how that flavor probably came to be so prevalent. Very worth the watch. youtu.be/J44svaQc5WY
I have to stop about 70%. Every 80%+ tastes like plastic to me, it’s a weird sensation for me. Have always loved 70% dark chocolate though, as well as milk.
White? It’s mostly a toleration rather than an enjoyment. I like it in a few specific things like a white mocha or a few varieties of cookies. But never by itself.
Wait, dark chocolate is sour? Very high concentration (80%+) dark chocolate is close to powdery and has some fruity notes, but it's usually slightly bitter rather than sour to me. It's not my favourite but I can't think of it as being sour.
There are some chocolates that are definitely sour, sometimes that’s a desired flavor when making chocolate. For example, the last batch of single origin Peru chocolate was noticable more sour than the Bolivian and Ecuadorian ones I made. I’d actually intentionally selected my beans knowing this.
Most white chocolate in the USA is bullshit. Real white chocolate is cocoa butter, sugar and an emulsifier. Most of the USA is soy, an emulsifier, vanilla, and sugar.
In think that’s the point. Most people on here soon to be American and so are basing their opinion on American chocolate (which is disgusting awful regardless of type)
White chocolate is the only chocolate I’ll eat. Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, any other kind of chocolate; I can’t comprehend why people like it so much. I’m more of a strawberry/vanilla guy. At least they don’t taste like stale coffee mixed with sugar to cover the taste.
There is a literal sweet spot for me, totally dependent on my taste and mood of the day where dark chocolate is just dark enough that fruity noted of the chocolate shine through the bitterness. Which is not to say that I don’t also love milk chocolate, sour milk chocolate aka Hershey’s, and white chocolate.
Some of that stuff is only good to use in baking or otherwise as an ingredient.
There are some dark chocolates that are meant for dégustation as well but usually a bit lower on the cacao % and with complex flavour profiles kind of like wine.
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