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I Paid: 79 cents for a 1.44-ounce bar (prices may vary by region)
There may be no classic American brand more depressing to a patriotic brand-watcher like myself than Hershey's. Their chocolate bars are mostly sugar, with no depth. In fact, if I may continue my rant, I believe Hershey's chocolate is to real chocolate what American cheese is to real cheese: consistent, but the soul's been taken out. Yet just as American cheese makes a swell grilled cheese sandwich, Hershey's chocolate makes a good s'more—it melts uniformly, and doesn't overpower the mild flavors of the graham cracker and the toasted marshmallow.
So it was interesting that Hershey's launched an aerated milk chocolate bar equivalent to the European Aero bar, though it didn't necessarily inspire a lot of hope.
But as it turns out, aeration is a very good thing for low-grade chocolate. The little micropockets of air mean that the chocolate melts much more readily on the tongue, and what little cocoa depth is present gets brought to the forefront. Hershey's Air Delight has a smoother, silkier texture than its conventional cousin, and while it's not a brilliant chocolate bar in absolute terms, it bests many of its gas-station-checkout rivals.
Buy some decent chocolate, Hershey's is an obscenity. I agree with sunnycakes, seek out a local chocolatier and eat some delicious chocolate.
Aerated chocolate... more air, less chocolate for your money... and then there's the flavor... Oi!
*Choxie... Sorry Firefox auto correct gets me every time.
Honestly, do yourself the favor and treat by seeking out a local chocolatier. One piece can get you the chocolate fix that feels like a whole cake. I have reactive hypoglycemia so most store brands are just wayyyy tooo sweet for my blood sugar. The Choc at Target is a good lower readily available brand.
Does the aerated bar also contain silicon dioxide (sand) like the original to give it that gritty texture?
Just a note: Hershey's has gone the even cheaper route of using a castor bean oil derivative, PGPR, for texture. I'm not totally against saving money, but if I wanted a castor bean oil bar, then I would ask for one. We have to be vigilant, 'innovation' can cut into integrity.
My own opinion is it was just sneaky downsizing on the part of Hershey. The Air Bar is 1.44 oz while the regular bar is 1.55. I tried them side by side a while back and didn't detect a difference.
As someone on Chowhound wrote "Even my 13 year old daughter caught the air delight scam. She said "who wants chocolate with added air? You get less chocolate!"
...+READ
My own opinion is it was just sneaky downsizing on the part of Hershey. The Air Bar is 1.44 oz while the regular bar is 1.55. I tried them side by side a while back and didn't detect a difference.
As someone on Chowhound wrote "Even my 13 year old daughter caught the air delight scam. She said "who wants chocolate with added air? You get less chocolate!"
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/808078#6839528
However, I like Hershey's. I also like the $$$$$ artisan chocolate maker down the road. To me Hershey's is the best of the supermarket chocolates. That doesn't make it great, but it doesn't make it bad and it doesn't need to be hidden in s'mores.
A few years ago when upscale chocolate became the rage, I went through almost every bar available. Big price and quality chocolate don't necessarily make for a good tasting chocolate bar nor are there all those winey attributes that sometimes get applied to them ... smokey, coffee notes, etc. etc. A $$$$ bar can be worse than Hershey ... only you pay more.-COLLAPSE
Nestle is awful - by comparison to ANY other choco.
If Bill Buford's "Extreme Chocolate" is to be believed, Hershey's suckage goes back to the origin of the brand. Hershey never really figured out the Europeans' secret to prevent chocolate from curdling and souring during the chocolatemaking process. Eventually, after being unable to fully stop the curdling, he threw up his hands and put his still-kinda-sour product on the market. To this day all...+READ
If Bill Buford's "Extreme Chocolate" is to be believed, Hershey's suckage goes back to the origin of the brand. Hershey never really figured out the Europeans' secret to prevent chocolate from curdling and souring during the chocolatemaking process. Eventually, after being unable to fully stop the curdling, he threw up his hands and put his still-kinda-sour product on the market. To this day all Hershey's chocolate bears the consequences of this decision, while Nestle and other European brands manage to be creamily delicious.-COLLAPSE
I love Hershey chocolate. And I've had all kinds of high-falutin' chocolate from all around the world. I love the waxy texture and sugariness. The ratio of milky-to-bitter is perfect. I'd rather have Hershey than any other.
I don’t think it’s snobbery to want to consume things that actually taste good. I don’t drink Budweiser and I don’t eat Hershey’s. If that makes me an elitist, so be it.
Excess sugar is bad for you. If I am going to splurge and consume sugar I want it to taste good. Eating Hershey’s just seems like a huge waste.
Learned from "The Emperors of Chocolate," a book I read about a decade ago, that Hershey's uses an inferior type of chocolate which is why it tastes "sour." Never would have gone over in Europe, but here in initially chocolate-deprived America, even sour chocolate was enough to make a business. That plus marketing. Sad.
I loved the old Godivas; thank you, Belgand, for explaining the sales of...+READ
Learned from "The Emperors of Chocolate," a book I read about a decade ago, that Hershey's uses an inferior type of chocolate which is why it tastes "sour." Never would have gone over in Europe, but here in initially chocolate-deprived America, even sour chocolate was enough to make a business. That plus marketing. Sad.
I loved the old Godivas; thank you, Belgand, for explaining the sales of the company - which I assume are the reason why hazelnut pralines, lovely liquid caramel fillings, perfect mint and so on have disappeared from their repertoire. All in every box now taste very bland and mass produced, like a uniformly extruded, slightly stale chocolate ganache.
Today I picked up some Bouchard chocolates near the register at our local Whole Foods. Now *this* is what Godiva used to taste like.-COLLAPSE
Aeration improves the flavour of any food, no excuse for using crap chocolate.
http://chilli-recipes.blogspot.com/
Why is it snobbery to like good food?
and it depends on the selected packaging style as to what you get with the Hershey product. Halloween having just passed and the holidays upon us, the "chocolate" is different among sizes/shapes/thicknesses. Some have an amount of creamy meltability, others are akin to eating a bar of wax.
have to disagree, hershey's still sucks. do yourself a favour and have an aero bar instead.
Not just the bottom of snobbery, but Godiva is much like Haagen-Daz: it's faux-European. True, at one point Godiva actually was a Belgian company, but it was sold to Campbell's back in the 60s and a Turkish company just bought it a few years ago.
I worked at one for a summer during college and while it was nice to get tons of written-off truffles (due to blooming we wrote off about half of...+READ
Not just the bottom of snobbery, but Godiva is much like Haagen-Daz: it's faux-European. True, at one point Godiva actually was a Belgian company, but it was sold to Campbell's back in the 60s and a Turkish company just bought it a few years ago.
I worked at one for a summer during college and while it was nice to get tons of written-off truffles (due to blooming we wrote off about half of every shipping carton) there really isn't much to them in the way of quality. Maybe a tiny step above Russell Stover which is their most appropriate comparator.-COLLAPSE
Sourcandy: For me, it's not a question of elitism. Hershey's is truly awful to my palette. I buy better chocolate in bulk blocks, and take a "hit" during moments of "crisis." :-)
And I'll still pass on the Air Delight.
@sourcandy, Godiva is at the very bottom of chocolate snobbery :D
sugar bar
@sourcandy: I can't speak for anyone else, but after I tried better brands of chocolate I realized that Hersheys really is terrible tasting; the texture is waxy and kind of artificial and the taste is way, way too sweet. It's not a snobby or elitist thing - I just don't like the taste of it. I think that's what the article was describing. Yes, better chocolate is more expensive - that's because...+READ
@sourcandy: I can't speak for anyone else, but after I tried better brands of chocolate I realized that Hersheys really is terrible tasting; the texture is waxy and kind of artificial and the taste is way, way too sweet. It's not a snobby or elitist thing - I just don't like the taste of it. I think that's what the article was describing. Yes, better chocolate is more expensive - that's because they don't use fillers (like vegetable oil) in place of the things that give real chocolate its awesome taste and texture. If you like Hershey's, great - don't let anyone convince you otherwise. But other people legitimately feel that it tastes cheap and inferior to other brands, and that's valid too.-COLLAPSE
The "European" Aero bar is a standard Nestle offering here in Canada. Didn't realize it wasn't sold in the States. But trust me, it's still a pretty crappy chocolate bar, even with the aeration.
@sourcandy The reason I don't like Hershey's chocolate anymore is they cut the cocoa products and added cheaper vegetable oil when the FDA changed the chocolate standard. They basically sullied their product in the quest for the all mighty dollar.
I have to really disagree with you on the Hershey bar thing. It's not as rich as some of the premium chocolate on the market, but it's delicious. Are we such elitist foodies that we don't like Hershey bars? Must we pay $3 for a Godiva chocolate truffle that is the size of a quarter?
I thought I threw up a little in my mouth when I first tasted a Hershey's bar. I was wrong.
I think I threw up a little in my mouth while reading this...
can you please review something other than sweets and liquor?
I had one of the Air Delight Kisses a while ago. Really not impressed. I was hoping for a cheaper alternative to imported Cadbury Flake bars (which the store where I'd buy them doesn't seem to carry anymore), but it fell way short. The texture was awkward and the flavor was the usual unpleasant Hershey blandness.