chocolate in the UK

September 28, 2013 4:35 AM

Is my sense of taste changing with age, or have chocolate bars become disgusting lately? It now seems massively oversweet to an oppressive degree, plus some other intense taste that might be salt, and with very little chocolate-ness. It's become a sort of 'why would I eat that?' thing for me. Cadburys, Nestle, Thorntons (!), Mars, Rowntrees, Ferrero roche, and especially Guylian. I haven't splashed out on luxury chocolate recently so don't know if they're part of this taste disappointment syndrome. Is anyone else noticing the same thing? Why might this be?
posted by glasseyes to Food & Drink (23 answers total)

From watching a doco about a chocolate maker I would say that the brands you mention have a high sugar, low cacao ratio, and that this accounts for a sweet but not very satisfying taste. Guylian always tastes like soap to me. There are (at least in Australia) a lot of chocolate companies that pride themselves now on higher cacao ratio. You may want to try one of these darker chocolates. As to whether they've changed- the doco claimed they had but he had a vested interest- he was setting up his own company. I'm not sure if sugar/cacao ratios have changed or if my own tastes have just matured/altered, but I'm with you, either way.
posted by jojobobo at 4:43 AM on September 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Incidentally, the program was British- something like 'Willie's chocolate revolution'.
posted by jojobobo at 4:45 AM on September 28, 2013

You don't need to splash out on luxury chocolate you just need to buy not-bottom-shelf. Cadbury's et al have, as mentioned, a very low cacao proportion, a lot of sugar and something to do with fat solids that I can't remember.

The Galaxy has a lot more fat than the other two, sugar is the first ingredient, and cocoa solids are only 24% of the bar. With both the G&B and the Lindt, Cocoa is the first ingredient and cocoa solids make up at least 70% of the bar.

A 100g bar of Galaxy is 1.41 at Tesco; a 100 g bar of Lindt 70% is 2.45; a 100g bar of Green & Blacks is 2 quid. I don't know if the sugar/Cocoa/fat ratio has changed in bottom-shelf chocolate but like you I find it pretty gross in my old age.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:13 AM on September 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

you may also find you can enjoy dark chocolate from those brands. when I was in pastry school, one of my chefs told us that the majority of adults come to prefer dark chocolate because it has a lower sugar content.
posted by firei at 5:18 AM on September 28, 2013 [5 favorites]

there is an explanation that might suffice - in that chocolate companies are cutting corners, and spending less time "conching" their chocolate - which explains a taste difference.

i've found madecasse to be pricey, but damn delicious, with a good snap to it. you might like to try moser roth from aldi - which is a rip of lindt, roughly the same taste, cheaper.
posted by gusset at 5:26 AM on September 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Try some Japanese chocolate such as Meiji. I think you may prefer the taste.
posted by banishedimmortal at 5:37 AM on September 28, 2013

You are also seeing a rise in cocoa prices. Articles here, here and here.

The fight for premium cocoa sources has always been fierce but even standard cocoa is getting pricy. More info on types of cocoa.
posted by jadepearl at 5:41 AM on September 28, 2013

Most of the brands you mention contain vegetable fat in addition to cocoa butter, which will affect the taste. You might prefer Green & Blacks, or Co-op own brand.
posted by altolinguistic at 6:03 AM on September 28, 2013

When you say 'lately' do you mean 'it tasted fine a few months ago and now it's all horrid' or 'I haven't had mass produced chocs for ages, tried one for nostalgia, and was horrified'?
Because if the latter: yes, your tastes change over time,and the recipes of the major players will have altered on a, say, biannual basis. Sorry if it's not how you remember it; it might be worth hunting out fancier brands to see if it's the veg fat or low cocoa that bugs you now.

But if the former, I would go straight to a doctor. A sudden change in taste sensation is not a symptom to ignore, although it's not necessarily serious.

(Also, I don't get the snobby hate for some forms of chocolate; I eat my artisan Belgian truffles imported by euro-hopping partner, scoff fair trade high cocoa organic bars, and snarf my dairy milk with equal glee. It's all part of the grand variety of life. Eat what you like, skip what you don't)
posted by AFII at 6:16 AM on September 28, 2013 [7 favorites]

As a Cadbury's loving Brit, I can't say I've noticed a substantial difference in the taste over the years. I was worried when they were bought out by Kraft that there might be some influence in making it taste more "American" like the gritty, tasteless stuff Hershey seems to consider chocolate, but it seems they've left well alone, to my taste buds at least.
posted by wackybrit at 6:20 AM on September 28, 2013

Best answer: Have you changed other parts of your diet? Or had some other major life change? I recently started to find that almost all mass-produced chocolate except for a few very specific childhood favorites (oddly, I really like Cadbury milk, for instance - although the US version has changed since Kraft bought it, sadly) just tasted nauseating. Not in a really physical "this is a symptom" way, but I just didn't like them anymore. And I think it's because the rest of my diet has changed, so their particular blend of sugar/fat seems way less like anything else I eat than it used to. And that in turn has come about accidentally through changes in schedule, social circles and various projects. So anyway, if you've changed something else in your life, it could be having a ripple effect.
posted by Frowner at 6:39 AM on September 28, 2013

Perhaps high-volume chocolate-makers are starting to adjust their recipes in response to the ongoing cocoa shortage?
posted by Thorzdad at 6:41 AM on September 28, 2013

Galaxy came out with a new recipe a couple of years ago, IIRC. The newer one is "smoother", in line with their "silk" advertising. They changed the shape of the actual chunks too, to be a more wavy shape. The texture and taste have both definitely changed.

I've heard from customers that they don't like Cadbury now that Kraft have taken over, but I don't know how much of that is the placebo effect. I don't like Cadbury chocolate myself, so I could well be wrong.

Green and Blacks comes highly recommended by me. If you can get hold if it, Co-op sometimes do a pack of 6 different chocolates, from 6 different countries. The Sao Paolo one is particularly nice. I think this might only be available around Christmas-time, but it might be worth a look right now as retailers are starting to stock their Xmas lines.

Maybe look into trying some higher cacao content chocolate. G&B do an 85% cacao bar, which is very strong. On their website, I think they have a scale of how much cacao is in each bar. They're owned by Cadbury now, but their production values seem to have stayed the same.
posted by Solomon at 7:13 AM on September 28, 2013

Apparently quite a few folk have perceived a change in Cadbury's chocolate. Recent article from the BBC website: Some chocolate lovers say Dairy Milk tastes different since its shape was changed but Cadbury insists the recipe is the same. So can the shape of chocolate change its taste?
posted by poseathon at 7:41 AM on September 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

I have very strong suspicions that hersheys has lowered the quality of their standard bar significantly, as well as the size. It would not surprise me a bit of other companies have as well. Also possible, (not to jump on a bandwagon or point too many fingers) is if they use high fructose corn syrup. My anecdata points to it having a different taste than old style sugar.

My choco addicted fiance loves Green & Blacks
posted by Jacen at 8:12 AM on September 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Hmm...I've read that dark has more added sugar, as the lactose in milk takes away some of the bitterness.
posted by brujita at 8:16 AM on September 28, 2013

One way to think about it is that "high-end chocolate" for anyone born in the 1970s or earlier meant the Bournville miniatures in a box of Roses, or Matchmakers or a dark Terry's Chocolate Orange at Christmas.

I'm sure that there has been cost-cutting at the lower end, especially in the UK market where there's a lot more wiggle room about replacing cocoa butter with generic fats, but it's also a consequence of having a much broader higher-end... and not being a kid any more.
posted by holgate at 10:07 AM on September 28, 2013

I believe that Cadbury's Dairy Milk has definitely changed flavour, and I consider the 'shape change' argument to be a red herring. The new ones taste far less 'chocolatey' than the old ones, they are fattier and much more cloying with noticeably less cocoa content, no matter what the company says. Cadbury's Buttons also taste unpleasantly different - and their shape has not changed.
posted by ragged old crow at 10:26 AM on September 28, 2013

My taste has changed as I've grown older and I can't do Cadbury or Nestle any more. Go a bit higher end with Green and Blacks, Lindt Excellence or Montezuma. It' so much better. If you can afford it try some Roccoco - that's the real deal. Artisan Chocolat is also good IMO. I'm sure the chocolate experts will be along soon to talk about Amadei and Michel Cluizel :)
posted by Summer at 2:48 PM on September 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

The lower-quality-chocolate and shorter-conching-times explanations sound plausible to me, because even better-quality chocolate (Godiva, See's) has seemed to have the sweetness-to-chocolate ratio badly skewed for a while now.
posted by Lexica at 3:01 PM on September 28, 2013

I've tried dark chocolates from all around the world and I hate to say it but the cocoa scientists at Mars must know what they are doing because my favorite is DOVE. All the main other store brands are indeed too sweet, and the boutique brands bitter and/or brittle. Maybe your taste buds have changed. Mine have.
posted by Dansaman at 3:30 PM on September 28, 2013

Best answer: Has your diet changed? When I cut out sugar from my diet (i.e. added sugar), and switched to generally lower sugar level foods, my taste buds changed in the course of a few months. Ever since, I can taste any added sugars in processed food. Worse, a lot of pastry and sweets are now way too sweet for me, to the point where I - a lover and connoisseur of pastries - simply cannot eat it. I've given up entirely on American pastry. When I'm in Europe, it's better, but I can report, that now it seems as if a lot of European taste is also moving in the direction of American "extra sugar". It's a movement from West to East. Until quite recently Eastern European sweets and pastry were still lower sugar, but now the sugar craze is reaching even there - traditional sweets are being reformulated with more sugar. At some point one becomes confined 100% to the low-sugar stuff you can bake yourself.

Bottom line, if those companies have not reformulated their products, but you have changed your diet, it is possible that you have become more sensitive to sugar.
posted by VikingSword at 4:03 PM on September 28, 2013

Response by poster: Oh my god, Terry's chocolate orange! Currently inedible.

I guess the question is still open but I'm inclining to Frowner's and VikingSword's suggestions because I like them. I do eat less sweet things in general now - and I can really taste the added sugar in, for instance, cheap wholemeal bread. Hmm. I guess there's no proof either way though. All the same, marking 'resolved.' Cheers, folks!
posted by glasseyes at 3:48 AM on September 30, 2013