Why is Japanese chocolate

[Kaligraphic]

better than American chocolate?

Seriously. Compare a Hershey chocolate bar with a Meiji chocolate bar - the Meiji bar will be smoother and higher quality, even for the same price.

Thoughts?

[shooraijin]

Because Americans don't understand chocolate. We think a Baby Ruth "chocolatey coating" constitutes chocolate, for crying out loud.

[Sync]

High Fructose Corn Syrup also adds to that.

[Lynx]

it's all a matter of opinion i guess. I have never tasted the chocolatey goodness of japanese chocolate, due to the fact that i'm allergic to chocolate

[Arnobius]

I had a friend go to Austria and bring back many bars of a brand called "Milka" Much better than anything here. She told me it was incredibly cheap over there... I tghink something like 25 cents apiece equivalent

[shooraijin]

High Fructose Corn Syrup also adds to that.

Could be that. We don't use sugar in those kinds of foods because of the high taxes it incurs.

[Steeltemplar]

I had a friend go to Austria and bring back many bars of a brand called "Milka" Much better than anything here. She told me it was incredibly cheap over there... I tghink something like 25 cents apiece equivalent

Yeah, chocolate from Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the like is sooooo good. Anyone here like Ritter Sport?

[shooraijin]

Actually, I didn't like Ritter Sport (I had some when I was in Italy) -- it was too sweet for my tastes. I like my chocolate a little more bitter, not dark, but a little less sweet.

[Ingemar]

Belgian > everything else.

[livewire]

I've never tried Japanese chocolate...

is it comparable in quality to Swiss and German chocolates?

[Slater]

German Chocolate will pwn you all. So says my friend who was born and raised in Japan, moved to America, and is currently living in Germany.

But she also says it is uber expensive...

[Bobtheduck]

Could be that. We don't use sugar in those kinds of foods because of the high taxes it incurs.

It isn't just tax that we don't use sugar... People were deathly affraid of white sugar... THought it caused all sorts of problems... So, corn syrup was used as a substitute... Now, peopel attribute those same problems to corn syrup, so the general idea is that all sugar causes problems...

Problem with that idea, however, is that our body needs sugar... We need all the simple sugars to function properly, it's just we get an overdose of glucose... That's why we need stuff like Apples and Blackberries and seaweed and soybeans and eggs and shiitake... If we had all of those things in our diet, we'd get all the right kinds of sugar we needed, and our body wouldn't react so badly to an overdose of glucose... I think I'm gonna start getting all that stuff and juicing what I can, blending what I can't... I digress... yeah, chocolate should be made with sugar... I wonder what using unrefined sugar would do for chocolate... Hmm...

Hmm... Corn syrup... I think I got an overdose of Corn products when I went on my daniel fast... Made me sick...

[Mave]

I don't recall how Japanese chocolate taste but try comparing the labels. I think they will reveal much based on the components (and ratios) that make up the chocolate component. I'm not too convinced that HFCS is the sole culprit though. When comparing Hershey's and Ghirardelli, while the ingredients vary, different flavor profiles are also highly dependant on the processing method. There are U.S. standards of identity that food companies in the U.S. has to comply with:

Milk Chocolate
- A combination of chocolate liquor (not alcohol), cocoa butter, sugar and milk or cream. Milk chocolate must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor and at least 12% total milk ingredients.

Sweet Chocolate
- A combination of chocolate liquor, cocoa butter and sugar, but contains at least 15% chocolate liquor.

Semisweet Or Bittersweet Chocolate
- A combination of chocolate liquor, cocoa butter and sugar, but contains at least 35% chocolate liquor. Sweet chocolate and semisweet chocolate are often called dark chocolate.

White Chocolate
- Made from the same ingredients as milk chocolate (cocoa butter, milk, sugar) but without the nonfat cocoa solids. In 2002, FDA established a standard of identity for white chocolate. White chocolate must contain at least 20% cocoa butter and 14% total milk ingredients.

[Source: http://www.hersheys.com/nutrition/chocolate.asp)

I heard the unique taste of Hershey's chocolate was an accident on the processing line.....which consumers liked. What's a company to do? Keep it rolling, baby....

[Steeltemplar]

Actually, I didn't like Ritter Sport (I had some when I was in Italy) -- it was too sweet for my tastes. I like my chocolate a little more bitter, not dark, but a little less sweet.

Yeah, it is pretty sweet. I love that sort of chocolate, but I can only eat it in little pieces. I'll break one off and then wait a bit before breaking another off. Too overpoweringly sweet otherwise.

I myself do have a thing for the dark chocolate. I'm not sure what is less sweet than the milk chocolate but more than dark. What brands do you like?

[ShiroiHikari]

Yeah, chocolate from Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the like is sooooo good. Anyone here like Ritter Sport?

Oh man, that stuff is awesome. I found it at my local Albertson's and thought I'd give it a shot. That's some of the smoothest, nicest chocolate I've ever had. But it took me more than a week to eat the whole bar XD

[Alice]

This is what I do: take unsweetened chocolate, and eat it with raisins.

Then I pound my chest from toughness. (Actually, not, but it is one way I can eat chocolate without eating refined sugar. Try that a few times and then see how much you complain about sweetened chocolate!)

[The Last Bard]

Australian chocolate is much better then our Hershys. I think we Americans just try to make everything so much cheaper.

[Puritan]

I think much of the taste difference comes from cheap ingrediants and processing methods. Nestle chocolate is made by a Swiss company, but the flavor isn't any better than Hershey's, but Ghirardelli chocolate is really good and it's from the US. I guess much of the difference comes from consumer desires: if you want a $0.50 candy bar, you don't get very good taste, but that seems to be what sells here. I personally love almost any well-made dark or semi-sweet chocolate as white and milk chocolate tends to be too sweet for my tastes, and I've had really good varieties from places ranging from the US to South America or many countries in Europe.

[Scribs]

My experience is that everyone makes better chocolate than the US. But there is not much we can do about it.

[Sweet Mercury]

My experience is that everyone makes better chocolate than the US. But there is not much we can do about it.

That seems to be a trend for most American products. Americans have lost our virtue of discernment, and instead we latch onto things based on either novelty or traditional appeal. We need to stop settling for crap!

Either way, there is good chocolate available in the US. Green & Black's and Dagoba are two brands I have been telling everyone about. The chocolate is smooth and delicious, and they use real cane sugar for sweetener.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

ooohhhhh man! European Chocolate is AMAZING! I was at the airport in Poland (on the way to Munich connecting to Windsor) with my missions trip people. We stopped by this little store and had so many goodies and stuff. They had like so many x% chocolates. I think like for example: 90% meant it was bitter and 90% raw cocoa beans, while like 10% was more milky and sweet and stuff. Needless to say, I went with a low percentage

[Tommy]

It is all in a matter of opinion.
My favorite is Hershey`s.