When Your Stocks Shrivel Eat More Chocolate: Hershey’s Organic Chocolate Review
I did a little info gathering during my “research” at Hershey. The simple facts: they own 40% of the US chocolate market and about 11% worldwide. The vast majority of their goods are neither organic nor Fair Trade. Last year they did buy one of my favorites, Dagoba, and seemed to have allowed that business to go on as usual in its organic and Fair Tradey goodness. Given Dagoba’s success, Hershey has created a line of less exotic organic chocolates to appeal to the less adventurous milk chocolate eaters of the world. Very mild and tasty. Much creamier than a Hershey Kiss. Not a whole lot of chocolate flavor…but most milk chocolate lacks that cocoa intensity. (The only milk chocolate I seek out is Scharffen Berger…which has about 40% beany goodness. Hmmmm…Scharferific.) So why did I buy the Hershey organic chocolates…which are not the healthy dark kind, Fair Trade, or the new Equitrade. In general, as pointed out repeatedly in Omnivore’s Dilemma, corporate organic isn’t thought to be the best solution. No it isn’t..but if you can get the big guys playing along that is still a whole lot less toxic chemical being dumped into the world. The more people show an interest …the more it will shift…the more it shifts..the more affordable..etc.etc. Hershey has a lot of buying power and based on their purchase of Dagoba and this new product line they are open to the next generation of chocolate. And I for one am willing to sacrifice my time and my waistline to nudge them in the right direction.
While on the subject of Hershey and their potential greeness…no recycle bins anywhere in the park…yet they had signs up with green tips on how to save the planet. Their green campaign is about as effective as their warm Hershey Explosion campaign. Yes…last year they actually had a warm liquid brownie concoction called a Hershey Explosion. Who would of thought that exploding body temperature poo colored chocolate wouldn’t be a big seller?
It’s interesting because I think fair trade is much more difficult to find in the US than it is here. Here all the big chocolate manufacturers have gotten on the fair trade band wagon. I hope the acqusition of Dagoba will push Hershey further.
P.S. How did the boys enjoy chocolate land?
Have you read the book, “The Emperors of Chocolate”? It’s a fascinating book that discusses the history of cocoa and how candy bars came to be, and then talks about the major chocolate makers in the US: Hershey and Mars. Really an eye-opening book.
Arduous…they loved it. This is our second year. How do the Queen’s chocolates taste. I’ve always heard they a tad waxy.
Chile…I’m adding it to my library list. I know a little about Hershey himself…making the first affordable chocolate and his war efforts, but not the whole story. It sounds like a great read.