Saturday, 21 January 2012

Oh Henry!

The two times I've gone Stateside I've always made sure I partook of the local confections. The three yum yums I remember the most are: Oh Henry! like a cross between a Milky Way and a Snickers; Almond M & M's, need I say more, blissful and last but not least, Hostess Twinkies, which are more of a cake than a sweet but I do love them so!

US readers like Richard will be able to get these goodies down the corner shop but the rest of must try importers. In the UK we have, for example, instore in LIDL and ALDI and online you could try the Stateside Candy Co. Oh Henry!

10 comments:

  1. I think we have M & M's here now, don't we? (I'm out of touch with what's on sweet counters these days, having switched to fruit).

    I fancy trying an "Oh Henry". Do you mean we can buy these in LIDL or ALDI? Or that they will order them if requested?

    The only American sweet I know is Hershey bars. Have you ever tried those, Woodsy?

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  2. No, sorry Toadster, my mistake. LIDL and ALDI sometimes have American sweetstuffs like marshmallow spread and fudge brownies but not really these sweets. You can get them online in the UK. Link shown.

    I also love Reeces Pieces, which can be bought in most sweet shops. As for Herschey's, I personally think it has a quite disgusting taste, like cake chocolate but worse! or Is it just me?

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  3. I've yet to meet a non-American who likes Hershey's milk chocolate. It tends to be the first chocolate Americans are exposed to, so American expectations of what chocolate should taste like is slightly different from anyone else in the world. Even the chocolate sold here under the Cadbury name is formulated for American tastes and doesn't taste like authentic Cadbury! Americans who know chocolate prefer British Cadbury chocolate. Same goes for Kit Kat bars, produced here by Hershey and reformulated to American preferences.

    The reason for the odd taste is that Hershey's milk chocolate is made with a process that stabilizes the milk to prevent spoilage, but the process produces butyric acid, also found in sour milk or Parmesan cheese. So the side effect of keeping the milk from going sour…makes it taste like sour milk.

    I grew up with Hershey and even took a tour of the factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania. I'm used to it. But I no longer think of their milk chocolate as tasting like actual chocolate.

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  4. Incidentally, I have transported Twinkies across the Atlantic for British friends. I think I might be getting too old for the risks of smuggling, though.

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  5. Thanks Richard. Very informative. Now I understand. Parmesan chocolate - thats it in a nutshell! It really does taste sour. I wonder how its doing over here because it is in the supermarkets, often as mini bars with small M&Ms stuck to the bar!

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  6. Thank you for that explanation, Richard. Now it makes sense why I was so disappointed when I finally got the chance to taste it.

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  7. My pleasure, guys. I should also have mentioned there's one major American brand of chocolate that stands out from the rest. Ghirardelli Chocolate is an American company, founded by an Italian immigrant, and now owned by Lindt. When I was a tyke, Ghirardelli was considered a special treat; it's much more widely available now, and I'd say it's the American brand you'd find most agreeable.

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  8. Never heard of Ghirardelli Chocolate before, Richard. Thank you for the suggestion.

    One of my real weaknesses is for drinking chocolate. It's something I find hard to resist, and trying new ones is fun. So, can you suggest an American drinking chockie which I might enjoy, please?

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  9. toad, I haven't done a lot of comparison tasting on drinking chocolate so I wouldn't feel right giving recommendations. I can tell you the biggest American brand is called Swiss Miss. In terms of being the default variety of drinking cocoa for Americans it's as popular and ubiquitous as Hershey. Ghirardelli has a wide range of drinking chocolate varieties, and if I were going to buy some right now that's what I would pick. The third brand you usually see is Green and Black's which if I'm not mistaken is actually a UK brand so you'd already be familiar with it.

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  10. Thank you, Richard. Actually ... I haven't tried Green and Black's, so there's one for me already! (smiles)

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