Tag Archives: hershey

Is There Lead In Hershey Bars?

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This is another Yes and No. The State of California is threatening to sue Hershey for failing to put Prop. 65 warning labels on their chocolate bars telling consumers that Hershey bars contain lead. Well Yes, there is lead in Hershey bars, but Hershey doesn’t put lead in their chocolate. Why would they? The fact is that all cacao beans contain a small amount of lead. As Hersheys explains: “All foods that are grown in nature contain small amounts of elements and minerals, such as cadmium and lead, which occur naturally in all soils because they are found in the Earth’s crust.” You may have seen stories in the press over the past year about this and thought about switching to a different brand of chocolate. That won’t do any good. There is a trace amount of lead in all chocolate. In addition to Hershey, California has also filed or threatened to file Prop. 65 lawsuits against Trader Joes, Green and Black, Lindt, Whole Foods, Kroger, Godiva, See’s, Mars, Theo, and Ghirardelli. There’s no decision yet. (P.S. – There is also a surprisingly large amount of nicotine in eggplant, but that’s a story for another day.)

A New Product For Hershey.

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I know an executive at Hershey. Back in May, I sent him my best idea yet for a new Hershey product. You have probably seen commercials for Smucker’s jelly with the line “With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good.” Smucker’s has been using that line in their TV commercials for over 50 years. The idea is that since the name Smucker’s sounds bad, the jelly has to taste good. Using that same logic, I have come up with 3 new Hershey products:

  • Hershey‘s Compound Fracture bar
  • Hershey‘s Painful Bowel Movement bar
  • Hershey‘s Searing Gas Pain bar. Plain or with Almonds

This marketing strategy works for Smucker’s, so why not Hershey? What do you think? This is the best marketing idea I’ve come to come up with, but from what I can see, it doesn’t look that Hershey is going to use it.

The Best Cocoa.

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There are a lot of variables that go into judging cocoa. First, all cocoa is either natural or dutched. Almost all American-made cocoa is natural. ‘Dutched’ cocoa does not necessarily come from Holland. It can be made anywhere. The term ‘dutched’ means that the cocoa was treated with alkali to reduce its acidity and make it darker. If you have a recipe that calls for dutched cocoa, I recommend Droste or Valrhona. If a recipe doesn’t specifically call for dutched cocoa, use natural cocoa.

From what I can see, there is absolutely no correlation between quality and price when it comes to cocoa. In fact, the best brand of cocoa, in my opinion, is one of the cheapest. Below are my ratings for the best and the worst cocoas. I only included unsweetened cocoa powders, not sweetened hot cocoa mixes, like Godiva or Starbucks. Hot cocoa mix is a different product.

The Best Cocoa: Hershey’s Natural Unsweetened Cocoa. Although this is one of the cheapest brands, it is the best. Everything about Hershey’s cocoa is right. The taste is right. The color is right. And most important, it’s made the right way. Hershey shells their cocoa beans and chops them up into nibs before roasting them. When cooled, the nibs are ground into a fine powder. This is the right way to make cocoa, but unfortunately, not everybody does it this way. It is easier to roast the beans first, but that produces a less flavorful cocoa powder.

Hershey’s cocoa sells for 45 cents a an ounce at Berkeley Bowl. They also sell Valrhona, Dagoba, and Scharffen Berger cocoa. All of these brands cost more than 3 times the price of Hershey’s, but none of them are quite as good. Dagoba was the most expensive at $2 an ounce. In my opinion, no cocoa powder is worth $30 a pound. Scharffen Berger and Dagoba are both owned by Hershey.

The Worst Cocoa: Nestle’s Toll House Cocoa. Small children might like a cup of hot chocolate made with Nestle’s cocoa because the flavor is weak, but few adults will will be impressed by this bland cocoa. Nestle’s cocoa is a little cheaper than Hershey, but it’s no bargain.