They don't make chocolate like they used to..

Very random thread here most likely of little significance but thought I'd post anyway. Earlier on I bought some 'Euro shopper' chocolate. The cheap kind. I melted it in the microwave on top of some cake. Ate half the cake and left the rest for later. It had been sitting there for a good hour and a half probably more like 2 hours.

I came back to the cake and the chocolate was still melted.. This stumped me and gained my curiosity. As far as I was aware chocolate re-hardens when left at room temperature. It was actually a pretty cool temperature in my town today as well. Perhaps due to the fact it was microwaved? Or possibly even something to do with the fact that it was on top of a cake?...

I know how stupid this sounds. Furthermore I understand how stupid this makes me look.. Its now been well over 3 hours and the chocolate is still completely melted..

For anyone living in the UK: This is the 50p chocolate you get in Premier stores. The same brand as those cheap 35p energy drinks. Test it out and see if you get the same results..

Stupid thread I know but I really was surprised to find the chocolate still melted..

Promoting my own country, but try belgian chocolate?
Not sure how easy it is to get it in other countries though.
Tastes great as well

Originally posted by LanceDH
Promoting my own country, but try belgian chocolate?
Not sure how easy it is to get it in other countries though.
Tastes great as well

Too poor for Belgium chocolate.
Is nice though!

A lot of "chocolate" is mostly wax (or wax like substance). This is why a lot of labels cannot in fact say "chocolate" but chocolaty. For example. Starbucks Chocolate chip mocha had to be changed to chocolaty chip mocha as the percent of actual coco was below the threshold of what's aloud to be deemed chocolate.

There may be an ingredient or chemical added to the chocolate to avoid hardening.
I do know the less ingredients in chocolate, the more likely it will harden and behave like chocolate.
My daughter has food allergies, and for holidays we make our own chocolate candies out of the Enjoy Life brand of choc. chips.
When the chocolate is melted, it will separate (did your chocolate try to separate?), when it hardens at room temperature, it like a chocolate chip. When refrigerated, it's like eating a rock. Did you refrigerate the cake? Did it remain the same consistency, or create a hard shell?

Sitting there watching chocolate melt?

Can I have your job?

Easter chocolate has moved to that new synthetic chocolate. Tastes worse than vomit. My kids won't even eat the stuff. We threw out at least 3/4 of this years Easter chocolate due to it being artificial.

You'll notice the package says milk chocolate flavour where it used to say real milk chocolate. Even the good stuff like Mr solid has moves to this.

Egg shaped chocolate in the little mesh bags have gone to this as well.

Oh and did I mention its more expensive.


Gross

reply to post by TechUnique


Not a stupid thread at all
I actually enjoyed reading it...
sorry your chocolate sucks though!

I've had the same problem in the past...

I'm a budget shopper... I try to make my dollar go as far as possible!

I bought this really obscure brand of chocolate chips once...

I melted it, as I have in the past...

Poured it into lil snowman molds put lil sticks in it...

I smiled and said... ahhhh its Christmas time again!

I left them on the counter.... 40 minutes later...
it was still liquidity...

So I put it in the fridge and went on with my daily activities...

Came back 6 hours later... and it had the same consistency as Hershey's syrup!

So I sighed... and used it as syrup for my ice cream...

It was okay when consumed in that matter...

But i never bought that kind again for chocolate making!

Originally posted by jude11
Sitting there watching chocolate melt?

Can I have your job?

Can I just have a job?
I'm honestly dying for one, can't get hired anywhere..

reply to post by TechUnique


I noticed that you used the microwave to heat this chocolate.
Have you ever tried heating this by conventional means ?

I would ask you to repeat heating a small sample portion of the same chocolate conventionally, as in on a stove using heated water/steam as to validate/invalidate the effects of microwaving or not.

I have seen a huge amount of profiteering in the food that we buy. It's everywhere....I am surprised they aren't selling us 11 eggs for the price of a dozen by now... it's probably only because it's too expensive to change the packaging.



Sorry to hear about your employment situation....but at least you are doing something that makes you happy which is important.

Most of all keep smiling and enjoy your time off ! It's good for the soul !!!!





PEACE

Chocolate is made from the Cacao (spelled correctly) bean. When harvested, the beans are dried and separated based on quality. The better the bean, the higher the price and the more expensive the chocolate that is made from it.

The lower quality bean generally has more oils left in it after the drying process. Special processing can remove some of those oils, but also costs more and raises the price of the chocolate. As a result, the cheaper chocolate may have more oil in it and, when melted, will not re-solidify well.

A good read on this subject is the free Kindle book Cocoa and Chocolate: Their History From Plantation to Consumer

Be Well.

Originally posted by TechUnique
The cheap kind.

That was your first mistake!

Originally posted by metaldemon2000
Easter chocolate has moved to that new synthetic chocolate. Tastes worse than vomit.

Is this new? I have never liked Easter chocolate at any point in my life. I always swore it was leftover from last Halloween and repackaged just to get rid of it. It's always stale and has a nasty flavor.


As a general rule in my house, we only buy brand names of chocolate - Hershey's and Nestle's are obvious - I personally really like Dove Dark chocolate mmmmmm
I also have a weakness for the Ferrero collections - #1 Rondnoir, #2 Rocher, #3 Garden (coconut) mmm
ooooo I even found a wiki page for it, and wow there's like 7 others I haven't tried yet, yum - these are more expensive confections

I personally would NEVER try to melt any choclate in the microwave... its been years since anyone in my house baked anything, but I'm pretty sure even when you make your own icing at home with bakers chocolate, it has to be done on the stove, and ingredients added (like butter and sugar)


Even if you're poor - you can usually get a bag of GOOD chocolate for under $3.00 (of course I'm in the US) - most bags have between 20 and 30 pieces (if you just buy plain with nothing else involved) - that works out to 10 or 15 cents a piece - thats pretty cheap IMHO


Meanwhile, I agree with this on why it didn't reharden...

Originally posted by collietta
There may be an ingredient or chemical added to the chocolate to avoid hardening.

Don't buy chocolate unless it's fair trade and organic. Unless you think your craving is more important than keeping an African boy enslaved. And if you think that you need to be culled.

About three years ago Hershey's tried to get the definition of chocolate changed for the US market. They failed so they had to change some of there labels to say "chocolate candy" instead of "milk chocolate". The main ingredient change was from cocoa butter to vegetable oil. Link is below.

today.msnbc.msn.com...-etT8kTA

reply to post by wiandiii

Products such as Whatchamacallit, Milk Duds, Mr. Goodbar and Krackel no longer have milk chocolate coatings, and Hershey’s Kissables are now labeled “chocolate candy” instead of “milk chocolate.”

Glad they listed which ones - I don't eat these

I generally do not buy chocolate mixed with anything unless its Ferrero

if I buy Hershey's, Dove, Nestles - its just straight chocolate - preferably Dark chocolate (not because its healthier, but because I like the flavor)

It still offers real milk chocolate in Hershey’s Kisses, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and its classic chocolate bar.

“And recently it put back the milk chocolate in Almond Joy because consumers complained,” Lieberman said Friday in her report.

PHEW cause I do like Almond Joy on occassion but mostly for the coconut, so I don't really care if the thin chocolate shell was made with Vegetable oil instead of Cocoa butter (since thats all they did different)

May said the recipe change has ruined the Hershey’s taste for her. But in a blind taste test conducted by TODAY, about half of the participants said they liked the new Hershey’s Kissables even better than the Kissables with cocoa butter.

Nevertheless, some taste-testers were alarmed to learn about the switch from cocoa butter to vegetable oil. One woman said she felt “kind of cheated.”

Hey I think my shampoo has cocoa butter in it!


I wonder if they changed any of the others back since the article was written in 2008 - I looked briefly but didn't care enough to dig

wow look what I did find! Article from yesterday

A year has gone by since non-profit groups shined a spotlight on Hershey for its use of forced, child, and trafficked labor in its chocolate products. Twelve months later, the groups are saying that no progress has been made and that Hershey chocolate is still tainted by child labor.
Source: The Sacramento Bee

guess I need to be culled


thats a joke, odds are after reading that, I will be less likely to purchase anything Hershey's
I like Dove better anyway

reply to post by Forevever


If you really care about where it comes from check out Cocoa Camino products. They taste awesome and they are ethical and sustainable.

I'm an optimistic person so I hope that once people find out how their products get to them they make changes. I'm not saying don't eat chocolate. Just make sure that chocolate isn't contributing to the suffering and destruction of our planet. If the average person cannot stop putting their own desire for luxury ahead of the well being of this planet and our fellow humans then we are doomed as a species.

So tell your friends, and post on Facebook. Democracy is practiced with Dollars not votes. Refuse to buy ANY product which is made at the expense of the environment or humanity as a whole.

Originally posted by Buddha1098
Don't buy chocolate unless it's fair trade and organic. Unless you think your craving is more important than keeping an African boy enslaved. And if you think that you need to be culled.

Which is way too expensive and hell, not to sound cruel or heartless but we give billions to Africa for decades and not a penny goes to the people who need it, plus the Africans are selfish enough to keep having children despite the poverty and HIV.

Personally, the only chocolate in my area is either Cadbury's, Nestle, Mars (are they owned by Nestle? Some products including the regular Mars bar have the Mars label) and if I can find it, Hershey's. Unless I go to Thornton's and have some of their own chocolate.

Interesting coincidence for me. I was having lunch with my GF two hours ago and munching on some chocolate desserts she had made. She commented that the melted chocolate coating didn't harden up correctly per her experience with cocoa.

Half jokingly, I "explained" that since the price of cocoa beans had gone up tremendeously in the last year that the makers of chocolate were probably putting in fillers and substitutes to maintain the usual price and that the product suffered in quality.

With boxed products, they simply reduce the contents to hide the higher cost of their product. With cocoa, it is a bit different, so they alter the formula with cheaper ingredients.

reply to post by Forevever


I got a "Thorntons" chocolate egg this easter just gone.
You'd think Thorntons means quality but it di have a very stale taste, I couldn't eat it.
The year before I got a Cadbury's Caramel egg, the egg was as good as it gets, but the free mug it was sitting on smelt like fecies, urgghh I still remember the smell.

reply to post by Chukkles


When did you buy the egg?

Thornton's is very high quality chocolate and having worked there, I know that they have Easter stock put in after Valentine's and prefer to have the stock delivered in early February put on the front of the shelves and marked on the cardboard boxes/put in order in the stock room too (one of my jobs there was doing all that alone).

The place you bought it from could've accidentally had February stock sold in April or something.