Chocolate- where have you gone?


 This week, I want to talk to you about chocolate.  One of my favourite subjects.  I am very proud of my daughter Emma who is doing Dechox during May.  It consists of abstaining from partaking in any form of chocolate for the whole month.  She is doing it for The British Heart Foundation and is hoping to raise money.  Knowing how much Emma loves chocolate, as do I, I know this will be a real challenge.  Anyone wanting to sponsor her can do so here. 

But Why Does UK Chocolate taste so minging nowadays?

When I was a child you could bite all the chocolate off of a Club Biscuit in large chunks and still have some biscuit left.  Remember the advert, 'If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club.'  Now they can't even call it chocolate because it has changed so much.  They legally have to describe it as 'Chocolate Flavoured Coating,'  or even worse, 'chocolate flavoured vegetable fat'.  If it contains so little cocoa solids, (less than 20%) it doesn't qualify as chocolate.  Cadburys have even replaced their vanilla with artificial vanilla flavouring derived from crude oil.  If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, hard luck.  I find this change leaves your mouth feeling like it has eaten a bar of lard.  Don't even get me started on Penguin Bars,  P-P-P-P-Put down that Penguin, another chocolate flavoured coating abomination. 

But in Willy Wonkas sake why?

Our beloved Cadbury's products seem to be the worse ever since the American company Kraft did an aggressive take over, things have never been quite the same. Buttons taste awful and cream eggs are smaller and don’t taste the same. They leave me feeling quite sick.
The industry says that due to increasing costs of cocoa, mainly because of bad harvests this has led to a shortage of supply and with an ever increasing demand, cuts have had to be made and so costs have had to go up.  As well as reducing the amount of cocoa and introducing palm oil, they have also reduced the product size and increased the cost.  This is called 'Shrinkflation'.  Remember when wagon wheels were HUGE?

Remember curly wurlys?
In the early 70's curly wurly was generally known as being 12 inches long and weighed 28g. Now it is two-thirds of it's original size and weighs 21.5g.  The bar is now mainly sold in multi-packs.

It is so disappointing, we used to laugh at what Americans called chocolate, (ever tried a Hershey Bar?) now we are the same.  
But all is not lost. I have discovered the chocolate in Aldi.  OMG, the fruit and nut takes me all the way back to when chocolate was chocolate heaven.  Huge nuts and large pieces of raisins and I'm sure there really is a glass and a half of full cream milk in every bar.  Don't all head over there at once though, leave some for me, and I'm sorry Emma but you have to wait until June. xx

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Year dot begins

Image
 I (Sally, Sal to some,) have missed writing a blog so much I will endeavour to begin this year with a new one called The Year Dot, or sallysyeardot.blogspot.com  for people trying to find it online. “Why Dot?”  I hear you ask, …I’m sure I heard someone ask.  Well as a few of you know, I was called Dorothy Sally originally on my birth certificate but somewhere along the line, long before I can remember, I have always been called Sally.  However Dorothy stares up at me from that pink  birth certificate and so that is what I have to put on all my important official documents including passports, health records etc. So thank you parents! Or should I say Dad, because when I asked my bohemian mother on one of my visits to her hillside mediaeval village inTuscany where she had resided for 35 years before her demise, she told me “Your father dealt with all that as you were a bit of a surprise!” (Thanks again!). The Year Dot refers to this year, 2026.  I have ...
Read more

Health & Fitness

Image
  Keeping Fit Here we are half way through January and I have already failed at my diet but I am still going to crossfit twice a week and my walking speed up the hill outside my house was commented on the other day so something is working.  But the days when I was a slim size 12 have long since gone and I see no sign of them ever returning.   So far I have tried weight watchers, slimming world, keto, and fasting.  All diets seem to do is give you weeks of misery and after losing a few pounds, you look at a doughnut and instantly put it all back on again, I seem to inhale calories.  I am very fortunate to have a husband who loves cooking, we always cook from scratch and eat very healthily but our downfall is our huge dinner plates.  We have tried to use smaller plates but the thing is, we used to cook for five people plus when the kids were at home and now they are gone it is hard to keep the portions small, so although we sometimes use small plates there is...
Read more

Holidays

Image
Holidays, holibobs, getaways, whatever you like to call them, often get thought of and planned about this time of year don’t they? When you are retired, as we are, and have been for the last seven years or so, it makes you wonder, what are we holidaying from?  We are fortunate enough to live in an idyllic place with a sea view and within walking distance to a very pretty fishing village why would we want to leave? To be honest nowadays I feel slightly homesick even when we have to go shopping! Anyway who wants to add to their carbon footprint any more than necessary, but I didn’t always feel this way. Remember when we nearly… ‘ Remember when we nearly went to Istambul ’ This advert made a lasting impression When Martin and I visited London in the early 1990’s we saw this poster staring at us while we waiting in the underground.  We looked at each other and vowed never to let things come to this.  We always have tried never to have a regretful ‘remember when we nearly…’ mo...
Read more