AHC: American chocolate better than European chocolate

In OTL mass-produced American chocolate (e.g. Hershey's bars) is generally of lower quality than European chocolate, to the point that it sometimes doesn't even quality as chocolate by more stringent European standards. How did this state of affairs come to be, and how could we create the opposite situation?
 
[ fishes monkey's paw out of desk ]

The DeGaulle government fails, and France is plunged into civil war. The Communists take power, and presently most of Europe is behind the Iron Curtain, with dreadfully bad chocolate available as a luxury item for upper Party members only.

Across the Channel, Cadbury's chocolate is still available ... until the Much-Worse Windscale Accident.

"Ghirardelli: the best chocolate in what's left of the Free World!"
 
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Well, to help create the opposite, at the very least get a bunch of European chocolatiers to move to America. Maybe the American chocolate companies hire them and have them come over, or they just happened to have immigrated, and get hired after they arrive.
 
In OTL

If you’ve ever tasted American milk chocolate, especially Hershey’s, and you’re used to British or European chocolate, you’ll probably recall it has a distinctive tangy flavour. This is because the milk in Hershey’s chocolate is treated with butyric acid to make it last longer. Unlike in Britain, where dairy farms are close to chocolate factories, in America the source of milk can be thousands of miles away. During the advent of chocolate’s popularity, the early 20th century, there were limited refrigeration options and slower transport systems than today. This posed a problem – how to keep the milk fresh? The solution back then was to allow the milk to deteriorate, or sour, in a safe way before transportation.

Around the 1930s, Milton S. Hershey, founder of The Hershey Company, pioneered the use of butyric acid to stabilise milk, causing it to undergo a process known as lipolysis. The full method is a trade secret, known simply as the ‘Hershey Process’. American chocolate fans are so used to the sour, cheesy taste that other chocolate manufacturers who don’t use the Hershey process actually add butyric acid to give their chocolate that distinctive, long-lasting tang - which lovers of sweet, creamy British chocolate describe as tasting like parmesan cheese or even baby sick.

Source : https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/butyric-acid/1017662.article

The ratio of cacao (actual chocolate) to milk and sugar (the other ingredients in chocolate) is also low in most US bars. By low, I mean that in the United States, a chocolate item only has to contain 10% cacao to be called “chocolate.” The other 90% is just milk and sugar.

If you dig into today’s chocolate industry in United States, you find little differences between the big chocolate companies. They get their chocolate from the same chocolate processors. This chocolate is produced en masse without any respect or care for the quality of cacao. Mixing huge quantities means that the taste is averaged. Even worse, products from different companies have the same taste.

The second major difference is sugar content. As a result of American-made chocolate having lesser percentage cacao, there is a higher sugar content. That’s why Americans are usually known for their lighter, sweeter milk chocolates while Europeans consider their chocolates to be almost bitter as a result of the low sugar content.

Fat content is another distinguisher between American and European chocolates. When adding cocoa butter and cream to their chocolates, Americans and Europeans differ in both the amount and the fat content. European chocolates, with their smoother, richer flavor, use European butter and cream, which has a higher fat content. To accentuate the smoothness of the chocolates, Europe also uses more cocoa butter, further accentuating the difference in taste.

According to the label, a British Cadbury Dairy Milk bar contains milk, sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, vegetable fat and emulsifiers. The Hershey version, on the other hand, lists sugar as its first ingredient. Its list also includes lactose and the emulsifier soy lecithin, which keeps the cocoa butter from separating from the cocoa.

When people say “European” chocolate, they’re referring to the process in which it was made, not the source of the chocolate. By the way, UK chocolate has less cacao than Continental EU varieties, it’s too soft and not bitter enough.

Chocolate according to FDA, what a crime
https://www.registrarcorp.com/fda-chocolate-standard-identity/
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.retailcon.../kettle_talk/Chocolate_Standards_of_Ident.pdf

ITTL

You need stronger regulations by FDA, like
  • 70% or greater Cacao solids
  • no artificial flavors,
  • no extra ingredients
  • maximum of 5 ingredients, with Chocolate being TWO of the top three,
  • a preference for ORGANIC and FAIR TRADE.
  • a preference for non foil wrapping.
  • fresh (a recent date)
Labels containing :
  • variety (sub-species)
  • place of origin (where it was grown)
  • date of harvest
  • date of manufacture
  • percentage of Cocoa Butter and Cacao Paste
  • percentage of vanilla and lecithin, if any
  • parent company of manufacturer
Coming from a country famous for its chocolate, I think that USA must clearly separate the chocolate industry from the candy one. The earlier this separation happens in history, the tastier chocolate you have nowadays.

You can also try to provide a real and tasty chocolate bar to US soldiers during WW2, as a way to modify their vision of chocolate. Taste for chocolate is largely acquired during youth and cultural. It all depends on being accustomed to tastes since childhood and if enough children eat the same food for decades, it becomes a national habit and even part of a culture/tradition (SPAM and Oceania).

WW2 is the reason why Coca Cola, spam, chewing-gum and sweets (including sweeter chocolates) are so widespread in USA and abroad (Japan ...).

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_chocolate_(United_States)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_chocolate_(Switzerland)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scho-Ka-Kola

Killing Hersey or bringing foreign chocolatiers or processes won’t help, if you don’t modify the FDA regulations.
 
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BTW - British chocolate isn't the same as European chocolate. EU regulations allow milk chocolate produced in the UK, Ireland and Malta to contain 20% cocoa solids, whilst the rest requires at least 25%.

European chocolate tends to have a higher cocoa content than British chocolate (which I am used to), and is more bitter by comparison.
 

trurle

Banned
In OTL mass-produced American chocolate (e.g. Hershey's bars) is generally of lower quality than European chocolate, to the point that it sometimes doesn't even quality as chocolate by more stringent European standards. How did this state of affairs come to be, and how could we create the opposite situation?
It all depend on being accustomed to tastes since childhood. For example, my wife cannot eat typical European chocolates at all - due to perceived too high cacao contents to be edible.
 
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