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> For All Things, the big challenge is handling temperamental chocolate in India’s hot and humid climate. Besides the risk of the chocolate melting on delivery,

by bArray 5y ago

> For All Things, the big challenge is handling temperamental chocolate in India’s hot and humid climate. Besides the risk of the chocolate melting on delivery, moisture can also compromise its quality, meaning that the company has to maintain just the right temperature in its kitchen. But on particularly humid days, especially during the monsoon season, production simply has to stop. One thing I have noticed is that Cadbury in the UK is different from Cadbury in other Countries. I suspect they alter their recipes for the target climate - Cadbury in the UK melts if you look at it the wrong way, whereas Cadbury in Australia/NZ tends to do better in heat. Also they tend to have factories closer to their target destinations and they seem to have some trouble exactly replicating the conditions - perhaps background temperature, altitude, humidity, etc, also play a role. Cadbury (UK version) is perfectly serviceable: it's sweet, milky/creamy, melts in the mouth and is relatively smooth. Some other chocolates may be better, but Cadbury is hardly bad at the price point. Contrast that to some cheap Lidl chocolate for example and it tastes rough and unblended, like all the components are there but they never came together.

samwillis 5y ago
> One thing I have noticed is that Cadbury in the UK is different from Cadbury in other Countries. Irish Dairy Milk is the best! My wife’s family is Irish and I spend a lot of time there. Their Dairy Milk is much creamier, much like their milk. I think their blue top “full” milk is much closer to the old “gold top” we used to have here in the UK. My in-laws will send over “care packages” of all my wife’s favourite things, Dairy Milk, Tayto Crisps, Red Lemonade and many other little treats. If you don’t have the opportunity to visit Ireland (you should, it’s beautiful and the people are the best) you can buy Irish Dairy Milk online for delivery on sites catering for Irish expats so you can sample it.
- belter 5y ago
  Noticed this also! Always assumed had bad luck with a batch or it was just sitting at the airport shop for too long. So my taste did not fool me! Thanks for the explanation. Must now find a way to order cross country without melting...
- dbspin 5y ago
  Unfortunately this seems to have changed very recently. Not sure the cause, but there's been a sudden and complete loss of quality in Cadbury products, including Dairy Milk, in Ireland. Chocolate tastes like Nestle now. As discussed (repeatedly) on the Ireland subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/search?q=Cadbury%27s+shite&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/search?q=Cadbury%27s+shite&...
  - NoboruWataya 5y ago
    There may well have been a decline in quality but the overarching theme of /r/Ireland is that everything is awful all the time, so I would take those results with a pinch of salt. It's an overwhelmingly negative subreddit that complains about everything.
    - dbspin 5y ago
      That's a fair criticism, but anecdata though it may be, their chocolate does taste dramatically different to me. I would say that it's not just a recent shift though - the smoothness and richness has been gradually being replaced by waxiness and a softer / cheaper flavour in recent years.
    - messe 5y ago
      You’re not wrong, we do love a good moan in (/r/)Ireland, but I do think there has been a noticeable decline in quality of cadburys products based on offline anecdata. If you want good chocolate in an Irish supermarket, I’d usually recommend either Lindt or the supermarket’s own brand (which is more often than not a rebranding of relatively decent European chocolate).
- bArray 5y ago
  > My wife’s family is Irish and I spend a lot of time there. Their Dairy Milk is much creamier, much like their milk. I think their blue top “full” milk is much closer to the old “gold top” we used to have here in the UK. I wouldn't be surprised if it is creamier if they source their dairy locally. I miss gold top milk! I always try to buy butter from Ireland too, it tends to be richer in flavour. The insanity of the current situation in the UK is that there is a sugar tax (I once got sugar-taxed on a sugar free drink), sweet snacks have been suffering from shrink-flation (or inflation if we're talking about a freddo), and yet, for all of these efforts there is still an obesity crisis. If there is going to be an obesity crisis anyway, it might as well be from nice food. I noticed that Guinness is by far the best when you buy it in Ireland. Mainland Britain is second best, and then it seems to get worse the further out you get. There is not a nicer beer than a fresh hearty Guinness.
andrewshadura 5y ago
I'm not sure why would anyone like what Cadbury sells in the UK. Almost any European brand of chocolate is better than Cadbury, which is extremely sweet. I understand I may be biased not being British, but still.
- nmstoker 5y ago
  I guess it's mainly that "better" is largely subjective and the people pitching bitter, high price, high cocoa bars usually have an axe to grind. Often they use various tricks to sell a tiny sliver of chocolate, using cardboard to hide how thin it is, fancy packaging to distract you and up market branding to make you feel better about it. Personally I'm fine with what market forces deliver - mainly UK focused bars with some variety for those who like to stand out for whatever reason. I'm glad that US chocolate doesn't generally take much of the UK market as it has a tendency to taste rancid to my palette (but again probably highly subjective, each to their own!)
  - technothrasher 5y ago
    Granted at the start, I'm in the US, so I'm not sure what it's like in the UK. Sure, there's plenty of Hershey/Cadbury type cheap (but often satisfying) stuff here, and plenty of expensive crap that's nothing but branding, and sounds like what you're describing. But there's also a huge variety of high cocoa, low sugar bars available that are great tasting, not overly expensive, and not skimpy. Once you skip all the sugar and diary, the complexities of the cacao flavors come through so much stronger, and different chocolates can have very different flavor profiles. It's really a different product from the strongly sweetened chocolate bars. It's definitely true that chocolate snobbery is rampant, and its annoying (as you say, to each their own), but to dismiss the variety of dark, less sweet chocolates available as people having and axe to grind is a shame.
  - brnt 5y ago
    > pitching bitter, high price, high cocoa bars You are missing a wide range in between. I hate buttery fakeolat, I also am not interested in eating raw cacao beans (ie pure chocolate). Both are idiotic assaults on the tastebuds. Never realized how good I had it in the Netherlands. The fakeolat is pretty rare (cheap, bottom of the barrel kid chocolat that no sane adult goes near) and the cacao purist I simply ignore.
mytailorisrich 5y ago
Cadbury is quite bad compared to continental brands. IMHO it only beats American chocolate but that's a very low bar (lying on the ground, even...)
- SonOfLilit 5y ago
  Oh my Hershey's (at least here in Israel) is positively bad-tasting. It has a horrible aftertaste. I don't understand how Americans can live with it.
  - quietbritishjim 5y ago
    There's a really good video about that [1]. A quick summary is that the aftertaste is a chemical that's in vomit, so if you're not used to it in chocolate then the chocolate literally tastes of puke. But if you are used to it, from your childhood, then it tastes great. It's also the same chemical that gives parmesan cheese its pungency, so it's not like Americans are alone in liking it in their food. [1] https://youtu.be/J44svaQc5WY https://youtu.be/J44svaQc5WY
  - kingcharles 5y ago
    When I was young I dated an American girl who would regularly gift me Hershey's products, which all tasted like it was several years past its expiry date. Since living in the USA I've gradually got used to it, to the point where I actually like it o_O tl;dr: acquired taste
- humanrebar 5y ago
  There are other American craft chocolatiers. Just like there are many high quality American brewers though brands like Budweiser and Miller are called "American beers".
BiteCode_dev 5y ago
It's a real struggle for cuisine. One example is french baking. Any good break or croissant is very hard to reproduce in some countries, like Thaïland or Australia, because of the climate. Temperature and humidity plays a huge role. Also you can't source the same ingredients.

by bArray 5y ago

samwillis 5y ago

> One thing I have noticed is that Cadbury in the UK is different from Cadbury in other Countries. Irish Dairy Milk is the best! My wife’s family is Irish and I spend a lot of time there. Their Dairy Milk is much creamier, much like their milk. I think their blue top “full” milk is much closer to the old “gold top” we used to have here in the UK. My in-laws will send over “care packages” of all my wife’s favourite things, Dairy Milk, Tayto Crisps, Red Lemonade and many other little treats. If you don’t have the opportunity to visit Ireland (you should, it’s beautiful and the people are the best) you can buy Irish Dairy Milk online for delivery on sites catering for Irish expats so you can sample it.

belter 5y ago
Noticed this also! Always assumed had bad luck with a batch or it was just sitting at the airport shop for too long. So my taste did not fool me! Thanks for the explanation. Must now find a way to order cross country without melting...
dbspin 5y ago
Unfortunately this seems to have changed very recently. Not sure the cause, but there's been a sudden and complete loss of quality in Cadbury products, including Dairy Milk, in Ireland. Chocolate tastes like Nestle now. As discussed (repeatedly) on the Ireland subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/search?q=Cadbury%27s+shite&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/search?q=Cadbury%27s+shite&...
- NoboruWataya 5y ago
  There may well have been a decline in quality but the overarching theme of /r/Ireland is that everything is awful all the time, so I would take those results with a pinch of salt. It's an overwhelmingly negative subreddit that complains about everything.
  - dbspin 5y ago
    That's a fair criticism, but anecdata though it may be, their chocolate does taste dramatically different to me. I would say that it's not just a recent shift though - the smoothness and richness has been gradually being replaced by waxiness and a softer / cheaper flavour in recent years.
  - messe 5y ago
    You’re not wrong, we do love a good moan in (/r/)Ireland, but I do think there has been a noticeable decline in quality of cadburys products based on offline anecdata. If you want good chocolate in an Irish supermarket, I’d usually recommend either Lindt or the supermarket’s own brand (which is more often than not a rebranding of relatively decent European chocolate).
bArray 5y ago
> My wife’s family is Irish and I spend a lot of time there. Their Dairy Milk is much creamier, much like their milk. I think their blue top “full” milk is much closer to the old “gold top” we used to have here in the UK. I wouldn't be surprised if it is creamier if they source their dairy locally. I miss gold top milk! I always try to buy butter from Ireland too, it tends to be richer in flavour. The insanity of the current situation in the UK is that there is a sugar tax (I once got sugar-taxed on a sugar free drink), sweet snacks have been suffering from shrink-flation (or inflation if we're talking about a freddo), and yet, for all of these efforts there is still an obesity crisis. If there is going to be an obesity crisis anyway, it might as well be from nice food. I noticed that Guinness is by far the best when you buy it in Ireland. Mainland Britain is second best, and then it seems to get worse the further out you get. There is not a nicer beer than a fresh hearty Guinness.

andrewshadura 5y ago

I'm not sure why would anyone like what Cadbury sells in the UK. Almost any European brand of chocolate is better than Cadbury, which is extremely sweet. I understand I may be biased not being British, but still.

nmstoker 5y ago
I guess it's mainly that "better" is largely subjective and the people pitching bitter, high price, high cocoa bars usually have an axe to grind. Often they use various tricks to sell a tiny sliver of chocolate, using cardboard to hide how thin it is, fancy packaging to distract you and up market branding to make you feel better about it. Personally I'm fine with what market forces deliver - mainly UK focused bars with some variety for those who like to stand out for whatever reason. I'm glad that US chocolate doesn't generally take much of the UK market as it has a tendency to taste rancid to my palette (but again probably highly subjective, each to their own!)
- technothrasher 5y ago
  Granted at the start, I'm in the US, so I'm not sure what it's like in the UK. Sure, there's plenty of Hershey/Cadbury type cheap (but often satisfying) stuff here, and plenty of expensive crap that's nothing but branding, and sounds like what you're describing. But there's also a huge variety of high cocoa, low sugar bars available that are great tasting, not overly expensive, and not skimpy. Once you skip all the sugar and diary, the complexities of the cacao flavors come through so much stronger, and different chocolates can have very different flavor profiles. It's really a different product from the strongly sweetened chocolate bars. It's definitely true that chocolate snobbery is rampant, and its annoying (as you say, to each their own), but to dismiss the variety of dark, less sweet chocolates available as people having and axe to grind is a shame.
- brnt 5y ago
  > pitching bitter, high price, high cocoa bars You are missing a wide range in between. I hate buttery fakeolat, I also am not interested in eating raw cacao beans (ie pure chocolate). Both are idiotic assaults on the tastebuds. Never realized how good I had it in the Netherlands. The fakeolat is pretty rare (cheap, bottom of the barrel kid chocolat that no sane adult goes near) and the cacao purist I simply ignore.

mytailorisrich 5y ago

Cadbury is quite bad compared to continental brands. IMHO it only beats American chocolate but that's a very low bar (lying on the ground, even...)

SonOfLilit 5y ago
Oh my Hershey's (at least here in Israel) is positively bad-tasting. It has a horrible aftertaste. I don't understand how Americans can live with it.
- quietbritishjim 5y ago
  There's a really good video about that [1]. A quick summary is that the aftertaste is a chemical that's in vomit, so if you're not used to it in chocolate then the chocolate literally tastes of puke. But if you are used to it, from your childhood, then it tastes great. It's also the same chemical that gives parmesan cheese its pungency, so it's not like Americans are alone in liking it in their food. [1] https://youtu.be/J44svaQc5WY https://youtu.be/J44svaQc5WY
- kingcharles 5y ago
  When I was young I dated an American girl who would regularly gift me Hershey's products, which all tasted like it was several years past its expiry date. Since living in the USA I've gradually got used to it, to the point where I actually like it o_O tl;dr: acquired taste
humanrebar 5y ago
There are other American craft chocolatiers. Just like there are many high quality American brewers though brands like Budweiser and Miller are called "American beers".

BiteCode_dev 5y ago

It's a real struggle for cuisine. One example is french baking. Any good break or croissant is very hard to reproduce in some countries, like Thaïland or Australia, because of the climate. Temperature and humidity plays a huge role. Also you can't source the same ingredients.