3 ms·

Foreign Candy Puts American Candy to Shame

14 points by fortran77 4y ago

fortran77 4y ago
I spend about 7 months/year in California (the rest of the time I'm in Tel Aviv) and I'm fortunate to have a store near me that stocks european, near east, and mid-east candy imports! And there are plenty of Asian import stores to get Japanese candy. "Candy" elsewhere does seem more varied and daring. Would people in the United State care for sesame seed "halvah?" Or candy made from rosewater? (I'm not completely negative on American candy. M&M's are wonderful.)
- tialaramex 4y ago
  Are the American M&Ms different from those available to me in England?
  - savanaly 4y ago
    If they're like other milk chocolate, the ones in America would taste bitter to you and the English ones would taste too sweet to me.
  - christkv 4y ago
    I’m not a big fan of M&M in general but the salt caramel ones they sell now in Spain are great.
themodelplumber 4y ago
> The company eventually figured out what was going on: According to Teruhiro Kawabe, Morinaga America’s president, missionaries from the Church of Latter-Day Saints were coming home from stints in Japan, where Hi-Chew has been omnipresent for decades, and buying up as much of the candy as they could find. Damn...Guilty as charged! I was one of those missionaries. I also wrote stationery merchants in the US in the early 2000s to request they carry Hi-Tec C pens, brush pens, paper and binders from Japan, etc. (Hell, my time was split into JPN/BRA and I had spent many days sniffing the air for Brazilian cooking while bicycling around, so I was buying guarana and things too) I was enthusiastically introduced to the hi-tec my first month in country in 1997. Brightened my day considering I was eating carrot sandwiches at the time. By the time I was done with my stint, my average handwriting dimensions had shrunken by half at least! And we broke the damn clips on those hi-tecs every week, but some of mine went through two typhoons on a bicycle and never stopped working. I couldn't bear the taste of American candy for at least a few months after I came back to the states...but yeah nowadays it's great, you can live anywhere and eat other nations' candy if you so please. Devoured some from the UK not so long ago. Oh. And the food I was most sick of from Japan? Spaghetti, French toast, pancakes...it was some of the cheapest stuff you could make there. A 100 Yen store packet of sauce and box of pasta could be a massive meal for a couple dudes even if they were on a bike all day. (No longer practicing Mormon but lots of fond memories of volunteering in rojin homes ;-))
- bobthepanda 4y ago
  The major exception is Nestle candy that is licensed by Hershey in the US, where importation of the corresponding foreign Nestle product might get you sued. Japanese Kit Kat in particular far exceeds the quality of the Hershey product. This seems to escape their attention due to the fact that you can only find it in Asian marts and the packaging is quite different in appearance. But if you go to the store in Ginza they have a gift box of 100+ regional Japanese kit kats that’s an excellent gift.
  - themodelplumber 4y ago
    There's a Japanese restaurant near me which has been selling those Kit Kats for like a couple decades now. Turns out I am a simp for bigkats though. Mostly I want popsicles with beans in 'em, a huge can of Aquarius, and maybe one of those atttakai....i drink vending machines for the winter.
  - cosmotic 4y ago
    How are they better?
    - bobthepanda 4y ago
      Hershey’s chocolate contains a chemical also found in sour milk, and it is intentionally induced by the confectioner: https://www.mashed.com/617307/the-tangy-taste-of-hersheys-chocolate-explained/ https://www.mashed.com/617307/the-tangy-taste-of-hersheys-ch.... It adds a distinct sour note. Non-Hershey licensed chocolate does not have this. --- Japanese KitKat, specifically, have over 200 flavors, partially because the confection is targeted towards gift giving. Domestic tourism in Japan emphasizes regional specialties and bringing back souvenir gifts of said specialties, so there are regionally limited flavors of KitKat. They're also sometimes targeted as a premium product with premium limited-edition run flavors. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/24/magazine/candy-kit-kat-japan.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/24/magazine/cand...
      - 4y ago
vr46 4y ago
No shame, British confectionary has been the greatest in human history (hill to die on) inspiring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Obviously all the great companies have been sold (Rowntree Mackintosh, Callard and Bowser, Fry's, Cadbury) but the products live on. After Eights Kit Kat Flake Wispa Ad infinitum. My parents owned a sweet shop in London in the late 70s-early 80s. Good times.
- craz8 4y ago
  I remember visiting an area of the UK where they were testing those new Wispa bars in the late 70s-early 80s. So those don’t have a huge history yet, but certainly the others are great The Hershey licensed versions of the same favorites in the USA will do at a pinch, but aren’t quite the same. The alternative is some dodgy import that’s way past its prime
  - vr46 4y ago
    Yes indeed, Wispas are definitely still the new kid to me, competing with Aeros, spoiled for choice. I don't have a problem with American confectionary, either, as the article stated, flavours are tuned to the locale, and while you couldn't pay me to eat most American chocolate, there's plenty I'll happily munch on, from M&Ms to Big Red.
chasil 4y ago
Aldi's candy is mostly made in central Europe, and is better (imho) than what is available in U.S. domestic grocers. The Marshall's and TJ Maxx clothing stores usually stock Turkish delight during the holiday months of the early winter. Hershey's is comparatively awful, even as someone raised on it. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-4155658/The-real-reason-American-chocolate-tastes-terrible.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-4155658/The-...
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  Trader Joe’s 72% dark chocolate from Belgium is the best price to quality ratio I have found. But I also do not think milk and white chocolate should exist.
  - chasil 4y ago
    I really like Aldi's dark chocolate (cheaper variety), but it seems a bit sweeter and smoother than most (which some don't care for). I need to avoid sugar, so I have been adding unsweetened cocoa powder to my coffee for the health benefit, so I haven't had them for a while.
mixmastamyk 4y ago
Reminds me of the same silly statements of decades past that equated corporate-crap Budweiser with American beer and Lipton with American tea. Maybe in the 70s they were valid. Today the US is one of the biggest markets in the world. Look up one shelf or two and note the higher quality options and quit pretending Hershey is the only game in town. Try Ghirardelli for example or Trader Joe’s. Specialty stores are a thing as well if you need to spend ten bucks on artisanal heirloom candy. :-D Article starts off in a Japanese market in Brooklyn.
- TylerE 4y ago
  Seems like a regional variation of survivorship bias. Like, yea, the top 10% of anything from anywhere is probably better than the average of anything from anywhere.

14 points by fortran77 4y ago

I spend about 7 months/year in California (the rest of the time I'm in Tel Aviv) and I'm fortunate to have a store near me that stocks european, near east, and mid-east candy imports! And there are plenty of Asian import stores to get Japanese candy. "Candy" elsewhere does seem more varied and daring. Would people in the United State care for sesame seed "halvah?" Or candy made from rosewater? (I'm not completely negative on American candy. M&M's are wonderful.)

tialaramex 4y ago
Are the American M&Ms different from those available to me in England?
- savanaly 4y ago
  If they're like other milk chocolate, the ones in America would taste bitter to you and the English ones would taste too sweet to me.
- christkv 4y ago
  I’m not a big fan of M&M in general but the salt caramel ones they sell now in Spain are great.

themodelplumber 4y ago

> The company eventually figured out what was going on: According to Teruhiro Kawabe, Morinaga America’s president, missionaries from the Church of Latter-Day Saints were coming home from stints in Japan, where Hi-Chew has been omnipresent for decades, and buying up as much of the candy as they could find. Damn...Guilty as charged! I was one of those missionaries. I also wrote stationery merchants in the US in the early 2000s to request they carry Hi-Tec C pens, brush pens, paper and binders from Japan, etc. (Hell, my time was split into JPN/BRA and I had spent many days sniffing the air for Brazilian cooking while bicycling around, so I was buying guarana and things too) I was enthusiastically introduced to the hi-tec my first month in country in 1997. Brightened my day considering I was eating carrot sandwiches at the time. By the time I was done with my stint, my average handwriting dimensions had shrunken by half at least! And we broke the damn clips on those hi-tecs every week, but some of mine went through two typhoons on a bicycle and never stopped working. I couldn't bear the taste of American candy for at least a few months after I came back to the states...but yeah nowadays it's great, you can live anywhere and eat other nations' candy if you so please. Devoured some from the UK not so long ago. Oh. And the food I was most sick of from Japan? Spaghetti, French toast, pancakes...it was some of the cheapest stuff you could make there. A 100 Yen store packet of sauce and box of pasta could be a massive meal for a couple dudes even if they were on a bike all day. (No longer practicing Mormon but lots of fond memories of volunteering in rojin homes ;-))

bobthepanda 4y ago
The major exception is Nestle candy that is licensed by Hershey in the US, where importation of the corresponding foreign Nestle product might get you sued. Japanese Kit Kat in particular far exceeds the quality of the Hershey product. This seems to escape their attention due to the fact that you can only find it in Asian marts and the packaging is quite different in appearance. But if you go to the store in Ginza they have a gift box of 100+ regional Japanese kit kats that’s an excellent gift.
- themodelplumber 4y ago
  There's a Japanese restaurant near me which has been selling those Kit Kats for like a couple decades now. Turns out I am a simp for bigkats though. Mostly I want popsicles with beans in 'em, a huge can of Aquarius, and maybe one of those atttakai....i drink vending machines for the winter.
- cosmotic 4y ago
  How are they better?
  - bobthepanda 4y ago
    Hershey’s chocolate contains a chemical also found in sour milk, and it is intentionally induced by the confectioner: https://www.mashed.com/617307/the-tangy-taste-of-hersheys-chocolate-explained/ https://www.mashed.com/617307/the-tangy-taste-of-hersheys-ch.... It adds a distinct sour note. Non-Hershey licensed chocolate does not have this. --- Japanese KitKat, specifically, have over 200 flavors, partially because the confection is targeted towards gift giving. Domestic tourism in Japan emphasizes regional specialties and bringing back souvenir gifts of said specialties, so there are regionally limited flavors of KitKat. They're also sometimes targeted as a premium product with premium limited-edition run flavors. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/24/magazine/candy-kit-kat-japan.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/24/magazine/cand...
    - 4y ago

vr46 4y ago

No shame, British confectionary has been the greatest in human history (hill to die on) inspiring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Obviously all the great companies have been sold (Rowntree Mackintosh, Callard and Bowser, Fry's, Cadbury) but the products live on. After Eights Kit Kat Flake Wispa Ad infinitum. My parents owned a sweet shop in London in the late 70s-early 80s. Good times.

craz8 4y ago
I remember visiting an area of the UK where they were testing those new Wispa bars in the late 70s-early 80s. So those don’t have a huge history yet, but certainly the others are great The Hershey licensed versions of the same favorites in the USA will do at a pinch, but aren’t quite the same. The alternative is some dodgy import that’s way past its prime
- vr46 4y ago
  Yes indeed, Wispas are definitely still the new kid to me, competing with Aeros, spoiled for choice. I don't have a problem with American confectionary, either, as the article stated, flavours are tuned to the locale, and while you couldn't pay me to eat most American chocolate, there's plenty I'll happily munch on, from M&Ms to Big Red.

chasil 4y ago

Aldi's candy is mostly made in central Europe, and is better (imho) than what is available in U.S. domestic grocers. The Marshall's and TJ Maxx clothing stores usually stock Turkish delight during the holiday months of the early winter. Hershey's is comparatively awful, even as someone raised on it. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-4155658/The-real-reason-American-chocolate-tastes-terrible.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-4155658/The-...

lotsofpulp 4y ago
Trader Joe’s 72% dark chocolate from Belgium is the best price to quality ratio I have found. But I also do not think milk and white chocolate should exist.
- chasil 4y ago
  I really like Aldi's dark chocolate (cheaper variety), but it seems a bit sweeter and smoother than most (which some don't care for). I need to avoid sugar, so I have been adding unsweetened cocoa powder to my coffee for the health benefit, so I haven't had them for a while.

mixmastamyk 4y ago

Reminds me of the same silly statements of decades past that equated corporate-crap Budweiser with American beer and Lipton with American tea. Maybe in the 70s they were valid. Today the US is one of the biggest markets in the world. Look up one shelf or two and note the higher quality options and quit pretending Hershey is the only game in town. Try Ghirardelli for example or Trader Joe’s. Specialty stores are a thing as well if you need to spend ten bucks on artisanal heirloom candy. :-D Article starts off in a Japanese market in Brooklyn.

TylerE 4y ago
Seems like a regional variation of survivorship bias. Like, yea, the top 10% of anything from anywhere is probably better than the average of anything from anywhere.