I remember hearing the reason was the “Dutching” process involved scary sounding chemicals that would freak Americans out. But it’s just an alkaline potassium c

I remember hearing the reason was the “Dutching” process involved scary sounding chemicals that would freak Americans out. But it’s just an alkaline potassium carbonate wash. So that can’t be the reason. I’ll try to look that up. OK, here’s the answer… 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. https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/butyric-acid/1017662.article https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/butyric-acid/1017662...