Hershey's Cocoa...Dutch or Special Dark or both?

[Starkman]

Hey all,

Say, if I recall correctly, Hersheys used to sell cocoa dutched process. Now all I can find for them is "Special Dark." Is this their dutched chocolate? Havey they added anything else to it?

Thanks,

Starkman

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I don't ever recall seeing a Hershey's cocoa that was dutched, however the Hershey's website says Special Dark is a "blend of natural and dutched cocoas". The other Hershey's cocoa, "Natural Unsweetened", is said to be non-alkalized.

[pacman1978]

All the hersheys chocolate I have ever tried has turned out to be truly awful. Do they do a proper high quality dark chocolate? A standard kind of supermarket high quality chocolate here in the uk would be something like Green and Blacks.

I'm always shocked by how bad chocolate is in the states. I'm not trying to wind all you Americans up(my wife is american), but I guess if you are brought up eating it you get used to it. I believe it originates from them not being able to stop it melting in the packs so came up with some methods to stop it. Don't know how true that is.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Packman, I am an American, and I share your observation. Hershey's makes a dark chocolate, but it is not that great in my opinion. One theory is that early on Hershey made a batch of milk chocolate with spoiled milk and decided to keep the taste. Did you know Cadbury's is made by Hershey's here? Two other great brands Hershey's has ruined for me are York and Heath.

[SylviaLovegren]

All the hersheys chocolate I have ever tried has turned out to be truly awful. Do they do a proper high quality dark chocolate? A standard kind of supermarket high quality chocolate here in the uk would be something like Green and Blacks.

I'm always shocked by how bad chocolate is in the states. I'm not trying to wind all you Americans up(my wife is american), but I guess if you are brought up eating it you get used to it. I believe it originates from them not being able to stop it melting in the packs so came up with some methods to stop it. Don't know how true that is.

There is a certain taste to an old-fashioned Hershey chocolate bar. Europeans usually hate it but I love it. I don't qualify it as "good" chocolate, but it has a certain harsh bite that is compelling. Oddly, I've found the Hershey chocolate bar in Canada -- which looks exactly like the one sold in the States -- has a different taste, mostly missing that harshness.

[huiray]

I used to love Hershey's Special Dark years and years ago, bought it by the multiples at a time. Now, I dislike it. It's not so much the taste as it is the texture - it just seems so...rough and crude, crumbly even. I like Lindt or Ghirardelli nowadays, in terms of widely-available US chocolates - but always the "dark" or high cacao ones. (Yes, both are of Swiss origins) I think Godiva is over-rated. I've always disliked the "milk" chocolates of any brand. Much too sweet and cloying for my tastes, even when I loved that Hershey's Special Dark.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

We are getting a bit off topic. I believe the OP was asking about Hershey's Special Dark *cocoa*, not a chocolate bar.

[Starkman]

Yes, thank you, JoNorvelleWalker,

I'm really trying to figure out where to get a good, or even descent, dutched cocoa, unless Hersleys Special Dark is really just that: dutched chocolate. Otherwise, I can't seem to find the stuff in my local stores.

Thanks,

Starkman

[MelissaH]

Hershey's did, in fact, make a dutched cocoa at one time. I forget what they called it, but the container had a shiny silver label on it, and it was easily the least expensive dutch-process cocoa I could find in the supermarket here. But the silver label cocoa vanished about the time the Special Dark cocoa powder appeared. I don't find the two to be interchangeable.

[Ttogull]

The Amazon reviews

http://www.amazon.com/Hershey-Special-Dutch-Natural-Cocoa/dp/B0007SNZ52

suggest that people have called Hershey's and that the Special Dark replaced the "European Style Dutch Processed." It does indeed have a silver label. I have a half-empty can I bought last summer. It makes the best chocolate ice cream. I wish I had known that it would be discontinued, but this is the first I've heard of it.

[Starkman]

Yeah, Ttogull, I found out the hard way, too. I had made home-made chocolate pudding and noticed that it was quite bitter, and that's when I saw that the chocolate I had wasn't dutched. One thing led to another, and, well, now there's nothing else in the stores, apparently,

Thanks, too, Melissa.

Starkman

[curls]

I can usually find Droste cocoa in the supermarkets near me... it is a Dutched cocoa. Also if you can not find it locally you can always order online, King Arthur Flour has a number of cocoas available.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I too have used Droste and I have also ordered cocoa from King Arthur Flour. I would recommend either/both.

[Starkman]

Great! I just checked the KA site. Great stuff!

Thanks much,

Starkman

[MelissaH]

Droste is available in my town on a good day, but when it's available it's outrageously expensive. I now order my dutched cocoa online, from either Amazon or KA.

[naguere]

Packman, I am an American, and I share your observation. Hershey's makes a dark chocolate, but it is not that great in my opinion. One theory is that early on Hershey made a batch of milk chocolate with spoiled milk and decided to keep the taste. Did you know Cadbury's is made by Hershey's here? Two other great brands Hershey's has ruined for me are York and Heath.

Read a book on Hershy and chocolate, They built a factory in Canada, and the chocolate did not have that distinctive taste,

so they stripped the plant out and copied exactly the plant in The USA.

[Edward J]

I don't understand the fascination with dutched cocoa.....

Waaaay back when, a Dutchman by the name of Van Houten was asked by tradrs tosee if he "could do" something with a few shiploads of bitter cocoa beans. The beans were bitter becasue of bad shippng/handling (a lot of condensation in a cargo hold when the ship goes from warm waters to cold waters...).

Van Houten figured out that if the beans were treated with an alkalai solution not only would the bitterness be removed, but the colour would be darker.

In the world of chocolate, there are two extremes: The U.S. standard, and the European standard. Basically the US standard demands a minimum of 35% cocoa content for bittersweet and semi sweet chocolates, a whopping 10% cocoa content for sweet chocolate,and 15% cocoa content for milk chocolate.

The Euros feel that "chocolate" is just that, and no milk products are allowed in "chocolate". Cocoa content is expressed in percentages of cocoa content, not whimsicall names. Milk chocolate is another story, where it is generally accepted that a minimum of 30% cocoa content is in milk chocolate.

Night and day... yet both extremes agree on one item: If the cocoa beans have been treated with alkalai, the packaging must declare this, " either with the words "Dutched cocoa", "alkalized cocoa" or "treated with alkalai". Both the EU and the FDA do regular checks and controls on this.

So, O.K. fair enough..

Now, I dare you to find andy decent brand of european chocolate that states "Dutched" or alakalized" on it's ingredient list.

The biography of Mr. Hershey is quite interesting, he was raised on a dairy farm, lived, breathed and sold milk, and his first commercial enterprise was the making of milk caramels. His chocolate reflects this....................

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Now, I dare you to find andy decent brand of european chocolate that states "Dutched" or alakalized" on it's ingredient list.

http://www.valrhona-chocolate.com/cocoa-powder-baking

[JoNorvelleWalker]

The Amazon reviews

http://www.amazon.com/Hershey-Special-Dutch-Natural-Cocoa/dp/B0007SNZ52

suggest that people have called Hershey's and that the Special Dark replaced the "European Style Dutch Processed." It does indeed have a silver label. I have a half-empty can I bought last summer. It makes the best chocolate ice cream. I wish I had known that it would be discontinued, but this is the first I've heard of it.

According to David Lebovitz, Hershey's Special Dark is heavily dutched.

[Starkman]

It's not a fascination with dutched chocolate, it's wanting to eliminate some of the bitterness, at least of Hersheys cocoa. (If it's exposure to the elements that can cause this, well, chances are that's happening to a lot of non-dutched beans...perhaps.

The pudding I made was bitter, so I'd like to try a dutched chocolate to see if that will reduce the bitterness. That's all.

Starkman

Edited May 12, 2013 by Starkman (log)

[Mjx]

It's not a fascination with dutched chocolate, it's wanting to eliminate some of the bitterness, at least of Hersheys cocoa. (If it's exposure to the elements that can cause this, well, chances are that's happening to a lot of non-dutched beans...perhaps.

The pudding I made was bitter, so I'd like to try a dutched chocolate to see if that will reduce the bitterness. That's all.

Starkman

Can you make a slurry of boiling water and the cacao you have, and check the pH (if you can get your hands on those little paper strips)? Modifying the alkalinity might reduce the bitterness, but that may not be the issue.

If you can't get hold of a dutched product, you might try adding a little sodium bicarbonate to the bloomed cacao, to raise the pH.

[SylviaLovegren]

Packman, I am an American, and I share your observation. Hershey's makes a dark chocolate, but it is not that great in my opinion. One theory is that early on Hershey made a batch of milk chocolate with spoiled milk and decided to keep the taste. Did you know Cadbury's is made by Hershey's here? Two other great brands Hershey's has ruined for me are York and Heath.

Read a book on Hershy and chocolate, They built a factory in Canada, and the chocolate did not have that distinctive taste,

so they stripped the plant out and copied exactly the plant in The USA.

That is so interesting! Well, they didn't quite succeed. It still tastes different.

[Starkman]

Can you make a slurry of boiling water and the cacao you have, and check the pH (if you can get your hands on those little paper strips)? Modifying the alkalinity might reduce the bitterness, but that may not be the issue.

If you can't get hold of a dutched product, you might try adding a little sodium bicarbonate to the bloomed cacao, to raise the pH.

You know, I thought about adding some sodum bicarbonate! That will be my next trick to try (and I don't know about the pH sticks. Have to check).

Thanks much,

Starkman

[Toliver]

Penzey's also sells cocoa and Dutch cocoa. Click Here.