Hershey’s new Air Delight bar is clearly a rip-off of the British Wispa or Aero bars you find in every UK corner store: chocolate with air bubbles in it. But Americans don’t give a crap about texturized chocolate, if you believe this article. In some ways, it feels like whipped yogurt or cream cheese: an excuse to give you less product for the same money.
Hershey's Air Delight, from foodette-reviews.blogspot.com. Click on the photo for their review.
In contrast, the British are all about texture. They even name their bars for it: the Cadbury Flake (chocolate that, uh, flakes off), the Cadbury Crunchie (chocolate coating over a crispy honeycomb center), the Galaxy Ripple (like a Flake but coated in smooth chocolate and made by one of Cadbury’s competitors).
Cross-section of the Cadbury Flake. Difficult to eat gracefully but delightful with your soft serve cone. Photo from chocablog.com.
So, what are Americans looking for in a chocolate bar? I quickly surveyed the candy rack at Target to find out. If I had to pick an overall trend, I’d say we’re suckers for a good salty-sweet mix—usually involving peanuts.
1) Snickers: chocolate coating, peanuts, caramel, and nougat
2) Twix: chocolate coating, caramel and a subtly salty cookie
3) Reese’s: chocolate coating, salty peanut butter
4) Take 5: chocolate coating, caramel, peanuts, and pretzel
5) Butterfinger: chocolate coating over a peanuty, crunchy center
In summary, I don’t think the texturized chocolate thing is gonna catch on here. Personally, I love a Flake or Crunchie now and then (pick one up at the Classic Cigars & British Goodies store in Clarendon, World Market, or Dean & Deluca). Plus the overall quality of British chocolates is better, due to higher cocoa content. Eat a Cadbury Dairy Milk bar side-by-side with a Hershey’s bar and you can tell the difference.
But given that my UK friends used to always ask me to bring them bags of mini-Reese’s cups, it seems there’s a gap in the UK market for more salty-sweet bars. Got that, Cadbury?
pie versus cake 