Well, you knew that at some point, the mass producers of cheap, grocery store chocolate were going to have to do something about hopping aboard the "chocolate is healthy" train. Let's face it, even with the claim that yes, chocolate is healthy, no person in his or her right mind would actually try to justify eating a Snickers bar, a bag of M&Ms, or a handful of Hershey's Kisses by saying they were doing it for his or her health. It's dark chocolate that usually has all the health benefits, and I'm still pretty sure that the tiny Special Darks inside the bag of Hershey's Miniatures doesn't count either.

I saw the bag of Hershey's Antioxidant Milk Chocolate at my local grocery store when I was hunting around the shelves for -- I must confess, a bag of Twix. They're not actually in the same place, so I have no idea how I cam across this new stuff from Hershey's, but I did. Even though the packaging says "Natural Flavanol," I was pretty sure that the flavanol was very much unnaturally added to really up its antioxidant power. Health claims thus far have been for dark chocolate, so how would they have it in Hershey's milk chocolate version?

No matter. Sometimes we just shouldn't question.

The Hershey's Antioxidant Chocolates are part of Hershey's new "Goodness" portfolio of chocolate products. are individually wrapped and sold in bags, packaged the same way that Ghirardelli Chocolate squares are packaged, giving it a slightly more upscale feel. I'm not saying Ghirardelli is "fancy" chocolate, but it's certainly more sophisticated than, say, well, a Kit Kat.

Unwrapping a single pieces, I read the back of the bag for all the facts. Apparently, Hershey's Antioxidant Milk Chocolate features more flavanol antioxidants than the leading dark chocolate (which it didn't bother to specify). Does that mean it has more antioxidant power than say Milky Way Midnight? I believe that. Does it have more antioxidant power than CocoaVia? I wasn't so sure, but the numbers they threw down, 260 mg of flavanol antioxidants per 40 g serving, sure sounded convincing.

I bit int the chocolate and to be quite honest, at first it didn't taste that different from a regular old Hershey's plain Milk Chocolate bar. That could be a good sign, if you prefer that health benefits don't alter the taste and texture of the regular version, or it could be a bad sign if you don't like Hershey's to begin with. After a few more chews however, the chocolate took on a slightly weird texture. There is no other way to describe it other than "powdery." It wasn't that the chocolate crumbled or didn't have a smooth melt. It just tastes like I bit into a brick of my eyeshadow.

Overall, I didn't mind the chocolate, for it is chocolate after all. I didn't find that it was any worse than a regular Hershey's bar, so having the added benefit of antioxidants is a good thing.