"hershey" news and stories

We can only speculate what Willy Wonka would do in an economic downturn, but the company that Milton Hershey built is downsizing. Almost a century after it opened on the corners of Chocolate and Cocoa Streets in the eponymously named company town among company towns, confection giant Hershey's Chocolate is closing the factory that started it all.

Chocolate production is moving to a brand new location, just outside the town of Hershey, but 500 Hershey workers are not going along for the grand opening. The company is instituting lay-offs in an effort to remain competitive in the global marketplace, NPR reported.

Milton Hershey broke ground for the plant in 1903, and the town -- with its theme park and Hershey's Kiss–shaped street lamps -- grew along with the chocolate company. "They went hand in hand," Pam Whitenack, head of archives at the Hershey museum, told NPR.

One of our staffers went wild with fear about what this news meant for the future of what she deemed "the happiest place on earth": Don't worry, Hershey's Chocolate World, with its Great American Chocolate Tour and the Create-Your-Own-Candybar attraction, is still open for sweet-tooths across America.

I might not be the best person to talk about chocolate. Growing up, my favorite candies were generally the tart, fake-fruit flavored ones, like Smarties, Sweet Tarts, Lemonheads, Runts, and certain Jolly Rancher flavors. However, even in the midst of my deepest obsession with the sour side of the candy chain, I still had a special place in my heart for a few chocolate treats. Reese's cups, Caramello, and Chunky bars have always held a strange power over me and I've never been able to walk past a bowl full of M&Ms without grabbing a handful. After I got married, my wife dragged me over to the dark side, and I discovered the wonders of dark chocolate, particularly when paired with red wine. Even now, though, I will sometimes indulge my deep appreciation of plebian chocolate treats, especially when my wife isn't looking.

Recently, though, I came across an article that makes me a little worried about the future of my favorite mass-market chocolate goodies. Some candy companies, including Hershey's and Nestle, are substituting cheap vegetable oils for cocoa butter in their chocolate bars. While this saves a lot of money, it also reduces the creaminess and flavor of the chocolate; some consumers have described the new products as tasting "waxy and artificial."

On the bright side, the FDA has ruled that products which do not contain cocoa butter cannot refer to themselves as chocolate. Consequently, many former "chocolate bars" now boast that they are "made with chocolate," are "chocolate candy," or have "chocolate coating." Most of the major candy companies have unsuccessfully fought this, while smaller manufacturers are desperately supporting the labeling restrictions.

While Nestle and Hershey's try to decide if they're willing to spend a few more pennies to ensure a top-quality chocolate experience, you might want to take a long, hard look at your candy bar. After all, if you're willing to splurge on calories and cash, shouldn't you get the best possible chocolate experience?

Over the last few months, the intrepid editors over at Consumerist have done an outstanding job of tracking the trend of smaller sizes for the same price. They call it the Grocery Shrink Ray and they've seen it hit everything from coffee, to peanut butter to yogurt (it also strikes non-edible products such as toothpaste and contact lens solution).

One of the debates that occurs around this topic of shrinking package sizes is whether it would be more honest for companies to simply raise the prices on their products instead of charging the same for a smaller amount. In the face of rising costs, Turkey Hill Dairy has decided to succumb to the dreaded shrinking size trend for their ice cream packages, as prices for ice cream's have risen dramatically in recent days. They announced this size reduction with a heart-felt letter penned by company President, Quintin Frey that was posted on their blog.

On the other side of the coin is Hershey's, who announced recently a price hike of 10-11% across their entire product line. This comes on the heels of a 13% increase last February.

These days, rising prices are an inevitability. Do you prefer to experience it through higher prices or lesser amounts for the same price?

Reese's has really been going crazy with new versions of their classic peanut butter cups. Sometimes the experiment is successful (Nutrageous, Caramel) and sometimes it's just so-so (Mixed Nuts, the Elvis edition). Now they've gone all the way to ... gah.

The new Reese's Whipps is a candy bar that features peanut butter flavored nougat and has 40% less fat. It also has at least 40% less taste than a regular Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Or maybe I should say more taste, just different. In fact, it's kinda hard to eat because it tastes like someone took nougat and dipped it in sugar. There's hardly any peanut butter or chocolate taste the nougat is so overpowering.

The original Reese's is still my favorite candy bar, so I'll be sticking with that.

If you are tired of buying the same flavors of ice cream all the time, this could possibly shake things up a little for you. Baskin-Robbins has teamed up with Hershey to create Candy Bar Madness ice cream treats - nine different treats that mix various Hershey candy bars (Heath, Kissables / Kisses, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) into ice creams, shakes, sundaes, and ice cream cakes.

A typical example? The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sundae is made from a triple layer of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, hot fudge, Reese's Peanut Butter Sauce, and chopped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I think I gained five pounds just typing that. Decadent, indeed.

As good as it all sounds though, I'm not really sure how different this is from what Dairy Queen is already doing, and I can't help but feel that the last thing we all need is to not just have one dessert or treat, but add another one on top of it at the same time. That said though, I'm willing to bet they sell like crazy.

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