This is the final product in the new Hershey’s Goodness range, and frankly, it’s a good job the other two had some redeeming features, because this one is pretty much inedible.
Just like the others, the packagaing talks about how wonderfully good it is for you, and the format is exactly the same. A large bag with lots of individually wrapped 10g squares.
Upon opening, this looks – and even smells – quite like the Hershey’s Whole Bean, but once you bite into it, the difference becomes immediately apparent. If you’re anything like me, the first thing you’ll notice is that you have instinctively spat it out onto the floor.
This stuff has such a weird taste, I can hardly describe it. The texture is fine, but the taste is something like a combination of rusty metal and rubber. There is a slight hint of chocolate in there somewhere, but the rubber taste eventually ovewhelmes it. Personally, I found it so unpleasant that I had to go and rinse my mouth out.
But a little while later, I tried another one just to make sure. It was exactly the same. And for only the second time in my Chocablogging career, I ended up throwing chocolate away.
Now, this stuff was sent to us by Hershey’s from the US, so I’m aware that it could somehow have gone bad in transit. But given they arrived well packaged in under a week, and the other products in the range were unaffected, I don’t think tha’s the problem. I think this is just an attempt to make a healthy product gone horribly, horribly wrong.
To be honest, I found the whole “Goodness” range more than a little disappointing. The other products were overly sweet, and (in my opinion), this one is just about inedible.
Come on Hershey’s – why not just produce a good quality chocolate, use natural ingredients and cut back on the sugar. Until then, I’m sorry to have to report that I certainly won’t be buying any Hershey’s Goodness stuff. And I’ll be making a point of steering clear of this one in particular.
Masterfoods have scrapped plans to add animal rennet to Mars products after receiving over 6000 complaints from consumers.
According to the BBC, Mars says it became “very clear, very quickly” that they had made a mistake.
Unfortunately, it’s still not clear if any products with animal rennet are already on sale, and Mars are being very vague about the whole thing, asking people to call their consumer advice line for information. As they haven’t actively denied products with animal rennet have been produced already, I can only assume that there are at least some batches of products out there that are not suitable for vegetarians.
Suffice to say, I’ll be avoiding all Mars products until they give clear advice on which products are suitable for vegetarians and which aren’t. Not because I’m a vegetarian myself, but simply because I like to know what I’m eating.
During my recent stay at the Chocohotel in Perugia, I spent quite a while in their fabulously well-stocked Chocostore, picking out numerous items to review for this site. This is the only item I came back with that had the Chocohotel brand name, and fittingly enough it’s another unusual find – chocolate pasta!
The chocolate tagliatelle travelled with me for a fortnight, wrapped in swaddling clothes (well, a couple of old t-shirts) so as to avoid it disintegrating in transit.
Upon my arrival home, my various purchases were ooh-ed and ahh-ed (and drool-ed) over save this one, which was greeted with more of an “Eh?”
I must admit to never having heard of chocolate pasta before, and so I found myself looking for suitable recipes on the internet. (There was one printed on the packet, but Italian is not my strongest language).
Cooking the pasta was simple. Eight minutes in boiling water, but do you add olive oil? Given a 2% cocoa content, I thought it best not to.
I’d found a couple of recipes on line and had plumped for a raspberry coulis and cream combo, since raspberries are in season at the moment and are easy to get hold of. So, while the pasta bubbled away in the water I set to work blending and warming the raspberries. I decided against over-sweetening the coulis, leaving the natural tartness of the raspberries to be softened by the addition of whipped cream.
The pasta turned a satisfyingly reddish brown colour when cooked, and certainly gave off a hint of cocoa as it was drained. I threw the coulis in on top and gave it a thorough stirring to coat the pasta, hoping to avoid any unnecessary clumping.
The next question was – does one eat this stuff hot or cold? I had to leave it to cool a little before spooning on the cream and grating the chocolate, but should it be eaten straight away or left in the fridge for a while? Only one thing for it – do both.
As you can see, I went all cheffy and served it up in martini glasses, two of which went into the fridge to cool while we sampled the warm stuff. It was a little strange eating pasta for dessert, and the low chocolate content of the pasta meant that my tart raspberry coulis was the prevailing flavour, softened off by the cream somewhat, but still definitely top dog on the palate. The pasta had what could best be described as a very subtle flavour, and I immediately thought that I should have added sugar to the coulis and been a little more sparing with it.
It seemed to work better cold, by the way. The pasta wasn’t ‘free running’ as it has stuck together somewhat during the cooling process, but it made it easier to eat with a spoon!
I’d be interested to try this again sometime, as I thought my attempt wasn’t all that successful, but I would recommend having a go at this as an unusual dessert offering to dinner guests. No doubt chocolate pasta is available in the UK somewhere (I have yet to find a supplier online – can anyone help?) so perhaps next time I’ll follow a more traditional recipe (like the one on the packet!)
Hershey’s Whole Bean is part of the Hershey’s Goodness range and positioned to promote the health benefits of chocolate.
The packaging claims 7g of fibre per serving and “40% less sugar than the leading milk chocolate”. That’s a fact I find a little surprising, considering this stuff is really sweet.
And I quote:
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (milk; sugar; cocoa butter; chocolate; cocoa; lactose (milk); milk fat; soy lecithin; PGPR, emulsifier; vanillin, artificial flavor); inulin; calcium carbonate; sucralose)
So they may have reduced the sugar content by 40%, but they’ve replaced it with sucralose – one of the strongest artificial sweetners there is. And I’m not entirely sure why it needs all that other junk either.
As with Hershey’s All Natural Extra Dark, I imagine the sweetness is mainly down to a difference in American and European tastes, but this is just a bit too sweet for a milk chocolate for my liking.
Aside from that, this isn’t too bad. It’s quite creamy, looks and smells like chocolate, and it’s quite edible. But it’s not what I’d classify as “delicious”, and I’m not sure I’d buy it just for the health benefits.
All in all, not bad, but just a bit too sweet for me and I’m not convinced the artificial sweeteners and flavourings are necessary. Give me a good quality organic dark chocolate over this any day.
