The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar (commonly called the Hershey's Bar, or more simply the Hershey Bar) is a flagship chocolate bar manufactured by The Hershey Company. Hershey refers to it as "The Great American Chocolate Bar". The Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar was first sold in 1900.[1]
Hershey chocolate bars had their origin in Milton Hershey's first successful confectionery business, Lancaster Caramel Company, which was founded in 1886. After seeing German chocolate manufacturing machinery at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, Hershey decided to go into the chocolate making business.[2] After purchasing the chocolate processing machinery, Hershey began by applying chocolate coatings to the caramels. The next year, 1894, Hershey founded the Hershey Chocolate Company and incorporated it as a subsidiary of the Lancaster Caramel Company. The Hershey Chocolate Company developed its own line of chocolate products, marketed as "sweet chocolate novelties" to distinguish them from unsweetened baking chocolate.[3] After developing the Hershey process to mass-produce chocolate in 1899,[4] Hershey sold the Lancaster Caramel Company in August 1900, and kept the chocolate manufacturing business.[5] In November of that same year, Hershey began to produce and sell the Hershey chocolate bar.[6]
Varieties of Hershey's Bars
Product
Image
Sizes
Description
Ingredients
Year
Milk Chocolate Bar
standard bar 1.55 oz.
miniatures
1 lb. bar
XL bar
giant bar 7 oz.
A Hershey's chocolate candy bar containing milk chocolate. Commonly thought of as the "original” or "normal" Hershey's chocolate bar.
A Hershey's chocolate candy bar containing a mildly sweet chocolate made of 45% cacao solids. The Special Dark contains less sugar and more cocoa than Hershey's milk chocolate products.
A Hershey's candy bar containing milk chocolate gently blended into a light, airy texture, as it is aerated chocolate. It was designed to melt in the consumer's mouth. The bar has been discontinued.
Contains 2% or Less of: Corn Syrup Solids, Dextrose, Palm Kernel Oil, Corn Syrup, Artificial Color, Yellow 6 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Red 40 Lake, Blue 1 Lake, Cornstarch, Salt, Confectioner's Glaze, Lecithin, Modified Cornstarch, Carnauba Wax, Vanillin (Artificial Flavor)[20]
Hershey's Extra Dark Pure Dark Chocolate Bar with Pomegranate
standard bar, 3.52 oz.
bag, 5.1 oz.
A Hershey's Extra Dark Pure Dark Chocolate candy bar variety containing pure dark chocolate with pomegranate flavored pieces.
Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Chocolate, Sugar, Cocoa, Milk Fat, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Natural Vanilla Flavor, Milk), Fruit Juice Concentrate (Pomegranate Juice Concentrate, Cranberry Juice Concentrate, Apple Juice Concentrate, Pineapple Juice Concentrate, Elderberry Juice Concentrate), Contains 2% or Less of: Pectin, Natural Flavor, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Malic Acid, Corn Syrup, Ascorbic Acid.[23]
Hershey's Extra Dark Pure Dark Chocolate Bar with Cranberries, Blueberries, & Almonds
standard bar, 3.52 oz.
bag, 5.1 oz.
A Hershey's Extra Dark Pure Dark Chocolate candy bar variety containing pure dark chocolate, cranberries, blueberries, and almond chips.
Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Chocolate; Sugar; Cocoa; Milk Fat; Cocoa Butter; Soy Lecithin; Natural Vanilla Flavor; and Milk), Almonds (Roasted in Cocoa Butter and/or Sunflower Oil), Blueberries, Cranberries, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and Sunflower Oil[24]
Hershey's milk chocolate
The Hershey Processmilk chocolate in these bars uses fresh milk delivered directly from local farms. The process was developed by Milton Hershey and produced the first mass-produced chocolate in the United States. As a result, the Hershey flavor is widely recognized in the United States, the Philippines, and to a minor extent in Canada, where British-produced chocolates were commonly sold, but less so internationally, especially in areas where European chocolates are more widely available. The process is a company and trade secret, but experts speculate that the milk is partially lipolyzed. This produces butyric acid, a compound found in substances such as Parmesan cheese which stabilizes the milk from further fermentation. This flavor gives the product a "tangy" taste that the US public has come to associate with the taste of chocolate,[25] to the point that other US manufacturers often add butyric acid to their milk chocolates.[26][unreliable source?] In Canada this led to Hershey introducing a reformulated Canadian bar in 1983.[27]
Starting in 2006, Hershey has added polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) to their chocolate, except for the traditional plain milk chocolate Hershey's Kisses. In 2015, Hershey announced they would begin removing PGPR from the rest of their chocolate.[28] Artificial vanillin was also removed in 2015.[29] Hershey did remove PGPR from some of their chocolate bars, but in April 2019 started putting it back in Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds full size bar, and plain milk chocolate bars, and never removed it from Symphony milk chocolate and other products. Hershey does not claim to use vanilla in their chocolate, only natural flavor.[citation needed]
In addition to the standard Milk Chocolate and Milk Chocolate with Almonds varieties, Hershey's produces several other chocolate bars in various flavors: Special Dark chocolate, Cookies 'N' Creme, Symphony (both Milk Chocolate and Almond Toffee), Mr. Goodbar (with peanuts), and Krackel (with crisped rice). Nine flavors were available for limited periods: Double Chocolate, Nut Lovers, Twosomes Reese's Pieces, Cookies 'N' Chocolate, Cookies 'N' Mint, Strawberries 'n' Creme, Raspberries 'n' Creme, Twosomes Heath, and Twosomes Whoppers. All flavors have between 210 and 230 calories per standard-sized bar.
The largest Hershey's bar commercially available weighs five pounds (2.3kg) and costs US$44.99 on Hershey's website.[30]
A gold variant with pretzels and peanuts was sold for its 100th anniversary.
Related Research Articles
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