american vs. british chocolate bars

By On July 14, 2007 · 4 Comments

Here’s a link to an article in the NY Times about the differences between some candy bars made in the UK and the States. Having eaten a massive amount of the British version of a Cadbury Dairy Milk (thank you Ben Smith!), I can attest that it is indescribably better than its US counterpart.

My favorite chocolate is still Callebaut (from Belgium), but I can only get it in one pound bricks (or larger). This isn’t so bad of a problem, save for the fact that I manage to eat the entire pound of it in a day or so. Their milk chocolate has an almost caramel-like undertone that is incredible melted into a ganache and served over vanilla ice cream.

As far as American chocolate goes, no one beats Scharffen-Berger, which has become widely available at Whole Foods or Fresh Market. If you’re ever in the San Francisco area, be sure to stop by their factory for a tour and — even better — a chocolate tasting!

 
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  • Dominic

    The article I referenced mentioned a tip that some British folks will melt their Mars bars (more like our Milky Way bars) and serve the resulting sauce over ice cream. Not wanting to leave you longing to know whether or not this is worth trying, I melted two Milky Ways and two Milky Way Darks in the microwave on 50% power in 30-second increments until it was gooey. I am happy to report that everyone at my dinner party thoroughly enjoyed it.

    When it hit the ice cream it got semi-solid and very chewy — due, I imagine, to the caramel in the candy bar. Oh, the article also mentioned deep-frying a British Mars bar. That experiment will have to wait a bit, as I am afraid that I might become addicted to them!

  • Ben

    Cadbury RULES!!!!

    Mmmmmm. Getting hungry thinking about it.

    I’m also a big fan of the Divine chocolate bars. http://www.divinechocolate.com
    They are made by a Free Trade company.

  • Clara

    Great article Dom! I probably ate my weight in cadbury’s (love the fruit and nut ones!) while in England. I also really love the Galaxy bars… maybe even more than Cadbury! Thanks for the link to the NY Times article. I can def identify with it. Other things british that are better – Indian food in England, Cornish Pasties, going to a chippy on the coast for fish and chips served in a newspaper wrapping, and meat pies. mmm mmm that’s some good ole pub food there. and by the way, in england, scampi is fried shrimp and is a very popular pub food as well. Toodle-pip!

    Clara

  • Dominic

    Hey Clara,

    I should have thanked you as well for the Cadbury bars, being Ben’s UK source (and sister)!

    I was just in Houston visiting Gavin and Mary and we saw a shop called Candylicious that had some British imports. I wish I would have known about the Galaxy bars then!

    Naomi and I are looking at a possible European vacation next summer. She’s looking forward to shopping and I, of course, am looking forward to the food. I’ll definitely be contacting you for some restaurant advice!

    Thanks for reading :-)