Belgian Bravado
Belgian chocolate giant Cote d’Or’s corporate marketing director on Hershey’s: "To eat Hershey, for me, is like eating sand, but to Americans, it's good chocolate.'' Wow, was I offended? Not really, I was more so curious to see what they’ve got to back up all of that bravado. So I picked up Cote d’Or’s version of gianduja at Fairway. And uh, yeah, I’d much rather eat their mass-market milk chocolate, even if it is like four times as expensive as Hershey’s. In fact, I avoided the low-grade American movie theater chocolate by smuggling a bar into Ice Age (disclaimer: I was with a toddler). The silky-smooth consistency of the high quality milk chocolate, made from African cocoa beans, and the 15% gianduja is definitely authentic (gianduja is a smooth milk chocolate and hazelnut confection that originated in Switzerland). The hazelnut flavor is intense devoid of any nuts. The texture of the bar is slightly gooey and it instantly dissolves in your mouth. Two bars come in one wrapper, and they break off conveniently into little portions like a Twix. It looks like Cote d’Or’s money is where their mouth is. As for me, I’ll be stuffing mine with their chocolate.