So have you always wondered why Hershey’s chocolate tastes disgusting? What’s that? You like Hershey’s chocolate?!
Then you must be American because most people from outside the U.S. would agree there is just something not quite right about Hershey’s.
The first bite is tasty, sweet but then there’s a sort of rotten milk aftertaste that you can’t quite put your finger on. Well, being a chemist I was curious about what this might be.
It turns out that the rotten milk aftertaste is actually…. rotten milk. Not sure why I was surprised. More specifically, it is a chemical called Butyric Acid.
Butyric Acid is the chemical that if you ever find yourself in a chemistry lab and open the wrong fridge, it hits you in the face like a jug of milk left on the radiator for a week and makes you wish you could remove your entire olfactory system with the nearest blunt instrument.
So here is a rundown of Butyric acid’s close cousins:
Formic acid (C1): The shortest cousin and the stuff that red ants inject you with that burns like a son-of-a-bitch!
Acetic acid (C2): aka Vinegar. Okay, can’t fault this one, vinegar is delicious! but many people think I’m insane to think that. Sorry, it’s a British thing, fish and chips need vinegar!
Propanoic Acid (C3): aka Sweat! Yes, this is the smell of BO… ’nuff said.
So Butyric acid (C4) doesn’t exactly find itself in excellent company…
But, the best part about Butyric acid is that it is not only literally the chemical that gives sour milk it’s delicious, “oh holy god, why did I just put that into my coffee?!” morning wake dry heave taste. But also the chief ingredient of vomit.
So why you might ask would it be in chocolate of all things!
Well, that is just a byproduct of how American chocolate is made. In an attempt to increase profits, the milk used in U.S. chocolate is partially lypolyzed…
Okay, so I probably just lost most people. Let’s back up.
We all know that milk has a shelf life, and left sealed the sour taste comes from the naturally occurring lypaze enzymes in the milk breaking down fatty acids to various carboxylic acids, one of which is Butyric acid. For this reason, sour milk tastes disgusting. Certain things, like exposure to light, oxygen, or excess heat can accelerate this process. So that’s why milk is stored in the fridge where it’s dark and cool.
To stop this process, milk in the store is pasteurized. This exposure to high temperatures destroys the enzyme (they are very sensitive to heat… as anyone who has studied enzyme chemistry can attest) meaning the milk can no longer sour itself as quickly and has a longer shelf life. The alternative is to lypolyze the milk slightly and actually partially sour it intentionally. This reaction produces some of the bad chemicals but prevents the milk from fully souring. This is the method the chocolate manufacturers go for in the U.S.
So in the U.S. the milk is intentionally partially soured to increase shelf life and profit.
To a non-American, this is akin to urinating on a steak to keep animals away!
But apparently, Americans just develop some kind of immunity to the taste of vomit and just don’t taste it! I have even given many Americans real British chocolate, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk for example, and they all like it but somehow miss that sour milk vomit taste!
What is even worse to me is that this expectation is so widespread, and America is such a large international market, that rather than just make chocolate that is profitable, it just so happens to have Butyric acid in it. Legitimate chocolate manufactures actually add Butyric acid directly to their chocolate mixture!!!
Just let that sink in…
A guy in a chocolate factory somewhere is looking into a vat of delicious molten milk chocolate and is actively getting a jar of concentrated super vomit and pouring it into said chocolate, presumably crying in actual pain while he comes to the realization that he is destroying something beautiful and basically declaring war on Switzerland.
This would be much like adding a mustache to the Mona Lisa to appease the mass market.
But don’t worry, America, it’s not all bad, There is still Ghiradelli and in my opinion, the best chocolate in the world and made right here in the United States, so next time you’re in the store looking for chocolate, do yourself a favor and get some real chocolate—hold the vomit!
