I’ve gotten a couple of notes from readers about their experience writing to The Hershey Company about the changes in their favorite products.

So I’m curious what Hershey’s is saying to consumers when they write in. (I’ve had my own experience that I’ve documented.)

You might be curious to read about another blogger who noticed the changes in Kissables earlier this year and what she was told.

So, if you’ve written to Hershey’s, tell us here what their response was! (And if you haven’t, give it a try.)

Related Candies

1. Today Show Interview: What Wasn’t Covered
2. Rising Cost of Candy - A Brief Study of Hershey Prices
3. Kissables (Reformulated)
4. What Made Hershey’s Want to Change Chocolate?

I’ve gotten a few comments and emails and I thought I’d address them:

1. Palm Oil
Yes, one of the oils in the array on the ingredients list is Palm Oil and/or Palm Kernel Oil. If you’re following along with the environmental coverage on this issue, things are not at all rosy with these products. They’re linked to widescale deforestation in places like Indonesia and Malaysia. The plantations do not process as much CO2 from the atmosphere as the former rainforests, there is a devastating loss of habitat (which threatens the existence of the Orangutan in Borneo), loss of topsoil and clean water (as natural watersheds are contaminated with runoff).

Environmental matters aside, consider the health effects of merely eating Palm Oil. The World Health Organization believes it contributes to cardiovascular disease. New research reveals that not only does cocoa butter not harm us, it actually increases the antioxidant properties of chocolate and is neutral to our blood cholesterol levels. (But it’s not like the health benefits of a milk chocolate coating on a candy bar are in any way remarkable.)

There are a lot of stories, web pages and sites devoted to the issue, so you can read up on it elsewhere for a fuller picture than I can paint. (And in various posts I’ve made other helpful readers have left links to websites they recommend.)

2. Hershey’s New Facility in Mexico
I have talked about this a bit on the blog in other places, though only long-time readers have probably seen all of my commentary. Here it is: Hershey’s closed two of their major plants, one here in California at Oakdale. That facility was purchased by Sconza and will be up and running soon though not employing nearly as many people. The second was in Smith Falls, Ontario. Those were just the Hershey’s branded factories, they also shut down a few smaller facilities in Reading, PA and Nagatuck, CT. What some people think is that Hershey’s has moved completely to Mexico and the products we’re getting on the shelves now are made in Mexico. This is untrue, they’ve only moved some of their manufacturing there and much of it was candy products that were for export anyway at this time. (Though that could obviously change.) The only product with the Hershey’s brand on it that I’ve seen from Mexico was the new Reese’s Clusters. Hershey’s still makes their famous Milk Chocolate and Kisses in Hershey, Pennsylvania. However, they have outsourced the production of their cocoa liquor, which means they are no longer a bean to bar company and it’s unclear if that will always be produced in the United States.

UPDATE 8/14/2009: Hershey’s is now making the Hershey’s Miniatures in Mexico as well as the York Peppermint Pattie.

3. The Word Mockolate
I did not coin this term, though in the past 18 months I might owe its creator some serious royalties. I first heard it on an episode of Friends (Episode 32, “The One with the List”), though I’ve also heard that it may have appeared in The Simpsons. I was really hoping the Today show would play one of the clips from the show.

Basically mockolate is any product which pretends to be chocolate but doesn’t qualify for one reason or another due to the FDA definition of chocolate. In the case of the Friends episode, I believe that product had absolutely no Theobroma cacao content at all. The present Hershey’s products do actually “contain” chocolate but for the most part the cocoa butter has been replaced completely or in part by other vegetable oils.

I use the word because in many of the cases where it appears in a confection it’s intended to act like chocolate. (And might have been a real chocolate product at one time.)

4. Other Companies Making Substandard Products

I did mention the Nestle mockolate products to the producers of Today, but that was not the focus of the piece (and that’s certainly their prerogative). So I confined my examples to Hershey’s products. There are also companies that have always made poor quality chocolate and mockolate. That’s not what this story was about either.

5. Images and Examples

I provided as many candy products as I could find over the weekend that were both the old and new formula. That was pretty much the Kissables and Almond Joy (and since Hershey’s confirmed that they went back to milk chocolate, that became moot). Everything else was representative items of the “new versions”. I referred the producers to some great sources of what the wrappers used to look like: Mike’s Candy Wrappers and Brad Kent’s Wrappers (and even Flickr).

I think the Kissables change was a good example of how subtle it was ... removing one word and putting in a different one. Milk Chocolate became Chocolate Candy. It would have been great to have the old and new Mr. Goodbar, because the print is so much smaller for the new “made with CHOCOLATE AND PEANUTS” versus the former “PEANUTS IN CHOCOLATE.” (As of today the Hershey’s Mr. Goodbar page still displays both versions - the new one on the top of the page and the little one in the middle of the page.)

Kirk Saville, spokesman for Hershey Company said later to the Harrisburg Patriot News, “The Mr. Goodbar formula was changed to allow the peanut flavor to come through.” I take issue with this because there was never any change to the wrapper except for the legally obligated ones. No big splashy “better tasting!” or “more peanut flavor.” Instead it was done quietly and subtly.

6. Other Changes

Hershey’s has not left the venerable Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Kisses and KitKat untouched. While they are still milk chocolate products, the formula has changed. If you want to tell for yourself we’re in another crossover right now. The Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar now has PGPR in it. It’s an additional emulsifier to the soy lecithin that nearly all chocolate products have.

If you look sharp you should be able to find both products (and the previous PGPR free ones still fresh) and can compare for yourself.

(Long ago I called Hershey’s to ask about this PGPR stuff that I saw in the Kisses ingredients list, it took a lot of wrangling to find out the origin of the product, theirs comes from castor beans. For some reason they always state where the lecithin comes from but not the PGPR.)

While I don’t know if there is a real difference in the flavor or texture, but I have gotten two notes from readers that say that the Hershey’s Kisses do not behave the same when baking. (Specifically when making those thumbprint cookies the Kiss comes out chalky instead of fudgy.)

7. Action to Take

I never said boycott Hershey’s. I said that I will not be buying the inferior products any longer (basically the Kissables and Take 5 - I stopped buying the 5th Avenue years ago), I’ve not taken all Hershey’s products off my list. A boycott is not when you simply don’t like a product any longer and don’t recommend it. I will still be buying products for review - that’s kind of what I do here.

I don’t think that this issue has enough traction to be a successful boycott anyway. However, as was demonstrated with the information at the end of the segment, Hershey’s did bring the milk chocolate coating back to the Almond Joy after consumer feedback. So maybe that’s all that’s required here.

Have you eaten something you weren’t happy with? Have a concern about an ingredient? Don’t like the way something’s advertised? Call them or send them a note.

1-800-468-1714
Monday - Friday
9 AM to 4 PM ET

Or via their online contact form (be prepared to tell them how old you are and they’ll ask you lots of other personal info that you probably don’t have to answer).

Related Candies

1. Hershey’s Website Inaccuracies
2. Today Show: Kissed Off!
3. ReeseSticks (Revisit)
4. Hershey’s Miniatures
5. Nestle Crunch Crisp
6. What Made Hershey’s Want to Change Chocolate?

This is a tedious post and I don’t really expect folks to read it in earnest. It’s here for my reference and yours.

Since the whole change in Kissables, I’ve been keeping a close eye on the Hershey’s website and even did a screen grab on August 27th, 2008 before they started changing it in the past couple weeks after the ABCNews.com story. (I don’t know that was definitely the motivator.)

While Hershey’s has a clear disclaimer on the product pages with the nutrition information that reads: Hershey’s goal is to keep each product’s nutrition information up-to-date and accurate but please consult the label on the product’s packaging before using. If you notice that something is different on a product’s label than appears on our website, please call us for more information at (800) 468-1714. I can tell you from personal experience that getting information about Hershey’s about what’s actually in their products isn’t as easy as calling or emailing.

I understand that often in times of product formulation transition that the website needs to reflect what a consumer is most likely to find, some of the items on the Hershey’s website are far from just out of date, they’re inaccurate to the point of misleading. Here’s the last saved version of products page from March 2008 via Archive.org. (Images are not archived, so they may be linking to current images, not those that appeared during the time the archive was made.)

Plainly put, the descriptions on the Hershey’s Chocolate Products page don’t match what’s currently available in stores, further, what they say is in the products is inaccurate.

The first was the 5th Avenue, which shifted from a milk chocolate coated bar to a rich chocolatey coating bar back in 2006. The image on the site and the text both said that it was milk chocolate. The image has since been changed out, Google’s cache from September 4th still showed it as a milk chocolate bar image & text), but the text still reads:

First introduced in 1936, this chocolate peanut butter bar contributed to the war effort—and is still enjoyed today.

While it’s accurate to say that it was a chocolate bar in 1936, they’re not exactly saying that it’s not any longer - you have to look at the picture and the caption just says “chocolate.”

The next is the Kissables description:

HERSHEY’S KISSABLES Brand Chocolate Candies are miniature HERSHEY’S KISSES Brand chocolates coated with a colorful candy shell for eat-able, treat-able, here-able, there-able, unpredict-able fun!

While the classic Kisses are still considered milk chocolate, the Kissables are not, so saying that they’re just mini Kisses covered with candy is misleading because, well, it’s simply not true.

Hershey’s Miniatures were a recent disappointment to me. I don’t know if they can get away with calling the product Hershey’s Miniature chocolate bars when I found that 41% of my package were not chocolate bars at all.

Milk Duds haven’t been chocolate for years, but the description is still there:

Bite-size chocolate-covered caramels, MILK DUDS candy is a perfect snack for a night at the movies or anytime!

The Mr. Goodbar section is full of inaccuracies. The name of it is Mr. Goodbar chocolate bar and the image on the directory page says peanuts in chocolate and the description says:

Will your P.M. snack be salty or sweet? With MR. GOODBAR’s combination of crunchy peanuts in chocolate, you don’t have to decide.

On the actual product page the header image shows made with chocolate and peanuts but the image below it and the caption still say peanuts in milk chocolate. The description there goes further into the history which confuses matters because it once was a real chocolate bar:

MR. GOODBAR chocolate bar was one of Hershey’s original candy bars. Consumers have loved the delicious combination of creamy chocolate and crunchy peanuts since 1925. That’s a good bar, Mister.

The final one in the Hershey’s repertoire is the Take 5. The description is shown there in the screengrab and it says that it’s covered in milk chocolate. (Which I’m guessing is a selling point, it was for me.)

The Hershey’s product page for the Take 5 has been heavily edited now. There were four versions of the bars (White, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookie and for a while a Marshmallow) listed there earlier this year. The current product page is now completely accurate with its images and description. I can only be disappointed by my memories.

Hershey’s has several mini-sites. One of the major ones is for their Reese’s line of products. It was relaunched just last week with an intricate flash-based page (which means no way to link to individual product pages). I would expect that this would mean that the info would be especially accurate. Sadly it’s not so.

The Reese’s subsite lists 11 Reese’s products. Four are characterized erroneously as real chocolate products in the copy that accompanies them.

So there you have it. Hershey’s says that their changes are transparent to the consumers and that everything is clearly marked on the packages. While going straight from the package, with no previous experience with the product might mean that consumers understand fully what they’re eating, the rest of this noise - the fact that the wrappers are designed to look so incredibly similar and that the supporting materials like the Hershey’s website don’t reflect what’s truly in the bar - provides evidence the Hershey’s wants us to be confused.

I fully expect that many of these inaccuracies will be rectified soon. I know that Hershey’s staff members and their PR companies read this site.

The above web images were taken on September 18, 2008 for the Reese’s Whipps page and September 17, 2008 for the Hershey’s items.

Related Candies

1. ReeseSticks (Revisit)
2. Revisit: Take 5, Sunkist Fruit Gems & Snickers Almond
3. Kissables (Reformulated)
4. Reese’s Select Clusters
5. Reese’s Whipps
6. FDA & Mockolate - It’s not over
7. FDA Chocolate Definition Change

Name: Tootsie Pop Drops
Brand: Tootsie
Description: Fruit flavored hard candies with a Tootsie Roll center
Release Date: Early 2008
Notes: Tootsie Pop Drops will return next year after a long absence from store shelves. This is good news, because it was especially sad that the Blow Pop Minis were on the market (blech) and the obviously superior Tootsie Pop Drops were nowhere to be found.

UPDATE 3/22/2008: They are pretty much like the original, a little smaller but a very good return. Here’s the review with photos.

Name: Reese’s Select Clusters Candy
Brand: Hershey’s
Description: Peanut clusters made with premium ingredients
Release Date: August 2008
Notes: I have no idea how these will be different from regular Reese’s products ... except maybe they’ll improve the quality.

Name: Werther’s Original Caramel Chocolate (Milk & Dark)
Brand: Storck
Description: Rich milk chocolate marbled with smooth, creamy caramel in fine European tradition
Release Date: November 2007
Notes: I actually tried these ... I was hoping for something as rich and satisfying as Storck Chocolate Riesen. Until I can get a hold of the real packaging so I can read the label, I’m not able to do a full review. 

(Images courtesy of the respective manufacturers.)

Related Candies

1. Candy Teases: Edition Two
2. Candy Teases - New Products

Technically this happened last week, not this week, but bear with me. Last Friday I got to meet another one of my fellow candy bloggers (I have a set of three in-person meets so far!). Joanna from SugarSavvy.net was in town and we went out to lunch at the Farmers Market (because it was the densest candy location I could think of near my office). We had a little lunch with the incredible view of Littlejohn’s Toffee & Fudge. They were wrapping their slick and gorgeous caramel kisses (caramel covered marshmallows). Joanna bought some penuche, a pecan praline for a friend and I also got a praline and a piece of honeycomb (because it looked so good on Rosa’s post over at SugarSavvy ... but I ate it and can’t review it now). I probably jabbered on a lot about candy, but it’s pretty rare that I get to talk to anyone about candy except through the blog.

She also gave me a wonderful selection of four chocolates by Xocolatl de David. I’ve gobbled them up without taking their picture or reviewing them. (I’m sure I’ll have them again and do some coverage.) Mmmm ... dark and scorched fleur de sel caramels coated in rich chocolate. I definitely have to visit Portland one of these days.

As another update, the winner for the Ultimate Candy Expo Box was Kimberly. It was a little warm in both our locations last week, so I’m boxing up a list of her top requests and a bunch of other stuff to send off on Monday. There were 537 valid entries (a few doubles on the comment thread and a few that came in via email). I’m kind of 21st century in my drawing method. I export the entire list to an spreadsheet. Sort it (in this case by email address) and then have a random number generator tell me which entry won.

I’m thinking about running another giveaway, this time filled with Limited Edition items (some you may have loved, many you may have hated!). Any thoughts?

As a little follow up to another post earlier this week, Hershey’s has named Richard Lenny’s replacement. They’re promoting from within and have tapped David J. West (43) as the new President, CEO and Director. West’s current position is Chief Operating Officer, Exec. VP, Sr. VP and Pres of the North American Commercial Group (see, he’ll have a much shorter title!). Don’t worry about Lenny (55),  he’s leaving with plenty of compensation for his hard work this year: a $1.1 million base salary and $10.25 million in long-term compensations ... that’s just this year. (He has some other yet unexercised options worth $23.5 million.) More about Lenny’s history with the company here. Of the 20 top executives in Hershey, West was the youngest in senior management.

Chew on That has their monthly roundup of answers from bloggers. October’s topic is “What is the one thing in your refrigerator or pantry that you cannot live without?” As I’m not the cook in my household, my answer isn’t an ingredient, just something I eat.

Monday: Reese’s Whipps (4 out of 10)

Tuesday: Java Twix (8 out of 10)

Wednesday: Limited Edition Hot Cocoa Kisses (5 out of 10)

Thursday: GudFud Stuffed Marshmallows (6 out of 10)

Friday: Chocolate Poppers (6 out of 10)

Healthy Friday Bonus: Welch’s Fruit ‘n Yogurt Snacks (6 out of 10)

Weekly average was 5.833 with 50% chocolate content.

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1. This Week in Candy - Chicago Bound
2. This Week in Candy - Naturally!
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4. This Week in Candy - A Giant Craving
5. Confetti & Agrumetti

Richard H. Lenny, the CEO, President and Chair of The Hershey Company is calling it quits at the end of the year. He took his current position in 2001.

You can read the press release below, which is obviously geared towards investors and not consumers, because not once does it mention anything good that’s happened since Lenny took over ... a period which saw the addition of PGPR to Hershey’s chocolate, the swapping of real milk chocolate in the Fifth Avenue bar to subpar mockolate and of course their support for the Grocery Manufacturers Association proposal to lower the standards of identity for chocolate (a reversal from their earlier position logged in 2000). Oh, yeah, and the closing of the Smith Falls, ONT and Oakdale, CA along with many smaller factories totalling at least 1,500 people directly.

HERSHEY, Pa., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/—Richard H. Lenny, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Hershey Company, has informed the Board of Directors that he intends to retire at the end of 2007. First elected as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company in March 2001, Mr. Lenny was elected Chairman of the Board in December 2001.

In commenting on the announced retirement, Robert H. Campbell, Chair of the Company’s Compensation and Executive Organization Committee, said: “On behalf of the Hershey board of directors, stockholders, and employees, we thank Rick for his leadership over this past six and one-half years. During this time, the Company developed and has been executing its value-enhancing strategy with the over-arching goal of building stockholder value over the long-term. Under Rick’s leadership, through a combination of core brand growth, disciplined global expansion, and improved margins, Hershey’s total stockholder return was higher than that of the S&P food group and significantly outperformed the S&P 500. In addition, Rick has assembled an excellent leadership team that we’re confident will realize Hershey’s growth potential.

“The board has begun the succession process and looks forward to making an announcement in the near future. Once announced, there will be an orderly transition from Rick to his successor. We wish Rick all the best as he concludes his role with Hershey,” Campbell concluded.

“My years at Hershey have been extremely rewarding as I’ve been honored to lead a dedicated and engaged organization. During this time, we undertook major challenges, all focused on building a strong foundation for the benefit of all our stakeholders. I’m extremely proud of my Hershey colleagues and all that they have accomplished. I also want to thank our board of directors for its keen insights, support, and guidance over the past several years,” said Lenny. “The long-term prospects for our category and particularly for our company remain promising. I look forward to working closely with my successor so that the transition to new leadership will be effective and seamless.” (source)

If I were in charge, I’d go private. If I were the Hershey Trust, I’d slowly buy the company back. They have (or at least it looks like they have) the capital to do it. Move away from all for the profit business and move to become and socially and ecologically responsible company both in the United States and abroad. Mars has a huge advantage over Hershey’s in that it is privately owned and can take bigger risks when the consumer confectionery market is in flux as it is now.

Hershey’s should get back to making quality confectionery products at affordable prices, pay people a decent wage and the Hershey Trust will be able to continue the Milton Hershey School without problems. After all, the Trust is there to help mold disadvantaged youth - give them the education and boost that they need. Are they really teaching them anything if they abandon the town, communities and ideals that Hershey built?

More at the Wall Street Journal.

Of course I wasn’t the only writer covering the All Candy Expo and I’m glad, otherwise I wouldn’t know half this stuff. So here are some extra reads if you’re inclined:

Bloggers

Other Coverage by Me

Finally, the National Confectioners Association site also has a nice roundup of coverage including video links!

Related Candies

1. All Candy Expo - Tuesday Wrappers
2. All Candy Expo - Tuesday Noon Update
3. All Candy Expo - Monday Wrappers
4. Navigating a Candy Expo

I got word during All Candy Expo that Good ‘n Fruity, the fruity version of Good & Plenty is returning next year.

I believe the revamped product was test marketed last year in Oregon, as the photo shown here by permission from ravenzachary shows (or perhaps he got a frighteningly old box).

The original Good ‘n Fruity was a clear sweet jelly center with a variety of fruit flavored candy shells. According to Wikipedia, back in 1988 the centers were changed to improve the flavor and were rather like pieces of fruit licorice with a candy shell.

I have no recollection of ever eating Good ‘n Fruity, I always preferred the licorice parent. But I’ll give it a whirl! If only to find out if they’ve squandered their Dr. Frankenstien powers on this candy instead of reviving the Bar None.

We’ll find out in late February 2008 whether Zombie candies are as good as the original ones.

UPDATE 3/11/2008: I finally got a hold of a box via CandyWarehouse ... here’s the review.

Related Candies

1. Goodbye Tart n Tinys
2. I Miss: Bar None
3. Goodbye Reed’s