With a Glass and a Half of Milk...

While I've always had a sweet tooth for chocolate, I've never been much of a fan of milk chocolate.

I have to admit now, that I have been missing out, well at least on one milk chocolate product, Cadbury Dairy Milk.

Cadbury was founded in 1824 by John Cadbury in Bull Street, Birmingham, England. By 1842, they were offering 11 types of cocoa and 16 distinct types of drinking chocolate.

In June 1904, Cadbury created a chocolate containing a "far higher milk content than previously known" as a challenge to the Swiss domination of the chocolate market. It  was launched as Cadbury Dairy milk in 1905 and was an instant success. By the mid 1920s, Cadbury Dairy Milk was the best selling chocolate brand in the United Kingdom and it remains so even today.

 1920 Cadbury Dairy Milk advertisement from Cadbury Archives

Cadbury introduced the advertising slogan "Glass and a half of full cream milk in every half pound," in 1928. Fifty years later, the "glass and a half" design was added to the packaging, where it still appears.

In March 2009, Cadbury announced that it would use 100% Fairtrade cocoa in Cadbury Dairy Milk, re-energizing the cocoa farms in Ghana that supply Cadbury with cocoa beans.

Cadbury is also made in the United States, under agreement with Hershey.

Do the British and the American Dairy Milk bars taste the same? Do they use the same ingredients? Which one is better?

The only way I felt fair to do this was to contact Hershey's, which makes Dairy Milk in the US for Cadbury. Unfortunately they never did respond to my e-mail. So, instead I went to Hershey and bought a bar of the Hershey made Dairy milk at Chocolate World to use in a completely unscientific blind taste test at home. The British Dairy Milk was purchased online thought a British Food company.

My wife, who studied for a year at St. Andrew's and had some previous experience with British Cadbury, agreed to be the blind panel.

She immediately identified the Hershey's made Dairy Milk from the British made version. What she found, was the American version had a very distinctive Hershey taste. While not unpleasant, it was not the same as the British made version, but far superior to Hershey Milk Chocolate. If you have never had British Dairy Milk, it is a very good milk chocolate, with a creaminess most American chocolates lack.

The British Dairy Milk was much more along the lines of the Swiss chocolate against which it was originally designed to compete. And it lacked a distinctive sour finish which we both find in all Hershey Milk Chocolate. It is truly milk chocolate heaven. And that is no small praise coming from someone who really has never enjoyed milk chocolate.

So why the difference in the American made and the UK made Cadbury chocolate? Well, I got a nice reply from Cadbury and what they had to say made complete sense. “While the recipe is a closely guarded secret, one of the main reasons for the different taste, not just between US and UK, but with Cadbury Dairy Milk across the globe (Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand), is they are all made with local milk. So each country has its very unique taste. There are also other factors that can affect the taste of the chocolate, even with the recipe being the same, for example if we used the same way of producing Cadbury Dairy Milk in the UK, but in a hot Australian summer the chocolate would melt before it reached the stores shelf. So in Australia and other warmer climate areas, we produce the chocolate to be able to hold its shape at those temperatures, so that it only melts once it’s in your mouth.”

So if you have a Cadbury Dairy Milk from the UK and one from Hershey, you now know that the difference is not in your head or some bias you might have for or against one country of origin, but a real difference in the ingredients.

So when it comes to milk chocolate, I'm going to look far and wide to find the British version of Cadbury Dairy Milk when I have the urge for some extraordinary milk chocolate. Thankfully, I still have some more of the British Dairy Milk remaining from my taste challenge to enjoy now that I've done sharing my results with you...

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Chocolate and Ginger Perfection...

Like their Bitterorange and Bitterginger, Bendicks has decided to discontinue their Chocolate Gingers as well, to focus on their mint chocolates.

I don't think I ever thought much about ginger until recently. And once I'd discovered it as small bits in a ginger cookie, or other sweet treat, it is hard to imagine what life was like before I discovered the joy of real ginger.

Bendicks managed to create an amazing confection which the most discerning ginger lover would find amazing.

Bendicks was founded in 1930 by Mr Oscar Benson and Colonel "Bertie" Dickson as a small confectionery in the Kensington neighborhood of London.

While primarily known for their range of premium dark chocolate mints, which I have recently written about, Bendicks as also explored other flavor combinations, most notably ginger and dark chocolate.

One of these was Chocolate Gingers. Bendicks took the finest Austrian Buderim stem ginger and lightly covered it in chocolate before enrobing in rich dark chocolate containing 50% cocoa solids.

The result in each case was nothing slight of a heavenly experience of flavor.

There is no doubt in my mind that they will be missed by others, just as they will be missed by me. Until then, I will seek out what remains from those stockists which have carried these two exceptional products and enjoy them to the last, after which time I will continue to enjoy the exceptional chocolate mints which Bendicks continues to produce.

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When a Simple Mint Crisp Reaches Perfection...

So by now, it should be quite obvious, that I greatly enjoy fine chocolates. In most cases, I prefer the pure form, with no other flavors added, and I also prefer dark chocolate to other styles.

Every now and then, a chocolatier comes along who creates a flavor combination which I find irresistible.

And Bendicks does that again and again.

Bendicks was founded in 1930 by Mr Oscar Benson and Colonel "Bertie" Dickson as a small confectionery in the Kensington neighborhood of London.

While they have produced some other flavor combinations to great success, they are primarily known for their range of premium dark chocolate mints.

They treat fine ingredients not as an indulgence, but as a necessity. They use a minimum of 50% cocoa solids in their mint crisps creating a rich and complex chocolate. Crisp handmade honeycomb pieces are then enrobed in this chocolate and infused with natural peppermint oil.

It is nothing less than the perfect mint crisp, artfully balancing chocolate, mint and crisp.

Before I found these, I would never have thought of keeping a chocolate mint on hand, but now that I have tried these, it almost seems unthinkable not to have some around the house all the time.

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Requiem for Sublime...

I must confess, that I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I always have and I am also sure it runs in my family.

But over time, I have learned to moderate this craving by choosing quality over quantity. I'd prefer a few exceptional sweets any day to a mound of sugary sweetness.

And when you find that perfect sweet, the one which is in true balance and harmony with its flavors, you don't easily forget.

Unfortunately, every now and then, a product which you come to love, is discontinued. And this has in fact just recently happened to me.

Bendicks was founded in 1930 by Mr Oscar Benson and Colonel "Bertie" Dickson as a small confectionery in the Kensington neighborhood of London.

While primarily known for their range of premium dark chocolate mints, which I will cover in a future post, Bendicks as also explored other flavor combinations. And these can only be described as sublime.

One of these was Bittergingers. Bendicks expertly combined hot and spicy Chinese ginger extract and tender ginger pieces in a soft fondant which they then double enrobed in dark chocolate containing 95% cocoa solids.

The other of these amazing creations was Bitteroranges. Here, Bendicks took tangy Sicilian orange oil which they combined with a hint of chilli in a firm fondant. And like the Bittergingers, they enrobed this is intense dark chocolate containing 95% cocoa solids.

The result in each case was nothing slight of a heavenly experience of flavor.

There is no doubt in my mind that they will be missed by others, just as they will be missed by me. Until then, I will seek out what remains from those stockists which have carried these two exceptional products and enjoy them to the last, after which time I will continue to enjoy the exceptional chocolate mints which Bendicks continues to produce.

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The rich, the beautiful and the fashionable flocked to our doors. Prominent among them was the Duke of Kent, son of King George V, who regularly visited for some of our famous Bittermints.

The company soon became known by the name that was to become famous around the world: Bendicks of Mayfair.

Our reputation grew still further, and in 1962, our position at the pinnacle of British confectionery was sealed - we were awarded the coveted Royal Warrant: “By Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen”.