Dark Chocolate's Success Is Its Own Enemy

The other day I read an LA Times article about dark chocolate's 15% sales growth last year as white chocolate grew at 5.7% and milk chocolate sales dropped 5.5%. There are a couple interesting things here. One is the reason for the growth: "Dark chocolate has gained cachet as a food -- like almonds, blueberries and red wine -- that studies say is good for the heart." Aren't health trends cute?

The other part to the story is what major chocolate manufacturers are trying to do to better compete in the dark chocolate market: "The Grocery Manufacturers of America, a trade group, has asked the Food and Drug Administration to let confectioners substitute cheaper ingredients -- vegetable oils and milk protein concentrates -- for cocoa butter." If you can't beat them, join them...but first change the definition of dark chocolate so you can compete on price.

That lead me to DontMessWithOurChocolate.com, a website dedicated to saving dark chocolate. I also saw some other LA Times articles, two others from earlier this year.

Comments

[Isha]

That’s why I only eat imported chocolate from places where it’s cheaper to make cocoa butter then get substitutes or places that honor their chocolate making traditions. I pass over the Belgian creations and go straight for Polish. Yes, I did say Polish, and yes it has everything to do with childhood tastes. Wedel (http://www.wedel.pl) is one the oldest Polish brands and the oldest in Polish chocolate industry. Its brand is used to imply quality in many different chocolate products. It’s noteworthy to mention that they do not produce candy bars, even though they have many successful chocolate candy lines.

One a personal note I remember how hard it was to buy chocolate during the Polish martial law (that’s during the 80’s). At that period there were chocolate like products – something that American chocolate industry seems to be heading towards. All I can say is that “chocolate like products” were absolutely horrid in taste. Maybe they are counting that the health conscious public will not taste the difference?

[Myszka]

Ah, the time-honored tradition of tricking the consumer. That makes me so angry! Argh!

It's like how Coke slowly replaced cane sugar and vanilla extract with corn syrup and vanilla essence to cut costs. They did it over many years, so people didn't notice.