candy in europe way better...

just got back from france and as usual i was reminded of how much better the candy, as well as all food in general is over there.  my favorite candy bars like kit kat and m&ms are just on a whole nother level as far as quality.  no waxyness bland flavor with the kit kats, mms got darker better quality chocolate, and peanuts that have an actual peanut taste.  the mars bars, nougat is real nougat and caramel is real caramel.  they are really screwing us in the u.s.  they also have a flavor of doritoes called "sweet barbecue", f'n great.   the mcdonalds is way better quality too as well as the kfc... wtf, american franchises are better in another country? lol.  only thing we have here is chemicals, it's pathetic.

Better move there.

P.S. Why did you eat corporate American fast food during a trip to Europe?

because i like junk food.  i don't really wanna move there, just too bad the food can't move here.

Greetings!

I love belgian and french filled chocolates, very expensive stuff...,  but my cousin Uwe used to bring over over here to Germany several times an american brand of filled chocolates...

I do not remember the brand, but the package was mainly white,  with a "Grandma-Image" on the top of the box, typical Old-Style.

Uwe and Evelyn bought this filled chocolates perhaps in California, I am not aware about this, who knows this american brand...?


Michael

Better move there.
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Did you ever buy fresh french or belgian sweets, probably not...?

I am also in the FF-Candy-****, but this is another taste of chocolate, you will not find anywhere.


Michael

Michael_Germany
 
I do not remember the brand, but the package was mainly white,  with a "Grandma-Image" on the top of the box, typical Old-Style.  

Sounds like See's Chocolates:
http://www.sees.com/
 
Owned by Warren Buffet's company:
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/subs/sublinks.html

I'd be happy if See's was all I ever had.  Love it!

I used to live in London and in the markets, any "confection" was miles better than here. Even, packaged small cakes and cookies. Some were very fancy and some were plain. But, none of them had the "mass produced" flavors or textures found in similar products here.

Twinwillow


I used to live in London and in the markets, any "confection" was miles better than here.

Ever have See's?

I read recently that several of the major candy companies in the US were eliminating the cocoa butter from their products and adding oil instead - you can tell if they use "chocolate-flavored" or "chocolate candy" or other misleading tags, but they can't call it chocolate.  Why? - to cut costs, of course.  Sad.

I'd say that there is good and bad everywhere.

It's probably more likely that you'll be directed to pick up the good stuff when you're traveling.

I've had some horrendous European candy and I've had some marvelous American stuff.

This sort of nationalism where a country is judge by the candy you've tasted is plain silly.

I'd also say that candy companies respond to what consumers purchase ... so if you think American M&Ms aren't as good as the European ones, tell Mars. And then pay to import them & share them with everyone until they report back to Mars in such numbers that they'll have to change it.

(Yes, Hershey's has started substituting vegetable oil for cocoa butter in many of their classic favorites ... but in the UK the Cadbury Dairy Milk has had vegetable oil in it for years.)

enginecapt

Twinwillow


I used to live in London and in the markets, any "confection" was miles better than here.

Ever have See's?

I love See's but I've never seen it in Europe. Besides, with all due respect to See's, the chocolate I've had in Europe (especially Switzerland) is of much better quality.

glad i'm not the only one to notice this.  what we have here(commercial brands at least) probably wouldn't be allowed in other countries the qualities are so ****ty.  oh well, imma just ordering online for now on.  my local shaws has an international aisle with tons of candy there too, no m&ms but they got kit kats at least.  how bout those gouda glides from amsterdam?  i know you guys have tried those before, man they're good.

I see two issues in the US that contribute to this:

- Price sells.  On average, Americans will always buy low price over high quality.  The candy makers are doing everything possible to lower the cost of their product and quality is the first to go.  Low price points are why Walmart and McDonald's are so successful.  It always grieves me when I see a small restaurant that provides marvelous food close while there is always a line at the McDonald's drive-through.

- Government price supports for sugar.  The US government regulates sugar imports and sugar prices, which gives the US one of the highest sugar prices in the world.  If the candy manufacturers haven't shifted their production out of the country (because there is no quota on candy imports), they have switched to HFCS instead of sugar, which in my opinion gives a much lower quality product.

I am referring to the mass market producers; small producers such as See's, Fannie May, or Bissinger's, which cater to a more discerning crowd, charge more for their product and can provide a better quality product... and I do appreciate that.

And here I thought all along that this website is called roadfood.com and not junkfood .com

Extreme Glow
they have switched to HFCS instead of sugar, which in my opinion gives a much lower quality product. 

This is simply not true when it comes to candy. For liquid or baked products it is possible to swap sucrose for HFCS ... but it is really not an option for 95% of all candy.

I agree that the issues with sugar subsidies have done terrible things to the American diet.

Do we have some really bad candy in the United States ... yes. Partly because of our throwaway culture. You can buy a huge bag of Hershey's Miniatures (half of which aren't even real chocolate any longer) or a tiny bag of Ghirardelli squares ... somehow the size thing wins out over the quality/consistent ingredients.

If we have bad candy it's our own fault for buying it.

(But as a nation we have pretty low per capita candy consumption - go figure ... maybe it's because some of it is so bad.)

Support the good stuff. Wherever you find it.

I'll add my 2 cents as I am European....

I don't enjoy the chocolate as much here in Canada, we thought it was great when we came here and discovered you could get Cadbury's, got even more excited come Easter when we saw you could get Cadbury's Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs....they just weren't the same though, more of a sugary, cheap taste than the stuff we were used to back home...not that Cadbury's is a high quality chocolate anyway, it's not.
I don't really like Hershey's either, the only product I tend to buy is the Cookies & Cream bars, they are a little on the sweet side again though.

Something else though I found out although this isn't to do with North American candy but the Cadbury's chocolate tastes better in the Republic of Ireland again than where I am from in the North (UK part), apparently it's because they use more cocoa butter or something in their chocolate which is made in Dublin than the stuff that is produced in the UK mainland.

There is good and bad candy everywhere though and different countries have different tastes.

...my actual favourite chocolate bar at the minute is Swedish...Marabou, available at most Ikeas! lol