Why Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut Isn’t The Same In The Land Of Stars And Stripes?

guardian.co.uk:

With familiar purple packaging and a swirly “C”, the Cadbury chocolate bars found in American shops look as if they are made by Britain’s besieged confectionery company. But they are not, and to US chocoholics a tiny difference is deeply distressing.

Since 1988, the American confectionery company Hershey has owned a US licence to make and sell Cadbury-branded products ranging from Dairy Milk bars to Fruit and Nut, Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs. And its concept is rather different from Cadbury’s.

Some say the US version, made at a plant in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, tastes sweeter than the stuff made in Bournville, Birmingham. Others detect a slightly more “grainy” texture. The US chocolate is a little darker and, say connoisseurs, a little bit more melt-resistant. For British expatriates or holidaymakers visiting the US, the difference is disconcertingly noticeable.

Certain anglophile Americans, too, yearn for the British version, giving “real” Cadbury chocolate a cult following stateside.

“The British version just tastes a hell of a lot better,” says John Jago-Ford, owner of the British Shoppe, a store in Orlando, Florida, that is among the few places to sell the original Cadbury chocolate imported from Britain. “American chocolate is so sweet that it tastes like doggie chocs.”