Several Hershey's candy bars contain vegetable oils instead of or in addition to cocoa butter. Chocolate lovers say the addition of these oils diminishes the taste of the candy bars.
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For years, Sharon Leitner's candy bar of choice was Take 5.
"I liked that it was a combination of different flavors," the Cincinnati resident said. "It was salty and sweet, [with] caramel and peanut butter and chocolate, and it had something for everybody."
But this past spring, Leitner, 24, noticed a change.
"It just didn't taste like it used to," she said. The new taste was "more waxy and artificial."
A look at the bar's wrapper helped Leitner understand why: cocoa butter -- which experts say helps give chocolate its smooth, creamy taste -- wasn't on the candy's ingredients list.
"Then I started noticing that there were all kinds of other products that didn't have cocoa butter," she said.
Changes to the formulations of several candy bars has chocolate lovers like Leitner buzzing -- and not in a good way.
Cybele May, the founder of the candy review Web site Candy Blog, said that in recent years rising cocoa prices have led candy companies like Hershey's -- the maker of Take 5 and the top chocolate-seller in the U.S. -- to replace cocoa butter with cheaper vegetable oils. The ingredients list for Take 5, for instance, now includes "palm, shea, sunflower and/or safflower oil."
"They just ruined that," May said of the Take 5 bar.
Hershey, meanwhile, stands by its products. The company "is committed to making the world's best chocolate," said spokesman Kirk Saville.
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