Special Dark
by Hershey’s
Impact
Appearance 2.9 / 5
| Color: | Dutch-Boy black |
| Surface: | classic Hershey’s mold studded w/ tiny but whole almonds |
| Temper: | semi-dull |
| Snap: | creepy adhesive |
Aroma 8.2 / 10
salted-leather almonds + shockwaves of acacia-like perfume (artificial cassie... probably added as a fake resort)
Mouthfeel 10.6 / 15
| Texture: | grind, grit, & grain |
| Melt: | insurrection |
Flavor 36.8 / 50
mosh of chocolate-coated almonds tripped in vanilla & sugar -> metallic alkalis -> chocolate caulk & chalk -> burnt brownie shadows / Oreo™ crusts at the edge
Quality 14.7 / 20
"Special Dark" is Hershey’s talk for Dark-Milk. Plenty of dairy in here, plus PGPR – Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate – an emulsifier derived from castor beans that also reduces fat, & less fat = less taste too, so Hershey’s layers on the oils & butter additives, just bathing ‘n bombing the nuts.
But it hardly matters because this, like Hershey’s pride & joy – the Milk Chocolate with Almonds - remains all about the almonds.
Chocolate shows pretty vacant, virtually DOA, the torch gun on these poor cocoa beans firing pretty straight & steep (re: hi & fast). Whatever chocolate becomes apparent chaulks away, breaks apart against sugar grains that are barely melded, then Dutched for a final kill-shot.
This creates an easy grade for integration: there is no integration. The ingredients roam, rove & roll from each other to stray so the mouth can lay like a ranch trying to herd cats.
There are, however, those almonds – small & toasted into a hardness to suggest freshness, then buttered to create the difference between this & Hershey’s MC with Almonds being the level of grease; the Milk Choc version has even more of it.
This company may be going to hell but it ain’t all the way there... yet. Milton Hershey can still R.I.P. (for the time being)
ING: sugar, roasted almonds, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, milkfat, lactose, soy lecithin, PGPR, vanillin, artificial flavor, milk.
Reviewed Autumn 2010
But it hardly matters because this, like Hershey’s pride & joy – the Milk Chocolate with Almonds - remains all about the almonds.
Chocolate shows pretty vacant, virtually DOA, the torch gun on these poor cocoa beans firing pretty straight & steep (re: hi & fast). Whatever chocolate becomes apparent chaulks away, breaks apart against sugar grains that are barely melded, then Dutched for a final kill-shot.
This creates an easy grade for integration: there is no integration. The ingredients roam, rove & roll from each other to stray so the mouth can lay like a ranch trying to herd cats.
There are, however, those almonds – small & toasted into a hardness to suggest freshness, then buttered to create the difference between this & Hershey’s MC with Almonds being the level of grease; the Milk Choc version has even more of it.
This company may be going to hell but it ain’t all the way there... yet. Milton Hershey can still R.I.P. (for the time being)
ING: sugar, roasted almonds, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, milkfat, lactose, soy lecithin, PGPR, vanillin, artificial flavor, milk.
Reviewed Autumn 2010