For weeks now British chocolate maker Cadbury has been rebuffing approaches from Kraft – the American company perhaps most famous for its cheese products – only to finally accept a whopping £11.9 billion buyout offer this week. Big news in the business world, to be sure. But the burning question on every chocolate lover’s mind is: Will the taste of our beloved Cadbury’s chocolate change?
Established in Birmingham in 1824, Cadbury chocolates have been as much a part of everyday British life as tea, football and Corrie. Kraft occupies a similar space in American life, U.S. children growing up on its boxed macaroni and cheese and Velveeta processed cheese (really not as bad as it sounds).
Cheese and chocolate isn’t a mix most of us had in mind (though, take it from me, chocolate cheese is absolutely delicious!) and concerns have been raised that the takeover might affect the Cadbury taste.
American chocolate tastes – for lack of a suitable adjective – American. It’s not good or bad….it’s just different. I’ve often heard American chocolate described as “acidic”, “waxy” and not very smooth and creamy. A Hershey’s bar certainly doesn’t melt in your mouth like a Dairy Milk does. And a Creme Egg coated in anything other than sweet, milky Cadbury’s chocolate just wouldn’t be a Creme Egg.
What do you think, chocolate lovers? Would you welcome an American flavour update to your Dairy Milk or Bournville? Or would any attempts by Kraft to change the Cadbury taste result in death by chocolate?
