Hershey’s is America’s default chocolate. It’s probably in every s’more. It’s wildly nostalgic, aggressively sugary, and once you taste something else: pretty bad. It’s waxy beyond what you need to temper. The flavor is flat. It’s chocolate made by a board of trustees.

Maybe I’m twisted but there’s something satisfying about bad news coming out about something you already hate.

Consumer Reports found elevated levels of lead and cadmium in several dark chocolate bars, including Hersey’s Special Dark and a few other products. It’s nothing to eat charcoal over, but it was enough to push them past California’s safety thresholds.

Which brings us back to the gripe: If you’re going to risk it all, shouldn’t it at least taste good?

NYC Chocolate That Tries

Stick With Me Sweets in Nolita has chocolate that’s handmade, small-batch, and can vouch for their ingredients. Bonbons are balanced, textured, and people mention the craftsmanship first.

Brooklyn’s Raaka Chocolate takes things even further with unroasted, organic, ethically sourced cacao. Here, you can even enroll in a class on how to make bean to bar chocolate, truffles, and ice cream. Don’t get me started on the precise chocolate pairings: coffee cuppings, floral tea, and wine tasting.

At Daniel Corpuz Chocolatier, chocolate feels closer to art than candy. Small batches, thoughtful sourcing, and flavors that remind you that chocolate can be expressive and flavors are meant to be layered.

If you want something more old-school, Confectionery! in the East Village proves you don’t need a billion-dollar factory to make good chocolate. It’s handmade, honest, and indulgent without pretending to be “health food.”

For the curious, The Meadow in Williamsburg curates bean-to-bar chocolate from small producers around the world. Each bar looks like a different book and is at least twice as interesting. Reviewers stand by the staff knowledge and the feeling that you’re discovering something, not settling for the sake of your sweet tooth.

And I’ll still be longing for a taste from Chocolat (2000).

Big Chocolate

When chocolate is mass-produced, sourced from everywhere, optimized for shelf life, and padded with sugar, things get lost. Flavor, for one. Transparency, sometimes safety margins.

Dark chocolate should taste rich and complex, while a Hershey’s dark chocolate bar tastes like someone shat cocoa near a pile of sugar. More than half the weight of the average milk chocolate bar is sugar. I won’t start on the PFAS in packaging. 

When it comes to your chocolate, don’t settle for metal.

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