Jim Vorel, writing just yesterday for Jezebel:
It can be hard to know what exactly to call the substances that
are now found coating many major candy bars such as Butterfinger,
Baby Ruth, Almond Joy, Mr. Goodbar or Rolos. Food scientists refer
to it as “compound chocolate” coating, because it’s made from
actual cocoa powder, but replaces the more expensive source of fat
(cocoa butter) with cheaper, lower-quality vegetable fats. When
Hershey brands such as Mr. Goodbar or Almond Joy made the switch
in recent years, their labels subtly changed from claiming
that they were “milk chocolate,” to “chocolate candy,” which
strikes me as particularly insidious phrasing. A more obvious
indicator is another word that many companies use: “Chocolatey”
coating. Wondering how much this scourge had infiltrated my own
home, I took a look moments ago at several packages of Girl Scout
Cookies, only to find the inevitable: Both my Thin Mints and
Peanut Butter Patties are also made with compound chocolate,
rather than the real thing. I can hardly pretend to be surprised.
Even in candies that continue to use real chocolate, meanwhile,
cost-cutting measures have sometimes been employed, such as the
milk chocolate coating of a Snickers bar becoming slightly thinner
over time. Some products even mix real chocolate and compound
chocolate in a single cookie or candy.
