Cadbury Hot Chocolate Original

 

I was expecting something a bit more from one of Britain's most popular hot chocolates. But then, Cadbury's became popular in the 1800s for using more milk in their chocolate than other brands, so they were always about the low cost popularity rather than the quality (milk is cheaper than chocolate). Cadbury's has always been about making products that are easy to consume and have the widest appeal - that is, the products that have the least character, or are the blandest. In this case, it's about sweetness. Sugar is cheaper than chocolate - it bulks out the product, and makes it widely appealing. All chocolate seems to have some amount of sugar in it. By itself chocolate is quite bitter and intense. Milk and sugar are what make it palatable. And some like it darker (more chocolate, less milk and sugar) than others. I'm fairly flexible, though tend to have a preference for a balanced chocolate, moderately sweet, with some milk, not too dark. This hot chocolate is very sweet. So sweet it's like drinking sugared water with some chocolate flavouring. That's not balanced. It's way too much sugar. Yes, there is some chocolate flavour, but it's in the background. 

Cadbury's is something of a British institution - Creme Eggs, Roses, Dairy Milk, Bournville Plain, and of course the Hot Chocolate. Everyone in Britain has been brought up on Cadbury's chocolates, and will be familiar with them; and most people are aware of the Bournville village, which Cadbury's had built for the factory workers, as was standard in Victorian times, though forbade alcohol to be sold anywhere in the village. Cadbury's is now owned by the American company Mondelez, which was split off from the Kraft company, famous for its processed cheese slices. However, the Bournville chocolate factory is still there, and the inhabitants of the Bournville village are still mostly workers at the factory. Despite the names "garden" and "model" village, only the managers lived in the mock Tudor houses usually shown in pictures, the workers lived in modest square boxes. 

Typical Bournville workers houses

Even though this is a sugary hot chocolate, we like it. It's pleasant, easy drinking, with enough chocolate to make it reasonably satisfied. It's not a great hot chocolate, but is quite acceptable, especially if you like sweet hot chocolate. 

Ingredients: Sugar, Cocoa Powder, Acidity Regulator (Potassium Carbonates), Flavouring, Cocoa Solids: 25 % minimum

Price is around £3 for 500g

Date:: Feb 2021   Score: 4