Milk Chocolate with Antioxidant Goodness

The kind folks over at Hershey's sent a package of their latest products for review: All Natural Extra Dark, Natural Flavanol Antioxidant Milk Chocolate and Whole Bean Chocolate. To be absolutely completely honest, I didn't really read the labels closely before opening them. My immediate thought was, "This is Hershey's chocolate with a label that says its good for you" and to be quite frank, that idea turned me off. It seems like most people know that dark chocolate is good for you, so why take the fun out of it? It wasn't until I read the press release that I realized that two of the products were milk chocolate because apparently-- hold onto your hats-- there are some people out there who don't like dark chocolate. How sad for them. But in any case, now they can get their antioxidants from chocolate, too, thanks to these goodies.

I tried the Whole Bean chocolate first. The package says it has 40 percent less sugar than the leading milk chocolate and 7 grams of fiber per serving. (That equates to 1 Weight Watchers point per chocolate. Hooray!) Let me say, I was very pleasantly surprised by these. The aroma is deliciously milky and the taste reminds me of how Kisses used to taste to me, creamy and chocolatey. These are darn good chocolates. The problem is, you want to stuff your face with them rather than daintily eat one or two after dinner.

I'd had the Extra Dark before, and they're good, but the thing with dark chocolate for me is that I either want a basic bar of Special Dark or some really top-quality stuff. These little squares are good, but they don't make me want to pig out on them like the Whole Bean.

Lastly I tried the Antioxidant. They were milky, too, but the texture felt a little grainier than the Whole Bean.

Overall, I'd say I really like these chocolates. My only complaint is that they're taking something totally fun and indulgent and making it just a smidge too nutraceutical-looking. This is chocolate, it's supposed to be yummy and exciting and fun to eat with the added bonus of being good for you. I fear that these will appear in people's kitchens on the same shelf as the vitamins.