Hershey’s Special Dark

My mother came home with a load of groceries the other day. As I helped with the putting away of food, I noticed an unusual purchase lying at the bottom of one of the plastic shopping bags, nestled between cans of tomato paste and boxes of macaroni. It was a large, flat bar of Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate.
“Why’d you buy this?” I asked, holding up the bar.
“I was just craving dark chocolate,” was her offhand reply. I shrugged and set it atop the refrigerator, the usual spot for storing sweets if they’re around.
A few days later, after we had eaten dinner, my mom fetched the bar and split off a piece. She offered it to me, and of course I accepted it. I wasn’t expecting it to be good, as Hershey’s is the cornerstone of cheap candy, but I figured I’d give it a try. It was, after all, special dark chocolate as opposed to regular dark chocolate.
It smelled bad. It wasn’t pure chocolate, of course. It was probably loaded with all that chemically junk that Hershey’s uses so sneakily that we don’t even taste it. But this bar actually smelled like the chemicals that contributed to its being. I took an unsure bite of the little rectangle, chewed, swallowed, and gagged.
Okay, I didn’t actually gag. But this stuff was pretty bad. It had an unpleasant chalky texture, not stiff and firm like a good dark chocolate, not even smooth and sure like a good milk chocolate. And those chemicals that attacked my nose with their aroma were now attacking my taste buds. Spare me!
Hershey’s, I am not pleased. Maybe you should just stick to milk chocolate, since you’ve got that down pat.
Rating: 2 out of 10