Hershey Bar (History, Flavors, FAQ & Commercials)

The Hershey Bar is a candy bar made of chocolate. A rather simple candy, the normal Hershey Bar is considered the milk chocolate variety, and despite being a rather simple, if not plain, chocolate bar, the Hershey’s Bar is considered a classic and is the flagship candy bar for an entire corporation that surrounds this one chocolate bar and all its varieties.

Made from a large square of chocolate, the standard Hershey Bar is perforated with smaller squares to be broken off and eaten. The Hershey’s is very popular and is often considered “The Great American Chocolate Bar” due to its particular fondness among Americans, perhaps being due to the U.S being where the Hershey Bar was first created. The Hershey Bar nonetheless has a popularity that extends worldwide, with multiple varieties and sizes, and it is sold in thousands of stores all over.

History And Information

The Hershey Bar, invented by Milton Hershey from Pennsylvania, is the flagship candy bar for The Hershey Company, with the original version being a square of milk chocolate. Hershey’s milk chocolate candy bar was first introduced in the year 1900, followed by other types of Hershey’s bars such as Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Almonds, introduced in 1908.

The process to create Hershey’s chocolate was invented by Milton Snavely Hershey, who in the late 1880s wanted to create a new type of caramel. Milton previously learned when working in a candy shop how to create a soft caramel that was made with milk, and found it to be an improvement over its competition.

As caramel began to reach its peak and become oversaturated and was no longer as novel, Milton Hershey began to look elsewhere for a big hit product in the snack and candy market and found that chocolate was popular among European, and Swiss chocolate that contained lots of milk seemed to be very popular among the various chocolate products.

Milton felt the future of candy was chocolate and sought to create a popular chocolate confection, traveling to Switzerland in the 1890s to learn more about how chocolate was made, from bitter-tasting cocoa beans to sweet chocolate. In 1893, Milton visits the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and learns about chocolate machinery. In 1894, Milton, ready to engage in what he saw as a growing chocolate market, creates the Hershey Chocolate Company.

By 1900, Milton Hershey has spent a great deal of time in his lab back at home inventing a viable chocolate snack that could survive long-distance transit on the country’s rail system.

Milton Hershey successfully launched his 5 cent chocolate candy bar in 1900, marketing the chocolate bar as “More sustaining than meat”, claiming it to be important for one’s health, and branding the chocolate bar with his name, Hershey. With the 5 cent chocolate bar selling well, the bar stamped with the name Hershey, and numerous workers producing the candy bar, Hershey’s chocolate bar was born and was on the path to over a century of success and popularity.

As of 2019, Hersey’s chocolate is very popular, with the original Hershey’s Bar being viewed as and often called “The Great American Chocolate Bar”, and there have been many varieties created of the classic Hersey’s since its inception, such as Hersey’s Special Dark chocolate, and Hersey’s Cookies ‘N’ Creme bar. The Hersey’s bar was so influential that it influenced the price point of all candy bars, helping to set a typical price point of around 5 cents for a candy bar in the United States that lasted well into the late 1960s.

Hershey Bars are made using a technique called “The Hershey Process”, and though it is a trade secret about what that process exactly is, it helps give Hershey’s chocolate its signature taste. The taste of Hershey’s has been described by some as tangy and sour, though others view it as sweet. Alex Landuyt, director of research and development for Barry Callebaut, one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world, has described the milk used in Hershey‘s as “acidified.” Experts speculate that Hershey’s puts its milk through controlled lipolysis, a process by which the fatty acids in the milk begin to break down and that the milk used in Hershey’s chocolate is partially lipolysis, producing butyric acid, which stabilizes the milk from further fermentation. Though this seems to be speculation, has it has been reported that Hershey’s spokesmen have declined to comment on the production process that creates Hershey’s. Hershey has gone through a reformulation of its recipe, in 2015 it was announced that all of Hershey’s chocolate products would be having their ingredients changed, and made simple and easy-to-understand. Hershey’s Bar had PGPR (Polyglycerol polyricinoleate) and vanillin removed by the end of 2015 from its recipe. PGPR is an emulsifier derived from castor bean oil and vanillin is an artificial ingredient made from plant-based materials that give a taste of vanilla to snacks, candy, and food. The Hershey Bar replaced vanillin with natural vanilla, something that is harder to deliver a consistent product using, says Will Papa, Vice President, and Chief Research & Development Officer at The Hershey Company.

The Hershey Bar has been around for well over a century, and over time has become a classic with Americans. While less popular in other countries, the Hershey Bar is still fairly well known, though the snack enjoys the most popularity in the American market, where it was first located during the product’s inception. In 1983, Hershey’s Bar was reformulated to accommodate a different taste profile in Canada, finding that they preferred a slightly different flavor than the Americans, a different version is sold thereby the subsidiary, Hershey Canada Inc. Over time various types and sizes of Hershey’s Bars have been produced, including dark chocolate and white chocolate varieties, as well as miniatures of the various Hershey Bar products. The Hershey Company also sells giant-sized Hershey Bars, the largest of commercially available Hershey bars weighing 5 pounds, or 2.3 kg.

The Company That Makes Hershey’s Bar

The company that makes the Hershey’s Bar is none other than The Hershey Company. The Hershey Company was founded in 1984 by Milton S. Hershey and is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world. Hershey’s Bar is the flagship product for The Hershey Company and was the first product the company produced. The Hershey Company was made so that Milton Hershey, its founder, could break into what he saw as a growing chocolate snack market. The Hershey Company was known up until April 2005 as the Hershey Foods Corporation.

The Year Hershey Bar Was Invented

The Hershey Bar was invented in the year 1900 by Milton S. Hershey. Being produced for over 100 years is a rarity among the very competitive snack and candy market. Hershey Bar was made after many years of its inventor learning about how chocolate was made and taking the time to develop the candy bar.

The Inventor Of Hershey’s

The inventor of Hershey’s chocolate is Milton Snavely Hershey, a businessman and confectionery inventor from Pennsylvania in the United States. Born September 13, 1857, Milton Hershey spent years in the confectionery business and learned how to make soft tender caramel infused with milk before seeking out to create the famous milk chocolate bar many now know and love. Milton first sold his now-famous Hershey’s bar in 1900, after spending nearly a decade learning about and perfecting making chocolate during the 1880s and 1890s.

Has Its Ingredients Changed

In mid-June 2015, it was announced that Hersey Bar would be having its ingredients changed. The aim of changing the candy bar’s ingredients was due to increasing consumer demand for natural and easy-to-understand ingredients. In order to keep up with the changing times, the Hershey Company announced a several-year-long plan to revamp its candies to have more a more natural and easy-to-understand ingredients profile. The company would be focusing on its most major chocolate products first, including the Hershey Bar as its first project, followed by candies such as Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s.

As part of the changes, the Hersey’s Bar had both PGPR (Polyglycerol polyricinoleate) and vanillin removed from its ingredients by the end of 2015. PGPR is an emulsifier made from castor bean oil and is sometimes used to improve the processing characteristics of chocolate. Vanillin is a common artificial ingredient obtained from plant-based materials, which gives a “vanilla flavor” to foods. Rather than vanilla, Hershey’s now uses natural vanilla, a more difficult product to work with than its more artificial counterpart, but a change the company seems to have committed to carrying out on its products to achieve its aims for revamping its ingredients in its chocolates. Changing the ingredients of snacks and confectioneries is somewhat commonplace in response to health-conscious consumer pressure and concern, which is fairly high around the time the change was announced.

Information On Buying

Hershey’s is very popular and one of the most common candy items that you will find in the candy sections inside stores. You can find Hershey’s Bars sold at stores such as Stop And Shop, ShopRite, and CVS. There are many more stores that sell Hershey’s, and you can take a look at a list of stores that may have them in stock by checking below. You can also buy Hershey’s Bars online, which allows you to buy Hershey’s in bulk easily or get a harder-to-find flavor of Hershey’s that you can’t find in a store near you. You can check out the offer to buy Hershey’s Bars online and have them shipped to you by checking below. Buying Hershey’s in stores is faster and cheaper for small purchases while buying online allows you to deal hunt and find harder to get flavors and varieties of Hershey’s.

Stores That Sell

Here is a list of stores that may sell Hershey’s bars.

• CVS
• Target
• ShopRite
• Stop And Shop
• Rite Aid
• Walmart
• Sams Food Stores
• Krauser’s Food Stores
• Shell
• Citgo
• S&S Mini Mart
• Family Dollar
• General Dollar
• Dollar Tree
• York St Market
• Lowes
• Staples
• Party City
• Big Y

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Buy Online

You can also buy Hershey’s Bars at Old Time Candy by clicking the image below.

Flavors And Variations

• Hershey’s Milk Chocolate: The original version that started it all, first introduced in 1900. This classic candy bar is sweet and smooth.
• Hershey’s Special Dark: This dark chocolate version was introduced in the year 1939, and is a semi-sweet version of the classic Hershey’s Bar. The Special Dark edition contains a higher percentage of cocoa then the milk chocolate variety.
• Hershey’s Cookies ‘n Creme: In the year 1995, a Cookies ‘n Creme flavor was added to the brands lineup. Hershey’s Cookies ‘n Creme Bar introduced a creamy white chocolate taste, and is sometimes said to be one of reasons the flavor of white chocolate became popular in the United States. This version has an interesting “white with black speckles look to it, suggesting a cookie-like and creamy taste.
• Hershey’s Gold: The Hershey’s Gold Bar was announced in November 2017. Both a new flavor and a commemoration of the Olympic Winter Games, this version of the Hershey’s bar is bright gold color. Hershey’s Gold contains pretzels and peanuts and is advertised as being creamy, crunchy, caramelized and salty. Hershey’s Gold was created using a first-of-its-kind, proprietary process to transform white creme into solid ‘gold’ by caramelizing the creme in a specialized kitchen.
• Hershey’s Extra Dark Chocolate: The Extra Dark flavor of Hershey’s delivers a more bitter form of chocolate then its previous carnations. The Extra Dark version has a higher cocoa content then the Special Dark and Milk Chocolate versions of Hershey’s. This moves away from the trend of sweet chocolates by the brand and moves into a more pure chocolate variety that is rather popular in Western Europe regions.
• Hershey’s Sugar Free Chocolate.
• Cherry Cheesecake flavor: A special edition “Flavor of New York”, Hershey’s Cherry Cheesecake Candy Bar is a form of white chocolate with a flavor of cherry and cheesecake.
• Strawberries ‘N’ Creme flavor: Sold around 2005, Hershey’s Strawberries ‘N’ Creme Bar was a special limited edition with a pink and white colored wrapper and a picture of a strawberry going into cream as its packaging art.
• Cookies ‘N’ Mint flavor: Contains mint flavored milk chocolate with chocolate cookie bits mixed in.
• Hershey’s Milk Chocolate With Almonds: This is a variation of the classic Milk Chocolate Hershey’s Bar that adds almonds into the mix. Generally smaller in size then its classic sibling, this candy bar has crunchy almonds embedded into the chocolate and allows the candy bar to have something other then just chocolate in it, thus broadening the pallet. You can often see the almonds showing pressed into the chocolate by viewing the back of the chocolate bar after it has been unwrapped.
• Raspberry ‘N’ Creme flavored: A limited edition Hershey bar that contains Raspberry flavored white chocolate.
• Hershey’s Nuggets Milk Chocolate.
• Hershey’s Nuggets Special Dark With Almonds.
• Hershey’s Nuggets Milk Chocolate With Almonds.
• Hershey’s Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate With Toffee And Almonds: This is an unusual flavor of Hershey’s bar, containing toffee along with almonds. This Toffee containing Hershey’s Bar has been compared to another product by the company, the Hershey’s Symphony Bar.
• Hershey’s Nuggets Cookies ‘n’ Mint.
• Hershey’s Milk Chocolate And Reese’s Pieces Bar: This version is a type of spin-off product that mixes the flavor of Hershey’s and Reese’s by embedding Reese’s Pieces into the Hershey’s Bar. This candy bar is shaped and partitioned much like the typical version of the Hershey’s Bar, but has colors showing through from Reese’s Pieces that are embedded into it. This flavor of Hershey’s combines 2 vary popular products to make a tempting candy for candy consumers to eat.
• Hershey’s Aero Bar: This was an aerated chocolate bar produced by Hershey’s under licencing from Rowntree Chocolate Company from the year 1937 until the year 1939. Aerated chocolate is a type of chocolate which has been turned into a foam via the addition of gas bubbles
• Hershey’s Air Delight: The Air Delight variation is a newer type of aerated chocolate bar for the Hershey’s brand that has been advertised as having a light and bubbled filled nature. The outer layer of Hershey’s Air Delight looks like the typical solid chocolate that the brand is known for, but the inner layer is filled with bubbled-up chocolate.
• Candy Corn Flavored Hershey’s Bar: This flavor of Hershey’s Bar is made with candy corn creme and has candy bits embedded into the confection.
• Hershey’s Caramels: Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Caramels contains an outer layer of chocolate and a rich caramel center. This version is a bit different from other Hershey’s bars flavors due it having a type of filling and sometimes being viewed as a gourmet item.

Packaging Style

The classic milk chocolate Hershey’s bar has a maroon packaging with large block silver letters stating its name. The block letter design that says “HERSHEY’S” on the candy bar wrapper was introduced in 1912. Originally the Hershey’s bar used a white glossy wrapper with gold writing on it for labeling. The gold lettering was embossed and created a 3-dimensional effect for the label. The maroon color used in modern times for the wrapper was introduced in the year 1902, shortly after the Hershey’s bar was introduced itself, however at the time the maroon packaging had gold writing on it rather than the silver lettering known in the modern version of the Hershey bar. The maroon labeling was made into a sleeve around the bar and inside of that was an inner foil wrap you could see on either side of the sleeve.

The reason for the change from gold lettering to silver lettering on the Hershey bar was due to a complaint from another candy company that accused Hershey’s of infringing on their product trademark rights. The silver lettering on the packaging was also embossed up until 1950. In 1942 The Hershey bar discontinued the use of foil as an inner wrap and used white glassine paper as the inner wrapper instead as a cost-savings measure up until after World War 2. The foil inner-wrap was reintroduced in the year 1984. Around the 1980s the product began using UPC codes on its wrapper.

Different flavors and varieties of the Hershey bar have different packaging designs. The Hershey’s Cookies n Creme bar has a milky white coloration to its packing, with brown letters rather than the more classic silver found with the original version of the Hershey bar. The Cookies n Creme version has the same style of lettering for the label, but the words are shifted higher on the bar’s wrapper, and it includes blue and white lettering in the smaller front advertising the Cookies n Creme variation of the product. The Hershey’s milk chocolate and Reese’s Pieces hybrid bar has a similar packaging style to the classic version, with the exception that the last third of the length of the bar’s wrapper is colored in a style of the classic yellow and orange known to represent Reese’s, another Hershey’s product.

The original milk chocolate Hershey bar usually does not differ from its classic silver lettering on its label, however, it did make an exception in 2016 when the company was an official sponsor of the United States Olympic Committee and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams. The Hershey company revealed several American patriotic-themed products, including Hershey Bar’s that featured red, white, and blue lettering on its wrapper. The red, white, and blue-themed logo-ed Hershey bar first became available for sale on April 27th at the Hershey’s Chocolate World Attractions in New York City and Hershey, Pennsylvania in 2016.

Review

This review is for the classic Hershey’s Milk Chocolate.

The Hershey’s Bar comes as a slab of chocolate with a bunch of perforated rectangles built into its mold. The regular Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar is respectable in size, and it was a bit difficult to get the wrapper removed from the candy without the force breaking off some pieces from the sizable candy bar. Hershey’s is light brown in color, similar to many milk chocolate treats. This candy bar gave off a little smell after taking it out of its wrapper, though a faint sweet scent of chocolate can be detected when going to take a bite.

The nice thing about eating the original version of Hershey’s is that you can eat it at your own pace. You can eat it by breaking it down into smaller perforated rectangles of chocolate or eating it as a whole bar. The taste of Hershey’s is smooth, light, and sweet. It is chocolate in one of its lighter and sweeter forms, a frequent style with American style chocolate, unlike the often more heavy and bitter UK style chocolate. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate has a classic tried and true “Give them chocolate, and give it to them straight up”. This chocolate bar does not rely on frills or extra bells and whistles, and instead just delivers to you a slab of rather tasty chocolate.

Hershey’s Milk Chocolate is fairly sweet as far as chocolates go, and is smooth and soft to eat. It does not melt too fast in your hands, but it does not tolerate high temperatures well. This candy bar is a classic, tasty and simple candy bar, and a good standby for when you want a light and sweet slab of easy-to-eat chocolate to snack on.

The Popularity Of Hershey’s Bar

The Hershey’s Bar is one of the most popular candy bars in the world, is considered an American classic candy bar. The are many ideas on how Hershey’s became such a candy icon in the snack world, and in the end, it is the eye of the beholder that counts; however, we can always speculate on what makes this candy bar so popular. One reason could be that it has been around for so long, with Hershey’s first being introduced at the very start of the 20th century. The Hershey Bar has had plenty of time to become well known both in the United States and around the world and started off earlier than most of its main competitors in the market today. Another reason for Hershey’s popularity could be due to its simple design, and sweet taste. The bar is not fancy, with its original version being just a slab of chocolate, milk chocolate that is. Milk chocolate is very popular in the American candy market, and people like its sweet taste. Perhaps this is what’s bolstering the popularity of Hershey’s, people’s enjoyment of the milk chocolate that this candy bar provides. Whatever the reason, Hershey’s Bars enjoy immense popularity; Although there is often a fair bit of friendly debate on if Hershey’s is as good as more European favored dark chocolate brands, that have a higher cocoa content and are more bitter tasting.

Childhood Experiences

Hershey’s was a large part of my experiences during childhood. Hershey’s bars were my go-to snack, and I would choose it above any other candy. My parents were always buying these for me as a kid, I have tried most of the variations, and even as an adult I still buy Hershey’s more than any other candy. It is a classic, through and through, and it has become a staple candy for me in my life. I used to eat these for a dessert after dinner, just as a snack when I was hungry, or during a movie. It has basically become my go-to candy bar for almost any occasion. There is something about it that just makes it a great “staple candy“ to eat. Maybe because it is a simple but good tasting treat, so it is good for almost any time you want a chocolaty snack. This candy brings a powerful nostalgia whenever I eat it, and it is easy to see why it is so famous.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients for Hershey Bar.

• Milk Chocolate
• Sugar
• Cocoa Butter
• Lactose
• Milk Fat
• Soy Lecithin
• Pgpr, Emulsifier
• Vanillin
• Artificial Flavor

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 serving per container	1 bar (43g)	% Daily Value*
Amount per serving
Calories	220
Total Fat	13g	20%
Saturated Fat	8g	40%
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	10mg	3%
Sodium	35mg	1%
Total Carbohydrate	25g	8%
Dietary Fiber	1g	4%
Total Sugars	24g
Protein	3g
Vitamin D	27.1iu	6%
Calcium	84.7mg	8%
Iron	1.5mg	8%
Potassium	154.9mg	4%

• The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of the Hershey Bar!

Commercials

Here are various commercials featuring Hershey’s bar

A CLASSIC COMMERCIAL FROM 1979 ADVERTISING THE HERSHEY’S CHOCOLATE BAR.

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A COMMERCIAL FOR BIG BLOCK HERSHEY’S BARS.

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HERSHEY’S MILK CHOCOLATE WITH ALMOND COMMERCIAL ADVERT.

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1979 HERSHEY’S CHOCOLATE BAR COMMERCIAL.

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AN EARLY 1970’S HERSHEY BAR COMMERCIAL VIDEO.

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