Yahoo Lifestyle Hershey’s Fans React to 70-Year-Old Chocolate Bar: ‘Crazy How Simple the Ingredients Were'
Have you ever wondered what your favorite chocolate bar would taste like decades past its expiration date? For those who enjoy the Fallout video game and television series, this is likely a thought that has crossed your mind on at least one occasion. And if you’ve ever bitten directly into an already expired piece of chocolate, you were likely surprised by its seemingly unaffected flavor and texture.
Like most chocolate, Hershey’s is generally considered safe to eat past its expiration date. If stored properly, and no signs of spillage appears, at most, you’ll notice the taste and texture to be a bit off. But what happens when you dig up a 70-year-old Hershey’s bar out of a 1950’s fallout shelter? Well, if you’re @mrs.fallout, you make a quick educational video comparing old chocolate to new.
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“Opening 1950s Chocolate Bar from a Fallout Shelter and comparing it to a current chocolate bar,” @mrs.fallout captioned her TikTok post. “These bars were originally made for the US Army in WW2 and were titled ‘tropical' because they were specifically made to not melt in hot climates.”
The content creator goes on to tell viewers that the decades-old chocolate bars "were also specifically made to not taste pleasant so soldiers would not be tempted to eat them if not in a specific survival situation.”
Hershey’s Tropical Chocolate was once created in a 1-ounce bar form and included the following ingredients: sugar, chocolate, nonfat dry milk, cocoa, butter, vanillin (artificial vanilla flavoring) and vitamin B. Today’s Hershey’s bar has a slightly different ingredient makeup: milk, chocolate, cocoa butter, lactose, milk fat, soy lecithin, PGPR, vanillin and artificial flavor.
“That old ingredient list was simple with real food,” one commenter wrote in envy. Another added, “I really miss that pre-plastic packaging,” to which another responded, “I almost didn’t want her to open the candy cuz that wrapping is so vintage.”
And the speckled white and grayish discoloration visible on the decades-old chocolate bar? What you’re seeing is a process called “blooming” in action. Sugar blooming occurs when moisture comes into contact with the chocolate. The sugar absorbs the moisture, dissolves and evaporates; forming a dry, hard white surface-like film.
Fat bloom, on the other hand, occurs when the chocolate is exposed to high temperatures. The cocoa butter separates from the other ingredients and rises to the surface, resulting in a slick texture that has white or grayish streaks.
As for eating this 70-year-old piece of chocolate, one commenter wrote, “I've eaten worse Easter candy from GamGams house.” And when @mrs.fallout took a bite for her video, she quickly grabbed her Rad Away kit as a safety precaution. Do with that information what you will and tread carefully the next time you find a decades-old chocolate stash.
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