Get Your Corporate Hands Off My Chocolate!

Hershey has just announced the acquisition of San Francisco-based chocolatier Joseph Schmidt. While Joseph Schmidt's chocolates are artistic creations and do make great gifts, they are not the best chocolate for eating (and really, isn't that what you want from your chocolate?). For one thing, their famous half-egg-shaped truffles for which they are so well-known are annoyingly difficult to eat due to their thick shells. And the quality of their chocolate is merely average.

But coming so closely on the heels of Hershey's acquisition of Berkeley's Scharffen Berger, it's difficult for the Bay Area resident not to take offense at this corporate calamity. After all, Scharffen Berger is one of the world's finest chocolates, and Hershey is a peddler of chocolate-flavored sugary goo. One fears that any contribution Hershey makes will mar Scharffen Berger's bittersweet perfection. Perhaps Hershey will merely use its multinational reach to broaden the distribution of a sublime chocolate, but given the history of these types of mergers, that doesn't seem likely, now does it?

Given the chocolate-making tradition of San Francisco, one might fear that Hershey would move to acquire Ghiradelli (hard G, folks, it's Italian) and ruin another Bay Area confection corporation. But there's really nothing to fear there; Ghiradelli sold out years ago and its chocolate is barely better than Hershey's.

Ah well, at least there's Valrhona, a truly divine bittersweet chocolate. Not quite as complex and fruity as Scharffen Berger, but perhaps a richer and more satisfying cocoa experience.