Hershey leaves Nestlé with a chip on its shoulder
chocolate chips. An independent survey has found that customers
preferred the Hershey product to that of its nearest rival.
Be prepared for some heavy promotion of Hershey's special dark chocolate chips. An independent survey has found that customers preferred the Hershey product to that of its nearest rival, Néstle, in batches of chocolate chip cookies.
The double-blind preference test was conducted by A&G Research with a sample size of 538 males and females ages eight years and older that had eaten chocolate chip cookies within the past month. The double-blind preference test involved ordinary consumers tasting two unidentified chocolate chip cookies: one made with Heshey's special dark chips and the other made with Néstle toll house semi-sweet chips.
"In our market research testing more respondents preferred Hershey's Special Dark chips over Néstle Toll Hosue semi-sweet chips in the cookies," said James Guttormsen, vice president of A&G Research.
Hershey Foods marketing manager Alex Blumenthal is delighted with the results. "We believe Hershey's special dark chips have that unique combination of great taste and texture that make them preferred over other chocolate chips," he said. "Our goal was to create the world's best chocolate baking chips and judging by the results of the third-party preference test, consumers like what they see, or in this case, what they taste."
It wasn't until the 1930s that chocolate chip cookies were invented. The inventor, Ruth Wakefield, got the idea to make a chocolate butter cookie by breaking up a semi-sweet chocolate bar into tiny pieces and mixing it with the dough.
She expected the chocolate to melt as the cookies baked in the oven. However, the chocolate pieces did not melt, but held their shape and softened to a creamy texture. Today, chocolate chip cookies are reported to be the most popular cookie in America with 7 billion chocolate chip cookies eaten annually.
Hershey Foods is the leading North American manufacturer of chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery and chocolate-related grocery products. Some of the company's most popular products include Hershey's cocoa, Hershey's milk chocolate and Hershey's Kisses.
