American Chocolate & Sour Milk

摘要

When Milton Hershey wanted to make milk chocolate widely available in the U.S., he needed to figure out a way to mass produce an item that was currently an artisinal, small-batch luxury product imported from Europe.rnThrough experimentation, The Hershey Company invented a process that remains a trade secret to this day. The process involves acidifying the milk so large batches can be held longer in liquid form. A by-product of the process is known to be butyric acid, which stabilizes the milk from further fermentation.rnThis compound gives the product a particular sour, tangy taste. The Hershey's milk chocolate bar became the first national consumer chocolate and the American public become conditioned to associate that smack of acid with the flavor of milk chocolate. To compete, other manufacturers of both milk and imitation chocolates often add butyric acid in order to provide a familiar U.S. taste.