Celebrate National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day

I grew up with Hershey products. I remember one illness I had as a child where I couldn't keep any food down for a week and my father brought a six pack of Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars and I was able to keep half of one down, then a full one, then all of them over the course of 24 hours. That might have been coincidence, the illness might have been over by then, but that experience imprinted on my mind. As I've worked with The Chocolate Cult I've grown to appreciate a much wider range of chocolate products but I'd be lying if I said I still didn't have a soft spot for Hershey's. So today in honor of the fun food holiday, National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day, I'm looking at Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds bar. I got this bar free with my Kroger loyalty card; no other form of compensation was received for this post.

The Milk Chocolate with Almonds bar has been around for over a century. It was first introduced around 1908 but my sources varied in this regard. The success of this milk chocolate bar with added almonds was followed over a decade later by candy bars with other fillings in the Hershey family.

Today the bars come in at 1.45 ounces or 41 grams with 210 calories. The size of the bar and the prices have changed over the years. This says "Hershey's" on the top and has visible almond pieces on the bottom. These are not tiny pieces but also not full nuts. The scent is basically what I expect from Hershey's milk chocolate -- sweet edge, touch of creaminess, and a strong cocoa scent; not almond scent until I break the bar open. The almonds have a roasted fragrance and a taste, no salt flavor at all. The chocolate is as it smelled, creamy, sweet, and chocolatey. The nuts take the longest to chew so they end up as the initial and the final flavor, outlasting the milk chocolate itself. From memory I think I've liked the dark chocolate better because there the dark chocolate competes more strongly for dominance.

For all of the crap chocolate connaisseurs give big name candy companies like Hershey's this bar is basically chocolate with almonds and sunflower oil... the last is the big problem for me because unless it is cocoa butter and fat in dairy, I really don't think it needed to be added to any type of chocolate. There are many ways you could celebrate today such as making your own milk chocolate with almonds treats, candies, and chocolate, but Hershey's is still an option.

Tell me, readers, when was the last time you had a Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar with Almonds?

Three websites were consulted for the historical information about this bar:

Hershey's
Ideafinder
Old Time Candy