Seal it with a kiss and a smile

Today I'm celebrating Hershey's chocolate.

Although Godiva and Ghiradelli are wonderful, in many ways I'm a country girl who enjoys many of the simple things in life, including Hershey's Great American Chocolate Bar. I also especially like Hershey's Kisses. You likely are familiar with their slogans: There's a smile in each Hershey's Bar and Say it with a kiss. Reportedly on this day in 1864, Hershey's Chocolate was founded.

I've been a loyal Hershey's customer for most of my life. I basically love most things chocolate. I prefer milk chocolate over the more healthy dark chocolate that has even won Bob Greene's Best Life seal for its healthy antioxidants. Although I been have accused of acting like a nut, I prefer Mounds and the Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar, over a Mr. Goodbar, Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds Bar, or Almond Joy. I know it seems odd, but I don't want chocolate on my glazed doughnut.

I generally can't keep chocolate in the house because of the temptation, with the exception of the Hershey's chocolate syrup for my nephews and the Hershey's Cocoa for baking my Mom's best chocolate pie recipe, my brownie recipe and a nice cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter night. My chocolate cake with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting is to die for! I typically will bake the cake when my nephews come to visit, eat a piece with them, and then send the remaining cake home with them. During the recent snow and ice storm we baked a delicious chocolate cake.

I believe that February is Chocolate Lover's Month. In 2009 Nielsen projected that consumers would buy more than 58 million pounds of chocolate candy, ringing up $345 million in sales and accounting for 5.1% of total annual sales during Valentine's week. Chocolate is popular at my house in February, but we also enjoy it all year. Hershey's chocolate products are featured in the Easter baskets I fill each year. There's generally a bag of Kisses in the car on our annual summer trip to the farm. Many of the snacks in my annual movie gift box at Christmas are Hershey's products. Also, Santa always leaves a bag of Hershey's Kisses under the tree just for me. Sometimes I often walk down the Target candy aisle, dreaming of taking the Hershey's bars or Kisses home, but I generally have the willpower to walk away. However, there are times when chocolate is absolutely necessary. I know that chocolate cannot solve every problem, but it definitely makes all things better.

As much as I love Hershey's chocolate, I'm concerned about two things. One is the reformulation of several Hershey's chocolate products to replace cocoa butter with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil as an emulsifier to reduce production costs. Those new versions no longer meet the Food and Drug Administration's official definition of "milk chocolate" or "made with chocolate" and are relabeled to "chocolate candy" or "chocolaty." Secondly, as a sometimes obsessive shopper of products Made in USA, I'm always saddened to learn when American manufacturing plants are closed and American jobs are lost in the global transformation programs implemented by so many companies. Although the Hershey, PA plant is the largest chocolate factory in the world and 80% of Hershey's manufacturing takes place in the USA and Canada, approximately 1500 (or 11%) of Hershey's jobs were lost over 3 years due to the global transformation program. Who would have thought that outsourcing would be an issue for such a great American company? Hershey outsources production of low value-added items in addition to building a plant in Monterrey, Mexico to meet growing demand there. I love the Hershey's great American chocolate bar, and I hope to never see "Made in Mexico" on that great American product's label. You can hear that chocolate bar's theme song at TelevisionTunes.com and can see a neat video where the world's largest Hershey's Kisses is built.

A lot of people have much to say about chocolate. Here are some quotes that might amuse you:

• There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate -- Linda Grayson
• All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt -- Lucy Van Pelt in Peanuts by Charles M Schulz
• Anything is good if it's made of chocolate -- Jo Brand
• I never met a chocolate I didn't like. -- Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation
• And above all... Think Chocolate! -- Betty Crocker
• Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world's perfect food -- Michael Levine
• My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already. -- Dave Barry
• You know an odd feeling? Sitting on the toilet eating a chocolate candy bar -- George Carlin
• Nine out of ten people like chocolate. The tenth person always lies. -- John Q Tullius
• Make a list of important things to do today. At the top of your list, put "eat chocolate." Now, you'll get at least one thing done today. -- Gina Hayes
• It's not that chocolates are a substitute for love. Love is a substitute for chocolate. Chocolate is, let's face it, far more reliable than a man. -- Miranda Ingram
• Any sane person loves chocolate -- Bob Greene
• The 12-step chocoholics program: Never be more than 12 steps away from chocolate -- Terry Moore
• Chocolate: Here today ... Gone today! -- Anon
• Life is like a box of chocolates ... You never know what you're gonna get -- Forrest Gump
• There's more to life than chocolate, but not right now. -- Anon
• Nothing is more romantic than chocolate -- Ted Allen
  

A shortcut to my heart -- say it with a smile and seal it with a kiss, plus a bag of Hershey's Kisses

Image credit: World Travel Attractions