The
Hershey Process milk chocolate in these bars uses fresh milk delivered directly from local farms. The process was developed by Milton Hershey and produced the first
mass-produced chocolate in the United States. As a result, the Hershey flavor is widely recognized in the United States, the Philippines, and to a minor extent in Canada, where British-produced chocolates were commonly sold, but less so internationally, especially in areas where European chocolates are more widely available. The process is a company and
trade secret, but experts speculate that the milk is partially
lipolyzed. This produces
butyric acid, a compound found in substances such as
Parmesan cheese and butter, which stabilizes the milk from further fermentation. This flavor gives the product a "tangy" taste that the US public has come to associate with the taste of chocolate, to the point that other US
manufacturers often add butyric acid to their milk chocolates, although the presence of the acid has caused the flavour to be considered unappetising by those more accustomed to chocolate brands which do not include it. In Canada this led to Hershey introducing a reformulated Canadian bar in 1983. Starting in 2006, the Hershey company has added
polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) to their chocolate, except for the traditional plain milk chocolate
Hershey's Kisses. In 2015, Hershey announced they would begin removing PGPR from the rest of their chocolate. Artificial
vanillin was also removed in 2015. Hershey did remove PGPR from some of their chocolate bars, but in April 2019 started putting it back in Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds full size bar, and plain milk chocolate bars, and never removed it from Symphony milk chocolate and other products. Hershey does not claim to use vanilla in their chocolate, only natural flavor. ==Other varieties and details==