Ah, Dairy Milk. Where do I start a review on the mother of all chocolates?
Well how about a little history lesson first.
Cadbury was founded in Birmingham(England!) by John Cadbury in 1824. Originally a grocery shop, Cadbury started producing drinking chocolate, and by 1831, this was his core business.
Dairy Milk was introduced in 1905 and is now sold in 23 varieties(the newest being Dairy Milk with Creme Egg) in 30 countries.
For the purpose of this review, I chose a large(duh!) 250g bar of unadulterated Dairy Milk. Solid milk chocolate heaven.
One quick point to note – this is NOT the same as the US version of Cadbury Dairy Milk, which is a reformulated version made under license by Hersheys. I believe this has something to do with FDA rules on labeling chocolate that has vegetable fat in place of cocoa butter.
So what’s so special about Dairy Milk? Why is it so popular?
Well it’s partly down to history and branding, but there is definitely something special about Dairy Milk. It appeals to people from all walks of life and is quintessentially British(even though it’s now made in France & Poland).
The chocolate itself is sweet without being sickly. It’s creamy but not so much that you can’t taste the chocolate. It’s filling but simultaneously moreish. And importantly for a poor blogger, it’s inexpensive without being ‘cheap’.
Having spent some time considering this, I’ve come to the conclusion that the primary reason for its popularity is simply that it’s completely inoffensive and totally middle of the road.
Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so.
In one form or another, it’s the chocolate I buy more than any other, and I don’t plan on giving it up!