To want a PLAIN bar of chocolate?

[CommanderTaggart]

Went to Morrisons this morning, wanted a plain bar of chocolate for a recipe (ideally Bourneville).

Well, what a chore! Did they have plain bourneville? They did not. They had Borneville with rum and raisin, and bourneville with salted caramel, but plain bournevill? There was none.

So I turned to look at the Green & Blacks. Orange, Mint, Ginger, Salted Caramel again (euch!) were in abundance, and when I did in fact find the plain normal chocolate it was not ‘on offer’ as the other bars were and was going to cost me about £3.50 for a very modestly sized bar. Annoying, but hey-ho.

I looked around again just to see what other options there were (I was considering a plain Dairy Milk at this point if it was more reasonably priced) and realised that finding a PLAIN bar of chocolate was a near impossibility! Everything had fruit, nut, biscuit, pretzel, honeycomb, caramel or various praline-type fillings. The only plain Dairy Milk chocolate I could find was either a huge enormous bar that surely not many people would buy, or in multipack form.

Now maybe my local Morrisons is just poorly stocked, but I do think this is a trend?

It took me back when I was travelling abroad 20 years ago and went looking for chocolate in rural African shops. It was almost impossible to find an actual bar, it was always chocolate covered wafers or nuts. I remember thinking at the time it was because chocolate would melt in the heat, until somebody told me that it was at least partly because chocolate was so expensive and most people couldn’t afford it, even though cocoa plants grow in Africa, most of it was shipped abroad.

So now I am wondering whether chocolate is just getting too expensive for the people of the UK hence our ‘chocolate bars’ are being filled up with more affordable crappy ingredients like ‘cookie’ and ‘salted caramel’?

I often buy Morrisons own plain chocolate for cooking with, 200g bar. Not too expensive. Might be your Morrisons is poorly stocked

Lidl

I use Sainsbury's own brand chocolate for cooking. The dark and milk are both good.

Morrisons is shite.

But did you look in the baking aisle? They usually have all kinds of chocolate

In my local supermarkets there's always plain chocolate available, usually at the end of the section. Maybe your eyes just skipped over it, or it was on the end of the aisle? Like you say, it's very odd if there was none at all.

Baking aisle - it sounds as if you were looking in the confectionery aisle.

The confectionery brands are trying to flog us more biscuit/caramel/flavoured filling as it’s cheaper than chocolate. They are also using tropical fats instead of cocoa butter. Most chocolate is now very low cocoa, and you have to check the ingredients to make sure it’s chocolate

oddly, the supermarket own brands are still selling actual chocolate made with cocoa butter. It’s just the big brands like Cadbury and Nestle going down the enshittification route.

Just back from morrisons- lots of Bournville, own brand dark and milk, Lindt in milk or dark (various %) and in the baking aisle there was both milk and dark Swiss chocolate. Cadburys dairy milk isn't great for baking or cooking as there's too much oil and not enough cocoa solids in it.

This. Always buy chocolate, and bags of nuts etc, in the baking isle. They are cheaper.

I buy this although I eat it 😀

Sainsbury’s own brand chocolate in plain, milk, and white is my go to choice for baking. Though it does sound like your Morrison’s is poorly stocked

Is it not because the price of coco has gone up sp they're trying to repplace some of the chocolate with other stuff? Although I'm surprised you couldn't find any at all.

You have to go to the baking aisle

Baking aisle. The one in silver paper. Or the one in a green wrapper

Bournville isn’t even dark chocolate!

Our local spar stocks basic dark chocolate so your Morrisons sounds rubbish.

I usually go for a Tony's chocolonely if I want plain chocolate.

I’ve never struggled to find dark chocolate in our local Morrisons. They definitely stock the normal Bourneville bar as I remember checking the ingredients and being disappointed that it contains milk. There are lots of others though.

Do you mean plain as in dark (my mother insists on calling dark chocolate ‘plain’ 🙄) or plain as in no extras?
I think it’s rare to see dark chocolate with an extra eg nuts or biscuits so it is unusual if you were failing to find ordinary dark chocolate.
Baking aisle all the way though. Never fails!

Also YABU for using Bourneville for anything.

It's definitely a thing that manufactures are adding more stuff to chocolate. Biscuit costs less per 100g, but you can charge the same person 100g as you can for the just chocolate.

But I've never had a problem buying just chocolate. The small bars of Dairy Milk would be with the sandwiches. But I'd buy a large own label bar of milk or dark if I was cooking. How small a bar did you want? I'd assume at least 100/200g for cooking and that's always readily available. Both in the confectionery and the baking aisles.

I think you’re over thinking it, just a poorly stocked shop.

Bournville is Cadbury. So many other brands do dark 70 % chocolate. Bournville is 36% chocolate. Bournville is a model village in Birmingham, home of Cadbury.

This.

Most of the big brands are padding the confectionery/ snack chocolate out with hazelnut now (well for the last several years) too, which ruins the taste, but apparently people adapt to it quickly and forget it used to taste better...

I think she means without extras rather than dark chocolate.

Lidl all the way for good plain chocolate. They have a great fair trade version.