I was pretty skeptical of this new form of Hershey's chocolate. 

 

I am not a snob about Hershey's, mind you. I'm one of those oddball chocolate lovers who really enjoys a Hershey bar now and again. Ideally the kind with almonds, but just a regular old Hershey bar can be pretty darned satisfying.

 

No, I was skeptical about this "air bubbles" thing. No one has ever, to my knowledge, been eating a chocolate bar and thought, "What this thing needs is a bunch of air bubbles to make it feel kind of, like, FOAMY." Adding air bubbles is so clearly the work of a management committee. Who else would want chocolate that is - to use the word on the wrapper - "aerated"?

 

The benefit to the company is obvious. You give people what seems to be the same amount of chocolate, but a third of it is actually air. The same tactic is used with surprisingly effective results with non-premium ice cream. 

 

Air: it's what's for dinner!

 

Air: we charge you the same amount of money, for less food!

 

True to form, the Hershey's Air Delight bar costs the same as other chocolate bars, but it is only 1.44 ounces (40 grams). By comparison, a regular Hershey's chocolate bar clocks in at 1.55 ounces. A Snickers bar, my personal benchmark, is 2.07 ounces.

 

But I have to admit… I kind of like this thing. It comes pressed into break-away rectangles, each of which has a nice height to it. Without having another bar around for comparison, I would guess that the Air Delight is about half again as tall as a regular Hershey bar. The air bubbles give it a sort of looser, creamier texture.

 

The problem it solves is that sometimes, a regular Hershey bar can seem cloyingly dense, like a thick gluey paste. This lightens up that load a little, while still giving you the same taste. 

 

Is it defensible, though? Selling a smaller chocolate bar with bubbles in it for the same amount of money? I'm sure the good people at Hershey's would argue that they HAVE to make it a little bit smaller in order to recoup their costs, because the aeration means that they spend more time and money making each bar. But I don't believe it. I'm pretty sure Hershey's profit margins are healthy. (Unlike their candy. Zing!!!)

 

The risk is, if these bars become popular, soon everything will be aerated. Don't let this become the new trend. It's bad enough that cereal boxes are only half an inch thick, and 7/8ths of every chip bag is empty space. Draw the line!