Quest for a New Chocolate Bar

Project Phase - Hershey Lite I

In October 1, 1980, there was a meeting between some Hershey US and Canadian personnel. Out of this meeting, the following conclusions and directives were established:

1. The immediate goal was to produce plant samples with equal consumer acceptance to Nielson Jersey Milk.
2. It was agreed to use a low roast Arriba/Lagos chocolate liquor similar to what the European counterparts were using.
3. Product development personnel would be intimately involved in the plant production of milk crumb using the special liquor and higher milkfat and sugar contents. All future plant tests at Smiths Falls would prevent the contamination of mixing of the test sample with regular production product.
4. Milk chocolate samples would be produced in the Hershey Technical Center using deodorized and regular Canadian cocoa butter.
5. A production run would be conducted in late October at Smith Falls. Deodorized cocoa butter would be used to produce a non-caramelized sample to be consumer tested against Nielson Jersey Milk.

Approval was obtained to produce a sufficient quantity of Hershey Lite I for consumer testing. It was hoped that a consumer test would answer the question of how important caramel flavor is to overall preference, particularly since this new Heshey Lite did not have as pronounced a caramel flavor as the original continuous crumb sample or the current Jersey Milk.

Two weeks later, an in-house blind test using office personnel (Toronto office) as subjects was carried out to determine if the product was heading in the right direction (Hershey Lite I Office Blind Test). Now a determination had to be made as to whether to proceed with a more elaborate consumer test.