January 2025

Hershey’s Exotic Dark "Blueberry & Acai"

Hershey's

There’s something a little misleading about this candy. If you were to briefly see this package on a shelf, your first assumption would be that these would be some combination of blueberries and acai berries covered in chocolate. At most you might assume that they would be combined somehow. Since both of these berries are commonly found in dried form, you’d really expect this to be very simple, but it’s not. The first key is to notice that on the package, under the flavour it says “Flavoured Center Chocolate”.

When you bite into these round chocolate balls, you’re met with what I can only describe as a fruity flavoured gummy treat. One could argue that it has a blueberry flavour, but it’s not a very bold flavour. You might think that the other flavour is acai berry. I’ll be honest, I’m not a big acai berry eater so maybe it does have that but there feels like there’s something else going on. It’s a rare occasion, but I’ve decided to consult the ingredients for more information. While the fact that sugar is both of the most used ingredients (two different kinds of sugar), followed by chocolate, the real surprise is that the fruit used most in this snack is papaya. It does mention that there’s lots of “fruit pulp” found in these as well, so maybe there’s blueberry in that too. But Blueberry and Acai are the 6th and 7th thing listed in the ingredients.

I kind of understand what they were going for with these. I imagine that dried blueberries just don’t have the texture they were going for, and fresh blueberries just don’t work. I just feel like there’s an expectation for a little more blueberry than what I got. The thing is, these aren’t bad or anything, they’re just a little surprising if you’re expecting something a with a little more real blueberry and acai.