Who’s #1: Mars or Hershey’s?

Recently the Mars company has made one of it’s boldest moves in an attempt to capture the crown of #1 Chocolate King of America from the Hershey company by opening a new shop (the Dove Chocolate Center of Excellence) just 10miles away from Hershey’s flagship set up in Pennsylvania.

This comes hot off the heels of most recent chocolate coated scandal in which Hershey has begun replacing cocoa butter with oils in some of their recipes. Rising costs are named as the chief contributor for the switch and even Mars doesn’t escape unaffected. They continue to follow the cocoa butter tradition, but slimming down and cutting down on the package sizes instead.

Hershey is also in the process of closing down 6 US plants and instead expanding operations overseas, while Mars recently acquired ownership of Wrigley Jr. Co. (Chocolate flavored gum anyone?)

Currently, Hershey retains the throne, but how long before a nutty and nougatty coup?

See CNN for the full story on the chocolate battle royale.