You people have clearly not experienced Indian desserts, which can get absurdly sweet. For example, take gulab jamun: it's basically a donut hole soaked in sugar syrup.
Coming from Germany, I can confirm that the objectively correct level of sweetness is what they sell over there. America/UK are too sweet (obviously!). Japan is not sweet enough (duh!).
In other news, sweetness, just like spicyness, seems to be acquired taste and once you got brainsugared by one country's Big Sweets you never come back.
Age plays a part. I don't each much sweets as an adult in the US because they are usually cloying. I'd rather have some fruit. It was the opposite when I was a child.
I had some mild sweet Oreos from Korea recently, and I prefer them to normal ones, for instance.
Not sure how old you are, but the sweets may have a comeback later in life. AFAIK, the sweet taste receptors on the tongue are the last to deteriorate at old age, so all non-sweet food will start tasting more and more bland. Thus all the cake parties for the elderly.
At least that is what I half-remember from my studies, grateful for any corrections.
I keep seeing this about chocolonely and I am starting to wonder if I had a bad bar of it. The bar I had was chalky, mealy, and honestly one of the grossest things I have ever had in my mouth.
Being honest, it's not worth calling home about it, but it's above par with everything else you may find on a candy store.
It's mostly their free trade policies that's giving them so much hype.
That said, some people go nuts for certain candy bars that I'll rather lick dry cum out of a subway tile than eat one.
I heard of Hershey's just like other brands of American descent I was incredibly poised to try them (MTN dew, taco bell (this was the nineties, they weren't in Europe yet).
Travelled to America, tried Hershey's and spat it out, vile stuff.
Yeah it's not great. I grew up with it and even then I only like it on smores. And I'm sure that's more nostalgia than anything. By itself it's just gross.
I've heard American chocolate tastes different because they originally used spoiled milk to save money and eventually people got used to the taste and it became the norm.
I think I heard that on either How it's Made or Modern Marvels
I'm not going to go out on a limb to defend fucking Hershey's but I can say with confidence that the mixed bags of candy are universally a step down in quality.
It's shitty candy meant to be given to children who don't care. Individual bars will be better. Still fuckin Hershey's don't get me wrong but better.
I live in Japan and definitely some sweets that I've brought back from the US to share as well as recipes I've made (from my grandmother's cookbook) were too sweet for a number of folks (usually men, so there may be something else going on here with cultural images/norms and the like as men aren't generally "supposed to" be overly fond of sweet stuff). Still, the vast majority of people liked them and wanted more. I do find myself toning down sugar in recipes, though. Less in grandma's cookie recipes, less in the cornbread recipe I found online, etc.
My father's best friend was Dutch and he introduced me to their version, which they call Dubbel Zout. It's super salty (dubbel zout means 'double salt') and I cannot get enough of it.
But then I'm one of the few Americans who seems to love black licorice and hate the red variety.
Having been an immigrant in The Netherlands, lets just say that their licorice is an acquired taste (which I myself never did, so congrats for liking that stuff).
I love licorice too, the Panda one here in the US is very good. It's polarizing, I don't know so many people who like it but they all really like it, and it seems independent from the other flavors they like, some of my least adventurous eaters like it, and some of those with very broad plates don't like it.
Ammonium chloride covered black licorice is better than sugar coated high-fructose corn syrup.
Salty licorice is so delicious. Last time I hit up the international store I found smoked salted licorice and it basically turbo crack to me. The only reason I haven't rushed back and cleared the shelf is it's like $10 a 120 g bag.
I love describing salty licorice to other Americans too. "So you know black licorice? Imagine it also being really salty and with a large hint of ammonia." Their looks of revulsion are priceless.
I don’t know if we see the same thing, but recently I got a small bag of salty black licorice from ikea, out of surprise that it’s really a thing, not just a TikTok challenge. I like black licorice, everyone like salt: maybe there’s some synergy like with chocolate and bacon? How bad can it be? So disgusting.
To add more evidence: Japan is not in the list and people here find licorice disgusting. You cannot find it anywhere except at ikea which is far away from here. And even there they only have one type which is okayish at best. PLZ SEND HELP!
Ha, my friend is half-Finnish and would go back to see her family. She'd always give me some salty black licorice as most people here don't care for it. I never used to, but my tastebuds changed at some point (or, I guess, I only like the version from the Nordics; I haven't had the versions from the US in decades so I can't compare those).
We have somethng similar, but it is agressively sour and you are supposed to turn it into a drink. I did it once and it sucked. Pouring it straight to mouth however: delight.
Well yeah America is like the wild wild west for food. Everything is fucking sweet even our bread. I hate our food in the us, Im excited for the new appointment. Maybe we can go back to eating and marketing healthy food, not just food that makes profits at the cost of the consumer. Food in the us can be a drug, very addictive.
Does "Europe" include "UK" (I mean not geographically but in terms of candy sweetness)?
I had coworker bringing some sweets from visit in UK and those felt extremely sweet to me. I grew up in Europe but live in US, and it felt sweeter than US candies.
I don’t know about the UK, but when I notice other candy from other countries is less sweet than the US, it’s not a direct comparison. They’re usually different types of treats, and my reaction is : wow you can make a candy out of something other than sugar or corn syrup. Maybe it’s dairy based with actual dairy, or nut based with actual nuts, but it can make an excellent candy even without the buckets of sugar
Hmmm, so I'm starting to have theory that with local confectionary one already knows what they like and what they don't, and when someone brings candies from another country you're trying candies that normally wouldn't eat at home so they might seem too sweet, too sour, etc...
I don’t know about candy but when I follow a bakery recipe from an American source I always cut the sugar amount in half and it still ends up a little too sweet for my taste.
I'm am American baker and I know this is anecdotal but I've always cut sugar in half (or more) and I have nothing but rave reviews. Someone just paid me $100 for a cake. And I'm a hobbyist.
I think that most people here just don't know better, have never tried it any other way. And when you show them how it can be... they fall in love.
ETA: from recipes I get elsewhere. Most of my repipes are my own at this point.