We have government cheese! Why not.
I’d love to have a taste.
Too bad I live in Northern Europe…probably not worth buying via the Internet even if it was possible…
Not objecting, but what is the motivation of the Mexican government to do this? Have they done similar things before?
Government should probably provide the cheapest food and set the standard.
However ideology like this leads to issues in reality.
If a competitor gets lower prices would hint at some questionability. Government correction becomes suppression. Suppression leads to . . .?
However ideology like this leads to issues in reality.
Issues for who? The consumer? Or the capitalists?
If a competitor gets lower prices would hint at some questionability.
It would hint that it’s a shitty product, presuming no foul play by the government and the product is not overpriced (doesn’t appear to be).
Government correction becomes suppression. Suppression leads to . . .?
Government correction how? From suppression I think you mean lowering their price? The scenario you’re laying out doesn’t make sense.
The point of this kind of product is to be the baseline, no capitalist should be able to afford to offer the same product for less, because the government already has the lowest possible margin.
You start by making a better product, and you can charge whatever people decide the improved product is worth. It’s a good thing that an asshole capitalist can’t market a $7 bar of chocolate when a very good quality one is $1. At that price difference, your chocolate better be amazing.
Uhh what?
It’s called competition. Having a competitor in the market who’s goal is to keep people fed instead of making money hand over fist would both bring prices down and bring quality up on higher priced items.
If we have to do capitalism, let’s get some not-for-profit competition happening.
Less profits for shareholders? And that is unacceptable!
/s
I don’t think they’ve done something exactly like this, but they have aggressively tackled obesity in recent years, going as far as labeling all foods with excess fats, salt, and sugar. It’s very visible on the package and it does influence what I buy.
But this is the way I found out we’re doing this now. 😅
they have aggressively tackled obesity in recent years
Actually doing something? Good on them!
But also I think because all the existing cocoa producers are evil enslavers. This will help something like 1800 Mexican farmers.
Nestle is notoriously evil - I’m hoping Mexico can compete
The only thing that EU has yet to stiff-arm on.
Reducing obesity.
With a chocolate bar? I see it has less refined sugar, but it could still have the same amount of sugar.
They sneak in just a little of that fentanyl. It’s to die for.
Americans have such a shitty life that they’re addicted to drugs and can’t stop buying them, but sure, it’s Mexicans sneaking it in.
American government: Builds concentration camps
Mexican government: Develops brand new chocolate bars
I’m happy to see there are still some governments out there who rule in the interest of the people.
A high quality chocolate bar, at that.
You say that like most governments are acting like the US, which is just so dumb. Your comment reeks of “I only know about the US government and nothing else”.
If you haven’t had chocolate with vanilla in it, consider trying it. It’s my favorite chocolate additive. You need to purge ideas about vanilla being sweet or creamy. It’s a tobaccoy rich flavor that adds some depth even to dark chocolate.
As a kid we’d make our own milkshakes at home and the best ones we came up with were vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup.
Throw some malt in there!!!
Since I discovered dark chocolate ice cream, I’ve been dying for someone to make a dark chocolate and vanilla twist soft serve.
50% is a little low for my taste. I wish it was more like 40 60 80. I’d be going for the 80. Or maybe just 50 & 70. I can live with 70.
Others say it’s to fight chiodhood obesity, kids dont tend to like dark/good chocolate.
Idk, my kids love dark chocolate but also I hate milk chocolate so they haven’t had much of it.
Well your spawn have unusually good taste. This is not normal.
Love that dark chocolate 😍
Same! But children are usually dumb and bad and wrong re:chocolate.
American slop producers in shambles
Not the news I was expecting but kind of a cool way to address a variety of issues, like obesity, imports from US, generating revenue, subsidizing a national crop, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t
Mexico to sellmind Mexico selling chocolate but why are they thinking this is part of their job as government??It is. They’ve got you conditioned to accept that government is just there to hurt you, it’s supposed to make society worth living in.
Governments subsidize foods all the time. Yours probably does, too.
Mexico already has Welfare Stores, and this bar is being made in co-op with Food for Wellness.
I’m barely old enough to remember government cheese.
Try chocolate that wasn’t made in America… Then imagine living a country with some of the best ingredients for chocolate making, and only seeing American chocolate on your store shelves… If capitalism is breaking stuff, the government is pretty much the only ones that can fix it. Though when the government is the thing that capitalism is breaking, I can see why you might not want them to do more than they currently do.
Government is supposed to be about pooling money so it can be more efficiently and effectively spent. Economies of scale. Even if the government only half does what you want and half does stuff you don’t care about, you are still getting better bang for your buck than if you tried to use your own tiny amounts of money to buy the half you do want.
Try chocolate that wasn’t made in America…
I’m actually very fond of the US but the chocolate is absolute filth, sorry lads. I was so excited to try Hershey’s and holy moly was it an earth shattering disappointment.
There’s more American chocolate than just Hersey. This is like saying american burgers are filth because McDonalds exists.
There is. That’s fair, and some of it was decent and that’s not to say that all American chocolate is bad because that would be stupid of course, as you say. And I’m sure there’s top notch American chocolate. Of course there is.
But, the dominant chocolate, the one that foreigners associate with the US, was shite IMO. That’s all.
And tbh I do like an oul’ mackers. I wouldn’t call McDonald’s the Hershey’s of burgers.
This is all subjective and I’m not being a cunt. I just was expecting sparkles in my mouth and I got… Hershey’s.
Fair, fair. And I may not agree with your take on Micky Dees, but goddamn I respect it!
High five from the far side of the Atlantic at 1:36am and not entirely sober ✋
Cheers mate 🤚
Born and bred in America and won’t eat American chocolate - literally tastes like vomit. And I do mean literally - Hershey’s chocolate goes through a process called lipolysis that breaks down their milk some and introduces butyric acid, which gives Parmesan, sour cream and other pungent dairy foods (and vomit) their smells.
Right… Well that’s some insight. Thank you . I heard a rumour that it was down to it being popular during a war where cocoa was in short supply but that makes sense too.
Yeah, that’s exactly what they’re talking about, did you not read the rest of that post?
I only eat US made chocolate. Good stuff. Sometimes I’m tempted to buy some German garbage like Ritter Sport out of nostalgia from living there but then I slap myself and remember I don’t have to eat out of a trash can.
I don’t Mexico to sell chocolate
Well I do Mexico to sell chocolate.
Comedy aside, I think its to address the extraordinary obesity issues that Mexico has faced in the past 20 years. Mexico is in my top 2 of countries I’m moving to as the US collapses, but they have real issues with refined foods and especially added sugar.
What’s your other top 2 country? If I go I think I’m going to switch continents. I would prefer there to be a whole ocean between me and this bullshit.
Brazil is in the conversations. Mainly for professional reasons and because they do still invest in the kinds of science that my partner and I do, and I have many colleagues there and some family near Rio.
The other is Tahiti, because I’ve got a pretty substantial Vanilla production operation going at this point, which was kind-of the entire point of why I moved to where I did. I also have access to EU citizenship through my mother, and I as far as a visa to live and work in the country, I think that part should be straight forwards since its basically France. My partner and I also have some connections to the university, University of French Polynesia. My partner has also previously worked for CNRS in Toulouse, although briefly. Buying land might be out of reach because its ridiculously expensive, but I can imagine various ways of making it happen.
We’re seriously considering some option at this point, but its very tough because we moved to where we live because this is where we wanted to live. We’ve also got a wide range of “things” going on that are difficult, but not impossible, to disentangle ourselves from.
Big warning on moving to Brazil for science. Getting lab materials takes forever to get delivered and frequently just never arrives. I had a roommat do her last year of PhD research in the us because work was so much faster here due to how much better and more reliable logistics are.
I mean thats a great consideration. Luckily for me, I’m more on the pure computation/ analysis side of the house. I don’t really do wet chemistry any more, although my partner does.
Good info. France and Norway are appealing, I have a friend with family over there who likes me. The Netherlands is on my list as well, I’ve been there a few times and they don’t currently have any political drama that I’m aware of.
Oh boy, there is political drama here in the Netherlands right now.
The most right wing party in the coalition stepped out of the government because the other parties refused to sign its “strictest immigration policy ever”, so we’re heading towards elections again. Meanwhile parliament approved a law making being an illegal resident or helping one a crime. It needs to pass through the senate yet, but still. The minister of agriculture was found by a judge to abuse her power to obstruct freedom of information. There’s still no plan to solve the nitrogen pollution crisis, leading to building projects being on hold throughout the country. Against their promise of not drilling for gas in the northern province of Groningen anymore they’ve allowed it again, leading to more earthquakes. A singer was accused of antisemitism by politicians because he refused to play at a gig that had posters promoting Zionism, which led to him having to flee the country with his family because of death threats. Don’t speak out against Israel here either. There were border patrols done by a group of “activists” looking for illegals (“we found no brown people or anyone looking like that” they said), which were small and luckily stopped, but still. Then there are the government cuts in all social sectors, killing all services slowly over the years. Public transport, education, healthcare, municipal services, welfare, it’s all going downhill. And while the government still has to pay back thousands of parents it had wrongly accused of daycare fraud, the next screw-up was discovered a few months ago and they now also have to pay thousands of people on welfare for being sick because they had underpaid them for years.
The election campaign is probably gonna be a bunch of screaming matches about immigrants and refugees and name calling again even though there are far more pressing issues going on. It’s not as fascist here as it is in the US yet, but that’s only because we have a more reasonable electoral system.
Yeah I can’t do anything above 22 degrees or below -22 degrees. I mean its right there in the name.
If you come to europe i hope you didn’t vote for one of the genociders.
We don’t like your kind
Yes I know, and you shouldn’t. I voted for everyone who was against Trump.
I might just stay here and start building guillotines.
You’ll pay tarrifs for foreign parts but you can easily offset those because of the increasing demand
Mexico is 25th on this list with 36.1% of its population obese. The US is 13th at 42.9%.
Yeah well, Mexico is #1 on this list. I don’t even see the US on the list.
Shit I hadn’t even considered that. Glad I know now
If I had to guess, it’s likely due to the obesity problem they were having
Cacao is a national treasure, and America floods Mexico with Hershey’s, Snickers, and other subpar “chocolate” and destroys local competition with cheap prices.
Fun fact:
The word “chocolate” is derived from the Nahuatl word Xocholatl (chikola-tl).
Government is the things we choose to do together. If the people choose healthy chocolate, then that’s the job.
Totally agree, didn’t mean to apply i’m against it but it just felt random. Thought maybe they were inspired by the donalds merchandise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Mexico has been trying a lot to reduce obesity through various product labeling. This looks like a step in that direction; a snack that uses an indigenous ingredient (chocolate) in a manner that complies with federal guidelines.
You mean Mexico made certain Goods MORE Expensive but then Offered a Public alternative so people don’t HAVE to pay the Increase in Price?
That’s STUPID! They should just Slap a TARIFF on it WITHOUT Investment or Alternatives and let their Citizens deal with the Price increase!
They could be making their businesses “eat” the tariffs, but instead their people are eating good chocolate? That’s it, I’m heading down there, I’m sold.
I did notice that the Mexican coke that I occasionally buy as a treat (in the US) got new labels printed on the bottle instead of just a sticker.
For some reason it doesn’t taste as good as it used to though. Feels like even more sugar than previously maybe? I should look it up.
I don’t follow Mexican politics closely, but this could be part of an effort to curb obesity. I’ve heard they introduced taxes on sugary drinks for this, so this might be another avenue.
If people are wanting cheap snacks, and private companies are only making unhealthy ones, you can introduce regulations to micromanage what they can produce, or you can introduce a complex taxation process to disincentivize sugar snacks. Or you can introduce your own product that meets a perceived unmet demand in an underserved market.
That might be one of the best bang par buck moves possible from their health care department.
Because they tried leaving it to the private sector and people got unhealthy from eating cheap refined carbs?
Providing healthy abordable food should be the first job of any governement.
Chocolate is candy, not food
Chocolate is food and is used in some Mexican sauces. It just happens to be that the most typical modern use is chocolate is in candy.
so when do we see nestle/mars/whoever try to kill this?
Ehhh I mean I don’t see how. Nestlé is the absolute scum of the fucking earth, but idk what they could do to stop the Mexican government. Nestlé’s a bunch of fuckers, the lot of them, but they’re not going to sell stuff cheaply or at a loss.
Is Nestle above paying cartels for killings? That seems like it’d be right up their alley.
chaquita overthrew governments back in the day
I’m Chiquita banana and I’m here to say,
Violence and killing is our only way
It starts with a right-wing conspiracy fueled media ecosystem, I imagine the “best” minds are already working on that
how are the labor practices
Better than the US.
Oh they pay wages that accommodate people buying homes in US cities?
What? Why would a job in Mexico pay enough to live in the US… That makes no sense. Cost of living isn’t even the same across the US.
Does the US?
In some places. If they’re better than the US the answer should be mostly yes.
I realize it’s a disingenuous argument but the problem with the US isn’t as much about wages. It’s about cost of living and cost of everything, and our government is to blame.
So your argument is everyone in the us owns houses in cities so they have better labor practices than Mexico?
Nice strawman. The strategy of the incompetent.
In US cities??? This is in Mexico lol
If the labor practices are better than the US they should be able to buy houses in the US. I’m not the one who claimed it was better than the US.
LMAO when did buying a fuckin house in the US become some kind of gold standard? In the country where they rip you off wherever you go. I swear to God Americans are so self centered and need to measure everything based on themselves.
The average cost of a house in Mexico is way lower than it is in the U.S., why the fuck would they want or need to buy a house in a Nazi country?
Would you choose to be able to feed/house yourself and be safe from preventable dangers, or buy a house in the US? If good labour practice means the latter and not the former, then I don’t believe it’s a good metric on which to evaluate their chocolate.
I always wondered what darker chocolate would be like when first ingredient on the list isn’t sugar… Powered milk is sweet by itself, but without all the sugar I think 50% cocoa content might be more powerful than in 50% chocolate we have here in Europe.
Do you really not have dark chocolate bars where you are? It’s pretty easy where I’m at to get 70% chocolate bars, and even 80% and 90%. You might have to go to a specialty shop for them but they’re just in the grocery store where I’m at.
It’s delicious, complex and depending on the origin or blend it can be fruity, dark, earthy, bitter, slightly spicy or taste like coffee. Proper dark chocolate has a kick of caffeine in it too. Hope you get a chance to try it!
We do all the way to 95% I believe was the highest. But they all contain tons of sugar regardless. Lessy obviously with that much cocoa, but still. The ingredients for this one didn’t mention any sugar…
Unsweetened chocolate is sometimes called “baking chocolate” and you can usually find it where the spices and chocolate chips are found at the grocery store. You could always try getting some and melting it in the microwave or double boiler, then adding some dairy or non dairy milk products to see how it is without added sugar.
My mom would always tell me that I wouldn’t like the baker’s chocolate she would use in baking when I’d ask to try a piece.
Then, one day, she decided to just let me try it, probably expecting me to be grossed out or something. But I love dark chocolate and liked it anyways, even if it didn’t exactly match my expectations at the time.
I definitely want to eat this bar right now.
To be clear, this product is still 35% (natural cane) sugar (by weight, I assume).
Why does this post read like some kind of advertising bot posted it
Because we are used to anytime someone mentions a product name, they were paid to do so.
But this is just an interesting and useful government intervention to correct a capitalism-derived problem.
Waaaat? Keep big government out of my addiction!!!
