10 Milk Chocolate Bars, Ranked From Worst to Best

The grocery store has tons of milk chocolate bars to choose from. Which ones are actually good?

Oona O'Brien

PublishedApril 25, 2023

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Image for article titled 10 Milk Chocolate Bars, Ranked From Worst to Best — Photo: Nadezhda Lugovskaya (Shutterstock)

What makes a great milk chocolate bar? Nothing too surprising: It’s that perfect marriage of flavor and texture. Strong notes of cocoa should always be more prominent than the taste of sugar, and each bite should feel silky, without a hint of crumbling. If you love snacking on chocolate (and I’m sure this applies to pretty much everyone), you deserve a top-notch bar to avoid a taste bud trainwreck.

Here are 10 common milk chocolate brands you’ll find at most grocery stores, ranked from worst to best in terms of taste, texture, and overall quality.

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10. Cadbury Dairy Milk

Though the Cadbury Creme Eggs we all know and love are a special seasonal treat, there’s not much that redeems a regular old Cadbury chocolate bar. To put it simply, the quality is lacking. Overly milky with not much detectable cocoa flavor, it’s a cheap chocolate product that is very much okay, and little else. We’ve unwrapped our fair share of Cadbury’s milk chocolate bars overrun by chocolate bloom, a process known to happen when the sweet is cheaply made, or melts and then solidifies again—either way, it’s not going to be the best bar it could be. It’s important to note that here in the U.S., Cadbury chocolate is produced by the Hershey Company; in Europe, where it’s produced by Cadbury, the chocolate has a different (and some say vastly superior) taste and texture.

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9. Hershey’s

Okay, look, if you’re in a pinch, a Hershey’s milk chocolate bar won’t offend your taste buds to the point of no recovery. At least, that’s true for most people. Hershey’s milk chocolate contains butyric acid, a chemical compound found in fresh milk with a sometimes sour flavor—that’s what produces this brand’s noticeably tangy notes, which some people equate with the taste of vomit. Even if you’re unaware of the sour milk flavor, it might show itself in the form of a cardboard-like aftertaste. Hershey’s doesn’t have a crisp snap when you take a bite. It tends to bend easily and melt quickly, making for a messy chocolate. All in all, chocolate lovers deserve a better bar.

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8. Dove

Dove’s current tagline is “Choose Pleasure.” Its honest rebrand might read more like, “Choose Convenience.” Dove’s milk chocolate bar can be described as a solid “meh.” There’s nothing about the flavor that makes it stand out from the pack, as it’s still got that sharp sweetness of cheap chocolate. Dove prides itself on the silkiness of the product, but once bitten into, it melts rapidly, with a nearly oily texture when chewed. It’s nothing to write home about, but it also won’t completely ruin your day—there are simply much better milk chocolates out there.

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7. Moser Roth

Moser Roth, a chocolate brand that is German in origin and produced for ALDI grocery stores, lies here in seventh place. Coming in a variety of flavors, the plain chocolate bar is good snacking chocolate, if lacking a bit in those important cocoa notes. What it needs more of is depth; as is, it has a buttery texture without much of an oomph factor. There are more assertive milk chocolates out there, though Moser Roth is fine.

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6. Ghirardelli

Ghirardelli milk chocolate “bars” typically come in small, individually wrapped squares, presumably to imply that they’re so rich, you won’t need any more than that. Named after its Italian founder Domenico Ghirardelli, the chocolate has been made in California since 1852. Though the brand has successfully aligned itself with affordable indulgence, Ghirardelli is more suitable for luxurious baked goods like chocolate chip cookies, rather than in its plain form as a sweet snack. It melts on the tongue easily, which is ideal for that deep chocolate flavor in the best homemade desserts.

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5. Toblerone

Toblerone is technically a “bar,” but it’s hardly the flat rectangle we think of—instead, it’s a chain of small mountain-shaped pieces made to resemble the Swiss Alps. As such, it has earned a place on this list as Most Annoying To Eat. Although this Swiss milk chocolate hits all the marks, flavor-wise—creamy with notes of honey, a noticeable denseness with a sharp snap when broken apart—it’s quite frankly hard to eat, given the peaks hitting the roof of your mouth with every bite. Though there have been past attempts by the company to change the shape of the bar for economic reasons, loyal fans retaliated against the change.

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4. Tony’s Chocolonely

If you’re a true chocolate fan, you might want to purchase this product on ethical grounds alone—so it’s nice to know it tastes great, too. Tony’s Chocolonely, founded by a former Dutch journalist whose aim was to produce chocolate using fair trade and non-exploitative practices, is a bar for those of us who expect a bold cocoa flavor. It’s definitely sweet, but it’s also hefty, slightly buttery, and thick, each bite cracking off sharply from the bar. It’s a testament to the power of Tony’s five simple, quality ingredients.

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3. Green and Black’s

Though less mainstream, Green and Black’s bars can be found at Whole Foods and on Amazon, and the milk chocolate bar is pretty close to the perfect snacking chocolate. There’s one way to describe this treat in question: It’s got character. Green and Black’s smooth and rich bar releases small crumbs when snapped, and the assertive cocoa is velvety on the tongue. It has notes of coffee even in its plain milk chocolate form, and is the most aromatic of all chocolates on this list. Though owned by Mondelez International, the brand was founded in London and continues to be produced there. That would explain some of the bar’s appeal.

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2. Ritter Sport

Originally made with the intention of boasting a structurally sound bar that wouldn’t break easily when carried in a sports jacket pocket, Ritter Sport Alpine Milk Chocolate is the runner-up on our list. This German chocolate not only earns high marks for flavor and texture, but also the sheer ingenuity that has kept it on top for over a century. It snaps smoothly even after being refrigerated, and it doesn’t have that melt-in-your-hands feel as soon as it’s unwrapped. Still, it’s glossy, and it boasts a generous weight in every square. Importantly, it’s not overly sweet, either, leaving you feeling full and highly satisfied.

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1. Lindt

And for the final reveal, let it be Lindt that carries us home. You’ve no doubt seen the Swiss brand Lindt in its notorious Lindor truffle form, bearing flavors like white chocolate and caramel. But in its purest form, a Lindt milk chocolate bar checks everything off our list: It’s decadent and melts in the mouth after a couple chews, it has a distinctive snap whether chopped with a knife for baking, or broken with one’s bare hands for snacking. In terms of both price and availability, it’s a fairly accessible chocolate bar with a quality that is unmatched, namely due to the blend of cocoa beans used in the chocolate-making process.

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