Best Milk chocolate bar under $3. Why cheaper is better?

The chocolate aisle at most stores is filled with a wide variety of choices, which can leave you feeling overwhelmed and make buying a milk chocolate bar a daunting task. In the lower price range, you have generic brands that are usually around a dollar, and you also have brand names that are priced around $2 to $3. To figure out which one was best, we purchased the 8 most popular milk chocolate bar brands which you can find at most stores.

We recently posted on the AskCanada subreddit and received some intriguing responses. Check it out here.
We also created a poll to gather more opinions – make sure to visit it and share your thoughts with us!

Our Process for ranking

We did a blind test to make sure we’re not biased because the packaging and brand can have a very significant effect on how we perceive the taste. We ranked them based on taste, presence of artificial flavors, sugar content, cocoa content, and overall creaminess. We had two testers go through the process so that we can compare our results. To cleanse our palates, we also drank water after tasting each chocolate bar.

One of the crazy things about this taste test is realizing how many calories are in each chocolate bar. The calories on the back are usually per serving size but the table below shows you how many calories it would be if you ate the whole thing. Which isn’t all that hard to do if you’re watching a show and not paying attention 😉
We also made the grand discovery that 85% of these bars is just fat and sugar. We always knew it was high, but not this high.

The Line up (ordered from cheapest to most expensive)

Brand	Price	Made By	Calories per 100g	Country of Production
Great Value	$1	Walmart	550	Switzerland
No Name	$1	Loblaw	525	France
Selection	$1.25	Food Basics / Metro	526	Switzerland
Hershey’s	$2.28	Hershey	500	Not found on package*
Cadbury	$2.48	Mondelez	524	Not found on package*
Lindt	$2.59	Lindt	533	Switzerland
Compliments	$2.69	Sobeys	550	Switzerland
President’s Choice	$2.99	Loblaw	550	Belgium

8. President’s choice milk chocholate bar

This one was a big surprise considering it was the most expensive! From the get-go, we were hit with a strange artificial aftertaste that lingered a bit too long. The taste was just not enjoyable and left us feeling a little disappointed. The chocolate had a strong cocoa flavor and was fairly creamy. And, the sugar content was well balanced. The packaging was nice and visually appealing, but the contents inside just didn’t live up to those packaging expectations.
Score: 2/10

7. No name milk chocolate bar

The artificial taste for this one was pretty strong, the sugar was a bit overpowering and it had a bit of a grainy texture which felt very weird. It lacked creaminess and there wasn’t a strong cocoa flavor present. This was worse than President’s choice but considering that its a third of the cost, it ranked second last.
Score: 2/10

6. Great value milk chocolate bar

This one landed right where we thought it would. The artificial taste was strong and there was a bit of a weird initial taste. It was not too sugary but the overall taste was extremely mediocre. It was not very creamy and there wasn’t a strong cocoa presence. However, for a dollar, its not a bad choice.
Score: 3/10

5. Cadbury milk chocolate bar

The taste takes a bit to hit and there was nothing special about it. The artificial flavour was there but not overpowering. The sugar was balanced but overall it was very underwhelming. The cocoa presence is there but it was light and the creaminess was okay. If the taste had been stronger this chocolate would’ve been number 4. However, it’s possible that this particular bar was just a fluke, as it tasted a bit old.
Score: 4/10

4. Lindt milk chocolate bar

Lindt’s flavour was very strong from the beginning. Unfortunately, that flavour tasted artificial and the sugar was way too strong. Interestingly, we had vastly different opinions on this one as one of us gave it a 2 and the other gave it a 5 out of 10. So while our average was 3.5 I feel this one is up for debate. However, considering its price range it isn’t ranked higher as the taste didn’t really match the price.
Score: 3.5/10

3. Compliments milk chocolate bar

This one was really nice and creamy. You could feel the milk and cocoa melting together in your mouth. The sugar was a bit on the stronger side but still manageable. Overall really nice taste and no artificial flavours.
Bonus: packaging is great but more importantly, the chocolate is thin and each bar is bigger so they’re easy to break off without tremendous force and really easy to chew.
Score: 7/10

2. Selection milk chocolate bar

I’d say the entire reason I wanted to do this comparison is to see if something like this would happen and I was pleasantly surprised. This had a really well balanced taste, although just a bit sugary, but overall nice and creamy, no artificial taste at all, and at $1.25 this is a real game changer.
Score: 8/10

1. Herhsey’s Milk Chocolate Bar

A bit of surprise to be honest with this one. I was thinking this would be a bit lower on the list. I had always thought of Hershey’s as more of a Halloween or snacking brand but the taste was actually really good. I personally found it too sweet for my liking, but the overall taste was really nice. There was no artificial flavour, it was nice and creamy and had a strong cocoa flavour. That makes Herhsey’s the best milk chocolate bar on our list!
Score: 8/10

Conclusion

The power of blind taste tests is that it removes all the effects that commercials, packaging, pricing, and other biases have on our opinions. I would have never imagined that Selection would be that good and that President’s choice would be that bad. The first being cheaper in price and packaging, the latter being the most expensive and having really nice packaging.
As a well informed consumer, we should always try and see for ourselves what is best, because you simply can’t judge a chocolate by its cover.

In general, we noticed that price had little to do with quality. In addition, two of the top three chocolates were generic brands. So being a “chocolate” brand, like Lindt or Cadbury didn’t always translate to a better taste. With the exception of No Name, which was pretty awful, the $1 chocolates tasted pretty good for their price.

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below so let us know how you would rank these differently.