Now if you are anything like me, part of the joy of making chocolate chip cookies is eating some of the chips out of the bag. 
Do Nestlé Toll House morsels still deserve to be the nation’s top-selling chips? Cook’s Illustrated has a scientific approach toward evaluating products and recipes. It reminds me of my college days when I was a Home Economics major. Thirty years ago this would be a Home Ec. text book. In their May June issue, Cook’s Illustrated compared several varieties of chocolate chips by taste test.
They Compared:
Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips Hersheys Semisweet Chocolate Chips Guittard Semisweet Chocolate Chips Hersheys Semisweet Chocolate Chips Ghirardelli Semisweet Chocolate Chip Bakers Real Semisweet Chocolate Chunks Nestles Toll House Real Semisweet Chocolate Chip Morsels Nestles Toll House Real Semisweet Chocolate Chunk Morsels
The results are ranked as the list above withGhirardelli 60% Cacao as first
………………. and Nestles Toll House as not recommended!
“Our winner delivered the intense, complex flavors we expect from superior chocolate (in fact, we found ourselves sneaking handfuls straight from the bag). This premium chip, it turns out, has the same cacao percentage as the brand’s dark chocolate bar, the runner-up in our dark chocolate tasting. It also has the same smoky, fruity, and wine like flavors. A company spokesperson confirmed that the chocolate is identical in the bar and the chips—the beans undergo the same harvesting, fermenting, and roasting processes for each.”
So….. I bought a bag. For scientific reasons of course! After all, I was a Home Economics major in college. Mmmmm, I have to agree. Wow they were good!
And then I made a batch of cookies using the Cook’s Illustrated recipe for the “Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. I used the Ghirardelli chips and the chocolate taste was yum. I needed a big glass of milk. But, I’m not sold on their recipe for the cookies. I’ll write a post on that later.
“As for America’s favorite chip, Nestlé Toll House Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels? They landed in second-to-last place, alongside the brand’s semisweet chocolate chunks. With a low cacao percentage and the highest sugar level, these were the very same chips tasters likened to “cheap Halloween candy,” and they belong at the bottom of our lineup.”
….and as for Nestles Chocolate Chunk Morsels……the tasters detected a wood-like flavor and grassy like dirt! Oh, my….. really?
This makes me want to have a chocolate chip tasting party of my own. I may even invite some friends.
I have always used Nestles choc. semi sweet morsels, but now you have wet my appetite for Ghiradellli’s choc. And when you have that chocolate chip tasting party please let me know, I am a big choc. chip taster. lol
Thanks for sharing
Blessings,
Sue
Me too, me too!! We actually had a chocolate tasting during one of our small group evenings. It was interesting analyzing the differences. Since then I don’t spend calories on Hersheys – it’s gotta be the good stuff!! There’s a great book about the Hershey and Mars families (both very dysfunctional); The Emperor’s of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars. I lent it out and it did not return, drat. Is your library card current?? 🙂
Invite me! Thanks for sharing.
Oh my! Well if chocolate is in a tasting party I’d like to be there too :0)
Very interesting research article! I must do some research myself……purely scientific.
-sissy
I love Cook’s Illustrated! I would have to agree with their taste test of the Nestle chips and now I know why I have not been happy with the taste. I would only use less than half the bag so I would get more of the cookie flavor and less of the chip flavor!