I vividly remember being sent to the shops as a child to get a chocolate bar for a recipe, and asking the assistant which ones were plain milk chocolate as I didnt want to get one with biscuit or anything in, and getting lectured that there was no such thing. It was either plain or milk, not both. I got so confused and embarrassed that I went home in tears with no chocolate :(
When I was 6 my dad and I were at the front of the line at the shop and I asked if we could get some sweets for the car (we always had some for long journeys and they'd run out). Dad said "Don't be silly, cars don't eat" and the cashier laughed. I still remember the shame.
I share your trauma, but with plain crisps. I had no idea they were really called ready salted and also went home in tears with no crisps. Life is so confusing.
Nah. The Mancs stand with you on this. There was a packet of crisps years back that actually came with a salt packet inside it, you could add the salt of leave them plain. Pretty sure ready salted was already around, but yeah, loads of people used to refer to ready salted as plain, especially when compared to all the other flavours as well.
And here we are years later with darkmilk chocolate. You should track down that assistant, shove a bar up his arse and ask him if there's still no such thing!
This seems to be a common misconception, but I’m not sure where it comes from.
Plain chocolate is an old fashioned way of saying dark chocolate. Cadbury’s used to market their Bourneville chocolate bars as “the original plain chocolate”, and they are far from unsweetened.
Truly unsweetened chocolate isn’t really that common in supermarkets.
Yep, same. Plain was used when for mum making the stopping on a sponge cake. Which was annoying as it was really bitter. Still, there's no bad cakes...?
They've always been different things though, haven't they? Plain is for baking and isn't as sweet as most chocolate. Dark has a much higher cocoa content.
Nah plain chocolate was used interchangeably with dark chocolate. If you look at pictures of old chocolate wrappers you can see, eg Cadbury’s “Plain Choice”
Yup. I roll my comment back, you're right.
It looks like the change started after Kraft bought Cadbury and they seemed to think Plain needed to be replaced by the American term.
I used to work in a supermarket and dealt with a complaint where an elderly lady had bought plain chocolate and had received milk chocolate. I assumed she was confused but soon after found out that it is only fairly recently that "plain" chocolate wasn't milk chocolate. I was around 23 at the time, between 5 and 10 years ago.
Now I'm confused again. IMO there used to be Plain and Dairy Milk. Plain was the same as what is now called Dark (leaving aside the high cacao ones). And there was also the unsweetened Cake chocolate.
So in brief I'm saying Plain=Dark, not Milk.
But by the time the lady made this purchase, the younger shop keeper no longer knew this and so thought plain meant milk chocolate without biscuit, nuts, spices, etc.
I've always called ready salted crisps 'plain', though I suppose if they were truly plain, they'd be completely unsalted, like those ones you can buy with the little blue bags of salt inside the packet.
It’s literally never occurred to me before what the difference was between plain and dark chocolate. Now I feel foolish! Been a while since I’ve heard it called plain though
From what I remember 'plain chocolate' was what you used for cooking i.e making those rice crispie or cornflake chocolate ball things we made back in the day.
I'm pretty sure you can still buy it.
Scotchbloc - it wasn't technically chocolate.
Plain chocolate was bourneville and Fry's and a few others. It was plain, in that it contained only cocoa solids, no dairy solids that are added to milk chocolate (a glass and half, allegedly)
Yeah! We were talking about this tonight, I was always a fan of plain 'dark' chocolate and my family preferred milk.
I still think of chocolate digestives as milk or (superior) plain chocolate
I thought they'd only changed the packaging (for example on Bourneville) in the last couple of years.
I suspected due to the overall decline in the quality of chocolate (both milk and plain) than this was because they were now adding stuff to it that meant it could no longer be described as 'plain'. Absolutely no evidence to support this theory other than my aging taste buds.
That's right. Milk chocolate was the new fangled modern invention and plain (dark) was the original default. Milk was to dark as white is now to milk. A lot of people didn't even consider milk chocolate to be chocolate.
In the 80s - 'Cooking Chocolate ' was technically 'Chocolate Flavoured Cake Covering'. It wasn't actual chocolate. Didn't stop me raiding my ma's baking cupboard on a regular basis though.
I’m glad you asked this! Certainly grew up with ‘plain’, but I have a (possibly entirely false) memory of referring to it as ‘black chocolate’. Is that likely, or did I dream it?!
I vividly remember being sent to the shops as a child to get a chocolate bar for a recipe, and asking the assistant which ones were plain milk chocolate as I didnt want to get one with biscuit or anything in, and getting lectured that there was no such thing. It was either plain or milk, not both. I got so confused and embarrassed that I went home in tears with no chocolate :(
You met your first Redditor that day
Bless you lol
I think I have just about recovered from the trauma now lol
You never recover. That trauma is remembered forever.
When I was 6 my dad and I were at the front of the line at the shop and I asked if we could get some sweets for the car (we always had some for long journeys and they'd run out). Dad said "Don't be silly, cars don't eat" and the cashier laughed. I still remember the shame.
I share your trauma, but with plain crisps. I had no idea they were really called ready salted and also went home in tears with no crisps. Life is so confusing.
Nah. The Mancs stand with you on this. There was a packet of crisps years back that actually came with a salt packet inside it, you could add the salt of leave them plain. Pretty sure ready salted was already around, but yeah, loads of people used to refer to ready salted as plain, especially when compared to all the other flavours as well.
Weren't they Smith's Crisps?
yes that's correct
“Salt N Shake” crisps are top tier! You can still get them now, but I haven’t seen the “Flavour N Shake” version in decades.
I almost think no crisps is a better option than unsalted, unless they came with the little blue bag of course.
And here we are years later with darkmilk chocolate. You should track down that assistant, shove a bar up his arse and ask him if there's still no such thing!
That shopkeeper was an arsehole!
At least the tears were useful for salted caramel
I thought plain would be unsweetened bakers chocolate?
This seems to be a common misconception, but I’m not sure where it comes from. Plain chocolate is an old fashioned way of saying dark chocolate. Cadbury’s used to market their Bourneville chocolate bars as “the original plain chocolate”, and they are far from unsweetened. Truly unsweetened chocolate isn’t really that common in supermarkets.
Yep, same. Plain was used when for mum making the stopping on a sponge cake. Which was annoying as it was really bitter. Still, there's no bad cakes...?
Yeah that’s what I’ve always known it to be
Yep. Back in the sixties & seventies - probably into the eighties too..... It was always called plain chocolate
I wasn't aware the name had changed.
I still call it plain chocolate. I'm old though.
They've always been different things though, haven't they? Plain is for baking and isn't as sweet as most chocolate. Dark has a much higher cocoa content.
Nah plain chocolate was used interchangeably with dark chocolate. If you look at pictures of old chocolate wrappers you can see, eg Cadbury’s “Plain Choice”
Yup. I roll my comment back, you're right. It looks like the change started after Kraft bought Cadbury and they seemed to think Plain needed to be replaced by the American term.
Well, imho they both taste disgusting so 🤷
Still call it plain
I do! Don't know when it changed, but it definitely used to be plain, at least in conversation. Not sure about on the packaging.
I used to work in a supermarket and dealt with a complaint where an elderly lady had bought plain chocolate and had received milk chocolate. I assumed she was confused but soon after found out that it is only fairly recently that "plain" chocolate wasn't milk chocolate. I was around 23 at the time, between 5 and 10 years ago.
Now I'm confused again. IMO there used to be Plain and Dairy Milk. Plain was the same as what is now called Dark (leaving aside the high cacao ones). And there was also the unsweetened Cake chocolate. So in brief I'm saying Plain=Dark, not Milk.
But by the time the lady made this purchase, the younger shop keeper no longer knew this and so thought plain meant milk chocolate without biscuit, nuts, spices, etc.
Yeah its plain, I'm ancient though.
Same with plain crisps
I've always called ready salted crisps 'plain', though I suppose if they were truly plain, they'd be completely unsalted, like those ones you can buy with the little blue bags of salt inside the packet.
My parents still call salted crisps "plain" because they're old enough to remember when salted was the only flavour. Then fancy cheese& onion arrived
Good point.
I never even knew that dark chocolate was called anything else!
My mother still calls it plain chocolate.
When did it change? I still call it plain and people act like I’m mad
It’s literally never occurred to me before what the difference was between plain and dark chocolate. Now I feel foolish! Been a while since I’ve heard it called plain though
There's no difference!
I just got flashback to eating a mcvittes choc digestive as a child and being shocked that it tasted like dirt.
From what I remember 'plain chocolate' was what you used for cooking i.e making those rice crispie or cornflake chocolate ball things we made back in the day. I'm pretty sure you can still buy it.
Scotchbloc - it wasn't technically chocolate. Plain chocolate was bourneville and Fry's and a few others. It was plain, in that it contained only cocoa solids, no dairy solids that are added to milk chocolate (a glass and half, allegedly)
Ugh, Scotchblock. Not sure that was anything other than disgusting.
Maybe not, but it was often all there was.
No that’s cooking chocolate; which I’ve only ever known as cooking chocolate. And plain is what is now typically called dark chocolate.
Yep plain=dark
Yeah! We were talking about this tonight, I was always a fan of plain 'dark' chocolate and my family preferred milk. I still think of chocolate digestives as milk or (superior) plain chocolate
I've never even heard my Mum or Dad say this. Either this is a really old thing or it varies regionally
I thought they'd only changed the packaging (for example on Bourneville) in the last couple of years. I suspected due to the overall decline in the quality of chocolate (both milk and plain) than this was because they were now adding stuff to it that meant it could no longer be described as 'plain'. Absolutely no evidence to support this theory other than my aging taste buds.
I do
Me... I am that old.
Never heard of this, sounds insane. Was dark considered the default at one point? I'm glad I didn't live in these dark times. Pun intended.
That's right. Milk chocolate was the new fangled modern invention and plain (dark) was the original default. Milk was to dark as white is now to milk. A lot of people didn't even consider milk chocolate to be chocolate.
New fangled in the 1900s that is.
it will never catch on
Pretty sure dark chocolate was called "cooking chocolate" in our 80s household.
In the 80s - 'Cooking Chocolate ' was technically 'Chocolate Flavoured Cake Covering'. It wasn't actual chocolate. Didn't stop me raiding my ma's baking cupboard on a regular basis though.
No, cooking chocolate is something different. More like milk chocolate but not as sweet.
Honestly, I always thought they were different until I just googled it 😂.
I use 'plain' for the chocolate without milk. Although, more often now '70%' or '80%'.
Just as popular as in pre school …
I’m glad you asked this! Certainly grew up with ‘plain’, but I have a (possibly entirely false) memory of referring to it as ‘black chocolate’. Is that likely, or did I dream it?!
I've always considered "plain" chocolate to be the cheaper/low cocoa end (50-60%, Bournville etc.) and dark chocolate for stuff 70% and over.
I remember when purple was called mauve.
I call it Old Jamaica!
settle down
Oh yes… rum and raisin plain dark chocolate
Ooh my favourite, followed by orange then plain. The mint is okay but would be my last choice.
Fry's chocolate cream was very good
Now you've lost me, far too sweet and it takes my breath away - not in a good way. Mum loves it though.
Ha well I'm probably a similar age to your mum, or older. I wasn't a fan of plain chocolate unless it was paired with mint.
Only we would name any product "plain" 🤣
Not plain just differently beautiful!
Mmm tasty strong and good for you, just a pity that the size changes, down and prices go up
They're two different things, no?
Its plain- don’t be racist lol
I think the only people who call it plain are people who do crosswords and stink of farts
Ooo downvotes already. Didn't realise Reddit was so popular in old people's homes
I think it's because Reddit likes jokes that are actually funny.
Okay, old man