According to the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, 65 percent of Americans prefer milk chocolate over dark. But more consumers are turning to the "dark side," especially since dark chocolate has recently been touted for its high antioxidant content.
Preference appears to be regional: more Easterners prefer dark chocolate, while those in the West prefer milk chocolate, said Paul Jensen, general manager of Mrs. Cavanaugh's.
"When we've sold to wholesale accounts back East, they prefer the dark chocolate," he said. "On our Internet site and toll-free line, we get dramatically more sales for dark chocolate in the East than in the West. We were contacted by a company in New York and a company in Chicago, and they wanted dark chocolate almost exclusively."
Why the preference? Jensen said there are theories that Easterners, like Europeans, tend to like stronger, less-sweet flavors in both coffee and chocolate.
In her book, "French Women Don't Get Fat," author Mireille Guiliano writes that the French love dark, bittersweet "or even better, extra-bittersweet" chocolate. "What the average American consumes, a chocolate connoisseur would never touch: milk chocolate, white chocolate or any of the various packaged forms sold in supermarkets and drugstores."
But Utahns are happier with the sweet, creamy flavor of milk chocolate, said Jensen, although he's noticed a recent increase in local sales of dark chocolate and sugar-free chocolate as well. Atkins and other low-carb diets fueled the sugar-free sales, which haven't gone down too much, even though the diets' popularity has waned.