Canadians and Americans share a lot: A language, a border, and a love of friendly competition (to name a few). The last bit—the love of friendly competition—is what drove me and my friends to run a blind taste test: American chocolate vs. Canadian chocolate. Our goal was simple: To find out which country had the better chocolate.

Our criteria were simple:

• The chocolate bars (or candy bars, for you Americans) we chose had to be the same—or similar enough to make a go of it.
• We had to taste each chocolate bar without knowing if it was American or Canadian. 

The panel featured a Canadian (yours truly), an American, and an Australian (we needed to control for nostalgia). Here are the results!

KitKat

I first learned that the Canadian versions of chocolate bars were vastly different from their American counterparts from TikTok; more specifically, a TikTok about the differences between American and Canadian KitKats.

In that taste test, the TikToker was shocked at how much better the Canadian version of the classic KitKat bar was. 

Our taste test agreed: All three of us preferred the Canadian KitKat to its American counterpart. The main tasting notes were that the American KitKat was sweeter, while the Canadian KitKat had a more well-balanced taste. Most importantly, the Canadian KitKat had a more pronounced chocolate taste. 

Reese (or Reese’s)

There was a lot more competition between the American Reese and the Canadian Reese’s.

The American chocolate peanut butter cup had less peanut butter and more chocolate. The chocolate was also less sweet, hitting a more dark chocolate note, instead of the sweet, milk chocolate flavour I’m used to from the Canadian version.

The vote here fell 2-1 in favour of the American version; my American and Australian friends preferred the denser, darker chocolate of the American Reese Cup. 

I highly recommend the Canadian version, though—especially if you’re as partial to sweets as I am. 

Caramilk and Caramellos

Again, there was a bit more competition between Caramilk and Caramellos. 

The tasting notes for the chocolate bars were that the Canadian Caramilk has chocolate that tastes a little less sweet; it’s also slightly thicker.  The American Caramello had a thinner, sweeter caramel; the Caramilk’s caramel was more viscous, with vanilla notes.

I preferred the Canadian Caramilk, as did my Australian colleague; our American friend stuck with the Caramello. 

Why Do Canadian and American Chocolates Taste Different? 

There are a lot of different factors that influence the taste of Canadian and American chocolates. Regulation is one factor: The requirements for Canadian chocolate require a higher percentage of cocoa solids (including 12% cocoa mass). This leads to chocolate that is typically described as having a richer cocoa flavour.