I grew up eating a lot of chocolate. My Swiss grandfather made his own chocolate in his bakery and every year sent me a foot and a half high solid chocolate Easter bunny. It could take me a month to finish it. It was so good I wanted it to last and last.
On my British side I used to love Penguin biscuits and Cadbury Dairy Milk.
The only chocolate I can't stand is American chocolate a la Hersheys which is essentially inedible.
So it is a very very sad day when Kraft (known best for its "approximation of food" products) takes out Cadbury
The biggest problem is that by and large food firms like Kraft take a good food idea, dissect it, figure out to make it more cheaply, and then market the hell out of it, despite the fact that it is usually nutritionally inferior to the original. Think cheese and then Cheese Whiz and cheese slices. In a more sane world companies like this would be prosecuted for literally causing health problems.
But let's get back to chocolate and why the Brits are pissed.
One reason for the taste divide on either side of the Atlantic is the demand for cocoa solids in products. In the UK, chocolate must contain at least 20 per cent, while In the US cocoa solids need only make up 10%.
A Dairy Milk bar reportedly contains an average of 23 per cent cocoa solids, while a Hershey bar is believed to contain 11 per cent. Many European chocolatiers make chocolate with upwards of 40 per cent cocoa solids.
The chocolate making process also differs from the grinding of the first bean. Though confectioners keep their recipes a firm secret, it is believed that American chocolate typically uses South American beans, whilst British makers favour West African cocoa.
There are also variations on the type of powdered milk used, which can impact the flavour.
A typical Hershey bar also has more sugar than a bar of Dairy Milk, and, crucially perhaps, its ingredients list contains the additive PGPR, which can act in place of the more expensive cocoa butter.
So, essentially, in terms of real ingredients mass produced American style chocolate is clearly inferior. Then of course there is taste.
While Britons champion the creamy textures of Dairy Milk and Flake, Americans cherish the likes of Hershey - bemoaned this side of the Atlantic for its "sourness" and "gritty texture"
Then there are the Cadbury traditions. Founded by Quakers Cadbury has been noted for its progressive policies.
The company's Quaker-inspired tradition of caring for staff, established by its founders, is still in evidence despite the family retreating from the day-to-day running of the business.
The site has a dentist, chiropodist, swimming pool and pensioners' club, and a clocktower stands over a war memorial decorated with poppies paying tribute to dozens of Cadbury workers who died in the two World Wars.
Some workers live in company houses at discounted rents, and when the supermarket chain Tesco opened a store at the site it was barred for a time from selling alcohol.
Myriam Jordan, 82, who worked for Cadbury for 15 years, as did her father-in-law for 46 years, still receives a free Cadbury parcel at Christmas and a free trip every year.
"It adds a bitter taste having an American company buy Cadbury's," she said, returning from the pensioners' club.
And it is not as if Cadbury workers have nothing to fear given Kraft's previous history of shutting down purchased operations.
But many will remember the plight of a previous Kraft target, Terry's, which the firm took over in the 1990s.
The UK chocolate maker, whose products include Terry's Chocolate Orange and Terry's All Gold, saw its York manufacturing plant and warehouse closed after almost 70 years in 2005 as part of a Kraft restructuring programme.
Production from the site, which had made up to 20,000 tonnes of chocolate each year for the domestic market, was transferred to Kraft facilities in Sweden, Belgium, Poland and Slovakia.