Brands that differ...

I am bemused by the product differences in our countries. In America there is Cadbury, in the UK there is Cadbury. Simple, you might think. Except that in the UK, Cadbury is owned by Mondelez (formerly Kraft) an American company, but in the USA, it's licensed to Hershey, another American candy company.

Mondelez, meanwhile, operate in the USA mostly under the Milka brand and otherwise let Nestle, Mars and Hershey fight for the rest of the market. Oh, and Hershey chocolate is gross and tastes nothing like the wonderful stuff you get in British (or Australian or South African) Mondelez Cadbury products.
But that's not all - oh no! Mars, which sells M&Ms, operates in both countries. There is an interesting historical reason that the Mars chocolate bar (as we know it in the rest of the Anglosphere) is called a Milky Way in the USA. But given the rest of the range is reasonably converged, why on Earth is there so much more variety available in the USA? Is it competition from Cadbury?
Yesterday I bought the new Caramel M&Ms and they are wonderful. But in the UK, we're still stuck with just milk chocolate, peanut and 'crispy'. In the USA there are all the following flavours / flavors:

• Peanut butter

  

  New m&m's Caramel flavor

• Pretzel
• Raspberry
• Mint
• Coconut
• Strawberry nut
• Coffee nut
• Dark chocolate
• Dark chocolate peanut
• Caramel

And actually, more than I have forgotten. These are delightful and, at least last time I checked, still not available in the Leicester Square, London M&M shop!

We're two countries, with two similar sets of tastes when it comes to chocolate - why the differences? Variety is the spice of life - give the British the great M&Ms and give the Americans the great Cadbury products!