Fun Fact: The Military Created A Special Chocolate That Sucked

You’d be surprised how much chocolate is actually intertwined into military history. It is a known stimulant that not only boosts the mood but also energizes you due to its sugar content.

Source: Wikipedia

Napoleon was known to eat chocolate to keep up his energy levels. The British empire was so serious about chocolate they sent half their imported cacao beans directly to their Navy.

Source: Hershey's

In fact, M&Ms were first created to send to soldiers in the US Army. They were specially formulated with a coating that didn’t melt as easily when the fights would heat up.

The success of these candies was based on one thing only. They tasted fantastic!

Source: Atomic Shrimp

Now it was established that chocolate was a much-needed part of a soldier’s rations so it only made sense that the Army would dabble into making their own.

Source: KRations

This is when they asked Hershey’s to lend some of their expertise and make chocolate that their soldiers would love.

Source: KRations

Unfortunately, as some would say, it “taste(d) a little better than a boiled potato”.

Using oat flour and skimmed milk, the chocolate was bitter but not in the good dark chocolate sort of way. The problem arose because the chocolate was expected to stay solid at 120-degree temps which proved to be quite the challenge.

Source: Hershey's

To fortify the chocolate, they hardened it to the point of it being a brick even without an M&Ms like coating. 

Source: Hershey's

Unfortunately named, the D ration bar was hardly appetising. In fact, soldiers discarded them in emergency rations meaning that even when they didn’t have anything, they wouldn’t keep it handy.

The one single use they did find for the bar was to hand it over to local children who would ask them for candies, gum or even cigarettes. The D bar ensured that the children would never bother them again.

Source: Hershey's