Chocolate Chips

• Not all chocolate chips are the same. Cacao and sugar content vary from brand to brand. Hershey's Special Dark chips contain 53 percent sugar and 45 percent cacao, while Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsels contain 57 percent sugar and 47 percent cacao.

Cook's Illustrated's Opinion

• Cook's Illustrated did a taste test of a variety of semi-sweet chocolate chip brands. Hershey's Special Dark chips scored second, while Nestle Toll House morsels placed last.

Cocoa Powder

• Both Nestle and Hershey's have unsweetened, 100 percent cocoa powder in their product lines. Nestle's cocoa powder is natural, meaning it has a more intense, bitter taste. Hershey offers both natural and Dutch Processed cocoa powders.

Dutch Processed Cocoa

• Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder is Dutch processed, meaning that is has been alkalized to neutralize its acids. Dutch-processed cocoa has a more mild flavor than natural cocoa.

Chocolate Syrup

• Nesquik and Hershey's Syrup are commonly used to make chocolate milk or top sundaes. Once again, Hershey's offers more varieties of syrup than Nestle, including a calcium-added syrup, a sugar variety and Special Dark syrup.