"American chocolate is so sweet that it tastes like doggie chocs."

Good article in the Observer yesterday which I read en route to New York. American chocolate is indeed more sweet than what I am used to, but I would add that it is more "waxy" also (perhaps the "waxy" part is so that the chocolate does not melt?).

As the article says, in the UK (and Ireland) adults will often buy chocolate. In fact, it is ironic that many would see Americans as candy-munching sweet tooths, whereas in fact I would say that many more adults in the UK and Ireland buy chocolate on a regular basis than their American counterparts. Just witness the huge array of chocolate bars in even the smallest shop. And chocolate has more of an adult mythology: for many adults, the renaming of "Marathon" to "Snickers" has the same emotional resonance as the Brooklyn Dodgers becoming the "LA Dodgers".

I can attest to the weird "grainy" texture also. However, I have never eaten doggie chocolate so I can't vouch for that comparison:

Some say the US version, made at a plant in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, tastes sweeter than the stuff made in Bournville, Birmingham. Others detect a slightly more "grainy" texture. The US chocolate is a little darker and, say connoisseurs, a little bit more melt-resistant. For British expatriates or holidaymakers visiting the US, the difference is disconcertingly noticeable. Certain anglophile Americans, too, yearn for the British version, giving "real" Cadbury chocolate a cult following stateside.

"The British version just tastes a hell of a lot better," says John Jago-Ford, owner of the British Shoppe, a store in Orlando, Florida, that is among the few places to sell the original Cadbury chocolate imported from Britain. "American chocolate is so sweet that it tastes like doggie chocs."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/08/cadbury-america-hershey