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If the writer really did taste a high quality, high cocoa % chocolate and he thought it tasted like crayons... well... does he have allergies? Was he congested? Did he have a cold perhaps? Any of these factors can prevent the sense of taste from working properly. If high quality chocolate tastes like crayons to you then something is off with your nose/mouth. It may not be to your personal taste, you may think it's disgusting and that's fine, but... well, it just doesn't taste like crayons. Sorry.
I really detest the pretentious nature of a certain subset of folks who enjoy wine, chocolate, etc, in a 'holier than thou' sort of way. I think spending $300 on a bottle of wine is silly, I think spitting wine out is silly, and I think the whole tasting ritual can be a bit overblown. I probably couldn't tell the difference between a 97 point rated wine and a 95 point rated wine. But I could probably tell a difference between a 95 pt and an 85 pt wine. Acknowledging that there are differences in quality in products and even that some people who devote a great deal of time to it may be able to better judge quality doesn't make one pretentious or a snob.
Leave the pretense and rituals to those that enjoy it. I just buy things that taste good. High quality, high cocoa chocolate(Lindt makes some tasty stuff) really does taste different from the stuff in mass market candybars. It may not be to every individuals taste but there most definitely is a difference.
The writer is shocked that there's people who don't think Hershey makes the best chocolate? Well sit down before I tell you this, but there's folks out there who think Budweiser is pretty lousy(http://beeradvocate.com/), Bose stereos are crap(http://www.soundstage.com/), and that Starbucks isn't the last word in coffee(http://www.howtobrewcoffee.com/).
