As chocolate prices continue to rise, some companies are taking drastic measures to counteract sticker shock. And it’s leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of some consumers.

With the cost of cocoa steadily ticking up, some brands have begun swapping in different ingredients. But does the end result taste the same as the real deal?

NBC News chief consumer investigative correspondent Vicky Nguyen went straight to the source to find out.

In the latest segment of “TODAY’s Consumer Confidential” on Dec. 9, Vicky took a look at real chocolate versus fake chocolate and enlisted the TODAY anchors to take part in a taste test. But first, she tapped several industry experts to share their thoughts on the rising trend.

Rich Hartel, a food science professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, studies chocolate for a living. He said one of the most common ways manufacturers cut costs is removing a key ingredient from their chocolate.

“Cocoa butter’s probably the most expensive component in chocolate. So if you can replace some of the cocoa butter with a different, cheaper fat, then you’re saving money,” he said.

Cocoa butter is an essential ingredient in real chocolate, but it currently costs more than double what it did three years ago.

In October, The New York Times reported on the rising prices and said West Africa’s cocoa production has decreased in recent years due to prolonged droughts, higher temperatures and unpredictable rainfall patterns due to climate change. Other factors, including an infection carried by mealybugs, labor issues and tariff threats have also contributed to the issue.

Hartel says some brands are turning to less expensive vegetable oils and swapping out cocoa for more sugar. Doing so can change the taste and labeling since brands can’t call a product “chocolate” under FDA rules if it doesn’t contain cocoa.

In these cases, products are labeled with the following terms: “chocolate flavor,” “chocolate taste” or “chocolatey.”

French chocolatier Jacques Torres is the owner of the high-end chocolate brand, Jacques Torres Chocolate. While speaking with Vicky, he shared his thoughts on the trend of some brands removing cocoa from their chocolate.

“I cannot do that. I cannot do that with the reputation that we have,” he said.

In his own business, Torres is confronting higher cocoa costs by adding less expensive nuts to his treats.

“So it will be a tiny bit less chocolate, a little bit more nuts. But we stay always very reasonable,” he said.

In the long run, Torres believes that fake chocolate will never taste as good as the real thing.

“I tried fake wine, I tried fake beer. To me, it’s never as good as the original,” he said.

Matias Muchnick is the CEO of NotCo, a company that has created a chocolate that’s made without cocoa using AI technology to reverse-engineer the recipe.

“We have trained an algorithm to replicate exactly the favorite chocolate that you always loved,” he said.

The faux chocolate is made with plant-based ingredients, including carob, shea butter and malt extract. The end result is designed to look, melt and taste like the real deal. By skipping cocoa, Muchnick believes manufacturers can lower the price of chocolate by 30%.

“I think we have a high chance of being the ones that actually saved chocolate for the rest of humanity,” Muchnick said.

So far, NotCo has partnered with several major brands, including Magnum and Barry Callebaut, who are looking to use their formula.

After speaking with chocolate pros, Nguyen invited several TODAY anchors to do a blind taste test of the fake and real chocolates to see how they compare.

Up first, they tried the real chocolate.

“Tasted like, mouthfeel-wise, more like real chocolate,” Al Roker said.

Carson Daly agreed, saying, “If that’s not real chocolate, I don’t know what is.”

When it was time to try the fake bar, the group had mixed reactions.

Craig Melvin described it as “creamy” and said it tasted “a little thicker than regular chocolate.”

Sheinelle Jones said the fake bar had “more flavor pops” when she bit into it.

Dylan Dreyer wasn’t impressed and said, “This tastes like a stale piece of chocolate to me.”

Al said the bar had “a little bit of a weird consistency” and Jenna Bush Hager thought it tasted “like a protein shake.”

All of the anchors preferred the real chocolate but acknowledged that the fake stuff could have potential.

“Both are great, but I don’t know if I would’ve known if you hadn’t put it side by side,” Savannah Guthrie said.

Sheinelle agreed, saying, “It’s good enough, it’s definitely close enough and it has all of the flavors.”

If you ate just the fake chocolate on its own, Craig said “you would never know the difference.”

After sharing the results with Muchnick, the CEO said NotCo is continually improving its formula and noted that the company expects to see their fake chocolate in real products very soon.