Allison Keene
Dietribes: Death by Chocolate
by Allison Keene - February 11, 2009 - 11:34 AM
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This post is dedicated to all my fellow chocoholic Flossers, who might dare strive to drink 50 cups of chocolate a day as Montezuma, the Aztec king, was said to do. Or just anyone who likes to have a little cocoa here and there. Happy Valentine’s Day!

• There are, of course, several varieties of chocolate ranging from milk to very dark. So-called “white chocolate” (can you sense my chocolate snobbery?) isn’t chocolate in the technical sense, since it’s comprised of cocoa butter, sugar and milk, but no actual cocoa solids.

• Finding just the right consistency that “melts in your mouth and not in your hand” can be difficult. The melting point of cocoa butter is just below the human body temperature — explaining why it literally melts in your mouth.

• Legend has it that Forrest Mars, Senior met soldiers in the Spanish Civil war eating chocolates covered in a hard shell that prevented them from melting. The inspiration paid off, and M&Ms became a popular snack for soldiers in WWII.

• Besides being a delicious and occasionally decadent treat, chocolate has plenty of other values. It can fuel a car, be used as fake blood (like in the shower scene in Psycho), work as a band-aid (er, sorta), and possibly even help stop global warming. Did I also mention certain varieties have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and helped aid in the invention of the microwave?

• Though Richard Cadbury came up with the first heart shaped box in the 1860s, and much of Valentine’s day is about the familiar heart symbol since, some may prefer a chocolate heart that’s a bit more … anatomically correct.

• More evidence of the impending Robot Revolution, and the kind of candies they will enjoy: Mars, IBM, and the Department of Agriculture have teamed up to sequence and analyze the entire cocoa genome in the hopes of unleashing a stronger, disease-resistant, genetically superior coca plant!

• If you simply can’t get enough chocolate, visit “Chocolate Covered February” in Hershey, PA. But make sure your trip includes the Hotel Hershey Chocolate Spa – whipped cocoa bath, choice of a chocolate bean polish or Chocolate Sugar Scrub, and 50-minute Cocoa Massage and lunch. No matter how much you love chocolate though, you still might not want to get stuck in a vat of it.

• Those of you in the Boston area may need to consume some chocolate in order to activate your serotonin levels, because a tax on sweets might be coming – watch out!

***

What are some of your favorite kinds of chocolate, Flossers? Any that you despise? I’m a dark chocolate girl myself – at least 60% cocoa for me to even find it worthy of consumption!

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach. You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.

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Comments (36)

  1. No dark chocolate for me. I prefer mine to actually be sweet, not bitter.

    The sweeter and creamier the better, so definitely milk chocolate.

    posted by Mother Chat on 2-11-2009 at 11:28 am

  2. Mmm…dark chocolate truffles. I keep them in my candy dish at work for mental emergencies.

    posted by bre on 2-11-2009 at 11:29 am

  3. I’ve been exploring all the small batch artisanal chocolate makers in NYC. Today I’m heading over to Christopher Norman.

    Dark with herbal or spice flavorings. Cardimom is a great flavor in chocolate.

    posted by Hannah on 2-11-2009 at 12:03 pm

  4. Milk chocolate for sure – dark is too bitter for my taste. Picky, too… I don’t much care for chocolate cake, ice cream, pudding, etc. but I loooove milk chocolate truffles, especially Lindt and Godiva. I treated my daughters to some Godiva when they were small, and my husband accuses me of spoiling them against ‘cheap chocolate’ – they prefer the premium brands. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

    posted by Mama9cats on 2-11-2009 at 12:11 pm

  5. The darker the better! Well, within reason I guess. I have eaten completely unsweetened baker’s chocolate and it wasn’t that bad. This column put me in the mood for one of those chocolate oranges you usually see around Christmas. Anyone know where to find those this time of year?

    posted by catherine ann on 2-11-2009 at 12:33 pm

  6. I don’t love chocolate plain- I like some texture! Anything crunchy added is great. I like things covered in chocolate too. And I think if I HAD to eat pure chocolate, I’d choose dark over milk, it’s just too melty/sweet.

    posted by Kelly J on 2-11-2009 at 12:47 pm

  7. I cant have enough Ritter Sport’s milk chocolate butter biscuit. I have to buy 6 bars every time and as soon as I see im on my last bar I make sure I go stock up some more.
    If you try this chocolate you will never look at a kitkat bar, snickers, hersheys or all those nasty cheapy chocolate bars the same.
    It is definitely worth the extra buck.

    posted by patty pastelitos on 2-11-2009 at 1:05 pm

  8. i’m with kelly j on this one. my chocolate definitely needs to be in a combo. smother some peanuts, pretzels, peanut butter, caramel, strawberries, cherries, etc, etc and you can count me in. great work on this one, allison (as always). and i think i’m the first dude to chime in. still deciding if i should be proud of that *eats twix while pondering*…

    posted by els on 2-11-2009 at 1:29 pm

  9. Dark! But with character, not just dark. I’m a huge fan of the Theo single-origin chocolate bars out of Seattle. Right now I’m also digging the Choxie “dark chocolate Ceylon spice bar” from Target.

    posted by Jaclyn on 2-11-2009 at 1:42 pm

  10. My wife enjoys only dark chocolate. This is fine with me because it means I never have to share my sweet milk chocolate with her. I’ve seen her eat 85% dark chocolate. To me, that’s equivalent to eating coffee grounds. One chocolate I haven’t tried yet is a bar I’ve seen in specialty stores–it has bacon in it. I like bacon, but I don’t know about pairing it with chocolate. I usually hate any fruits or berries dipped in chocolate. At least I know if I do end up liking it, I’ll never have to worry about my wife sampling any–she’s a vegetarian.

    posted by Tomas on 2-11-2009 at 2:11 pm

  11. German chocolate is by far my favorite kind, dark, milk, whatever. It has a smooth mellowness that American chocolate has long since given up on in favor of cheap waxy stuff (Complain now, but try a German chocolate bar and you’ll see my point). My friend cam back from a school trip to Germany with a bagful of the stuff and we’re both in love with it.

    If I *have* to have chocolate (and you really have to twist my arm on it lol) I go straight for the chocolate caramels or Andes mints. Though nothing beats a nice cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows floating in it. :P

    posted by heather on 2-11-2009 at 2:23 pm

  12. My wife is from Belgium so we have a constant supply of Belgian chocolates coming from her relatives. It has made me unable to eat any other chocolate I used to love.

    posted by Neal on 2-11-2009 at 3:23 pm

  13. My comment is on a different note…

    I’m actually allergic to chocolate, so it’s a running joke that everytime I eat any I am “trying to commit suicide.” I just found the title humorous. :)

    posted by Michelle on 2-11-2009 at 3:37 pm

  14. My older sister loves white chocolate, which I hate, and I love dark chocolate, which she hates.

    Our mother, who could remember doctors appointments six months away and signed all the field trip permission slips on time, could NEVER keep track of this. Every Easter, I ended up with a white chocolate bunny, and she ended up with dark. We still make fun of her for it.

    posted by Caitlin on 2-11-2009 at 3:47 pm

  15. I always keep a bar of Green & Black’s 85% cocoa chocolate bar in my fridge. Nothing else is as satisfying.

    posted by Rebecca on 2-11-2009 at 3:58 pm

  16. I’m quite fond of Rebecca Ruth Candy, which is stationed in Frankfort, KY but ships all over the country. They’re most famous for their bourbon balls–round dark chocolates with a cream center and a pecan on top. What makes them so good? The 100-proof bourbon that is mixed into the cream–and isn’t cooked out. :^) They’re amazing. I used to work there as a tour guide/retail clerk and I do miss eating candy all the time!

    posted by rubysunbeam on 2-11-2009 at 4:20 pm

  17. I worked at a candy, nuts & ice cream shop through high school, where we made our own chocolates and the fudge for the ice cream was made from the melted down extra chocolate.

    MMMM….

    look it up, link in name. people shipped it worldwide!

    posted by Brooke on 2-11-2009 at 4:24 pm

  18. I ran across Milka brand chocolate in Switzerland and have been spoiled ever since. The kind with hazelnuts and raisins is amazing. Plus, the wrapping is lilac with a cow in a mountain field. Yummy and pretty!

    posted by janeeyre316 on 2-11-2009 at 4:43 pm

  19. I am not a chocholic but i do love to indulge every now and then. I realy enjoy milk chocolate but i am on a sugar restricted diet and found that dove dark chocolate is not all bad. My fav is Lindt.

    posted by Jennfier on 2-11-2009 at 4:44 pm

  20. @ Caitlin – too funny! MY mom was convinced that I liked dark chocolate (I do) and my sister liked white (she doesn’t). She could not, however, remember dr. appointments that far in advance.

    posted by Adrienne on 2-11-2009 at 4:55 pm

  21. The best chocolate in the world (In my opinion)comes from San Francisco and is NOT Ghirardelli’s. See’s Chocolate is heavenly.

    posted by harold on 2-11-2009 at 5:28 pm

  22. I enjoy Green and Black’s dark chocolate the most, it has a smooth almost fruity taste. They also make really good hot chocolate mix that is pure chocolate.

    posted by Liz on 2-11-2009 at 6:48 pm

  23. Janeeyre316, I too found Milka brand while visiting Germany, Austria and Switzerland in High School. I disliked a lot of the food over there, so I pretty much lived on chocolate for those two weeks. I don’t eat a lot of chocolate, but when I do, I love white chocolate and dark chocolate. The darker, the better. My husband, on the other hand, is definitely a chocoholic. He’ll eat almost a whole bag of dark chocolate M&M’s with a big glass of milk if I let him!

    posted by Shandi on 2-11-2009 at 6:51 pm

  24. I’m sure everyone’s seen this by now but one of my favorite uses of a hershey bar is to polish the bottom of a soda can and use it to start a fire (damn Boy Scouts turned me into a pyro)

    posted by Scott on 2-11-2009 at 8:38 pm

  25. To Tomas; You must try that Bacon Chocolate! It’s heavenly. It’s from a company called Vosges Haute-Chocolat. It’s called “Mo’s Bacon Bar”. If you dig salt with sweet, this is your treat. It sounds weird, but no different than bacon with maple syrup or ham with pineapple and glaze. They may be pricey and I felt silly getting a small something in a big package with dry ice. My parents said I was “ripped-off” but I disagree. I was quite pleased.

    posted by JulieLynn75 on 2-11-2009 at 8:42 pm

  26. Ahhh chocolate. I’m not a fan of the dark either, though I did get my best friend 95% for her birthday last year. The look on her face was well worth the 3.95! I’m trying to get off the daily chocolate bandwagon but since it’s Valentine’s week… Swiss Delice Milk Chocolate, Crunch original, Cadbury Dairy Milk, and Cadbury Fingers. =) I have had the fancier chocolates but much prefer these ones. Real Simple has a chocolate comparison, link is in my name as well.

    posted by Kat on 2-11-2009 at 9:55 pm

  27. I’m with you Allison. Dark chocolate is so much better; pure and undiluated with any other ingredients!! Whether Godiva squares, Lindt or the new dark M&M’s! Milk chocolate is way too sweet.

    My now-college age daughter had a chocolate taste test in 3rd grade. Even then she liked dark chocolate just like like she does now. Because she was the only one who “voted” for the dark chocolate she was embarrassed so said she made a mistake and liked the milk to fit in. She doesn’t have to pretend anymore.

    And yes – “white” chocolate is not chocolate.

    posted by Lisa on 2-11-2009 at 10:12 pm

  28. I’m definitely a dark chocolate lover, but milk chocolate is ok too (when combined with caramel, nuts, fruit, etc). Just the thought of white chocolate makes me queasy.

    Tomas, I agree with JulieLynn that you should try Mo’s Bacon Bar. It’s better than it sounds! As a Chicagoan, I have fallen in love with most of the Vosges Haute-Chocolat goodies. Expensive but worth it. See’s candies makes very tasty peanut crunch and toffee-ettes. I love going in their stores since you get lots of free samples! Although I do sometimes like the basic snickers bars, I think pretty much any European chocolate beats out the basic American ones.

    posted by Katie on 2-11-2009 at 11:43 pm

  29. Another dark chocolate fan here. I’ve always preferred it, even as a kid. I like it paired with mint too.

    If I eat milk chocolate, I much prefer it to be combined with caramel or nuts.

    posted by Karen on 2-12-2009 at 2:40 pm

  30. Dark chocolate, with raspberry or almonds. I’ve started buying a brand called Endangered Species Chocolate.(chocolatebar dot com)

    posted by NYCGirl on 2-16-2009 at 3:59 am

  31. I’m a chocolate ‘snob’ too, and will only eat dark chocolate. And not the 47% stuff – it’s too sweet to me if the cocoa content is below 60% (I prefer over 70%, though). :)

    There is a store here that has dark chocolate/sea salt bars. Yummmmmm!!!!

    posted by Dawn on 3-12-2009 at 9:40 pm

  32. Hershey’s, Ghirardelli, and try some with hot peppers in it.

    posted by JD on 5-5-2010 at 2:30 pm

  33. I think DARK chocolate is the best, and preferably at 60%

    I’ve found that those of us who like this type of chocolate are also fans of black licorice and can’t stand the other flavors!

    posted by Amy on 5-5-2010 at 5:57 pm

  34. LOVELOVELOVE dark chocolate, at least 70%

    posted by jacki on 5-5-2010 at 8:24 pm

  35. I vote America develops an engine that runs on chocolate, to save the world =] Think of how much chocolate there will be when it becomes the most valuable good in the world.

    Also, try quitting smoking with chocolate! http://www.candywarehouse.com/chocolatecigs.html

    I recommend opening one of these cartons when you have a craving, instead. Chocolate is a much healthier addiction ^_^

    posted by EmASchla on 5-6-2010 at 7:39 am

  36. hhmm..for sure this is very delicious and although a bit time consuming but its worth it!…
    This is adorable. I am sure it is too tasty.

    posted by Wholesale candy bar king size on 12-9-2010 at 6:13 am

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