Chocolate

I like chocolate, but I don’t love chocolate. I seem to be a rarity amongst women, that I don’t crave and revel in the power of chocolate. I have several female friends who depend on the powers of this sweet elixir, and always keep chocolate in their purse, as a reward, as a pick me up and as a remedy. I always watch when chocolate appears on the dessert menu, like a boxer knocking out other options with so many who love it.

While in Grenada, I was shown a cocoa pod, the starting point of chocolate, which grow in abundance on the island. Its sticky seeds within, pale beige colour and unusual flavour is a long way from the rich brown chocolate bars so easily found at every corner store. It reminded me of the ingenuity of our ancestors, to have figured out how to take a simple fruit and transform it into a sweet indulgence, readily available almost anywhere on our planet from the basic chocolate bar to the fancy chocolate truffle.

Although we’re aware of the sources of cocoa , I was fascinated that many places known for chocolate, weren’t growers of cocoa. European countries like Switzerland, Belgium, and France, who have taken the lowly cocoa to the highest echelon in the gourmet food world, don’t grow cocoa. But now we know the various world sources and percentage ranges from 60-70%+. Dark chocolate has become the true chocolate, knocking back the common milk chocolate or the “it’s not really chocolate” white chocolate to a childish obsession, something that fulfills only those with young palettes.

I had the opportunity to go to a chocolate tasting, and learning about the sources and influences on chocolate, made into a sophisticated gourmet food, similar to other savoured items like cheese or wine. Although I do admit a partiality to dark chocolate, a Reese’s peanut butter chocolate cup makes me smile every time.

photo: tour guide Albert describing the cocoa pod, Grenada May 2008 by WH

~ by Waheeda on June 25, 2008.