I work in a place that sells lots of chocolate, so I get to have it in all sorts of forms. Fair trade chocolate, chocolate superfood bars, chocolate coated blueberries, chocolate coated other types of berries such as strawberries and goji, I love them all. Not so much chocolate coated nuts, but that’s just me.
My mother has told me that I have always loved chocolate. When I was very little, one of my favourite sayings was, ‘You never know with choccy!’. I think for me eating it is like retreating into a dark, safe, comfy cave where all decisions, situations, busyness, and fast-lane whizzing becomes muted and distant for a moment. It never lasts long – I eat fast, often on the run, but that few seconds is enough, from then on the space in front of me is clear and ready to be occupied. |
I used to hit the shops after Easter and buy out the Lindt Bunnies – 20 or 30 of them – I would steadily eat my way through them and hang all the little bells on my kitchen cupboards. Yup. Those days are long behind me now – there are times I don’t have any chocolate in the house and I don’t even notice. Other times I have lots of chocolate. One day not too long ago, I wandered around the house and found no less than 6 blocks lying around in various states of consumption. That raised even my eyebrows.
My new favourite thing is single origin chocolate. Most chocolates are blends – it’s about the cacao count, not the point of origin. But the chocolate doesn't taste of anything in particular – it’s just chocolate. One of my friends, a fellow chocolate lover, introduced me to single origin chocolate – it’s in the major supermarkets next to the Lindt – Willie’s Cacao. This chocolate comes from specific regions – and you can taste it. You can taste the fruitiness of the earth in the chocolate – this might sound strange but I can assure you it is wonderful.
So that’s what I eat now – even though it’s only 70% cacao, it’s so rich and luscious that the tiniest nibble is wonderfully satisfying – the bars, which are only 50g, last longer than larger bars of inferior quality, in each little bite I can taste sunshine and plums and happiness. I eat that and also the chocolate-coated berries which continue to be my thing until the next thing.