I have issues, I admit that. I can be obsessive, compulsive, vain and possessive. I also have a few good points--I can be compassionate, loyal, sweet and affectionate. If you want to see my evil side, try to take away my chocolate. Don't even think about it.
I am very particular about chocolate, at least most of the time. ( Some days I will wolf down kisses like I never ate one before.) Some brands are too sweet, some too cocoa-y, some taste like they are full of paraffin. My uneducated palate does not apply to chocolate.
I used to own a candy shop where I made lots of chocolate confections from fudge to Nativity sets. Before the doors opened I researched until I found the right blend of smoothness, cocoa and melt. Boy, did I have fun sampling. I ended up blending my own. I have yet to find a brand on the market that meets my standards, connoisseur that I am. I keep trying. Needless to say, a Hershey bar doesn't make the cut.
Chocolate perfection is in the mouth of the beholder. Some like the cocoa flavor of Hershey, some the cloying sweetness of Cadbury. Me? Give me 85% cacao. It doesn't taste like baking chocolate as my son says, nor like processed cocoa. The snap as I break a piece tells me it is in perfect temper. The melt is silky smooth on my tongue. It is more than a treat. It is Valium, Prozac and Jack Daniels, all in one incredible bite.
When I worked with chocolate every day I never tired of it except for the day before Easter. The days before, the days after, I could hardly wait to get to my little shop and take a deep breath. Even now, more than 20 years later, I remember the taste of molten milk chocolate and the smell of that kitchen on a chilly March morning.
An aside here. We made hundreds of bunnies at a friend's house one year--no cats, no pig (see Christmas Cookies and the Pig). We must have been punchy from the intoxication of the chocolate and the Manhattans we were guzzling. Putting marshmallow bunnies in the nuke seemed like a good idea at the time....they GROW...and just before they explode, open the nuke door. They SHRINK, right down to hard little bullets. Amazing how funny that is when you're loaded...I mean, sleepy...
I love everything about chocolate from its fascinating history (which I can tell you if you ask) to the modern production. I love the feel of it, the creaminess. I love to make novelties from painted ornaments to 25-pound rabbits and daffodils for charity. I love the aroma, getting even better as the warmth takes over. I even love the colors, from the milkiest white to the deepest brown. Even better, now they are saying that chocolate is good for us! I could have told them that.
So take away my spaghetti if you dare, my gin and tonic if you must. Take my chocolate and you are dead meat.
LOL
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