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at Sun, 16 May 2004 15:20:40 GMT in >,
(Mark Thorson) wrote :

>Alex Rast wrote:
>
>> And for the true chocoholic, try Noir Infini 99% - unsweetened
>> chocolate for eating (it's also great for baking, btw). This is the
>> surest test of how much you like chocolate: those who really
>> like chocolate will love it. Those who are in truth sugar-holics
>> rather than chocoholics will not be thrilled with it.
>
>There you go again, with your "sugar-holics" theory.
>Think back to when you were a child -- would you
>have liked a 99% bar?

I could and I did. I used to eat unsweetened chocolate all the time - at
least when I could get my hands on decent chocolate rather than Baker's,
which I hated. I can remember pigging out on unsweetened chocolate when I
was 7.

I don't see many adults giving their kids even the opportunity to try a
quality dark bittersweet bar, which is too bad. I would think it's better
to let your kids try everything, and decide for themselves whether they
liked it, than to make an assumption about whether a kid would like
something or not and expose it to them or withhold it from them based on
that assumption. What's the worst that can happen? That they'll spit it
out? Fine - they and you know they don't like it. But if they do like it,
I'm guessing that starts to expand their horizons as to what foods are
likely to be edible, minimising the risk of the kid who won't eat anything
but the standard items.

>It's like chili peppers. I love chili pepper, and always
>have. But 20 years ago, I could not have handled
>the level I enjoy now. 20 years ago, I would have
>been on the floor writhing in pain after eating a mere
>6 Thai chili peppers. Now, I typically use 6 Habanero
>chili peppers just to make a bowl of soup, and I
>typically eat that much (or its equivalent) every day.
>Sometimes more, sometimes much more. If I can't find
>good peppers in the supermarkets, in a bowl of soup
>I'll substitute a teaspoon (approx.) of Dave's Insanity
>chili sauce -- the chili equivalent of a 99% bar.

Interesting. Is there a connection between chocolate and chile? I don't
know, but again, at a very young age, I liked unbelievably hot levels of
chile. This time, I think it was at age 11 that I can remember distinctly
flavouring a single serving of chili con carne (on a camping trip) with 8
thai chiles, 4 tbsp of chili powder, and 2 tsp of cayenne, and loving it.
Now, with chiles, however, I do think there's one additional issue - the
question of body-mass to capsaicin ratio. Adults have a lot more body mass
to absorb the capsaicin and thus it might be the case that they could
absorb more.

And I won't deny that people build up levels of tolerance. It takes more
chocolate to satisfy me now than it would in the past, simply because my
tolerance is so high that the effect of the drugs doesn't really show until
the amount of consumption is pretty extreme.

However, people also have an instant reaction to something - like or
dislike at first taste. If you feed somebody a small amount of something,
and they like it, it's safe to say it's something they enjoy at a real
level. If they're somewhat taken aback, but otherwise neutral, they might
actually like it or they might hate it - here they're probably just
unfamiliar with it. Finally, if their reaction is one of distaste, they
probably don't like it at a basic level, although they can probably learn
at least to tolerate it eventually.

--
Alex Rast

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