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?

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.

Now, I don't go around saying that people who enjoy
Tabasco sauce are "addicted to vinegar" or "vinegar-holics".
I'm simply adjusted to a higher level of tolerance and
appreciation for capsaicin than other people. I don't
suggest that people who enjoy Tabasco aren't chili lovers,
or that the test of whether someone really loves chili is
whether or not they like Dave's Insanity sauce.

NOTE: My Correct Address is in my signature (just remove the spaces).
On Sun, 16 May 2004 15:20:40 GMT, Mark Thorson >
wrote:

>Now, I don't go around saying that people who enjoy
>Tabasco sauce are "addicted to vinegar" or "vinegar-holics".
>I'm simply adjusted to a higher level of tolerance and
>appreciation for capsaicin than other people.

We have all had our taste buds adjusted to one level or another of
certain substances. People end up "learning" to have a "sweet tooth"
or "needing" more salt than they really need in their diets. Its all
learned, and we can unlearn these things. So, perhaps they aren't
really "addictions" per se, but they can be very difficult to
discontinue.

We need to learn how to appreciate and even love the things that are
good for us - like spinach and... dark, unsweetened chocolate.

--
Davida Chazan (The Chocolate Lady)
<davidac AT jdc DOT org DOT il>
~*~*~*~*~*~
"What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of
chocolate."
--Katharine Hepburn (May 12, 1907 - June 29, 2003)
~*~*~*~*~*~

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

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

I don't think many Americans have ever tasted good dark chocolate. In most
stores you cannot find it.

Since I started trying the many types of non-milk chocolate, my kids
(ranging from 15 down to 5) have come to prefer it. They may still eat milk
chocolate now and then, but they note the great difference in taste and
quality. They've also been surprised that dark chocolate can taste so
sweet, yet richer in chocolate flavor than what they're used to.

I also ate (well, gnawed on) Baker's unsweetened chocolate as a kid. My
5-year-old girl loves chocolate-covered coffee beans, while most people I
know will spit them out if they accidentally eat one!

"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
...
> at Sun, 16 May 2004 15:20:40 GMT in >,
> I don't see many adults giving their kids even the opportunity to try a
> quality dark bittersweet bar, which is too bad.

at Thu, 20 May 2004 02:23:53 GMT in <ZEUqc.26428$gr.2357008@attbi_s52>,
(Geoff) wrote :

>I don't think many Americans have ever tasted good dark chocolate. In
>most stores you cannot find it.

You can find good dark chocolate in many, if indeed not most, stores in the
USA, thanks to Ghirardelli. Ghirardelli Bittersweet and Semisweet chocolate
are both excellent and widely available. It's also worth noting that
Ghirardelli Milk chocolate is also excellent - in fact, better than
virtually all of the European brands.

I think the real problem is lack of education. Very few people in the USA
(or for that matter, anywhere) are ever told that there even *are*
significant differences in quality between different chocolates, and many
people, once told, might not believe the differences are so starkly night-
and-day as they can be. It's hard to judge simply by looking at the
wrapper, especially when you have no clue which are the quality brands at
the outset. So there's a certain aspect of risk in buying a heretofore
unknown chocolate. Since chocolate is something most people buy as a treat,
why take the risk that your "treat" might turn out to be something you
don't like? Thus people tend to stay with the tried-and-true. It's
especially hard to convince someone to try something new when you're
talking about the difference between spending $4.00 on an unknown chocolate
and 50 cents on the known quantity. In a similar vein, that local mom-n-pop
diner just across the street might have much better food than the
McDonald's, but what's the probability that a random driver coming in off
the interstate is going to stop at each? It's not hard to see which one is
going to get more business.

The best way to approach this is to pass out good chocolate to anybody who
likes chocolate that you get to know. They'll quickly discover how vast the
differences are and it won't take long before you've got a new chocophile.
Kids are especially good with this because as I've noted before they'll
pretty much accept any chocolate proffered at them without preconceived
notions. And they'll learn. (Of course, you can end up creating a monster -
a kid who demands nothing less than outrageous quantities of extremely
expensive chocolate...)

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

(Mark Thorson) wrote :
> >There you go again, with your "sugar-holics" theory.
> >Think back to when you were a child -- would you
> >have liked a 99% bar?

Well I just gave my two 5 year-old daughters chunks of Noir Infini 99%. They
both loved it. They also liked the 72% Amer Brut. Just a data point

Steve

I think dark chocolate is perfectly fine for children.


"SRC" > wrote in message >...
> (Mark Thorson) wrote :
> > >There you go again, with your "sugar-holics" theory.
> > >Think back to when you were a child -- would you
> > >have liked a 99% bar?
>
> Well I just gave my two 5 year-old daughters chunks of Noir Infini 99%. They
> both loved it. They also liked the 72% Amer Brut. Just a data point
>
> Steve