Chocaholics anonymous for me!

My colleague has just had to resort to a large bar of chocolate to get her through the stress that is the remainder of the working day.  Although she is a coeliac, she is able to buy large bars of milk chocolate from M&S that are gluten free and which she shares with the rest of us. Being  the person that sits next to her most days, I usually benefit quite nicely. I have had a large chunk today, as well as a bar of Twix. Just can’t resist.

Most of you know my love affair with the cocoa bean, which is responsible for quite a lot of my excess weight (although not all – the fermented grape and curry has quite an impact too). For me a dinner party isn’t a proper dinner party without a chocolate pudding of some sort (mousse, trifle, baked cheesecake etc) usually accompanied by extra thick double cream. Yum!

Chocolate is one of the major feel good foods of the world. Apparently it contains some enzyme or other which is similar to the one that is generated by the body during sex and which makes you feel fantastic. Can’t remember what it is, but it is mildly addictive and the more chocolate you have the more you crave it (presumably the same rule applies to sex!?)

I saw a programme on the telly the other day about how chocolate is actually produced in Ghana. The farmers there work for Fairtrade and use sustainable crops which they properly care for rather than treat them with growth hormones to get the maximum crop after which the plants die (as is the case elsewhere). The coca bean is the most unattractive thing, and whoever thought of extracting it and doing whatever they do to make Cadbury’s was a genius.

A few years ago I belonged to something called the Chocolate Tasting Club. For a payment of about £15 each month you got sent a box of the most gorgeous chocolates which were new fillings manufacturers worldwide were considering for their collections. You had to taste them all, and then give marks out of ten on a special website. Each month, one person won a box of posh chocolates worth £100. They have now been taken over by the retailer Hotel Chocolat, and have stopped giving away expensive boxes. And anyway I stopped being a member a couple of years ago – can’t afford it financially and weight wise – but it was fun while it lasted.

My next door neighbour has a pack of three bars of yummy chocolate next to her, so it must be a very stressful day indeed. I’ll have to go now and help her out!