What's This About?

First-time blogger, long-time black chocolate lover and a newly found impulse to blog about it.

Also known as dark or plain chocolate, black chocolate has been a passion of mine since I hit my thirties. And no, I don't think hitting that age has anything to do with my relatively slow appreciation for this little piece of bitter-sweet bliss.

My first memories of tasting black chocolate goes as far back as my childhood where, after I've tasted them from a newly opened box of See's chocolates, I- to no grown-ups' surprise, would then try to avoid them. After all, what child would have a fine appreciation for this couverture at 9, 10 or even 12 years of age? So much competition stood in the way, when every kid, including me, grew up biting into bars of chocolaty, milky-sweet Mars, Snickers, Hershey's, 3 Musketeers and so on... And when I realized that chocolates can come not just in little wrapped rectangular bars but in pristine white flat boxes that open up into a collection of varied, happy brown nuggets lying in pleated dark-brown paper cups, I was piqued. Eager to taste them all and feeling peeved when my siblings would beat me to the punch, I reached for the irregularly shaped piece that I happen to have my eye on (even if I was already chewing on a nougaty one in my hand) I had my first taste of black chocolate. At that time, it wasn't even just plain black chocolate but a dark chocolate covered Almond confection. I took my first bite and...poootoooey! Imagine the face of a two-year old being given their first taste of granulated coffee. My thoughts were who would make chocolate taste this way? And why? So needless to say, as the life of this box of chocolates began to end, what was left inside were half-bitten dark morsels and tiny crumpled balls of brown paper.

I'm fair, I give everything and everyone in life a second chance. My passion is food and I have a firm belief that nothing, absolutely nothing edible can ever taste so bad that it doesn't merit a second taste. So in my teens and early adulthood, I developed an on-and-off relationship with black chocolate. One day I won't even touch the stuff, the next day I'd have a scoop of Winter White Wonderland- an ice cream flavor made with vanilla, cherries and dark chocolate bits. I won't pick the dark chocolate truffle from a box of Ethel M's, but I'd have second, third and fourth helpings of After-Eight mints and Andes. And little by little, my tastebuds grew to enjoy the bitter, almost coffee-like taste. My love affair with black chocolate was slow to develop, but it was as sure as night followed day.

I have fallen. I remember the moment about 4 years ago when I was on the bed with a black box, tracing the golden etched name of Godiva and opening what I consider to be sixteen pieces of rich, tiny globes of black happiness.