Before anybody starts
There were three website links in the article, so it does have IT content.
Chocolate and exercise together, whatever next? Well, for the chocoholics and general lovers of cacao based products, there are various chocolate tours springing up at various locations around the country including Edinburgh, Oxford and one taking place in London this weekend. The Chocolate Festival, London Naughty, but nice …
Meanwhile in the US, Hershey, the bastards, are currently engaged in a campaign to ban imports of Cadbury products from the UK because they produce them here in the US on license. I would quite happily buy Hershey's version of CDM or Fruit 'n' Nut if they were faithful to the Cadbury's originals, they're not, they taste like shit and Hershey should be ashamed of their actions.
"[...] if they were faithful to the Cadbury's originals,"
Alas it appears that the current British Cadbury products have been modified since they were taken over a few years ago. Can't remember the exact details - but British fans of the original Cadbury chocolates are not happy with the taste and texture changes.
…Cadbury's tastes like shit, too. Shite like that should NOT be allowed to call itself 'chocolate', true chocolate, as far as I'm concerned, is raw - hasn't been dicked about with - no heating, no dutching, no addition of any emulsifying agents, and with - or without - cacao butter.
Dutching is a process which neutralises the acidity of raw cacao (between pH 4.5 and 5.5) by treating it with an alkalising agent, and enhance its colour (dutched cocoa is a far darker shade than raw cacao powder, which looks very similar in colour to ground cinnamon). Unfortunately, this also destroys most of its flavenols and significantly reduces its nutritional value (cacao has an excellent nutritional profile and, unlike the nutrients in many other plants, they're well assimilated).
I eat a handful of raw 100% cacao drops most days, they're incredibly bitter, due to their acidity, but I like it, though most people can't stomach it.
Commercial, mass-produced 'chocolate' has given the real stuff a bad rep; I dare you to attempt the Raw Cacao Drop Challenge - raw cacao drops - can YOU stomach them…?!
Remember the genus name translates to 'food of the gods'. There are 13 species, of which 6 produce knowingly-edible fruits.
We all know (!) that Hershey's deliberately used sour milk in their products to distinguish them from their European rivals.
Cadbury's here does not taste like Cadbury's there.
I do like the very nice "animal" bars I get here. Upto 85% cocoa butter and quite scrum-diddly-umptious.
Oh and there is actually a Wonka brand I have seen, although the only thing I have tried is the Gummy Bears....which actually go quite well with Beer...
And if you can get some the "chilli chocolate" is quite nice - chilli, cocoa and caffeine give a nice tingle....
P.