Everybody wants a box of chocolates

[venta]

OK, I want opinions on chocolate.

Now, as previously discussed with some of you, I'm not an enormous fan of chocolate. Sure, I like it, but I don't really hold it in the kind of reverence that many do. It's a niceish, sweet tasting thing - sadly not the extreme sensual experience which some people seem to find it (and do they really, or are they just exaggerating ?)

So, what I want to know: how much chocolate is too much ? How many people actually don't think there is such a thing as too much ? People who are allergic/intolerant to chocolate (hello, half my family) are a different case. Would anyone seriously claim to be addicted to chocolate ?

For reference, I've eaten a Tw*x and two Cadbury's Roses in the last hour, and am now feeling distinctly queasy about the whole experience. Should have stopped after the Tw*x, really, but when someone hands anything edible round I eat some on reflex.

Update: is there any mileage in the idea that extreme dedication to the eating of chocolate is a female thing ? A quick mental survey of blokes of my acquaintance suggests "no", but some people seem to believe it quite firmly.

Comments

Chocolate varieties

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

Dark bitter chocolate is wonderful and like coffee but you don't want to eat too much of it. Milk chocolate is kind of well sweet gooey stuff that is okay really and white chocolate misses the point.
Milk chocolates with nuts in are better than other milk chocolate because nut goes with milk chocolate for some reason.

Re: Chocolate varieties

[lathany.livejournal.com]

and white chocolate misses the point

Although people who both like and are allergic to chocolate (my father-in-law, for example) can eat white chocolate. They say that it's better than nothing.

Besides I like the stuff. Particularly in large cookies.

Re: Chocolate varieties

[triskellian]

I'm with leathellin (except that I'm not all that keen on the taste of coffee, which probably makes me a philistine or something ;-)

(Oh god, this is a 'me too' post. Are me toos allowed when it's data points you're after?)

Re: Chocolate varieties

[uitlander]

Indeed. Pure dark chocolate is the food of the gods, and should be treated with appropriate reverence.

[redcountess]

I find the amount of chocolate I can handle depends on a lot of factors, including hormones and pain. Basically I eat a lot more of it when I have PMS (not necessarily cramps), or CFS type pain.

[venta.livejournal.com]

CFS?

'Scuse my ignorance.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

BAH! You win the prize for "First person to give me that sinking feeling". The sinking feeling being "MMmmm, some chocolate would be nice. Oh. I've given it up for lent. *Sniff*"

[venta.livejournal.com]

My apologies. It's nasty stuff, makes you feel all sick.
Or I can write extensively about it, if you like, to give you the genuine Job experience :)

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say that extreme dedication to chocolate was a female thing, but I would say that a greater proportion of my female friends than my male friends felt that way.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

In the days before I dieted (OK, that's possible pre-teens), I could eat chocolate until I ran out of the stuff. These days I get a vaguely guilty feeling, even though I'm not dieting, after a bar or half-bar. The guilty feeling tends to stop me eating more (after all, if I'm not fully enjoying it then it's wasted). However, I have to eat most of a decent sized easter egg before I start feeling sick.

And, as far as the update goes, bateleur's a chocolate addict - although he tends to have it little and often rather than being able to binge on it (I can do the binge thing).

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

I find chocolate more-ish: like popcorn. If there's some to hand it takes a conscious effort of will to not eat it until it's gone, however if there's some in a shop it does _not_ take a conscious effort of will to refrain from buying it.

Can't remember ever remember feeling nauseous from eating too much chocolate (feeling full or guilty however...)

[mr-flay.livejournal.com]

I can quite happily devour a bar of Green And Black's Mint Fondant dark chocolate in a sitting unless I ration myself. I generally find normal (Cadbury's/Galaxy) chocolate to be very cloying after a few pieces though. Eating a whole Mars bar makes me feel queasy, and I'll probably take a fairly long time to eat a Twix. I enjoy it though.

Having said that, it took me over a month to finish off the chocolate I was given for Xmas, and I gave some of that away...

Mind you I did know a girl at university who was literally addicted to it, and got through about six bars a day.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'll probably take a fairly long time to eat a Twix

Isn't that more due to having a Foul And Disgusting manner of consumption, though, rather than chocolate content ?

:)

[nevecat.livejournal.com]

Best solution for eating less chocolate *and* feeling morally superior:

Fair trade chocolate!

Green & Black's 'white' chocolate, for example, is a totally different animal to most other white chocolates, and is all speckly with vanilla bits :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm... vanilla, you say ? I must investigate.

I must concede about the only chocolate (barring chocolate covered things like Tw*xes and Marathons) bars I ever buy are G&B's Maya Gold. Which is lovely.

[arralethe.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I think there's plenty of room for discussion on this topic.

Chocolate - if it's cheap and cheerful (Nestles/Cadbury/Hershey) then having too much (in terms of nausea causing) happens pretty early on, if only because the sugar content is obscene.

With quality chocolate (think Godiva and upwards) then it's hard to have too much, because while the sugar content isn't as high (leading to nausea), the satisfaction/taste value is higher, and so you savour it better. And I think that it's at this end of the spectrum that one discovers the more sensual experience...let's face it, Cadbury's just doesn't taste the same.

I don't think I'm addicted to chocolate, as I can go for weeks without having any and then suddenly decide I fancy some. I think a far more dangerous and prevalent addiction is that threatened by Cheesy Puffs.....

[uitlander]

I'm very picky about chocs. Generically I don't like milk chocolate, and anything with caramel is just too sickly. So I expect I'd have fallen at the Tw*x hurdle.

Most chocolate (with the exception of Green & Blacks) you get in the UK is pretty low quality. But for arguments sake, if you happened to spend 4 years in Belgium, doing, say, 'academic research', an essential part of that would have to involve the major industries of Chocolate and Beer [oh no, I'd *never* indulge in a freshly picked strawberry dipped into a vat of melted 97% black chocolate, no NEVER - I'd have to have at least 2].

Chocolate

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

Forgive the presumption of an unknown poster (Just browsing a friend's friend list) but to add to your data gathering on guys and Chocolate consumption....

Quantity: If there's still chocolate in the box, I'm not done! I have never been unable to finish any arbitrary amount of chocolate anyone was foolish enough to offer me, except in the case of a dessert after a large meal. I think, if pressed, I could consume half my body weight in chocolate!

Repercussions: I never get sick from "too much" chocolate. Why not? Practice, practice, practice!!!

Enjoyment: How intense an experience is it? Well, on a scale from one to ten, one being "watching star trek re-runs" (mild enjoyment) and 10 being sexual climax (extreme enjoyment) I realistically score most average chocolate (say, a hershey bar) as about a 3. Really really GOOD chocolate (godiva or ghirardelli) can work it's way into the 5-6 range.

Varieties and combinations: It has been my experience that dark chocolate goes with EVERYTHING. Especially espresso beans (yum!)

Masculine vs. Feminine: I don't know many guys who like chocolate as much as I. Perhaps I'm just in touch with my feminine side?

Re: Chocolate

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hullo - unknowns always welcome :)

I've been repeatedly informed by all and sundry that American chocolate is Just Not Right, and is exempt from all the rules pertaining to "proper" chocolate. Since I've only been to the US once and didn't eat any, I've got no idea.

From your ratings, it sounds like you're putting American chocolate below European stuff - or maybe just that you're only eating the top quality European stuff ?

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

There's certainly such a thing as too much chocolate, though how much that actually is is hard to define and highly variable. The presence of other sorts of food can increase the chocolate limit, for a start. Just chocolate by itself can become Too Much quite rapidly.

[uitlander]

And isn't there that whole thing about sex and chocolate...

[venta.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned, no, there isn't. Chocolate and sex just aren't in any way similar and that's all there is to it. Some people seem to disagree, though.

[mr-flay.livejournal.com]

Another bad thing about Cadbury's cocolate is that it can taste very acidic - it sort of "burns" the sides of your mouth (around the back of your teeth) if you have too much of it in your mouth. Has anyone else encountered this phenomenon, or is it just me and Violet (WINOLJ to my knowledge)?

Mmm, chocolate.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Back in the days when I was dieting, chocolate was for binges. I could easily eat two large bars of Dairy Milk and not feel at all ill, or even sated. That still goes for G&B's white.

Dark chocolate's a different matter - it's too rich, so I can only eat a little, even of Maya Gold.
So... there's no such thing as Too Much Chocolate. But I don't eat it like that anymore.

[smiorgan.livejournal.com]

It's generally too much chocolate if you either start to feel sick or feel guilty. Trouble is I have difficulty telling how much that is before it happens. Typically I will eat a lot if I'm feeling fed up or put upon by work - it's not so much as a comfort food thing (that usually requires hard liquor) but tending to feel that I've worked hard so I've earned the right to something that tastes nice.

I can take or leave chocolate as a thing, although I go through stages of liking sweet things like Tunnock's Tea Cakes. But I also go through stages of liking a great many savory things as well, from junk food to real food (houmous, olives, things with strong flavours). So I just really like to eat.

From our sample set, I read that triskellian and leathellin revere small amounts of fine dark chocolate whereas waistcoatmark will just gobble it if it's there, much like myself. bateleur may appear to be a connoseur of chocolate but will still eat generic, sweet milk chocolate like twix and maltesers with an appetite. On that basis the fixation on refined chocolate, eaten in moderation appears to be female; the stereotype of women binging on milk chocolate (and the guilt associated) seems just as likely to apply to men (maybe we feel less guilt).

triskellian and I were discussing the latest rash of Galaxy ads. She maintains that it's always been targeted at twenty-something single women who listen to Dido, get depressed and scoff a whole big bar of Galaxy in their pajamas as an alternative to a night out. I disagree - it used to be "why have cotton when you can have silk" and "minstrels melt in your mouth, not in your hand", quality and/or family oriented chocolate. I think the latest ads are deplorable, because they send the message that it's OK, a social norm even, to be depressed and binge on chocolate. Eat all the bloody chocolate you want, but if I hear Dido one more time I will drive a pickaxe through her skull.

[triskellian]

I'd forgotten about the Minstrels 'melt in your mouth' thing, but I still maintain that 'why have cotton when you can have silk' is just a different angle of attack at the very same (potentially, cos she wasn't around then) Dido-listening chicks. I agree with you about the evilness of the new ads, though. 'Specially the Dido.

For chocolate research at work...

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

If you happen to catch Doug Goodwin at a point where he's not doing anything much (after he gets back next week), ask him about chocolate. For some reason his job at McVites included knowing everything there is to know about all forms of edible chocolate. Listening to him whilst on a diet was a much more refined form of torture than the simple presence of really nice chocolate in a box free for the taking in the admin office.

Chocolate

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Easy question first: is it a female thing ? No !

Addiction ? Let's put it this way, I'd be very irritable if I had to spend a week without chocolate. That and I'd find it much harder to concentrate on writing pooter programs. Whether this counts as addiction I leave to the experts.

How much is too much ? For me it's all based on how much sugar I can handle at once. So if I'm being very physically active (which is not often these days) I could happily get through 200g of Bournville and a few boxes of Smarties (out of a party bag) in an afternoon. When very sleepy and inactive I'm often not in the mood for huge amounts of sugar, so might not get through more than a few strips of Green & Black's in a day.

(Also - Green & Black's is expensive, so I'm much more likely to limit how much of it I eat on that basis !)

The kind of chocolate I get through fastest is those milk chocolate bars with rice crispies in. I've never known one last two full days. It's a good thing they don't sell 500g bars of those.

[maviscruet.livejournal.com]

A real belter of a topic.

I think I'm pretty close to 'waistcoatmark' when it come to chocolate. I've basically given it up for the last.... ohhh.... month and a bit. And frankly don't miss it at all.

On the other hand, if I have chocolate, even if not opened. I'll eat it and quickly at that. But I rarely get the urge to actually buy the damn stuff.

My personal choice is dark, dark chocolate and mint. So the bendicks bittermint is for me heaven. However ultimetly I can just consume vast ammounts of the stuff, although that may be more to do with my ability to just eat lots. That bit of the brain that goes "stop eating".... never really worked on me. If there's food, I can eat. In fact, if there's food, i have real trouble not eating it.

Makes buffet placse a) fantastic value and b) really bad for a diet.

[(Anonymous)]

Just to agree with somebody's father about white chocolate for those chocolate-allergic (obviously none of you chocoholics is a migraineur/euse).