It's My Bar Of Chocolate! Give It To Me! Now!

This week my workplace has placed six giant bags of M&Ms in the freezer for everyone to snack from at will. Now I don't mean giant bags like the ones you get in the store. I mean 48-count fishstick bag size! Everyone who knows me knows that I looooooves me some chocolate so putting this stuff for me to grab right there in my company freezer is like supplying an addict with his daily dose of crack.

I learned today that Hershey's has changed its ingredients in many of its products. It's taken cocoa butter out of many things and replaced it with palm oils. Bah! Cocoa butter is what gives chocolate its creamy texture. Besides tasting better, it offers health benefits by protecting chocolate’s antioxidant properties. What’s more, cocoa butter doesn’t raise cholesterol levels like vegetable oils do.

You can tell what's what by looking at the ingredients. The removal of cocoa butter violates the FDA’s definition of milk chocolate, so look at the label -- if it says “chocolate candy,” “made with chocolate” or “chocolatey” instead of "made with milk chocolate," you know you've got a re-do.

Funny thing though -- I don't know if this is because I've been watching my intake of carbs, but when i got some M&Ms to eat I realized they were making me feel funny. I ate some again today to find out if the result would be identical and it was. Hm. For the first time in a long time I found myself growing a bit uninterested in chocolate! I am thankful for the reaction no matter its origin though, because I needed those bags of M&Ms like a hole in the head.

I don't think they've done this presto-chango with dark chocolate, thank goodness. I rarely eat milk chocolate as it's way too sweet and sticky for me. The recent M&M ingestion was an exception because yeah, there's just something about that candy coating. Hee! Ah, but thank goodness the M&Ms weren't the dark chocolate kind. I would have been lost. Simply lost.

However......

I think once a month I might treat myself to a rich treat just for sticking to my healthier, lower-carb routine. Since chocolate is my drug of choice, where better to start than there? One bar spaced out over each month isn't too drastic and well...chocolate is good for you, especially the dark, deep, intense chocolates that I really love.

So I'll do some research and see what kind of specialty rockin' chocolate I can get for my treat each month. Single origin 60-70% dark preferably, but I'm open to trying new flavor/spice combos as well. I won't mind if it costs me $10, it's a month long savor.

Yay!

(("I Want It Now" by the Oompa Loompas of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Lyrics here:
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/willywonkaandthechocolatefactory/iwantitnowoompaloompa.htm))