Cioccolato

From the seventh to the tenth of this month, a festival of chocolate took over the heart of Siena, Piazza del Campo. This coincided well with International Women's day so obviously  I took it as an opportunity to reward myself for being a woman with sixteen euros worth of luxurious artisan chocolate and not just because it would have been inhuman not to buy any. The fact that more than twice as many women than men eat and crave chocolate would also explain this self-indulgence had my visit to the piazza fallen on any other day. I might add that under no circumstances should this behavioral trait be viewed as a flaw; the female need for chocolate clearly stems from the Mayan origins of the word 'cacao' meaning 'god food'.

When I talk about chocolate in this way though, I'm not talking about Nestle milk. There are two reasons for this; firstly nestle doesn't taste of chocolate, it tastes of sugar which although addictive like chocolate, is not the same. Henceforth I was infuriated on arrival in Perugia last year for a festival that devotes itself entirely to the celebration of the sacred substance with the convergence of the best chocolatiers to be had in Europe,  to find myself being guided round a Nestle factory with a faded Smarties logo plastered on the side of it. Although this was not what I had had in mind,  hopes were raised the next day with creative ideas of chocolate sculpting, chocolate kebabs and chilli infused chocolate liqueur yet unfortunately none of these oddities were tested as it was far too hot for sensible chocolate consumption without looking like a guilty toddler.

Ironically the best chocolate that I returned with from the festival, I bought from the train station on the way home. One bar was flavoured with Vin Santo, the other with Brunello. Far more memorable than that though, was the dark chocolate and cherry gelato that I bought in Firenze, having been tempted by the dark and glossy chocolate gushing from golden taps of the Venchi emporium of all things cacao. If you would like to sample the finesse of this company's chocolate for yourselves and are not currently living in Italy, there is a Venchi shop in Covent Garden, albeit not a patch on the Italian original. 

Secondly, companies like Nestle are more than questionable ethically.  Since 66% of the world's cacao is produced in Africa and 90% of the world's cacao is farmed on small family run farms no larger than 12 acres, I strongly believe that every effort should be made to buy fair trade chocolate wherever possible, rather than whatever billion dollar brand manages to produce the most mouthwatering advert.  Happily, there are movements stirring against this exploitation, and succeeding too. A great example is Green and Blacks, who are providing guilt free chocolate and now making enough money from it to make good adverts too, reminiscent of the Marks and Spencer's motto (sorry no Rosie Huntington-Whiteley though boys) as you can see on their website: http://www.greenandblacks.co.uk/. Green and Black's original specialisation, their dark 70% bar, is even more guilt free. Scientists have suggested that chocolate with a high percentage of cacao such as this, contain sufficient amounts of the antioxidant phenolics that red wine also boasts to benefit the heart if eaten in moderation.  It has also been claimed to increase happiness thanks to the endorphins that it produces and even to have aphrodisiac properties which lends some logic to the statistic that one in seven fifteen to twenty four year olds say that life without chocolate would not be worth living.

# http://www.chocolate-emporium.co.uk/chocolate/facts.shtml
#http://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/snacks/chocolates/20_chocolate_facts.html
#http://www.venchi.it/en