BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?

Subject: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 06:46 PM

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- A Dutch journalist asked an Amsterdam court on Friday to convict him for eating chocolate, saying by doing so he was benefiting from child slavery on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast.

Teun van de Keuken, 35, is seeking a jail sentence to raise consumer awareness and force the cocoa and chocolate industry to take tougher measures to stamp out child labor.

"If I am found guilty of this crime, any chocolate consumer can be prosecuted after that. I hope that people would stop buying chocolate and thus hurt the sales of big corporations and make them do something about the problem," van de Keuken said.

Ivory Coast, the world's No. 1 cocoa producer, has been racked by instability since a brief 2002 civil war. International rights groups contend that children are working as slaves on its cocoa plantations.

Van de Keuken launched his attempt to be charged for eating chocolate two years ago when the Dutch public prosecutor ruled that it was not a case for the courts and that the journalist was not directly involved with the cocoa business.

On Friday, he appealed against the prosecutor's decision before a court which is expected to rule in April.

Journalist to have former child slave testify
The journalist travelled to Burkina Faso to track down former child slaves who he said were sold by their impoverished parents or lured by merchants to work on Ivory Coast farms.

Van de Keuken said he has now brought one of these former child slaves to testify in court against him.

"We profit from these people and they get almost nothing in return. As consumers we are also responsible for these atrocities," van de Keuken told Reuters.

He urged consumers to choose fair trade chocolate but warned it was often difficult to trace the origin of cocoa beans.

The Netherlands is the biggest importer and processor of cocoa beans in the European Union, which accounts for 40 percent of global cocoa processing.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/02/09/ivorycoast.chocolate.reut/index.html

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 06:50 PM

I don't really care much about chocolate, so, yes, I can very easily stop eating it.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 06:54 PM

I try to find fair trade ( tea, chocolate, coffee) but it is not always available, nor clear where the sources are. The question is whether the boycott would hurt the farmers more than the present working conditions- which vary from country to country.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 06:58 PM

This topic has cvome up befeore and there was some very knowledgeable stuff posted about it by a 'catter. That is, ways to tell if the stuff is fair trade or no. Danged if I'd know how to find the thread, though. As to the chocolate, I'll say goodbye to it, but please, someone let me know when the boycott is over. Cesar Chavez had settled the grape boycott and seven years later I found out it was over. I love grapes. Seven bloody years I could have been eating them. Seven!

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 06:58 PM

I should think that publicizing the unfair working conditions to bring pressure against the companies might be a better way to go.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 07:07 PM

About fair-trade chocolate.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 07:08 PM

Fair-trade link here.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: tarheel
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 07:41 PM

well, i'm sure if mr.Van de Keuken,is arrested ot stops eating chocolate,the whole world will be a better place!
in fact,everything will be just perfect!
oh happy day!

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 07:42 PM

And what have you done for anyone but yourself lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 07:52 PM

There's good chocolate that comes from Venezuela, ethical and tasty at the same time. Venezuela's chocolate revolution

And chocolate is good for you it appears - Chocolate 'has health benefits':

"Eating dark chocolate could help control diabetes and blood pressure, Italian experts say. Researchers found eating 100g of dark chocolate each day for 15 days lowered blood pressure in the 15 person-study... "

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 07:55 PM

How many pounds is in 100g?

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:11 PM

One pound is about 500 grams.

So 100g grams is a fair sized choccy bar. That's the kind of reserach I like. I'm off to take some health food now...

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:13 PM

So let me get this right. If I eat a pound of chocolate, then I can do that once a day for a week then stop for a month, right?

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:13 PM

3.2 ounces? less than half an 8 ounce bar!

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Peace
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:14 PM

OK. That's pretty close to a pound. It works for me!

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:17 PM

a pound would be spread over 5 days...

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:19 PM

But only free yrrade chocolate, wherever we can find it. Meanwhile I am disposing of our Christmas stash as fast as I can...

Sorry, JudyB...

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: JudyB
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:23 PM

What?!!!

JudyB

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 09:16 PM

All the chocolate I eat or use is grown right here in Idaho on chocolate farms run by Union Maids. At least I'm told they're maids. I mean, I haven't checked or anything to make sure.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 09:21 PM

Murphy's Law #964:

"Everything worth doing is either illegal, immoral, fattening or politically incorrect."

....but few are as easy to rationalize as chocolate.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 04:50 AM

I'm trying to follow a low fat diet so no chocolate for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: My guru always said
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 05:49 AM

This is very worrying. In recent years most of our MudGathers in the UK have been run on a constitution rule (suggestion) of : bring chocolate. And if it's there, which it usually is (in many forms), we tend to eat it.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: autolycus
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 02:32 PM

Here in norwich,GB,I get Fair Trade choc from the Co-op,or Fair Trade and Organic choc from Sainsbury's.


    I hope that's in the right direction.


    What else can a low-earner do when there are just too many things that are wrong or "bad" to be able to cope with? I've never known where to begin (or end).






       Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Peace
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 02:34 PM

I hear you, Ivor. But, at least you try to do what you can to make things better for kids, and when you have done what ya can, you've done what ya can.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Alice
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 05:56 PM

I buy fair trade high cocoa content chocolate from our local food co-op.
BUT it almost KILLED my dog this last night!
My big samoyed, Leo, jumped up on the kitchen counter when I was away from the
house and dug out a 2" cube of high % cocoa and ate it. It almost killed him.
It is probably because he is such a big dog that he survived.

He seemed ok the day he ate it (along with a dozen chocolate chip cookies he stole
off the counter) so, even though I know chocolate is bad for dogs, I thought he was ok.
THen... late last night he began staggering and stumbling, unable to walk straight.
I took him to the Vet this morning. He is alright now, but he was high on
cocoa, the chemicals affecting his heart, about 24 hours after he ate it. The vet
said 24 hours was about right for the effects to hit his heart.
I was making homemade chicken soup today, and he perked up when he heard me
in the kitchen rattling the lid of the pot. He was able to walk out to the kitchen
and beg for chicken and walk to the car to get in and go to the vet.
The veterinarian told me the best thing I could give him was some of the
chicken soup to help flush the chocolate out of his system.
Keep that good chocolate locked away from where your dog can get it.

alice

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 06:30 PM

Chocolate is poisonous to cats as well. But cats generally are sensible enough to refuse it. But if a cat does take some it's a meducal emergency that needs a vet.

It's dangeous for horses too - and horses are quite partial to it if they get the chance. (It's used sometimes by people fixing races.)

Fortunately human metabolism doesn't have those problems with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Peace
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 06:32 PM

I do. It makes my arse fat!

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 07:13 PM

That's not the chocolate, it's the sugar they mix in with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Peace
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 07:15 PM

Oh. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: terrier
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 08:16 PM

I keep posting but nobody takes heed. Chocolate contains THEOBROMINE. Theobromine kills us. Don't let doggies near chocolate. Please.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 09:07 PM

We once had a dachshund who surreptitiously got into and ate an ENTIRE box of high-priced chocolates! A whole pound of them. And he survived. But this may have been due to the fact that he drank an incredible amount of water shortly after the deed was done (much to our puzzlement) and then threw it all up on the floor. We immediately realized that he had eaten the chocolates. (It was obvious.) He'd been clever enough to push the remains of the packaging out of sight, so it wasn't until he vomited that we were quite sure what he'd gotten into...or why he was so danged thirsty!

Now, those were chocolates with a variety of sweet fillings...but there certainly was a hell of a lot of chocolate and sugar inside that dog.

Dachshunds do this sort of thing whenever they can, so one must be sure to place things in locations they can't possibly get to. On this occasion we slipped up. The chocolate box was on the rear window ledge of the car, and we had put the dog in the car as an afterthought, because it appeared that my uncle's weimaraner couldn't quite make out whether or not this was an "edible" animal or a fellow dog in its house. It kept staring at the dachshund fixedly, and the dachshund was clearly scared....so we belatedly put him into the car for the duration of the visit...and forgot that the chocolates were there.

He had about 2 hours all to himself there, and he made good use of the time (from his point of view). ;-) I think that it is the secret wish of every dachshund to die from overeating.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 09:35 PM

By the way, I've asked our present dachshund if HE will stop eating chocolate (assuming he gets a chance to)?

He says, "Hell, no!"

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 11:32 PM

Dachshunds should eat dachshund food and people eat people food. I've told this to every dachshund I know, but they disagree. They think that they should be able to eat everything, including straw, polypropolene, string, pillow stuffing, and polarfleece.

Sometimes they get to go vetty-bye after eating.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: My guru always said
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 05:37 AM

I had a good box of chocolates nibbled into by mice last year, they left wrappers all over the carpet. Perhaps I should make it available year-round for the dear creatures!

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: autolycus
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 05:54 AM

your right,Peace. I should have remembered the line of Teddy Roosevelt I often quote to others.

      "Do what you can,where you are,with what you've got."






      Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: GUEST,veterinarian
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 08:09 AM

Seriously folks, don't let your dog eat chocolate.

chocolate poisons dogs

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: GUEST,ozchick
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 08:29 AM

My cat won't eat ANY human food at all - except for white chocolate... it seems she loves that if she can get her paws on it (I try not to let her) does white chocolate do the same thing??

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 12:47 PM

Is chocolate bad for mice?
..................
"White chocolate contains Theobromine, but in such small amounts that Theobromine poisoning is unlikely" - from this site About.com Veterinary Medicine

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 01:07 PM

Interesting. I always had the feeling that white chocolate was less harmful than the usual stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 01:10 PM

Less harmful for cats and dogs, but it doesn't have any health-giving qualities for human beings either.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 01:23 PM

What I don't get is why so many women think chocolate is such a big deal? Anyone got a scientific explanation for that?

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 01:49 PM

Commercial chocolate is not good for you. It contains caffeine, sugar and milk products.
The best way to enjoy chocolate is to have it raw and sweetened with stevia or agave syrup.
It is healthy for you and non-fattening if taken this way. There are plenty of free-trade places to get raw chocolate and I think it tastes better when it's not hampered by the commericialized Hershey or other industries.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 02:17 PM

Can't stand the taste of the stuff so I don't buy it anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: My guru always said
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 03:13 PM

White Chocolate kept me alive whilst on a drip as a year old baby (in 1961) after a major exploratory operation which ended up removing a kidney full of cancer. It was Wilms tumour and apparently I was one of the first survivors of this op. The doctors suggested that my Mother help me to recover by feeding me melted white chocolate. So I've always known that white chocolate was different. Maybe that's where I get the love of chocolate from, but is that scientific?

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 02:39 PM

This may make you give up the chocolatey stuff for awhile. Brings a whole new meaning to "Death by Chocolate."

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:07 PM

Fair Trade chocolate from the Co-Op is top. My absolute favourite barring Green& Blacks... Which sadly I've recently learned are now owned by Cadbury and thus not very Fair Trade after all. Poo.

But still the Co-Op stuff is really good. So no, I won't be giving up chocolate, but I will happily munch on Co-Op chocolate brownies and hot chocolate and 'Divine' bars...

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:09 PM

Short answer - no! As to what type of chocolate, I have tried the fair trade stuff and the high cocoa content muck and came to the decision that it has to be Cadbury's!

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:18 PM

Doesn't the child slavery used to make your Cadbury bars, concern you Mrs Duck?

Anyway, Co-Op Divine chunky milk-choc bars are creamy and really excellent, far better than Cadbury!

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:41 PM

Not too worried that the company went ahead and used the chocolate then?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:46 PM

No, I wlll not stop eating chocolate. Not even after reading the sad story of a poor guy in New Jersey. However, I may throw away my sign that says "Never mind love; I wanna fall in chocolate"...

WORKER DIES AFTER FALL INTO HERSHEY'S-BOUND CHOCOLATE

CAMDEN, NJ, July 8, 2009 -- A temp worker at a Camden chocolate processing plant died this morning after he fell into an eight-foot vat that was mixing and melting chocolate to be used in Hershey's candy.

Vincent Smith II, 29, of Camden, was standing atop a platform and tossing blocks of solid, raw chocolate into the tank, Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said.

The tank was heated at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and paddles inside stirred the chocolate as it was thrown in.

When Smith fell around 10:30 a.m., one of his three coworkers on the platform immediately rushed to turn the machine off and the two others tried to pull him out.

But Smith had been struck by one of the paddles, suffering fatal injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and Camden firefighters pulled his chocolate-covered body out of the tank.

Smith worked at a plant owned by Lyons & Sons, Inc., which is contracted by Moorestown, NJ-based Cocoa Services, Inc. to process chocolate. Laughlin said the plant, which was once a Campbell's Soup Company location, had been processing chocolate for six or seven years.

Laughlin said early investigation results indicate the death was accidental. The mixing process was a daily task performed by the workers, he said, and yesterday's batch would have been used in making Hershey products.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it was investigating the incident. Lyons & Sons does not have any prior OSHA violations.

In July 2002, a 19-year-old worker died in a similar fashion when he fell into a vat for mixing and melting chocolate at a plant in Hatfield Township, Montgomery County, PA.

An autopsy determined the man died of asphyxiation.

By Matthew Spolar, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:46 PM

What? Missing your point man. Was it aimed at me?

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:49 PM

Actually, I think the thread title is a bit too strong. All any humane person needs to do is change from eating child slave labour produced chocolate, to readily available and very good, fair trade alternatives. I won't be buying Green & Blacks any more, I'll stick to the Co-Op who are as reliably decent and responsible as ever.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 03:53 PM

Oh, sorry, Spaw, I didn't follow your link to your other thread where you linked to that news story. (Too many degrees of separation!) At least we referenced different articles. Since the incident was on the local news here in southeastern PA, I knew that the chocolate was destined for Hershey bars, so I looked for a locally-published story that had that angle.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 04:10 PM

Currently, there are LOTS of choices in chocolate... perhaps way too many. ;-) Today in the New York Times: Tasteful Company | Madécasse
Food
July 10, 2009, 3:53 pm
By Jill Santopietro

These days my favorite chocolate isn't U.S.D.A. organic certified and it's not Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance stamped. It's Madécasse, made from cacao grown in Madagascar's naturally organic forests. It's traded fairly and is environmentally friendly. Best of all, the new Madécasse 63% and 70% chocolate tastes so good — a refreshing anomaly in a sea of astringent bitter chocolates with trendy (and often misleading) labels.

When it comes to chocolate, the meaning of the term "organic" is much more complicated than it is for, say, local blueberries. But my personal theory is that cacao grown in pesticide-free forests shaded by biodiversity is better for the health of the plant and the land than cacao grown on a mono-crop organic plantation. It typically tastes better, too.

Kallari, a company I wrote about in a Times article last November, grows its cacao beans and produces its bars in Ecuador with the indigenous Kichwa people.

Madécasse (pronounced mah-DAY-cas) chocolate, on the other hand, is made from beans grown in Madagascar and produced in factories nearby. The company is owned by two young Americans, Brett Beach and Tim McCollum; both worked there as Peace Corps volunteers before moving on to the U.S Embassy and Usaid in Madagascar (Brett) and the business world and business school in New York (Tim). Because their entire manufacturing process happens in Madagascar's cacao-growing region, much of the profits go back into the local economy.

(some more is available via the link...)

And yes, what did they do with the chocolate that was in the vat with the guy...?

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 04:16 PM

I should have put up a blatantly titled thread Sharon but we used to get by with those titles and now I have to link it to a few threads to get any attention. ANd that didn't work too well here either LOL!!!!


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 04:50 PM

I have yet to taste chocolate to rival Cadbury's and trust me I have tried most! I only have a gulit trip about my increasing girth caused by this indulgence particularly since Cadbury's source their cocoa from fair trade sources anyway.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/cadbury-adopts-fairtrade-source-1636575.html

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 04:57 PM

Yeah, stop the child labor in the poor countries. Let them starve instead.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 05:07 PM

Why is all the news about the Ivory Coast bad, now?

And, no. At least, not dark chocolate.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 05:26 PM

"Yeah, stop the child labor in the poor countries. Let them starve instead."

What total crap.

No instead, let the West pay right prices to countries providing such luxury items with a non enslaved workforce. Instead of funding a lifetime's of child slave labour, so you can have a moments chocalate orgasm.

It's not too far off peadophilia - being perfectly happy and willing to have some child forced to suffer terribly, in order to grant you a few brief moments of pleasure?

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 08:39 PM

Cote d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is hardly a country, divided between the Muslims in the North (no government representation) and the animists and christians in the south. War can re-start any time, in spite of efforts by UN peacekeepers.
Stop buying their coffee, cocoa and other agricultural products, and many will starve, adults as well as children.
Three-fourths of the people have little or no education.
An income producer, diamonds, has been forced into the black market.

Unless money, troops and educators can be poured into the country, there is no solution to the child labor, lack of government, racial and religious conflicts, corruption and other problems. There are no signs that the developed countries are willing to do this.

Paying higher prices will just put more money into a corrupt government, much of it ending up sent back out of the country.

I repeat, boycott and increase starvation. There is no easy solution.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 12 Jul 09 - 10:35 PM

I fell into a vat of chocolate,
I fell into a vat of chocolate,
Lolly to dum, lolly to dum day.

What did you cry when you fell into the chocolate?
What did you cry when you fell into the chocolate?
Lolly to dum, lolly to dum day.

I yelled "Fire" when I fell into the chocolate;
I yelled "Fire" when I fell into the chocolate,
Lolly to dum, lolly to dum day.

Why'd you yell fire when you fell into the chocolate?
Why'd you yell fire when you fell into the chocolate?
Lolly to dum, lolly to dum day.

'Cause no one would come if I yelled "Chocolate,
Chocolate, Chocolate!

Smothers Brothers routine

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 02:12 PM

When I was growing up there, Cote d'Ivoire was the model of democracy - now Obama didn't even mention it on his trip next door, to Ghana.

We miss Houphy, as we used to call him.

Q, d'ou your ken?

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 02:46 PM

I don't eat commercial chocolate which contains byproducts such as sugar, and other chemicals. I eat raw chocolate which is grown "fair trade" and can be sweetened with
fruit juices, agave syrup or stevia.

I won't support Nestles or Hershey.

Raw chocolate which is not contaminated with chemicals and sugar is a great alternative.

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 03:39 PM

Mrzzy, yes I remember when Cote d'Ivoire was pointed out as an example for other sub-Saharan regimes. Its descent into chaos is a very sad tale.

Most chocolate is purchased on the commodity market, and comes from Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Indonesia (a tariff on the last, the result of poor quality).

Some high quality cacao does come from those sources, but there are many smaller producers throughout the tropical belt, including the South American area of origin. Many of these small producers are able to get 2-3 times the commodity market price.
Often sold as fair-market, organic, co-op, etc., these products do not benefit the poorest growers, although they offer the consumer a better product.

All companies in the business, including Hershey, Cadbury, Nestle, buy top grades, as well as commodity market grades, which are used in their top-end products or sold to better chocolate candy makers.

Hershey has several brands based on quality chocolate, including Special Dark and Cacao Reserve brands. Other companies selling high quality include Lindt 70%, Noka Vintage, Ghiradelli, Callebaut Dark, Green & Black, Dragoba, but there are many others.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 05:39 PM

Hey, look...I will stop eating chocolate on behalf of anyone here who wants to quit! And I'll do it for only $25 dollars a month. Sort of like shaving my head for cancer research, you know?

You want to quit, but can't? Noooooo problem. I will quit FOR you. Only $25 a month. Cheap at the price. PM me.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 14 Jul 09 - 09:35 AM

Will You stop eating crap? That's the real question here.

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Jul 09 - 09:51 AM

No, the real question here is why did I pick this thread to refresh with a post about a guy who died in a vat of chocolate.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Jul 09 - 12:52 PM

Because you're a dumbass?

Subject: RE: BS: Will YOU stop eating chocolate?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Jul 09 - 01:39 PM

I remember an old British film where a visitor became nauseated by the boiling, gluging and bubbling of the chocolate vat and vomited into the vat.
Eureka! A new flavo(u)r!

(Another British TV film was about a murder in which the victim was killed in a beer vat).
The British are rather good at this sort of thing.

Stringsinger, some people eat raw fish bait (sucki or whatever) or tear raw flesh off the bone, or immerse their heads in cacao pods, but I prefer a more civilized product.
Even a mole sauce made with chocolate requires a product that has been fermented and concentrated.

CHOCOLATE
The first stages of preparing chocolate are not pleasant.
The insect-infested pods are opened and the beans (seeds) are scraped, along with the pulp, into open containers. Covered with banana leaves, the mess is fermented in hot shade. The stink is over-powering!
Natural sugars are converted to acids and the bitter taste begins to become more chocolaty.
After a time, the seeds are dried and bagged.
Ergo, raw chocolate!

The seeds are then cleaned to remove bugs, dirt, etc. Bean coatings are cracked and removed. Roasted at high temperature, the cocoa butter is liquified, and a paste is obtained.

The cocoa *mess is pressed and the part that flows out is made ready for the chocolate makers, the remaining solids are pulverized to make the powders the consumer uses to make drinks.   
*Called 'mass.'