Like beauty, chocolate has much to do with the eye of its beholder. Based on taste alone, chocolate is readily accepted by millions of people from all walks of life. We don?t have to be reminded that it?s a vegetable (a cocoa bean is a vegetable, isn?t it?) or that its countless devotees consider it to be a basic food group. Many of us were understandably pleased, but not surprised, when researchers at the University of Cologne, Germany, recently announced that three ounces of dark chocolate a day for two weeks lowers high blood pressure in adults. That pleasure soon turned to downright smugness when The Week magazine also revealed that Italian and Scottish researchers found that chocolate significantly raises levels of antioxidants, "chemicals that mop up heart-damaging molecules called free radicals." What should trouble any chocolate lover, however, is the news that came out of Paris, site of the European Chocolate Trade Fair earlier this month. Apparently, Europe?s chocolate makers are now using words to describe their products that are normally reserved for fine wines. The words tossed around the fair included fermentation, fragrance, bouquet and palate. "Wine and chocolate terms are getting closer and closer," a French "chocolatier" told Reuters. "In chocolate as in wine you can find different flavors depending on the soil in which the cocoa beans were grown, how much rain they received and the fermentation process." This is more information than chocolate lovers need to know. We can?t adequately put into words why we even love people in our lives, so we most certainly can?t be expected to explain our love for chocolate with words normally reserved for vintage wines. We only know we love it. Using descriptive adjectives tends to take the fun out of chocolate and it also cuts into chocolate eating time. There is an element of danger in treating chocolate like wine, another product attributed with addictive powers. All sorts of problems could arise when chocolate becomes more than a comfort food or a daily staple in our diets. From the masses of chocolate lovers ? basically gregarious, happy, outgoing people ? chocolate elitists will surely arise and they will nibble, as opposed to gorge, on tiny pieces of chocolate with their pinky fingers extended. They will utter statements such as, "This Belgian chocolate is long on the palate" or "A bit musty and mushroomy, wouldn?t you say?" Because of its addictive attributes, chocolate will no longer be available to people of all ages. Some over-zealous government agency, such as ATFC (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Chocolate) will subject us to random breathalyser tests as we step from our cars or as we walk down sidewalks. "Sorry, lady, but you register at a four-candy bar level. You will have to come down to the station with us." As the addictive qualities and weight issues associated with chocolate become government concerns, prohibition could be a definite possibility. Few of us would be ready for a world where huge batches of chocolate are mixed in bathtubs and banned chocolate is sold behind the peep-holed alley doors of "melt-easies." At the very least, the consumption of chocolate will be banned in public places. Because of these reasons and many more, comparing chocolate with wine should be discouraged.
