Decieved by Chocolate

I noticed that a new wrapper beckoned from the sweet section today. It promised ‘milk chocolate with a caramel centre’, the perfect lift after a long day and in a nation suffering from an Easter egg shortage would be a potential weekend gift. Deftly I peeled off the foil, slid the slender bar between my teeth and bit down. IT WAS FOUL! DISGUSTING! TASTED OF SOAP! I’ll be the first to admit that some of Zimbabwe’s home grown chocs are a bit dodgy, but this was an import. I scanned the ingredient list and found to my horror that the offending bit of plastic did not contain cocoa at all. For the uninitiated, chocolate is made from the cocoa bean or it’s processed by products. A decent chocolate will contain about 50% cocoa solids; the better ones are up to 70%. Some poorer versions are down to about 30% but they still have the all important cocoa in them. This had a ‘cocoa butter substitute’! If there is no cocoa how can it even call itself a chocolate? Blatant misrepresentation if you ask me! Be warned, the world of chocolate is not safe anymore. As for me, I think I’ll stick with Green and Blacks from now on.