A Taste of Chocolate - TRUE STORY

just read this in my local paper (Boston Globe Online) and thought I would share.

We all scream for ice cream.

Q: Meredith,

Longtime lurker, first time writer. I need your objective reamistering and advice with a somewhat complicated issue. To protect the innocent and not so innocent, I’ll make it a tale of two half gallons.

So, I’d love your take, as well as your readers, on the idea of passion versus love. I relate it to vanilla versus chocolate. Say you are married to vanilla. Vanilla is good. Vanilla is a perfectly acceptable dessert every night. Vanilla respects you, admires you. Vanilla has committed to always being in your freezer, whenever you need it. Vanilla is love.

Then there’s chocolate. One day, a bowl of chocolate gets set in front of you, and you scoop up a tentative spoonful. You’re mouth explodes with excitement. You want more. Chocolate satisfies your taste buds, makes you realize you *have* taste buds that vanilla seemingly never even knew existed. Chocolate all of a sudden takes over your appetite. You want it for breakfast lunch, and dinner, and THEN dessert. But, alas, this half-gallon belongs in someone else’s freezer. Pints find your way into your freezer here and there, and, in the meantime, you go back to vanilla. Chocolate is passion. Chocolate introduced itself to you, chocolate told you your freezer is the best freezer it’s ever been to. That it dreams of your freezer. You and your freezer feel the same way.

You start to notice vanilla’s flaws. But, vanilla is there for you, so you make do with vanilla, but dream about chocolate. You sneak a kiddie scoopful here, a pint there, but dream about having that half gallon in your freezer. There’s only room for one in there though, and you can’t bear giving vanilla the boot. Meanwhile, chocolate is attached to its own freezer anyway, and nearly melted the last time it tried to visit yours, and is now seemingly staying put where chocolate belongs.

So, the question is, how do you make yourself satisfied with the vanilla that’s yours, after you’ve had the taste of forbidden, but delectable chocolate? Vanilla is good. Sometimes, it’s rich and creamy and feels like a nice treat. But the taste of chocolate is still there, the craving for it, while dulled, is still there. You walk buy the freezer’s glass door every day and see the chocolate. You know not to even try to open the door that is locked, b/c it ain’t for sale, but that doesn’t mean you don’t pause to look. Can one go back to Happily Vanilla ever after? Will the desire for chocolate ever go away?

So why do some of us believe that chocolate is such an irresistable flavor?

There are many at this website who would suggest that it's all about portion size. I would argue that that's a myth. Anyone who actually has much experience with ice cream knows that all flavors are served in roughly the same portion sizes.

There are also many ice cream aficianados who would argue that a moderately sized portion is more enjoyable than a huge portion. I would assume that that's a matter of taste.

Spiciness (is that really a word and if it is how do you spell it?) may be the issue. Many readers here seem to believe that our favorite ice cream fans view chocolate as a spicier flavor than vanilla. I would suggest that this is also a matter of taste.

My wife loves ice cream. She does enjoy an occasional dish of chocolate, especially when it's chock full of nuts, but vanilla continues to be the flavor that she selects most frequently.

I am concerned that last week she and several of her girlfriends brought home a pint of tutti frutti. When I questioned her about this she patted my head and told me that if I was a good boy, next week they'd let me watch them eat it.

I can't wait.

GH

I think it's more about wanting what you can't, or aren't "supposed" to, have than it is about any inherent difference between vanilla or chocolate. But that doesn't make for very entertaining reading...
It's more fun to read about the 5 gallon, soda fountain size, chocolate ice cream that doesn't even fit into your freezer unless you first throw your half gallon of vanilla onto the floor to melt...

Well, I'm glad I came here being indulging. I thought I might fancy a bit of Pistachio but them nuts must be off if it goes that colour (or is that color). Still, we're all big boys, I suppose colour doesn't matter does it.