Eat Dark Chocolate in 2010

Côte-d'Or, Belgian chocolate debonair

If you believe that eating healthy means less chocolate, you've been horribly misinformed.

I'm an unabashed dark chocolate devotee, and with good reason. Multiple studies in 2009 alone found that dark chocolate helps ease emotional stress, may reduce the risk of heart disease, may suppress tickly throats, and boosts brain power (go on, click the links. I triple dare you). I'm all about chocolate that's intense, consuming, and unapologetic about cocoa content.  

Côte-d'Or, a popular Belgian chocolate brand (their clame to fame is being the official supplier for for the Belgian royal family), is exactly that. I first met this debonair in a tiny Paris grocery store years ago and it made such a good impression that I distinctly remembered it despite having a  name I can't pronounce. I remember being dangerously in love with a truffle chocolate bar they had, but in the name of healthier choices I picked up their classic dark chocolate bar at a European chocolaterie in Nyack, NY, a month ago.

I've been told the mark of good chocolate is when it snaps (and doesn't crumble) when you break it and this one snaps like a pro. Slightly bitter and cool on the tongue, it lures you in with a silky seduction and the confidence of a playboy who knows exactly what he's doing. Charming sans the milk and sugar, this smooth operator doesn't need much props to get the girls swooning.

Still planning on laying off chocolate this year? Don't. Just cross over to the dark side.

Eat up!

- Kris Alcantara

My Favorite Chocolate Things

Yep, any day with chocolate is a lucky day.

Raindrops and roses and whiskers and kittens? Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens? Seriously, Maria? How is chocolate nowhere on her list of favorite things?? Good song though, good song.

Anyway, let me tell you my favorite chocolate things (...nice segway). Granted the actual list might be too long, here's the appetizer version.

1. Emerald Cocoa Roast Dark Chocolate Almonds
Remember when you met your best friend for the first time and you got along so well you felt like you've known her all your life? I imagine that's how nuts and chocolate felt the first time they got together—they clicked. I'm a huge fan of chocolate-covered almonds and I can easily pop 'em in my mouth all day and not care about getting fat, but, well, I do. So thank God for these because they make an awesome substitute! I would've wanted it to be more chocolate-y but what hooked me in was the nice bold, roasted flavor. I buy the 100-calorie packs... but eat them two at a time. 

2. Meiji 's YanYan
I grew up thinking these were the best things ever as a kid. Now that I'm a big kid, eating Yanyan is like the equivalent of cooking stuff with extra virgin olive oil. It's simple, but it's a snack on a pedestal, saved for special occasions. Meiji has very rarely, if at all, let me down. There's something about Japanese chocolate that I can't quite put a finger on, but it's always, always, perfectly smooth and creamy without being too milky. It's the kind of chocolate that goes down easy—the dangerous kind—that makes you forget they should be eaten in moderation. Rrrrrr. Classic good stuff.

3. Dark Chocolate-Covered Soy Beans
This special little guy got my heart beating fast! I met him by chance in a can of Planter's Energy Mix and I was immediately intrigued (and naturally started picking them out). To begin with, dark chocolate tends to be the fastest way to my heart, but the soy nut carried a charm of its own. Delicately sweet and crunchy, it's kind of like eating chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, but they were lighter and less nutty (and tinier of course). Apparently the South Beach Diet approves of them so that's extra brownie points too. Seriously, if you want to get me a gift this Christmas, this would make me very happy.  

I'm spending the holidays away from home this year and I'm pretty bummed about it, but you know how the song goes.. "I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad.."

That said, this lonely chocoholic is now accepting chocolates for Christmas.

- Kris Alcantara