Cheap Treat

Chocolatiers have gone wild with fancy confections, high-cacao figures, and elaborate packaging. Although one can still obtain a simple chocolate bar, the quality has declined, but the price has risen significantly. So I’m not sure that I can describe a dream chocolate bar anymore.

When I was younger, I’d go on binges. Leave work for lunch but head to a local store and load up on chocolate bars with and without other goodies added. Returning to my office, I’d spend the lunch break devouring Chunkies, Hershey’s, Mounds, and whatever else I had found on the candy racks. It was wicked, but I loved it. There would always be a short sugar rush that would not outlast the middle of the afternoon.

But that was just the domestically available stuff. You had to haunt the specialty shops for more exotic materials. My putting the moves on for Hershey was to ordinary for some of my associates.

Chocolate Safari

Friends living in Cambridge might ride the subway to Park Street, transfer to the trolley for Coolidge Corner, and shop at their favorite specialty stores for expensive imported goods.

For my friends, the hunt was part of the lift derived from the chocolate. There would be an elaborate tray with slivers of this and hunks of this and that. She’d make up elegant little labels listing the nuances to be expected from each type of confection. He’d serve small plates of goodies and offer a running commentary on where they’d found them, how much they cost, and what made them special. The internet ruined that. Now you could order it online, and it would be delivered tomorrow.

It was the safari, the search for the goodies, as well as the goodies themselves, that made the experience special. “Here, have a taste of this. It’s from Ethiopia, and we had to special order it. It took six months to arrive. Don’t you love that slight coarseness, or the weird burst of flavor on the back of your tongue?”