Chocolate makes everything better

For the Fourth of July holiday, we went out for ice cream. I looked over the ice cream case full of flavors like a five-year-old kid in a candy store. My eyes were bulging thinking of the possibilities. There was Death by Chocolate. If I didn’t want to tempt fate, but still wanted to play on the wrong side of the tracks, there was Triple Chocolate Sin.

Of course there were old standbys German Chocolate, Chocolate Marshmallow, and Chocolate Raspberry. There were even chocolate wannabes: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Mint Chocolate Chip. There were enough chocolate flavors to keep a chocoholic like myself eating to his heart’s content.

Life is sweeter with chocolate

I mention all the chocolate flavors because today is World Chocolate Day. Oh, what a day. There’s any number of special domestic and global days celebrating chocolate throughout the year. This one celebrates the anniversary of the introduction of the cacao bean and chocolate to Europe in 1550.

Of course, the day has gotten me thinking about chocolate of every kind. There’s Hershey’s Milk Chocolate. If you live in Pennsylvania, you’re required to buy several pounds of the stuff each year. Oh, I’m kidding, but The Hershey Company, Hershey’s Kisses and Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar are cultural icons.

I can’t go without mentioning all the different candy bars that speak to me anytime I walk into a convenience store. They all shout out to me . . . buy me, buy me, buy me! It takes all the willpower I can stand to keep my head down, put up my hand in a strong “no” and to keep walking. There’s Snickers, Twix, Three Musketeers, Milky Way, Symphony, M&M’s, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Chocolate makes everything better

I’m not even touching on silky, smooth Godiva Chocolate founded by Belgian chocolatier Joseph Draps in Belgium in 1926. Or the triangular-shaped Toblerone created in Bern, Switzerland, in 1908 by Theodor Tobler and Emil Baumann. 

There’s Lindt, Cadbury, Ghirardelli, Smet, Ferrero, Meiji, Morinaga, and a million other brands. Like the world we live in, there’s many different chocolates. Everything from:

  • Milk chocolate: The most popular type, with added milk solids. 
  • Dark chocolate: Contains higher percentages of cocoa solids and less sugar, often with health benefits. 
  • Semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate: Variations in sweetness and cocoa content. 
  • White chocolate: Made from cocoa butter, not chocolate liquor. 
  • Other types: Ruby chocolate, couverture chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate.

Life is like a box of chocolates

In a strange way, chocolate is a good representative of the world we live in. We come from different places in the world. We’re different colors, shapes and sizes. We have different tastes and preferences, but we all know a good thing when we see it. We love our chocolate!

Like many things, we’re more alike than we are different.

Happy World Chocolate Day.

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62 thoughts on “Chocolate makes everything better”

  4. wait, what?!! I love celebrating every holiday no matter how obscure and I love chocolate, so thank you averting my very near miss! I plan to celebrate now that I know this! who am I to not celebrate?! my fav candy bars are Cadbury Carmello bars, and Heath and Skor bars, but pretty much all. I especially love Milk Chocolate over Dark Chocolate, which I know makes me uncouth or unsophisticated by all measures, but what can I say, there’s room for all of us in this world as you say. plus I love hot fudge.

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  5. Death by Chocolate is my fave! I’d have to say that every day is celebrated as Chocolate Day at our house, but maybe today we should overdo it in style! Cheers, Brian.

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  7. As a fellow chocoholic, I love this day! I prefer dark chocolate but I can honestly say I haven’t met a chocolate I didn’t like. I went to San Francisco and had Ghirardelli dark chocolate and thought I had died and gone to heaven. There is some pretty amazing chocolate factories here in Spain too. Valor is my favourite. Hubby was born and raised in York, UK where there were two chocolate factories! (Cadburys and York). I have to go and find some chocolate now!

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    1. It’s funny you mention chocolate in Spain. I don’t know the name or the brand . . . but I had some amazing chocolate there when we visited years ago. And I’m like you, I probably have a slight preference for dark chocolate. But who am I kidding, I like it all.

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  11. Happy World Chocolate Day! I do have a fondness for Lindt and white chocolate and a Dairy Milk fruit and nut bar is my go to comfort chocolate. Life is definitely made all the better because of chocolate!

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  14. Fun fact: my grandmother (RIP) worked for Hershey’s in Pennsylvania probably eight decades ago or so. You might say chocolate is in my blood! I prefer dark chocolate nowadays, but I won’t turn down a Twix or Toblerone if offered (even though they replaced the Matterhorn with a generic mountain a couple of years ago).

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    1. Oh, that’s so cool about your grandmother. When we were kids, Hershey had a factory tour where you could see the chocolate being made. They have a mock-up now . . . but it was cool seeing the real thing. The town on a good day still smells like chocolate. Hmm, chocolate. And I’m actually with you, I have a slight preference for dark chocolate.

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  16. I’m so happy to find out today is World Chocolate Day. Chocolate brings back memories of my parents. My dad took us golfing at a very young age (I was five in my first tournament.) Golf meant a Hershey’s mild chocolate bar. I think that’s how he kept us little kids interested and excited to go. My mom took me school shopping in the big city an hour away at Frederick and Nelson’s in Seattle. Before we drove home, she’d buy me one Frango Mint. The best chocolate in the world! Now Macy’s has the recipe and product if you want to try it!

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      1. Buy one box from the Macy’s website — the original Milk Chocolate Mint. I think I sent out 96 boxes this past year to friends, family and clients! Your wife will thank you!

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    1. Oh, thank you for the reminder. I’ll include that next time. I saw on one of those special day-event calendars that the US has National Ice Cream Day coming up later this month. If I happen to write about that . . . I’ll be sure to include a warning. Ha, ha.

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  23. Hi Brian
    Oh dear, I don’t like chocolate that much. When we were kids, we loved Toblerone, and now we only really like chocolate ice cream, preferably with lemon on top.
    Maybe because I had an uncle who owned a chocolate factory and a chocolate wholesale. We had masses of chocolate at home and were kind of pushed to eat chocolate.
    All the best
    Klausbernd 🙂

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  24. Never too late to wish you a Happy Chocolate Day, Brian! What a sweet post! 😂😂 I love chocolate, but when I do indulge, it’s in dark chocolate these days. Some faves though are mint chocolate chip (wanna be chocolate ice cream), Sees candy is my ultimate favorite, but for casual, Snickers, Peanut M&Ms, and Reeses peanut butter cups. 🙂 Yikes! I need to go shopping! Bye for now! LOL 🍫🍪🍩😊

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    1. I need to get a life!!! I’ve never tried See’s candy. I’ve heard others talk about it, but I don’t think I’ve ever had it. Now I’m on a mission. I need to change that. Ha ha. And yes, I won’t turn my head at milk chocolate but dark chocolate or even white chocolate are my favorites now.

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