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Please update your links and feed reader to point to: http://www.blogchocolate.com
We hope you'll visit us often at the new and improved site!
I am a vegetarian. A committed vegetarian. I have often thought of going "all the way" and embracing vegan-ism. One of the only things that has held me back is that I hadn't ever found a vegan chocolate that I truly loved. Not one. Sure, there were some that were not bad but who wants a chocolate that's not bad? I want spectacular. It seemed to me that excellent chocolate and living vegan were wholly incompatible.
That was until I received a box of Missionary Chocolates to sample.
Their truffles are incredible ... as in ridiculously (are you sure these are vegan??) incredible. Perfect mouth feel, gorgeous presentation and deeeeeelicious. My favourite was the vanilla salted caramel but all of their flavour combinations are inspired.
Missionary Chocolates is operated by a dynamic duo of two sisters and every chocolate is hand-crafted. Not only are they vegan, but the truffles are gluten-free too! The first email I read from them had me smitten: "Truffles without heavy cream? Is this possible? Do we even want it to be possible?" Exactly! But not only is it possible - they are quite possibly one of the best truffles I have ever tasted ... not just vegan truffles ... any truffles.
Maybe that's because they've found the perfect way to use organic coconut cream as their base and then pair that with 55% fair-trade Guittard chocolate.
Their mom is a vegan, gluten-intolerant chocoholic so they started making the truffles for her. And now for us too. I kind of feel like I owe their mama a gift for mother's day out of appreciation for being the muse behind these spectacular chocolates.
Missionary's truffles can be bought at many stores throughout the USA and you can also order them online.
And this is what a happy chocoholic (who has finally gone all the way) looks like.
Posted at 08:10 PM in Chocoholics Unite, Chocolate Activism, Chocolicious Reviews | Permalink | Comments (18) | TrackBack (0)
Posted at 07:00 AM in Chocoholics Unite, Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates | Permalink | Comments (35) | TrackBack (0)
I have always considered myself a card-carrying chocoholic. But if the linguists prefer, I suppose that I can be a chocolatic (although that sounds more like a laxative). Recently I came across the term chocoholism and I am not quite sure if I qualify. I do know that I am not ready to be "treated through aversives." This is one of those few addictions that one can often indulge in without abandon, shame or fear of an intervention ... usually.
Do you remember that scene from Forest Gump when Bubba talks about shrimp? I swear to god I have the conversation all the time about chocolate. Chocolate Cake. Chocolate Cookies. Chocolate Ice Cream. Chocolate Truffles. Chocolate Pie. Chocolate Chips. Chocolate Chunks. Chocolate Mousse. Chocolate Strawberries. Chocolate Drops. Chocolate Brownie. Chocolate Fudge. Chocolate Wafers. Hot Chocolate... I should stop now as my typing pace begins to reach an orgasmic parallel.
I have read more than one blogger talk about their relationship with chocolate. I thought it important to establish my own chocoholic credibility.
My addiction (I mean affair) with chocolate has been life long. I was an official member of the Laura Secord Club for years (a chocolate chain in Canada) where I was able to get a free chocolate a month and special treats on my birthday because I was such a frequent customer. Not good enough? Stay with me...
My chocolate habit got so bad that about 10 years ago that I actually overdosed, had an extreme reaction and consequently developed a serious intolerance to caffeine. And I am so messed up that I am bragging about this. Big goofy smile on my face as I tap tap tap at the keyboard.
It happened when I was doing my tour of duty in the ad biz and one of our clients was a chocolate manufacturer (not my client - I got to sell antiperspirant, shampoo, cosmetics and canned pasta. Shivers). They were consumer testing a new chocolate bar. Someone at the client heard that there was one of our team (me) who could eat an unbelievable number of chocolate bars in one day without getting sick of it. So they'd send me dozens to try and give my 2 cents on. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Turns out there IS too much of a good thing and I had a terribly embarrassing reaction at work - fainting, convulsions, very dramatic. I was taken to the hospital because of my chocolate OD. Credible chocoholic yet? Well just wait...
Following my over-indulgent episode and my "intolerance" being diagnosed, I was told that I'd have to break off my dependent fling with my sweet brown lover. To eat even just a little chocolate and I'd get a headache, loose feeling in my lips and forehead and my stomach would stage a full fledged war. Did that stop me? No. The doctor made the mistake of telling me that sometimes people grow out of an intolerance and their immunity changes. That's all I needed to begin planning a strategy for turning this little no-chocolate situation around. I proceeded to secretly build my tolerance over time in an effort to "cure" myself from this dreaded affliction. My sweet husband would have lost his mind if he knew what I was up too. I bought a bag of chocolate chips and snuck one chocolate chip a day to build up my immunity. At first the reaction was rotten but it got better and after a couple of years (this was some serious dedication I tell ya), I could have 2 chocolate chips and then the triumph of 3. I had to take a break when I was pregnant but then finally about 3 years ago I came out and admitted my back room sneaking and that I had won. I was back in the chocolate covered saddle!
So although I may have established my chocoholic credibility, I am pretty sure in the process, that I've lost all other credibility of being a reasonably sane person.
The most terribly ironic part of all of this is that I am a bit of a health nut outside of my chocolate issue. I'm a vegetarian who eats mostly organic, takes vitamins, eats little processed foods, and goes to a naturopathic doctor regularly. Yet I will never accepted carob as a viable substitute. More like a communist plot.
Maybe I do need an intervention...
Posted at 08:57 AM in Chocoholics Unite | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)