Pleasure, elitism and the like

Reading this article in the NYT today put us in mind of so many of the discussions that swirled around the Slow Food Nation show, at least in our little chocolate world.

As we all know, chocolate is still wrapped (at least here in the US) in a thick layer of puritanical judgments, leading to endless marketing spin about sin, indulgence, devil's food, and the like. As if to counterbalance this effect, we're then bombarded with opposing claims positioning chocolate more in the realm of apothecary than joy (not that we're totally uninterested in well-vetted science on the topic, as is clear from the number of posts here on the issue :-)

Pleasure isn't elitist, and it requires no counterbalancing health claim to be a legitimate subject of discussion. In fact, pleasure in eating (and in general for that matter) is a key contributor to overall health and well-being, and since chocolate is a uniquely pleasurable and fascinating food, it is our fervent hope that discussions on fine chocolate can slowly become disentangled from this web of prejudice. Hopefully then we'll be able to take a step back and consider this wonderful varietal food for what it really is, and maybe learn a thing or two in the process.