The word of the day for April 28, 2007 is “cacao” — noun 1 : the dried partly fermented fatty seeds of a South American evergreen tree (Theobroma cacao of the family Sterculiaceae) that are used in making cocoa, chocolate, and cocoa butter —called also cacao bean, cocoa bean. 2 : a tree having small yellowish flowers followed by fleshy pods from which cacao is obtained.
The US government is considering changes to the labels on foodstuffs. A petition by the manufacturers and packagers are suggesting all kinds of changes that will enable them to substitute cheaper ingredients, but call them the same thing. For instance, the chocolatiers are suggesting that they should be allowed to use any old vegetable oil instead of cacao butter in their product. Cacao butter has no trans fats and is a source of anti-oxidants. Mind you, they aren’t advocating forced usage of veg oil—yet. Still, there’s a group out there agitating to petition Congress to stop this adulteration scheme immediately. HTTP://WWW.DONTMESSWITHMYCHOCOLATE.COM offers no insight or background on the situation, but does offer a way to start up a petition.
Personally, I stayed away from chocolate for an entire year before the major chocolate producers swore they wouldn’t buy chocolate resulting from slave labor. I’m not real sure whether to trust them. It would be really difficult to label each and every bean. However as an addict, I find it very easy to rationalize my position. If they have to raise the price of chocolate to make it slave-labor-free/cacao-butter-full, I’ll grit my teeth and pay.
The quote for today is from Abigail Trillin, age four, on finishing a dish of chocolate ice cream, quoted by her father Calvin Trillin, Alice, Let’s Eat, Random House, 1978:
My tongue is smiling.
;^) Jan
SURRENDER
10 years ago
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