Let My Chocolates Go

Since dark chocolate has become the new red wine - lauded for its amazing health benefits - everybody is jumping on the bandwagon. M & M 's are doing dark chocolate; companies who weren't even in the chocolate business are now making weird dark chocolate vitamin/health/food bars; Twix, Kit Kat - everybody is going to the dark side!! Tootsie Roll, are you next?

And poor white chocolate! White chocolate is treated like trailer trash! Next they'll take away caramel and peanut butter (so gauche!) and only have ginger and chilies in chocolate. Oh - and green tea. (And I'm not talking about to drink. We know all about sweet tea in the trailer park and this ain't nuthin' like that.)

Now look, I like dark chocolate. I'm not anti-70% cacao. But I am a freedom fighter - I want a place at the chocolate table for everyone! I'm pro-choice! Sometimes I want a good milk chocolate. Sometimes I want a dark so bitter it makes my mouth pucker. And sometimes, yes sometimes, I long for a ZERO bar!! And chilies, well that's a fad. And lavender? Good god! I want to try it all, but the peanut is a minor god in my country. And I'm not ashamed to publicly adore the Reese's Cup! (the original version, not the dark one or the caramel one or any of the other mutations. Although the giant one and the Reese's egg....but I digress.) You are not somehow a superior being if you prefer dark chocolate. And you are not inferior if you like white chocolate. And if you don't like chocolate at all, that's great too! (I won't have to split any of my desserts with you.)

Try them all and choose the one you like. Don't kid yourself that trading in your milk chocolate for dark chocolate is going to give you another 10 years or cure cancer. Don't let people make you feel bad about anything you eat. (Chances are if they say anything, it's only because they really want to be eating it, they just aren't brave enough to!) Pick the one that brings you the most joy at that moment! Eat healthy most of the time, take your vitamins, but set chocolate free! Don't make it a vitamin! The M in M & Ms is NOT for Magnesium! Let my chocolates go!Let there be room for all the varieties (and all the fun!) in your life. (Who's in for trying the new M & M ice cream? Yay!!!)