Hold On to Your Chocolate Bars

“In chocolate there are nuanced shades of black, veiled mysteries of taste, abysses of pleasure.” – Fabrizio Caramagna

Fabrizio Caramagna is an Italian writer and aphorist. He was born in Turin in 1969. He grew up in the Italian countryside with his grandparents, where he spent a happy childhood, developing a particular sensitivity for nature and the world of animals and quite probably excellent chocolate. 

I opened my September/October 2023 issue of Smithsonian magazine and read the opening teaser: “Ecuador’s Gold – Can the most coveted chocolate in history help revive forests around the world?” I stopped and read the headline several times. In tiny writing on the upper right hand corner of the page in this addition “A pod of ancient Nacional cocao offers hope for reforesting Ecuador’s Pacific coast, which by some estimates has lost 98 percent of its trees over the past century.”

Nacional seems to be the chocolate of chocolates, the savior of trees.

I know of no chocolates here in Pierce County that would really reach out and grab my taste buds by my tongue . . . except for Johnson Candy Company and Brown & Haley with their Mountain Bars and Almond Roca. However, there is a Dollar Tree store at 9830 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma offering a Godiva chocolate bar. Godiva has long been one of the best chocolates of the world. Godiva Chocolatier was founded in 1926 in Brussels, Belgium. It was very expensive, but now it’s made in Turkey, and sells at Dollar Tree for $1.25. Just across the street from the Dollar Tree is a fruit and vegetable stand. Peg and I shop there sometimes and usually leave with a candy bar larger and cheaper and more tasty than Godiva for only a buck by Pergale with milk and dark. I like chocolate and would hate to see the chocolate market disappear. 

Apparently, there are small differences that make large differences:

“In chocolate there are nuanced shades of black, veiled mysteries of taste, abysses of pleasure.” – Fabrizio Caramagna

The astounding flavor of Nacional and everyone working together could maintain the sales and love of what is now being called the “greatest chocolate in the world.” If we can’t get Nacional growing and harvesting, then some of us better volunteer to travel south and volunteer to help growing and harvesting.

Taste isn’t everything, but in chocolate it’s coming close. Prolific writer Rachel Vincent offers this comment, “Chocolate says “I’m sorry” so much better than words.”

“There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles.” – Peggy Doman