A Little Time in the Reserves--The Cacao Reserves, That Is

Every day, long about 10am, I have to have me a little chocolate.

Sometimes more than a little.

Like so many of my little quirks and addictions, I have to point the finger at my parents for this problem. They ate sweets everyday, and I was allowed to have a little treat every day so long as I ate most of what they put on my plate at dinner. Each evening when one or the other of the parental units would make the daily trip up to the Convenient (I love it when stores are named exactly for what they are) to buy their cigarettes, I was asked what candy bar I wanted brought back. I went through a Twix phase, then foundered on Nestle Crunch, and for a long time, gorged on Whatchamacallits. In high school, I ate my weight (which, thankfully, was not much) in Snickers bars. Whenever I saw an advertisement for a new candy (anybody remember Royals?), I would have to give that a try. As long as I got some form of chocolate every day, I was pretty easy to please.

As an adult, I have tried to break this habit. Especially the last few years when I have finally begun fighting the battle of the bulge. For a while, I tried to appease my daily craving with those little 100-calorie cookie packs, or with low-fat and diet bars, or with a Slim Fast shake. Life is too short for crappy chocolate, though, and the deal I have finally been able to live with is that as long as I can make myself get to the gym at least twice in any given week, than I reward myself by bringing in a chocolate bar of some sort to nosh on during my mid-morning Coke break. This is probably the main reason why I can't lose the last 5 pounds that separates me from my pre-Ainsley weight, but that's something I think I can live with.

With all the talk about the health benfits of dark chocolate, particularly the chocolate that is at least 60% cacao, I have been branching out and trying the darker, more serious stuff. I think I've converted; milk chocolate is almost too sweet for me now, and even my M&Ms have gone dark. But this morning I stumbled across a dark (and therefore healthy, right?) treat that I have to share with my readers.

On sale at Kroger's this week were all varieties of "Cacao Reserve" bars by everyone's favorite American chocolatier, Hershey's. I got one of each, and wasn't terribly impressed with the other one I tried , a milky bar with only 35% cacao. Today's rocks my socks, though. It's the 65% cacao bar with cacao nibs. And oh my God, the nibs.

I thought it might be too much. But it's kinda like a Nestle Crunch's dark and obscenely wealthy evil twin. Except instead of the crispiness coming from rice, it's coming from little chopped up cacao beans. The chocolate itself is smooth as velvet, then you get this little crunch from even richer, very finely-crushed nuggets of the pure stuff...excuse me while I wipe the drool off my laptop.

The downside? While rationing the rather large bar into segments so I didn't go over the recommended 3-block serving (the label on the back states, "Like most indulgent treats, Cacao Reserve by Hershey's should be enjoyed in moderation"--you mean I shouldn't eat the whole bar to get double the health benefits?) I sent cacao nibs flying everywhere, including on my fairly new Gap khakis, where they melted into little dark-brown blobs.

Really, though, a small price to pay for a few minutes in chocolate heaven.