sister Archives – The Chocolate Website

Originally, the plan for today was either to tell you about what I put everyone through when sharing my chocolate
(bring a notebook!) or a bright and cheerful chocolate photo I can’t wait to share ’cause it makes me HAPPY. But we interrupt our regularly scheduled broadcast: There was a brazen chocolate thief at my house Saturday. Or should I say a brazen chocolate chomper?

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Broadcast - Mantuano Granola Chocolate (Mantuano Granola – Artisanal Chocolate made in Venezuela)

It is not very hard to leave chocolate unattended on Saturdays. (Any other day of the week chocolate is safely secured in MY chocolate drawer, which doesn’t even need a KEEP OUT sign because everybody is already well trained to leave it alone.) (Right now I’m hoarding things like Alter Eco Dark Twist (chocolate with crystallized orange peel) in there.) On Saturdays, chocolate is strewn on multiple fridge shelves, on the table, and all across the house as I ferry it back and forth to my studio*, either snapping photos or dictating which shots should be snapped if Sam happens to be available. (Sam is my brother, my sometimes-photographer, and, when chocolate disappears, he is generally considered the primary suspect. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten chocolate out, turned my back for two seconds, and find he has somehow managed to carry it off already. On the plus side, he usually brings it back intact.)

Chocolate was everywhere and the photo-shoot was well underway, resulting in photos like the one above. I unwrapped this bar, temporarily set it aside for additional photos, and…all of the sudden there was a bite out of it. A big bite out of it. A somebody-was-not-messing-around, definitely-wanted-me-to-notice-there-was-a-bite-out-of-it, bite out of it. (For the record, I probably would have noticed if someone had even touched it.)

My favorite sister’s name is Gwen. Before you go and get all huffy about me picking favorites, please note she’s also my only sister. (It’s a joke we have.) We’re twins. We certainly don’t look identical and we were born in different years, but we’re twins. We say the exact same things at the exact same time, we know exactly what the other is thinking (most of the time), and our own parents can’t tell our voices apart when they’re speaking to one of us on the phone.

Gwen hates coffee. (This is a phenomenon that does occur in a very small percentage of the world’s population. It is also a revelation that rather bewilders coffee lovers. “How could anyone not like coffee?”) I, on the other hand, can take or leave coffee. After reading the laughter-inducing “It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity,” (quote by Dave Barry) it has come to my attention that my coffee drinking habits are, well…recreational. I’m not quite sure I would go so far as to say they’re inhumane.

No Coffee Allowed - Kakao Coffee Chocolate Still Life Photo (See what she’s missing out on?)

This aversion to coffee does not just apply to the liquid form. There are also issues with the smell (which further astounds the coffee lovers) and extends to coffee being added to absolutely anything. This, of course, brings me to chocolate with coffee in it. I can remember at least two occasions when I very innocently ended up feeding her coffee by way of chocolate.