Ode to Chocolate

[KathyLauren]

I read an article today about a trans CIA agent (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/transgender-cia/520050/) that, quite incidentally, had this to say: "Chocolate is amazing on estrogen." 

One of the first people I came out to told me, "Now, you'll have cravings for chocolate." 
"Too late," I replied, "I have always had cravings for chocolate."
"In fact," I continued, smacking my forehead like Homer Simpson in a D'oh! moment, "That should have been an early clue!"

I can't say that I've noticed a difference between chocolate on T and chocolate on E, but I will agree that chocolate is amazing.  I hear people say that chocolate is better than sex, and I know exactly what they mean: it is more available; it gets you higher; it lasts longer (sorry, TMI).

So what do you think about chocolate?  Did you notice a difference after starting HRT?  Is is a wonder drug or just junk food?  Do you stockpile it in case there is a shortage?  (Guilty on that one!) 

[Steph Eigen]

Yes, Kathy, chocolate is amazing. 

I have no experience of chocolate on estorgen, but I suspect it's spectacular with or without E,T or P.  Personally I like the simple dark, about 70% cocoa solids type for most occasion--usually Lindt Excellence 70%; it's available, excellent quality, and always in my reserves stashed away in my kitchen. 

A really simple mind blowing treat is this with some big usually somewhat tannic red wine.  I like it either toward the sweet such as vintage ruby port (Taylor Fladgate or Graham's Six Grape) or toward the dry (big zinfandel, cab or syrah based wines from either new or old world).

Also, a simple desert we serve to friends and guests--70% dark goes well with sharp, salty Romano or similar hard aged cheeses and a ripe pear or black tannic table grapes.

On the question of sex, it can go either way.  NEver worse, sometimes better, sometimes leads to...

[CoriM]

Sex leads to chocolate and wine? Life is hard.

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

[KathyLauren]

A really simple mind blowing treat is this with some big usually somewhat tannic red wine.

OMG, YES!!!  One of my favourite combinations!  And yes, quite mind-blowing.

Sex leads to chocolate and wine? Life is hard.

LOL!   

[Steph Eigen]

Life's simple pleasures are usually the best.

[Kylo]

I like dark chocolate, the kind that most people don't, the 70% plus cocoa kinds, the weird "bitter" ones, or the types without regular sugar.

To be honest since HRT I have found it pretty easy to give up. I gave it up along with most junk food in December, I hope for good. I notice I do not think about eating anymore if stressed, HRT itself has reduced the stress almost completely anyway.

I have sat and watched other people eating chocolate and cake with zero desire to join them in it, them basically waving it under my nose and telling me to eat it and attempting to see if I'll cave. Wouldn't have resisted a few months ago. Something has changed.

Can't say I ever got much pleasure out of eating it, whatever they say about it being equivalent to sex or a hug. Like a dog who eats it because it's there and hoiks it back up again. Except nothing escapes my cast-iron stomach.

[Steph Eigen]

Yep. Go for the 85-90% cocoa solids bitter chocholate with a cup of really good espresso.  Wow!

[Michelle_P]

Steph, KathyLauren, you two are KILLING me.  Auggggh!

Dark bitter chocolate and espresso...  Red wine and dark chocolate... Oh, why did I have to look at this thread?

I feel a lost weekend coming on.   TCHO chocolates two blocks away, Prima and their lovely wine shop calling...  I need someone to lash me to the mast lest I be drawn onto the shoals by the Sirens call.

[KathyLauren]

Yep. Go for the 85-90% cocoa solids bitter chocholate with a cup of really good espresso.  Wow!

Lindt have a 99% chocolate that is available from time to time.  It is a bit too intense to just chow down on, but with an espresso ... Oh, yeah!

[Steph Eigen]

Michelle,

Careful with the literary allusions:  The man, Odysseus was lashed to the mast, the sirens' call is definitely a straight-cis call to the me of the crew! 

Maybe better, the lost time, the entrancing effect of chocolate like the spell of Circe over Odysseus. 

Steph

[Devlyn]

Alas, I fear Michelle has set sail for Cacao Island. 

[KathyLauren]

Alas, I fear Michelle has set sail for Cacao Island. 

Bwah-ha-ha!  We snared another one.  High-five, Siren Steph!

[Dee Marshall]

Dark chocolate with chili and a good dark beer like Guinness! Wine is good too.

[JeanetteLW]

Milk or dark chocolate cordial cherries before and after E.  End of story.

[Kylo]

Green & Blacks used to do a kind of dark chocolate with cherries inside it. Not sure if they still do.

They do an 85% kind now for you cocoa fiends.

[Angela Drakken]

I've oddly never really fancied chocolate. Most light/milk chocolate products I find too oily for human consumption, and most dark I find too powdery. I've yet to find a happy medium. Mint chocolate items or orange chocolate (something to take the edge off the chocolate flavor itself) I can tolerate in small doses. I could definitely do without chocolate entirely, my guilty pleasures have always been more along the lines of salty or peppery snacks or ice cream. >.>

[KathyLauren]

most dark I find too powdery.

Yes, the cheap stuff can be.  I see from your profile that you are in Canada.  If you can find Denman Island chocolate, it is the creamiest, smoothest chocolate you will ever taste.  (Full disclosure: I worked in their factory at one time. Bwah-ha-ha!    )  Nothing remotely grainy about it.  We can even get it here in Nova Scotia, so it is right across the country.

[steph2.0]

Susan's doesn't want me to resurrect this thread, but I don't care! Kathy just sent me here, and I'm gonna make my thoughts known. This thread ended before I started here, so I wonder what other awesome things I've missed...

I just loves me dark chocolate. The bitterer the betterer, and with coffee of any kind... O.M.G. Sue only likes pure chocolate, but I like mine with fruit, too, especially dark chocolate cordial cherries. Drooool.

I hadn't thought about it with wine, and I know so little about it anyway. But I just found a bottle of Pinot Noir that someone left behind from my party, so I poured myself a glass and went to get some chocolate... and there isn't a single bite in the house. Oh, the humanity!

I do have chocolate ice cream. Anybody ever try a chocolate pinot noir float?

Stephanie

[Jessica_Rose]

If you like really dark chocolate, Montezuma Chocolate makes a bar called Absolute Black. It is the only 100% dark chocolate bar I have ever found that was edible. I ordered quite a bit of chocolate from them this year, including three dozen bars of Absolute Black. They are in the UK. I ordered on a Saturday and it was at my door in Colorado on Friday.

[Christy Lee]

I LOVVEEEEE Chocolate, its my krpytonite.. OMG any kind of chocolate.... not really Dark or White chocolate kind of girl but everything else YESSS gimme gimme gimme

and i have also wondered if Chocolate tastes better on E