February 14 - A Dark and Bitter Day

This is what's left of my Valentines box of darkness and bitterness.

By Magdalena I. García

I’m not a chocoholic, so it took me many years to figure out that I don’t care for milk chocolate, that I can enjoy white chocolate with the right filling (like raspberries) or covering certain snacks (like pretzels), but that I can really enjoy dark chocolate (or chocolate amargo, literally “bitter”, as it is called in Spanish). So, as you might imagine, this being Valentine’s Day weekend, I had my share of darkness and bitterness!

It all started on Saturday, when my husband A. and my son M. surprised me with the early delivery of a box of “The Windy City Collection.” It’s a wonderful sample of chocolates—mostly dark—with various fillings representing Chicago neighborhoods. So, depending on your mood, you can have a Humboldt Park (white chocolate with guava and coconut), a Pilsen (a layer of caramelized almond praline and a layer of spicy dark chocolate ganache), or a Gold Coast (dark chocolate with champagne, dusted with edible gold). And so on.

I know, your mouth is watering, so you want to know where to find this stuff. It comes from Rich Chocolates & Candies, a company specializing in handmade chocolates. You can buy these delicious treats at the Sweet Collective shop, 5333 N. Lincoln Ave., or online: http://www.richchocolates.com/.

And if you’re worried about your health, there is nothing to fear, as long as you consume this decadent stuff in moderation. According to Katherine Zeratsky, a registered dietician with MayoClinic.com, “chocolate and its main ingredient, cocoa, appear to reduce risk factors for heart disease.” The catch is, of course, limiting yourself to no more than three ounces (or 85 grams, if the conversion makes you feel better) per day!

This all reminds me that the church took quite a leap centuries ago when it converted the Last Supper—which was a complete meal—into what we call the Eucharist, Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper—which consists only of a bite of bread (or a dry wafer) and a sip of grape juice (hardly ever wine with us Presbyterians). I’m in favor of a return to the meal (I'd rather have cooking than building maintenance on my job description, and I think this would tremendously encourage fellowship and church growth). But until this retro leap makes it out of committee, maybe we can introduce chocolate at the Lord’s Table. Hey, if the Jewish tradition has bitter herbs, why can’t we have bitter chocolate?