That's a Washington Post article — gift link — that Meade sent me just now.
I was all: I saw that yesterday and already had a long discussion with Grok about it. Here are my 6 prompts:
1. why is dark chocolate better than milk chocolate?
2. so everything that's in dark chocolate is also in milk chocolate, it's just that there's ALSO something else in milk chocolate: milk. So what's the problem? If I had a tiny shot of milk along with my dark chocolate, they'd be the same, right?
3. 5–6 times the sugar — but the sugar in dark chocolate is severely low. assume I don't want to live like that
4. so big deal -- twice as much as a very small amount. why lose the joy over that?
5. I have near total anosmia, and the sweetness and *creaminess* of milk chocolate really come through for me. The *bitterness* and brittleness of dark chocolate are severe *to me*
6. dark chocolate people strive to characterize their food as a health food. I'm a bit intolerant of the bullshit and care about the last vestiges of pleasure
पोस्ट्स
४२ टिप्पण्या:
True wisdom, Ann. When experts sliver-slice micro benefit differentials, based on their own criteria, we must evaluate our own preference, unless the issue is leaving a burning house. Don't experts have a real life outside smarty-pants land?
I broke down and tried Dubai chocolate. It's gross. Also how ridiculous is it that this type of chocolate was created by a Filipino chef?
@Althouse, you got that right.
I don't eat dark chocolate because I believe it's a health food. I actually like the taste, but in small doses. I actually like to have a couple of pieces of Hershey's Special Dark with Almonds once in a while. I like milk chocolate, too, but the quality has gone downhill on a lot of the brands. The thing about having a liver transplant is that they give you a big list of foods that you're not supposed to eat anymore. (And it can vary from person to person) For example: My potassium is very high now, so I'm supposed to avoid high potassium foods like bananas and potatoes. (And my favorite food used to be potatoes.) And food does taste different to me now. So finding stuff to eat has become an interesting challenge lately.
I love the taste of dark chocolate. Milk chocolate is almost nauseating in its sweetness. I have a stockpile of Lindor 70% dark chocolate truffles, only 4 carbs and 3 sugars per truffle. The mouth feel is amazing once you bite into it and get to the creamy center, so good! If I had anosmia though, and I could actually taste something delicious that had great texture, I’d go for it too, enjoy!
I asked AI to write a shortish piece criticizing Trump on this issue. It is pretty much indistinguishable from a Maureen Dowd piece:
President Donald Trump's reported preference for dark chocolate over milk chocolate has prompted renewed questions about his judgment, temperament, and apparent inability to make even the simplest choices without revealing something unpleasant about himself.
While most Americans regard chocolate as an uncomplicated pleasure, Trump appears drawn to its more bitter and less appealing variety. Critics say the preference is consistent with a president who has repeatedly demonstrated a remarkable capacity to turn otherwise agreeable experiences into something unnecessarily disagreeable.
Milk chocolate, with its smoother texture and more balanced flavor, remains a popular choice among ordinary consumers. Trump's rejection of it may be another indication of how far removed his personal tastes have become from those of everyday Americans.
The White House has offered no explanation for the president's preference, nor has it indicated whether anyone close to Trump has attempted to persuade him to reconsider.
The amount of sugar in milk chocolate is not small. Spikes my blood glucose, whereas dark chocolate does not.
The best reason to eat a lot of chocolate every day is because hungry children need to eat! 70% of the world's chocolate comes the effort of 1.5 million child laborers in the Ivory Coast and Ghana. The children harvest cocoa with sharp machetes to clear brush and harvest pods, carry heavy loads, and spray toxic pesticides without protective gear. But they get paid (I think!) and use that money so their families can put food on the table!
I'm confused. The sugar in Lindt's dark chocolate truffle is almost identical to Lindt's milk chocolate truffle.
Nutrient Dark Milk
Calories 80 70
Carbs 5 g 5 g
Sugar 4 g 5 g
Original Mike: what dark and milk chocolates are you comparing?
I have the same experience as Original Mike @ 11:07.
Whiskeybum: what chocolates are you comparing? Lower GI maybe?
Eat dark chocolate. Go to Ireland with your Israeli T-shirt. When they throw milk on you, open your mouth and swallow. Smile and thank them.
"Original Mike: what dark and milk chocolates are you comparing?"
Dark chocolate with low added sugar. It appears that "Lindt's dark chocolate truffle" has higher amounts of added sugar.
I eat Lindt's 90% Cocoa dark chocolate. 30 grams (3 pieces), 200 calories, 2 grams sugar. I eat 1 or 2 pieces in a sitting, not 3.
There is something else in milk chocolate: sugar.
Chocolate in general is full of oxalates. Almost as much as boiled spinach. It is not good for you.
One Lindor milk chocolate truffle contains approximately 7.2 mg to 8.4 mg of magnesium, according to nutritional data tracked by the EatBetter app.
A single Lindt Lindor 70% Extra Dark Chocolate truffle (weighting about 12 g, calculated from a 3-ball serving of 36 g) contains roughly 19.5 mg of magnesium.
Google AI
Since I don’t choose dark chocolate for it’s nutrition (I suppose I should) but for its deep rich flavor, the magnesium content in dark chocolate is just a plus for me.
OM, yikes, 90%! That’s too bitter for me.
6. dark chocolate people strive to characterize their food as a health food. I'm a bit intolerant of the bullshit and care about the last vestiges of pleasure
The same goes for wheat, corn, sugar drinks, etc.
You can eat the poison. Just understand it is poison. The lies by the processed food industry are ridiculous.
I’ll take the Lindor truffle over the spinach.
A 1/2-cup serving of cooked spinach contains about 547 mg to 755 mg of oxalates, depending on the preparation and source, while 1 cup of raw spinach contains roughly 316 mg to 656 mg of oxalates.
Per Truffle Breakdown: Based on a 12-gram weight for a single ball, one Lindor 70% dark chocolate truffle contains roughly 25 mg of oxalates.
Google AI
If you want chocolate without the sugar here you go:
1. Low temperature or double boiler melt Cocoa Butter and 100% bakers chocolate 1:1
2. An amount of vanilla extract to your taste. You can add more later.
3. An amount of salt. Some is necessary, too much is unrecoverable except by adding more cocoa butter and bakers chocolate.
4. Add whatever combination of erythritol confectioners sweetener and erythritol brown sugar makes it as sweet as you want it to be.
To temper it poor into a shape and put it in the oven at 170-200 for a minute or two, then put it in the freezer.
Or just let it harden at room temperature.
Sounds like there are some low-sugar dark chocolates you can buy but not many low-sugar milk chocolates.
Maybe they can put less sugar into the dark chocolates because their customers want a bitter taste, while milk chocolate customers won't tolerate unsweet milk chocolate.
“Whiskeybum: what chocolates are you comparing? Lower GI maybe?”
This is just a general observation I’ve had over time. For instance, if I eat dark chocolate covered almonds, I’ll have a lower glucose spike than if those almonds are milk chocolate covered. Also, it seems that I need less dark chocolate to get my “fix” than milk chocolate.
Do we want to know how someone first discovered chocolate could be made edible? As with the Romans' garum, let's eat some rotten salted fish!
Don't eat chocolate late in the day, especially dark chocolate, if you suffer from muscle cramps/leg cramps at night.
I eat Lindt 85% cocoa (higher percentages use a different process that removes some of the good stuff), an acquired taste. There's 10 squares to a bar, I recommend eating 1/4 of one square until you're used to the taste, which grows on you.
A fine snack. A bar lasts several days obviously.
Gerda Sprinchorn--you have convinced me that the NYT and WaPo have replaced all of their reporters with AI.
I find that Inga and I share a taste in chocolate. Common ground.
Except that I really, really don't care how much oxalates it has.
Eat what you want and pay attention to whether it makes you feel good or get sick. The constant moral lecturing about food is tiresome.
You don't eat dark chocolate to improve your health, you eat it to improve your mood, and the health benefits are just a good excuse. Right now I'm enjoying some Cadbury's carmello sweetly dark, wishing they would make their 'fruit & nut' variety with dark chocolate.
Still can't find anything to beat the Trader Joe's dark chocolate caramels.
Hosting 20 humans for my Life Group for a potluck tomorrow. Doing pork tenders and roasted potatoes but also my triple chocolate pie with Dutch process dark, cocoa, dark chocolate bars (and 60-70% semi, not milk) and normally I’ll make a dark chocolate chiptotle and mandarin mousse but gonna lighten things up with a roasted strawberry and balsamic vinegar mousse. I’m at 4 oz meat per person but figuring 2 slices of pie!
I love me some dark chocolate, healthy or no!
“ I recommend eating 1/4 of one square until you're used to the taste, which grows on you.”
I don’t have time for a taste that “grows on me.” I want something that’s yummy right now. Hershey bars for me.
The 'brittleness' in the dark chocolate might be because you are sampling chocolate that is too low in cocoa butter. Try some of the chocolate chips that are used for baking and making ice cream, as they have the highest percentage of cocoa butter to keep them nice and unbrittle, even when frozen. Like these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJL3LYRW?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2&th=1
Gerda, I wasn’t sure how involved your prompt to AI was so I submitted the following, very simple prompt to Perplexity, "Write a short opinion column criticizing President Donald Trump for preferring dark chocolate to milk chocolate.”
I was impressed how it understood right away that this was intended as satire and responded:
*The following is a satirical opinion column based on the premise in your request, not a verified claim about Trump’s tastes.*
## Make Chocolate Sweet Again
A president should understand the American people. Yet, in choosing dark chocolate over milk chocolate, Donald Trump has apparently decided that even dessert needs to be a confrontation.
Milk chocolate offers a simple proposition: life is difficult; have something nice. Dark chocolate offers a lecture about cacao percentages from someone who has never once improved a dinner party.
This is not a dispute about sophistication. It is about judgment. When presented with two options—one creamy and welcoming, the other tasting faintly of a disciplinary hearing—Trump has chosen the one that requires its defenders to explain why the unpleasantness is actually the point.
Naturally, we can imagine the sales pitch: “Incredible chocolate. Very dark. Nobody’s ever seen percentages like these.”
A president is entitled to his preferences. The rest of us are entitled to ask why his idea of a treat needs to establish dominance over the tongue.
Pass the milk chocolate. Dessert should not require a strongman.
:-)
@inga per Grok: “The “70% cocoa” refers to the dark chocolate shell. The smooth melting center is a creamier filling that still contains sugar (plus milk ingredients, vegetable oils, etc.), so the overall product is not as low-sugar as a solid 70% dark chocolate bar.”
I'm bi-chocolaty. I like them both for their differences.
@inga per Grok: “The “70% cocoa” refers to the dark chocolate shell. The smooth melting center is a creamier filling that still contains sugar (plus milk ingredients, vegetable oils, etc.), so the overall product is not as low-sugar as a solid 70% dark chocolate bar.”
Yes, that’s why I prefer them to a solid 70% dark chocolate bar. But still, the total added sugars per one truffle is 3 grams, even with the creamy sweeter center. That’s pretty low.
“Nutrition (per 3-piece serving): Approximately 220 calories, 19g of total fat (14g saturated fat), 12g of carbohydrates (9g sugars), and 2g of protein.”
I eat ONE truffle, 3 sugars.
Google AI
I should also say I love dark chocolate 60 to 70%, in solid bars too, especially flavored bars, like mint, sea salt, nuts, chili, etc.
Anyone who loves milk chocolate should try out these Swiss (but produced in Germany) chocolate bars, delicious, but too sweet for my palate.
Milka Chocolate
Dark chocolate contains more flavanols than milk chocolateZ Antioxidants that dilate blood vessels, improve circulation and can lower blood pressure. There is cocoa power that is super rich in flavanols, available from Amazon. Dunno if it works but I’m still here…
Diversity, Edible, and Imbibing
I eat 80-90% dark chocolate, a couple of squares almost every day. It satisfies my chocolate craving without much sugar, sort of a healthier dessert substitute. I agree it's an acquired taste, but once you get used to it there's no turning back. 70% isn't really dark and still has a lot of sugar. But there is a lot of variation in taste among different brands. I don't like Lindt or Ghirardelli. My favorites are Pascha, Alter Eco, and Fair Trade.
Anosmia, A Poem
I would have cried because I had no eyes.
Then I met a man who had no nose.
I like Hersheys Coco, Cocoa, I don't know whatever it is. I eat a teaspoon at a time. I have to be careful not to breath it because it's so powdery dry. I put it under my tongue and let it sit there until it's wet enough to swallow it.
It's a drug. It makes me feel better. I enjoy it.
I haven't had any in a long time. I guess it's not very addictive.
A teaspoon sure does give me a quick rush though. Woo.
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