Monkeys Are Made of Chocolate

by Jack Ewing

Organic cocoa is a specialty food that can be processed and marketed locally in our area. Before cocoa reaches you in the form of a Hershey Bar or Mars Bar, it undergoes substantial changes. Some of the natural components are removed and replaced by other substances. The biggest change is the removal of cocoa butter, a valuable ingredient used in the cosmetic industry, which is replaced with vegetable oil. Then sugar, milk and other ingredients are added. The end product is creamier, more heat resistant, sweeter, more attractive, a lot more fattening and a lot cheaper to produce. Everything that is added to cocoa costs less than pure cocoa. With other addictive substances, this dilution process is called cutting. Chocolate manufacturers would probably object to that term. Locally produced organic cocoa can be processed with the original cocoa butter still in the final product, that is, without cutting the addictive brown powder. Although high in calories, cocoa butter is poorly digested by humans and isn’t readily assimilated by the body. That’s right! Organic chocolate, locally produced, doesn’t make you fat. Listen up, all you chocolate junkies: You can indulge your habit without fear of breaking the bathroom scale.