Most of Us are Not Such Purists

A proper chocolate addict consumes the object of his obsession in tablets of pure, bitter chocolate. Like many addicts, they will have their supply lines protected, often keeping a stash of bars in the fridge. I have even heard of chocoholics who keep their supply in a locked fridge in the garage and allow themselves a set number of visits a day. They’ve got it bad.

They are lucky in one respect. A generation ago, there was not much dark chocolate – and a true chocoholic would never settle for anything less – available beyond the Bournville brand. Good supermarkets now have a profusion of fine chocolate from companies such as Valrhona and Cluizel, often offering ‘single plantation’ chocolates with sometimes alarmingly high percentages of cocoa butter. The true chocoholic, once they have dismissed those bars flavoured with orange, cardamom, chilli or mint, has never been better off.