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Show taste of success Before you go spending your By hard-earne- d Cross Currents' investigational reporter youre a chemist, the words theobromine and probably dont mean a thing to you. But if youre a they mean a lot to your psyche. Along with and of course sugar, these two little chemicals are the main culprits in chocolate that are icsponsible for putting a smile on your face and keeping it there. Together, these forces have created quite a little industry fot themselves. Annually more than 600,000 tons of chocolate are consumed worldwide. And its safe to say a sizable chunk of this is taken down on Valentines Oav. It's a chocolate maker's dream but rt chocolate buyers nightmare. With a profusion of brands flooding the market, picking the right sweets for your sweet can be an arduous task. Choosy chocolate lovers have to spend long hours deciding betwreen light, or clusters, not to mendark, prepackaged, cream-fille- d tion local or national brands. Its enough to leave the most avid addict wondering if all the toil is worth the treasure. Is there realty a difference between brands beyond the pretty packaging and price tag? Unices 4 hand-dippe- d, Are all chocolates created equal? 8 Cross Currents - February 4, 2000 money on chocolates, chew on this. After pondering this dilemma ourselves. Cross Currents decided to amass a team of semiprofessional chocolate tasters to eat their way to the bottom of this debate, even if it took them all day. And after testoptions, our answer is an unequivoing six brands and two sugar-fre- e cal (and somewhat hyper) yes, yes and yes. winner was a bit of a dark horse. Honey s Sweet The hands-dow- n Shop, located in the back of the Dusty Attic in Farmington and owned by Sharon Tinglev has barely been open five years. Yet the young entrepreneur and mother of two has definitely hit on a winning recipe. what kind of chocolate you can get your hands on, says Kathy Rapp, Tingley's assistant candy maker. But if youre looking for a clue as to what Tingleys trade secret is, shes not talking. Its a guarded secret, she says, adding that many months of research went into finding just the right raw materials. Th; trick was to find one that worked well and tasted good, says Tingle). If you think a woman is temperamental, you should try working with chocolate. The whole secret is Pleas sea page 13 |