Chocolate

Chocolate lovers are picking Obama chocolates 3 to 1 over McCain in an unscientific poll.

Recently I went to the dentist for the first time in ten years. I was very concerned about the state of my teeth given that I have several existing cavities, had not been to the dentist for a long time, and eat a ton of chocolate (nibbling on it too - which is much worse than eating it in a shorter time period).

However, I didn't have a single cavity! So I looked up to see if chocolate is good or bad for teeth and found the following link. In general, chocolate with sugar is better for the teeth than plain sugar (though it is still bad). I'm guessing the caffeine/drying out the mouth effect from dark chocolate is very minimal (saliva is a good thing for your teeth - one of the reasons coffee is bad).

Ghirardelli has replaced their Double Chocolate Chips with new 60% Double Chocolate Chips. The older chips had a lower cocoa content (perhaps 50-53%).

Unfortunately, Ghirardelli also added Milk Fat to their chips. Thus making them non-vegan. This is very sad, as they had been producing the best chocolate chips that I've tasted, and were also doing a good job of breaking the whole "vegans cannot eat chocolate" myth.

I called Ghirardelli to confirm this, and learnt that the amount of Milk Fat in their product is between 1-2%.

Up until now I've been a relatively strict vegan, who eats honey, but doesn't eat anything that I know contains even just 1g of dairy -- unless it is going to be thrown out (so that I'm not adding to the oppression/environmental costs of dairy).

Before Christmas, Trader Joes had a massive stack of 10 pound Ghirardelli semi-dark chocolate bars for $19.99. Unfortunately they contained milk.