Rich Thornton Chocolates
Flavor of Thornton Chocolates
I love chocolate. I love chocolate a lot, though as I've grown older I've found this love has become more limited. Companies whose chocolates I used to enjoy, companies similar to Thornton Chocolates, just don't quite cut it anymore, not most of the time. For one thing, I find I can only indulge a little at a time now. A bar that would have lasted me a few days when I was younger now lasts me a few weeks. Also, I find it much harder to appreciate chocolate with a lot of sugar in it; where I was not particular before, now companies that "milk-and-sugar down" their chocolate, like Thornton Chocolates and almost every other company, just don't do it for me. I want chocolate that is rich, dark, and with a hint of bitterness.
Cost of Thornton Chocolates
Chocolate is both cheap and expensive. While I certainly don't want to pay a lot of money for a luxury like chocolate, and I am as guilty as the next person of trying to get the best deal even if it means fudging on quality (chocolate pun!), it seems to me that most chocolate is just too cheap. Even label chocolates like Thornton chocolates or others are so cheap sometimes that I have to wonder just what are they putting in those chocolates? Better question, what aren't they putting in those chocolates. I'll tell you what: good, high quality chocolate. Either they use cheap beans, or they increase the amount of other ingredients and flavorings to mask the lack of chocolate in their chocolate. I don't know that Thornton chocolates is guilty of this, certainly no more than every company in the world, but it is disturbing to me. Of course, it is highly unlikely that I would ever be able to do anything about this since the sad fact is that most people would prefer cheap milk chocolate from Thornton chocolates than rich, pure, dark chocolate (assuming both of those are offered by one company).
Choice of Thornton Chocolates
So, we choose day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year which kinds of chocolate companies we are going to support. Hersheys, Ghirardelli, Lindt, or Thornton Chocolates? Or make our own? Or an organic, family-owned, fair trade, locally grown chocolate company? Or none at all (yes, there are people out there who choose this, and yes I am shocked too). Ultimately, the chocolate fate of the world is in the hands of the individual buyers (or boycotters).
