Why is chocolate so messy?

Chocolate starts to melt at 94 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about body temperature. That's why good chocolate melts in your mouth. And good chocolate is what I am presenting on next Saturday at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn.

The good thing about presenting on good chocolate is that you have something good to give to the young intern who is coordinating your workshop, the one to whom you keep turning in stuff late and to whom you keep changing your mind and to whom you become high maintenance when she is just trying to do a good job.

Anyway, don't you love the artwork on the packaging? Traditional West African Adrinka symbols, described also as the philosophical alphabet. Each symbol has its own meaning like endurance and perseverance, beauty, learning from the past, and God's presence. There are 11 million cocoa farmers in West Africa. And it really gets messy when you're not sure if that figure includes the child slaves that the chocolate industry demands. That's also why this chocolate is good, no child slaves. Don't you just hate child slavery?

With thanks to my V.P. this picture is of children from a coop in Ghana, where the cocoa farmers are part owners in the Divine chocolate company, along with LWR. A good life could be another symbol for beauty.

How much cocoa does it take to produce a chocolate bar? One tree's whole crop for the year makes three 3.5 ounce bars like the mint dark chocolate bar pictured above.

What I learned today. Here's to the semi-sweet transition back to work. The LWR Chocolate Project. http://www.lwr.org/chocolate

With love, T