Chocolate: good for you
Cigar aficionados and the Truffle Man indulge
Jon Fisher
Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: Arts
The rich and smooth taste of chocolate can make the mouth water at just the thought of it. Trying not to think of it can make it worse.
When Associate Professor of French Marie-Claire Morellec offers her "essential" chocolate squares to her coworkers nobody can resist, she said.
"I have enough to survive and help my neighbors to survive," she said.
If Morellec is the chocolate lady in the offices, Assistant Professor of Classical Studies
Joe Garnjobst is the truffle man. Garnjobst makes truffles for his students and fellow professors regularly.
"I enjoy making them for people," he said. "Food isn't to be kept [to oneself]."
In the library, everyone seems to prefer chocolate flavors.
"It's that melt in your mouth," Librarian Mary Barnett said. "It's not all gummy and chewy."
Barnett offers students candy in the library on holidays like Halloween and Valentine's Day. Of all the candy she offers, the chocolate types go the fastest, she said.
Such appreciation is evidently typical for Americans. America's demand for chocolate per person ranks second only to Switzerland's. The average American consumes 12 pounds of chocolate a year, as opposed to Switzerland's 22 pounds per person, according to Aphrodite Handmade Luxury Chocolates, a British company that studies and sells chocolate.
Morellec said she eats a small square of chocolate once or twice a day.
"Loving chocolate is about the little pleasures in life," she said.
Chocolate acts as a small luxury for the Hillsdale Cigar Club.
"It added that little touch," senior Dylan Ewers, a club attendee, said. "It's not obvious. [People] get here and it's a bonus."
Using chocolate at the club was a spur of the moment choice, senior A.G. Reed, another attendee, said. But it worked surprising well, he said. The bowl is usually empty by the end of the night.
"People definitely keep an eye on the chocolate bowl," Ewers said.
While puffing a cigar and chatting with a professor, Ewers said he will occasionally reach for a small chocolate slab to cleanse his palate.
And chocolate may do more for smokers. Science Daily News reported in a Jan. 3, 2006, article that chocolate may stave off artery hardening in smoking. According to the report, those who ate dark chocolate while smoking had significantly smoother artery flow after consumption.
Researchers have also found the cocoa butter in chocolate to be a powerful antioxidant when not combined with milk, according to WebMD News.
Since dark chocolate contains 70 percent or more cocoa butter, it tends to be healthy if not eaten in large quantity.
"It's a food," Bray said. "You don't want the obesity that comes with the chocolate."
Other varieties such as milk chocolate and white chocolate have 40 percent or less cocoa butter and are high in sugar content, making them largely unhealthy.
Morellec said items have to be mostly composed of cocoa mass to be considered chocolate.
"I hate to say that a lot of the things we call chocolate here is not," she said.
Then there are finer qualities of chocolate. The more expensive chocolates are smoother and creamier, Morellec said.
The cigar club buys brands like Ghirardelli and Russell Stove, Reed said. However, depending on the night, they may try to match the chocolate with the flavor of the cigar.
"The darker the cigar, the darker the chocolate," Ewers said.
Although she prefers the French supermarkets with larger chocolate aisles than cereal aisles, any local grocery store will have good types of chocolate, Morellec said.
"I have found that over the years, the chocolate that you find around here and everywhere else is getting increasingly better and better," Morellec said. "It's definitely a European influence."
For truffles, Garnjobst said one should always buy the best quality ingredients one can afford.
Garnjobst's chocolate truffles have a surprising variety of flavors, much like Willy Wonka concoctions.
One starts with a bitter cocoa powder that dissolves into a chocolate layer.
After sucking for a moment, a cherry-like almond flavor intrudes, leaves an impression, then submits to a coffee taste.
Lastly, a black pepper spice erupts and remains in the aftertaste of the truffle.
Garnjobst said he tries to hit the different taste centers of the mouth. Though he's just dabbling in truffle-making, he is perfecting his art.
Next year, Garnjobst said he will enter his truffles into the Hillsdale County Fair.
"I figured if I'm going to be a member of this community, the Hillsdale County Fair is one of the community events I should be in," he said.
Morellec agreed that enjoying chocolate can be a uniting communal activity.
"You have to wonder if chocolate could solve some world problems," she said.
If it doesn't solve problems, it certainly helps ease them, junior B.J. Bray said. As a resident assistant in McIntyre Hall, Bray keeps Dove chocolate squares in her room to ease the stress of the girls on her hall.
"I think a lot of girls see it as an anti-depressant," she said.
Freshman Kirsten Adams said chocolate is a necessity, since it helps calm the emotions.
"Imagine if a bunch of super-emotional women were all over the place," she said. "I think there would be a lot more problems."
Hillsdale College Collegian 2007
When Associate Professor of French Marie-Claire Morellec offers her "essential" chocolate squares to her coworkers nobody can resist, she said.
"I have enough to survive and help my neighbors to survive," she said.
If Morellec is the chocolate lady in the offices, Assistant Professor of Classical Studies
Joe Garnjobst is the truffle man. Garnjobst makes truffles for his students and fellow professors regularly.
"I enjoy making them for people," he said. "Food isn't to be kept [to oneself]."
In the library, everyone seems to prefer chocolate flavors.
"It's that melt in your mouth," Librarian Mary Barnett said. "It's not all gummy and chewy."
Barnett offers students candy in the library on holidays like Halloween and Valentine's Day. Of all the candy she offers, the chocolate types go the fastest, she said.
Such appreciation is evidently typical for Americans. America's demand for chocolate per person ranks second only to Switzerland's. The average American consumes 12 pounds of chocolate a year, as opposed to Switzerland's 22 pounds per person, according to Aphrodite Handmade Luxury Chocolates, a British company that studies and sells chocolate.
Morellec said she eats a small square of chocolate once or twice a day.
"Loving chocolate is about the little pleasures in life," she said.
Chocolate acts as a small luxury for the Hillsdale Cigar Club.
"It added that little touch," senior Dylan Ewers, a club attendee, said. "It's not obvious. [People] get here and it's a bonus."
Using chocolate at the club was a spur of the moment choice, senior A.G. Reed, another attendee, said. But it worked surprising well, he said. The bowl is usually empty by the end of the night.
"People definitely keep an eye on the chocolate bowl," Ewers said.
While puffing a cigar and chatting with a professor, Ewers said he will occasionally reach for a small chocolate slab to cleanse his palate.
And chocolate may do more for smokers. Science Daily News reported in a Jan. 3, 2006, article that chocolate may stave off artery hardening in smoking. According to the report, those who ate dark chocolate while smoking had significantly smoother artery flow after consumption.
Researchers have also found the cocoa butter in chocolate to be a powerful antioxidant when not combined with milk, according to WebMD News.
Since dark chocolate contains 70 percent or more cocoa butter, it tends to be healthy if not eaten in large quantity.
"It's a food," Bray said. "You don't want the obesity that comes with the chocolate."
Other varieties such as milk chocolate and white chocolate have 40 percent or less cocoa butter and are high in sugar content, making them largely unhealthy.
Morellec said items have to be mostly composed of cocoa mass to be considered chocolate.
"I hate to say that a lot of the things we call chocolate here is not," she said.
Then there are finer qualities of chocolate. The more expensive chocolates are smoother and creamier, Morellec said.
The cigar club buys brands like Ghirardelli and Russell Stove, Reed said. However, depending on the night, they may try to match the chocolate with the flavor of the cigar.
"The darker the cigar, the darker the chocolate," Ewers said.
Although she prefers the French supermarkets with larger chocolate aisles than cereal aisles, any local grocery store will have good types of chocolate, Morellec said.
"I have found that over the years, the chocolate that you find around here and everywhere else is getting increasingly better and better," Morellec said. "It's definitely a European influence."
For truffles, Garnjobst said one should always buy the best quality ingredients one can afford.
Garnjobst's chocolate truffles have a surprising variety of flavors, much like Willy Wonka concoctions.
One starts with a bitter cocoa powder that dissolves into a chocolate layer.
After sucking for a moment, a cherry-like almond flavor intrudes, leaves an impression, then submits to a coffee taste.
Lastly, a black pepper spice erupts and remains in the aftertaste of the truffle.
Garnjobst said he tries to hit the different taste centers of the mouth. Though he's just dabbling in truffle-making, he is perfecting his art.
Next year, Garnjobst said he will enter his truffles into the Hillsdale County Fair.
"I figured if I'm going to be a member of this community, the Hillsdale County Fair is one of the community events I should be in," he said.
Morellec agreed that enjoying chocolate can be a uniting communal activity.
"You have to wonder if chocolate could solve some world problems," she said.
If it doesn't solve problems, it certainly helps ease them, junior B.J. Bray said. As a resident assistant in McIntyre Hall, Bray keeps Dove chocolate squares in her room to ease the stress of the girls on her hall.
"I think a lot of girls see it as an anti-depressant," she said.
Freshman Kirsten Adams said chocolate is a necessity, since it helps calm the emotions.
"Imagine if a bunch of super-emotional women were all over the place," she said. "I think there would be a lot more problems."
Hillsdale College Collegian 2007
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