OK - I'm home sick and feeling kind of sorry for myself. My boyfriend was going down to the bar and asked me if I'd like anything. I asked for some chocolate - thinking maybe some yummy dark chocolate which they usually sell at our local bar here in Rome.

Anyway he just got back clutching a bag of peanut M&Ms saying "they said it's not cold enough for chocolate yet"! WTF???!!!
Can you only eat chocolate when it's cold outside? I eat chocolate all year round - this is going to be hard for me!

Have others experienced this or any other weird seasonal food rules?

I did notice something strange regarding chocolate on our recent travels in Liguria and on Elba Island. You know that in most corner shops and service stations around the world there is an extensive selection of chocolate bars (Mars Bars, Lion, Twix, M&Ms, etc etc.) usually near the cassa to entice you? Well as we were on holidays I felt it was okay to let loose and was actually looking for chocolate bars but couldn't find them anywhere. Our local alimentari shop which sold absolutely everything from lilos to prosciutto had none, and nor did any of the service stations we went to. I thought this was a little bit strange. Probably a good thing for everyone, but still...

I have no big chocolate experience, but come up against culinary rules and regulations on a regular basis. (We live in Piemonte, my husband is Pugliese and a great cook...and SOOOOO dogmatic about food do's and don'ts) I prepared lasagne this Christmas for a BIG dinner party consisting of my husband's family PLUS my Piemontese godmother, etc. It was my first "big family dinner" and I was very nervous. They are ALL great cooks and I am not. I sought advice on all fronts, and ran up against a huge conflict: The Pugliese insisted that in NO WAY could I POSSIBLY put bechamel in the Lasagne. In addition to ruining the flavor of the lasagne it would indeed be unhealthy. The Piemontesi maintained that lasagne was not lasagne without bechamel. In the end I did not use it. Everyone ate it, everyone loved it....and my personal revenge: I used seitan instead of beef (hubby is vegetarian) and NO ONE NOTICED! NOONE....(prepared Marcella Hazan's bolognese-style, cooked in the evil demon milk, which I carefully hid from all of the southerners, including my husband, who would have been appalled). This year, I am hoping someone else does Christmas....

Hi,

Yes it may happen. Believe me, your local bar has high standards of quality if it does so.
In fact, only fresh chocolate and only in cold months (end october - end April) is some cases sold. I find it a very good thing. Honestly, in summer Italians seldom eat melting (ekk) and stale chocolate. There is gelato al cioccolato for our weekly shot. In any cases, give a try to NUTELLA.This is good all year round, on bread or biscuits.You can put it in the fridge if you want it harder or use it for making semifreddo.
In big supermarkets you find chocolate all year round and of any type, baci perugina, ferrero rocher, gli ovetti kinder, Swiss chocolate of terrific quality, italian black chocolate. I hear you live in Lazio. Try the black SPALMELLA from Viterbo nuts. It's delicious. Anyway, the southest you go the fewst bars keep old chocolate, and always have the best and freshest one in winter.
Hope this helps. In bocca al lupo per la tua nostalgia, un bacio
Chiara

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chia of Bologna,

Just imagine buying a Mars Bar (or the like) with the temperature at 35c! No you can't find chocolate bars in the summer, and even if it was available it would be so unhealthy - melting during the day and semi reset at night, and we all know what effect that has on chocolate....
Also during the summer months you can't buy 'cream/panna' cones for the kids. That is a delicacy (yuk) that the kiddywinks have to wait until winter for. Along, I might add, with roast chestnuts from the chestnut man on the corner or in the market..now they are yummy!!!

Gosh it never occurred to me that it was a seasonal thing, but maybe you're right. I come from a place where it doesn't really drop below 20 degrees Celsius during the daytime all year, so we keep our chocolate bars in the fridge. Yes that's right - in all convenience stores and service stations in the hotter parts of Australia you will find chocolate bars in the fridge.

We're not talking gourmet chocolate here - those chocolate bars like Mars, Twix etc are so packed with sugar and bad stuff that I don't think any amount of setting and resetting would do them much harm.

I also have some friends who put them in the freezer before eating them. I admit that maybe that is going a bit far.

Ih ad the same thing happen to me last week, the man in the shop said he had the odd bar left in the back but it was the wrong time of year for chocolate. I bought the leftover chocolate, but when I opened the chocolate it was all white & yucky , it didn't taste too good either.

This is not just a cultural thing. Chocolate, in hotter weather, tends to lightly melt. Not enough to become soft, but enough to separate. The fat than rises to the surface, veiling it, while the actual chocolate gets a bit chalky.

And there is the cultural side. Here chocolate is something for winter. Not just because in summer it melts on you. Chocolate is culturally associated to a sense of warmth and reminds of the winter festivities (chocolate is actually one traditional Christmas gift). In summer I can feel hot just thinking about chocolate! ^___^

quote:

Originally posted by kerry:
I also have some friends who put them in the freezer before eating them. I admit that maybe that is going a bit far.

I mentioned Mars Bars 'cos I thought they would be easily recognised as eminently 'meltable'. However, yes I have friends who put them in the freezer, andeven worse - fry them (!) don't ask me how. Just the thought of 'fried chocolate' is awful!

When I returned to Italy this past summer I went on a hunt for Pocket Coffee. (yes- it is italian, despite the name.) This pocket of goodness was nowhere to be found. I searched bars, small shops, large markets, everywhere! and noone had it. I finally asked my cousin to buy me some and he gave me this strange look. "you want what? what are you crazy? it's august"

Silly me, I guess. I am loading up next month when I go back. If it's cool enough, maybe they will have it out.

Hey Kerry - I'm Australian too! It's hot in Australia too - but we REFRIGERATE things which melt or go bad in hot weather ie chocolate, icecream, milk, yoghurt, cream. Haven't Italians ever heard of refrigeration. Struth!

I don't get why chocolate in summer would be "old" - why can't chocolate be manufactured all year round like other foods?

I think it must be a cultural thing as someone above pointed out - chocolate is associated with "warmth" by Italians. Fair enough but it's going to be a long summer every summer for me!

Can I also say that all these other Italian food rules are driving me nuts. Why so intolerant of other's tastes?

OK - just had to vent. It's moments like these that I miss the easygoing Australians...

rtpm: as I stated before, the point is not that chocolate in summer must be old, it's that in summer chocolate goes bad. The fat (cocoa butter) goes to the surface making it white and chalky. Low quality chocolate producers rig their products with other fats, usually of a lower quality and that change the taste of the chocolate, but in Italy there is a limit of 5% on these other fats. If you go to a supermarket you can still find chocolate, mostly the tablets used to cook with, but this keeps only because the supermarkets are AC, while most of Italy is not. Een so, it is advisable to place the chocolate either close to cooler stuff (frozen foods, for instance) or to put in a thermic bag to bring it back home.

Pocket coffee are a whole different story. In first place, the chocolate layer is too thn to keep in the keat, secondly despite it being of a quite poor quality, Ferrero stops selling its chocolate products like Pocket Coffee in summer because of image reasons: they don't sell their chocolates like the quality producers do, thus they try to look like quality producers.

Alice - I don't think you understood what I said. I said that in other hot countries (I'm thinking of Australia where I'm from) things which go bad in hot weather such as chocolate, butter, yoghurt, milk, icecream etc - are REFRIGERATED. Therefore they don't melt. We also have refridgerated trucks.

Chocolate should NEVER be refrigerated because also the cold changes its consistency. Basically, to eat a chocolate that's been refrigerated (not just kept in a cool basement or in a dispensa, I mean in the fridge), one must place it in a warmer place to allow it to thaw until it regains its natural creamyness. Doing so, though, once again causes the fat (well, except it's rigged with low quality but basically freeze-free fats) to perspirate to the surface. Basically solid chocolate should be prepared, preserved and consumed at a temperature of 18-25°C.

Actually I always keep my chocolate in the fridge. I don't know why you think chocolate should never be refrigerated. This sounds like yet another one of those dogmatic Italian food rules. I don't buy it. If it tastes good to me I'll eat it. I also like to drink cappuccino after lunch - so there!

OK - this is ridiculous to argue over chocolate. I admit that I'm in a crabby mood as I have the flu and am really craving some chocolate. But enough with the "this must NEVER be done" bullsh**. Maybe you prefer your chocolate un-refrigerated but that is your personal preference not a rule to be applied to all. OK?

RPTM: on this forum debate (even heated) is welcome, insults are not. I invite you to keep a more appropriate attitude towards the other posters.

I didn't insult you - just to point out that what you consider to be the "correct" way to eat something is not "correct" for everyone.

I guess tone is difficult over the internet. I call a spade a spade (I'm an Aussie afterall). I'll try to tone it down.

quote:

I call a spade a spade

Well, it appears you don't know your spades when it comes to chemistry. Please defer to those who do.

Nothing against calling spade a spade, but doing so keeping an educated speech is welcome on the board, doing so using insults and words like "bull****" is not. I am not the one who made the rules, but my job is to ask partecipants to follow the rules.

Regarding opinions, I am sorry to tell you that chemistry is not an opinion, as well as the behavior of pure coca butter chocolate is not. You can refrigerate chocolate produced with other fats of lower quality, they won't budge. if you do it with quality chocolate made with cocoa butter only you are bound to faliure.

quote:

Originally posted by AliceTwain:
Pocket coffee are a whole different story. In first place, the chocolate layer is too thn to keep in the keat, secondly despite it being of a quite poor quality, Ferrero stops selling its chocolate products like Pocket Coffee in summer because of image reasons: they don't sell their chocolates like the quality producers do, thus they try to look like quality producers.

No offense Alice, but since when is Ferrero not a quality brand? Of all my family and friends in Italy, not once has anyone mentioned to me that this is not quality chocolate. And the entire fridge/no fridge debate, that too is a personal thing, I always travel to Italy in August, and I always find chocolate my family's fridge. Does it effect taste? Maybe, but it beats A) not having any or B) having it melt. Also, August is the time of year when most locals get visitors from the US or nearby Switzerland, and trust me, they all run to the fridge to store their goodies.

In my humble opinion, nothing beats Darrell Lea! (it's an Australian brand -very cheap and un-snobbish- I'm sure no one outside Australia has heard of it).

Point is - everyone likes their own chocolate (the one they grew up eating) in their own way. It has nothing to do with chemistry - just good eating, nostalgia and tastebuds.

In fact, my South American ex boyfriend used to drink hot chocolate with melted cheese in it - he swore that this was the only way to drink hot chocolate and was astounded that others did not do this. Once you got used to it - it was quite delicious.

Well, Ferrero is a popular brand, no doubt, this does not mean that it's high quality. Amongst mass trade brands Perugina, while not a top quality brand, or Novi are much better. Ferrero doesn't even produce true chocolate AFAIK, only strongly sugared flavored chocolates, like Kinder eggs and bars, and nutella, which is, despite being famous and popular, one of the worst such creams available in Italy. It's like Kraft Mac'n'cheeese in the US: the fact that most people eat it at least once in a while does not mean that it's high quality. Believe me, I have three Mon Cheri right in the drawer of my desk right now (and one in my belly since a couple of hours), but there is much better chocolate.

Compare the most famous Ferrero product, nutella, to any of its counterpart: it's bland, sticky, tasteless and slightly oily where even cheap Novi cream is flavorful, strongly scented of taosted hazelnut, creamy, smooth bt still with a little crunchyness from the hazelnuts, and leaves your moth clean but with a wonderful coca aftertaste. And we are talking about another cheap supermarket brand product, just like Ferrero's!

Take one step furthe, and get yourself a tablet of 62% Lattenero chocolate by Slitti (currently one of my favorite chocolate makers). This is a milk chocolate with a high purcentage of cocoa powder and cocoa butter only. It's aromatic, sweet but not overly so to allow the taste of cocoa to reach you fully, yet creamy in the mouth and mellow. You will not help noticing the difference.

quote:

Originally posted by AliceTwain
where even cheap Novi cream is flavorful, strongly scented of taosted hazelnut, creamy, smooth bt still with a little crunchyness from the hazelnuts, and leaves your moth clean but with a wonderful coca aftertaste.

Didn't even know Novi made a cream! Thanks for the recommandation.

quote:

Take one step furthe, and get yourself a tablet of 62% Lattenero chocolate by Slitti (currently one of my favorite chocolate makers).

Also, not something I have heard of, will research this on my next trip.

It's not that easy to find. Much dipends on where you will be based.

quote:

And the entire fridge/no fridge debate, that too is a personal thing, I always travel to Italy in August, and I always find chocolate my family's fridge.

Of course, it's a personal thing. But that's not what's being discused here.

If a company (or an individual) goes to the effort of crafting a product in a particular way, it's unproductive to handle that item in a way that undoes those features. You like to drink hot chocolate with melted cheese? Go for it! Nobody wants to stop you.

But we're talking about the chocolate here, not about you: when you mix melted cheese with hot chocolate, you don't have hot chocolate any more - you have hot chocolate with melted cheese!

Likewise, boil an egg. It changes form. This is a matter of chemistry, not personal preference. If you grew up liking hard boiled eggs, that's preference.

But some uses of eggs work out better if they are not hard boiled. That's chemistry. Try making a cake with a hard boiled egg.