I used to love dark chocolate as a kid, though I was eating mostly Hershey’s. I’ve always liked dark chocolate for as long as I can remember because it always had a more full taste and wasn’t all sugar. As I got older I would eye out the better chocolate like Lindt and get the 70% or 85% cocoa bars. Even at that point of my own chocolate journey I didn’t eat much, maybe a bar a month. Then one day while shopping at my local neighborhood Target I saw a bar I hadn’t seen at the other evil big box stores and that chocolate was Endangered Species Chocolate. I saw on the wrapper that they gave away 10% of net profit to charity and that’s really what helped me make the decision to buy my first bar from them.

Ever since then 95% of my chocolate intake has been Endangered Species Chocolate.  My favorite bar is the 88% cocoa (Panther) the richest and most flavorful one that they have. I do enjoy there 72% bar with and without the additions. The new organic dark chocolate bars are quite good but I have not had the one with pecans in it yet. It seems like I have always gone for the darkest deepest chocolate since I found out I had a brain.

Whenever I cook or eat I must have all the items tend to be from the same original origin (like where they where in the beginning of the world). So since cocoa originally comes from South America (so do tomatoes and potatoes) I might as well enjoy it with a beverage from South America because sometimes the bitter dark chocolate makes me a little thirsty. That is when I found the most awesome combo – Yerba Mate tea with dark chocolate. Yerba Mate is an amazing plant that makes you feel awesome read more here…….. be sure to check out all the health benefits.

I love chocolate (in moderation of course I learned my lesson last week) and it has lead me into this wonderful internship that has opened doors in my mind for my career focus. Who knows?, When I am out of college in four or five years I’ll come back and the door to ESC will be open for me again (hopefully).