Are You a Chocoholic? I think I might be a Chocoholic! Or Maybe You are Addicted to Other Drugs. By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr! August 12th, 2018

Are You a Chocoholic? I think I might be a Chocoholic!

Or Maybe You are Addicted to Other Drugs.

By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr!

August 12th, 2018

A chocoholic is a person who craves or compulsively consumes chocolate. There is some medical evidence to support the existence of actual addiction to chocolate. However, the term is mostly used loosely or humorously to describe a person who is inordinately fond of chocolate. The word chocoholic was first used in 1968 according to Merriam-Webster. It is a portmanteau of "chocolate" and "alcoholic". (Taken off the web.)

Eating chocolate started for me when I was a little boy. My human mother was painting a room in their very their first house, which is the dream of every true blue and red-blooded American who has a family. Unless you do not want a house, then that is ok too, especially if you are a working single person who travels a lot. I remember her going to the refrigerator and opening the refrigerator door and pulling that shiny black plastic rectangle with the words, HERSHEY on it. Wow! One bite into the old time, better quality Hershey chocolate, compared to today’s junky Hershey chocolate, and I was hooked for life on chocolate. Sorry folks, when I bit into today’s Hershey it is not same as the good old days.

But it was not like being hooked on drugs, like methamphetamine or heroin or even today’s higher potency marijuana. But in a way it was like being hooked on those other ‘drugs.’ I put something into my mouth and it tasted really good, back then when I was only a boy. It tasted good because back then, Hershey made really good chocolate. Not so good now. But it tasted good because the flavor on my tongue reached the insides of my brain, just like how other drugs reach inside human’s brains and make them addicted to those drugs.

When I was a little boy, my dad would let me take little slips from his beers. I did not really like the cheap beer he liked to drink, just like I do not like cheaply made beer or wine today as an adult. I did not like, nor do I like cheap beer because my brain does not like cheap beer or wine, or anything for that matter. I guess that I have an expensive brain. Maybe that is why I like expensive chocolate.

Last year I had a See’s candies coupon for a certain amount of money. Believe it or not, I was given that coupon about 20 years ago and I held onto it for until last year when I actually walked into a See’s candy store and used that coupon. As I walked into the See’s candy store, I asked the female cashier if the coupon was still good. And when she responded with a yes, my brain’s pleasure/enjoyment areas started to lit up on fire just as if I was enjoying some really good activity and fun. And what could more harmless fun than eating chocolate?

It really is amazing how anyone can walk around to chocolate stores and get a sample of chocolate for the day.

And talk about a good business model. Honoring a 20-year-old coupon was really good because now I was going to try See’s chocolates out of a new box for the very first time. They still use the exact same coupon too. Talk about saving money by not making different coupons every year or ten years. Why bother making new coupons when a basic coupon would work forever?

I walked around the store and I looked at all of the different white boxes with the words on them so I could figure out which box I was going to purchase. In no time at all, I knew which box of chocolates that I would be walking out of the store with and I was not in a very big hurry to eat them either. I had the box gift-wrapped just in case I was going to give the white box of See’s chocolates to some other lucky person. Sure! Like that was ever going to happen. Not in this lifetime, unless of course, I was actually going to the store to buy a box of chocolates for a gift to a lucky, hum, female.

Now, the white box was wrapped in fancy red wrapping paper, just like a Christmas gift to myself. Oh man! Now I would have to wait until Christmas to eat open the red wrapping paper box of chocolates to eat my new chocolates of various flavors. But my mind was made up. I would not open that box of chocolates until I had my own personal reason to celebrate. I had that reason yesterday.

I saw that box of red wrapping paper covered box and believe it or not, what I saw first was the white plastic bag that the red wrapping paper box was in and I reached down to grab the See’s white plastic bag and my reached into that bag as my mind was telling itself, “Now is the time, now is the moment of celebration to eat these chocolates.

Oh yes, my dear readers. Oh yes! The sun was going down, leaving a shady place for me to sit on my front porch with a drink and my newly opened box of See’s chocolates. I used a very sharp knife to cut into each piece within that box of chocolates and I started to slowly enjoy each and every piece of those See’s chocolates. It was a heavenly moment of long-awaited anticipation. I bet you might feel the same way for lots of things.

I also started to read the Wall Street Journal as I do every day, except on Sunday when I read the New York Times. Both newspapers used to be better newspapers, just like Hershey chocolate used to be better chocolate. But what are you going to do about it? The only thing I remember about yesterday’s Wall Street Journal was the 2019 new VW Jetta. I do not need a brand new car, but if I did need a brand new car, I would test this car out for sure.

Come to think about it, I do not believe that I have ever seen chocolate being advertised in the Wall Street Journal. Ever! But who knows, I might be wrong about that statement.

So there I sat with a newspaper in my hand, with a drink and my long awaited chocolates in their Christmas wrapped box, now open for public display, or my own public display. What a moment for me!

I have met people who have told me that the first time they tried cocaine, it was the best feeling inside their brain that they had ever experienced. Some of these people have also told me that that feeling inside their brain was so good that they knew that the first time was the last time they would ever do cocaine because they knew that if they ever tried cocaine again, they would be addicted to cocaine and that addiction would destroy their futures.

I am very glad and happy that if I was truly addicted to chocolate that it would not destroy my brain or future. But chocolate is good for other reasons too. Like in the dead of a freezing winter chocolate will warm up your body as good as anything besides a good fire or heater. It is good to eat chocolate when you are walking around in the freezing snow. Plus, if you happen to die in the snow, you will die happy knowing you died with chocolate in your mouth.

So today was another day, and my brain did not enjoy the chocolates like it did yesterday. It is like that with a lot of stuff in life. It seems like everything gets a little boring after the first time. So I should give my chocolate tasting a break for a while. Sure like that is going to happen any time soon.

The only thing I would suggest for my dear readers, be very careful when you buy, store, and then eat your chocolate in the summertime. Why? Because chocolate melts very fast in the summer sun and heat. But that is why we and our parents buy expensive refrigerators, to keep our chocolates from melting.

I guess the point is, if you want to be addicted to something to eat or put into your mouth, chocolate could be a way to go. Of course, only good and expensive chocolate. But the cheap stuff is better than no chocolate at all!

Just do not let the chocolate melt in your clothing pockets!