Having A Chocolatey Time

"I am having a chocolatey time"

My grandfather is positively mad about chocolate. He has eaten large quantities of chocolate on a daily basis for as long as I can remember, which I, of course, attribute to his longevity. In his younger days, the chocolate was of the candy bar variety. At his house you could always find stacks of giant Hershey Bars and Snickers.

In his old-old age he has become more discerning in his chocolate choices. He usually eats raspberry truffles and dark chocolate non-pareils and purchases them by the pound. Since he has the good fortune of living only a few blocks away from a local chocolate factory, Birnn Chocolates, he inevitably has a healthy supply on hand.

Nearly every time Izzy and I pay him a visit, we stop in at Birnn to replenish Great-Grandpa's chocolate supply and also treat ourselves. The last time we were there, a few weeks ago, Grandpa didn't want anything because he still had leftovers. Izzy was looking forward to a treat so we went anyway and I ended up buying a pound of assorted chocolates. This is not a good thing because I have great difficulty showing any restraint and besides, I still had some leftover assorted chocolate truffles in the fridge which were a gift from Grandpa a few weeks ago.

Izzy adores chocolate as I do yet he is able to exercise far more restraint than I. He knows that after dinner he is allowed to have one piece of chocolate, which is usually a dark chocolate square of one organic brand or another. When the chocolate was "fancy" (truffles, etc.), he savored every bite, licking his fingers to the very last. He appears so content after his one piece, he never asks for another. If only I could follow his example!