I just made myself a cup of hot chocolate (with a tiny bit of mint) to help get into a festive holiday mood. I have so much sewing left to do for the holiday sale, and need to build up momentum. Chocolate usually does the trick. Anyway, as I was mixing my organic free trade cocoa, cane sugar and unsweetened soy milk, I remembered the very first time that chocloate made me sad.
I was about 7 and needed some chocolate milk. I had made myself nestle Quick plenty of times, and loved the little sweet floaters of chocolate dust that would collect on the surface. Well, we were out of Quick, so I got the Hershey's powder out of the cabinet instead. (I'm sure that it's obvious where this is going). I did know that it wasn't presweetened, so I added some sugar and stired it up. There were more floaters than with the Quick, and I was thrilled. Until I tasted it. I felt so betrayed. I did everything I could think of to save it. I heated it, I stirred with a wisk, I may have even put it into a tupperware and shaken it. Nothing worked to make it drinkable.
Now I know how to make a proper cup of chocolate milk (or soy, or whatever). But, almost every time I do, I'm brought back to that sad day in the kitchen trying to wash the horrible bitterness of unsweetened cocoa out of my mouth. I wonder if this is one of those universal experiences that many children have, or if I was just a strange one.
