London Chocolate Week

BBC Learning EnglishLondon LifeLondon Chocolate WeekYvonne: Hello, I'm Yvonne Archer 1 and this is London Lifefrombbclearningenglish.com!
　　Now don't get me wrong, chocolate's great but I seem to beone of the few people who can live without it. Here aresome of the reactions I got about the news of LondonChocolate Week. It seems that chocolate may be magical –so try to catch the special chocolate term that one personuses to describe herself and her family!
　　INSERTOh I think that's a great idea to have a chocolate week –ooh that's very nice! I mean I like chocolate, I don'tabsolutely adore it but I do, I have to say I'm very fondof it.
　　I do like chocolate, I could say I love chocolate.
　　Oh I love chocolate, especially very, very dark chocolate– very expensive chocolate – I love it. I come from afamily of chocoholics.
　　Yvonne: Cath's from a family of 'chocoholics' – a wholefamily of people who are addicted 2 to chocolate! So theymust have it – and they really can’t do without it. Cathenjoys very, very dark chocolate – so chocolate that'smade with lots of cocoa and that reminded me how much Ienjoy the odd bit of whitechocolate… chocolate with just a little bit of cocoa. Sowhat's Nuala's reaction to that?
　　NualaOoh no, oooh - I hate white chocolate. Ooh, it just givesme the creeps. No, I have to lick my teeth just to get thetaste away.
　　Yvonne: No white chocolate for Nuala's birthday then! Shehates it so much that it gives her 'the creeps' – it givesher a very unpleasant feeling when it's in her mouth. Nualasays she has to ‘lick her teeth’ after eating whitechocolate – rub her tongue over her teeth to take thetaste away as quickly as possible. Oh well, more for methen!
　　Mark du Market, a chocolatier – a chocolate maker 3 –explains what he thinks are the best chocolates. Listen outfor how they're made and for a very special ingredient thatcan't be grown or bought…INSERT - Mark du MarketI would say it's the hand-made chocolate using the bestbeans and ask your chocolatiers,where do you source your chocolates from? You don't justwant to look at the percentage; you want to see that thebeans are of good quality and that there's passion behindit.
　　Yvonne: Mark thinks that the best chocolates are made byhand rather than by a machine.
　　He says we should ask our chocolatiers where the cocoabeans come from – as he put, where they 'source' the beans– as well as how much is used in the chocolate. So, isthere a high percentage of cocoa in the chocolate? But didyou also notice that Mark says there should be 'passion'
　　behind making chocolates? So the best chocolates are madeby people who love making them.
　　The ancient Aztecs from South America discovered chocolateand thought of the cocoa tree as a source of wealth andstrength. They used the beans like money but also crushedthem and mixed them with spices to make a type of bitter-tasting hot chocolate drink. So it was very different tothe sweet hot chocolate that we enjoy today.
　　But that's history and London Chocolate Week is all aboutwhat's new in the world of chocolate. So have our friendsmade any recent discoveries? Try to catch the differenttypes of chocolate they mention:
　　INSERTMy favourites I think are orange dark chocolate and I alsoreally like butterscotch chocolate. Pepper and chocolate –wonderful combination – delicious. Cadmium tastes reallynice, lavender tastes very good, rosemary, thyme, oregano…I think organic chocolate is something that's quite new andthat seems to be very delicious.
　　Yvonne: Well, as delicious as organic, fruity or even herbflavoured chocolates are, people still feel as though theyshouldn't eat it? Try to catch the three main reasons why…INSERT:
　　Chocolate is not very good to me. Not only does it make meput on weight and is bad for my teeth but it also, andbelieve it or not and I'm a man in my 50s - but I still getspots when I eat chocolate.
　　Well I suppose because it's fattening 4 and I suppose peopledo say it's quite good for you. They say it's good for theheart and good for the blood but I suppose I do still havein the back ofmy mind that it's a bit too indulgent and I shouldn'treally be doing it.
　　Yvonne: Do you also find chocolate 'too indulgent' – it'sso enjoyable that yousometimes you eat more of it than is good for you? And didyou catch the three main reasons why Kaz and Cath try notto eat too much chocolate? We heard how it makes them 'puton weight' - 'it's fattening'. We also heard how it's badfor our teeth – because chocolate is made with lots ofsugar. And poor Kaz says that chocolate still gives himspots – something that mainly young people get! Butsomehow, I doubt that Kaz or Cath will ever stop eatingtheir beloved chocolate.
　　So here's some good news: there are scientific reportswhich say that eating chocolate is good for the heart andthat the husk of the beans – that’s the shell that coverseach bean - might be good for cleaning our teeth!