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Is Chocolate Wasted on Guys?

Here's part of our newsletter #8 . . . .

Chocolate contains a lot of different chemicals - over 300 mind-altering substances, according to information in a recent exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. But not everyone responds to these chemicals. We have been watching people react to our chocolates for several years now, and we can share several observations:

Chocolate is wasted on guys. There is enough truth in this statement to make most women laugh. We have found that about 90% of women and 10% of men respond physiologically to chocolate. When we are selling at gift shows we always pass out samples, and Merle (my wife) warned me to watch the eyes. Within a few seconds a responder's eyes will widen. This is usually a woman. The reaction is probably not very different from most people's reaction to caffeine or nicotine.

As a rule, if we give a chocolate to a guy he will bite it in half, look at the centre, and then pop the rest of the chocolate in his mouth. Non-responders appreciate chocolate as good candy. A woman, on the other hand, will probably eat a chocolate in five or six bites, swallowing between bites.

Most guys would rather have a bag of chips. Guys who are non-responders to chocolate would rather have their recreational fat salty - potato chips or peanuts or french fries will do nicely. People who respond to chocolate are not interested in this discussion.

There are rarely two responders in a couple. When we are at shows and I offer a sample to a woman and she says that she is "not a chocolate person", her husband will be right there at the counter looking for chocolate. And his eyes will widen when he has a bite. We test this rule at our shop all the time, and we find that it holds. (It also amuses people.) We are not brave enough to suggest that a marriage of two responders is doomed, although they would certainly enjoy sport eating chocolate while the relationship lasted . . . .

I should add that we almost never run across a couple where neither one is interested in chocolate, but then, what would such a couple be doing in a chocolate shop in the first place?

Most chocoholics are not true responders. A lot of folks tell us that they are a chocoholic, or that they are married to one, but we have a hard time defining a chocoholic. I have heard chocolate called the ultimate soft drug because it is legal, it is widely available, it is relatively inexpensive, it is only mildly addictive, and the withdrawal symptoms are limited to mild irritability. This sounds like a winner to me. Some folks say that they have to have chocolate several times per day, or they tell stories of hiding their chocolate around the house, or rewarding themselves as daily chores are completed. My sister is one of those, and yet she can keep our chocolates around her house for weeks, and she has been known to give them away, and to give them to other people's children! Definitely not the behaviour of a chocoholic! I suspect that folks who think of themselves as chocoholics are often responding to a sugar hit, or have identified chocolate as a comfort food. These are good reasons for eating chocolate, by the way.

And how do responders respond to chocolate? We had a focus group going in the shop one evening last month (i.e., friends over to try new brands of chocolate just in) and I asked the ladies What does chocolate do for you?

I'm a standard non-responding guy so I found the answers to be very interesting.

Eating good chocolate was a very private thing, and not something one shared. It has a calming effect, and one was easily able to focus on the chocolate. It was important to eat the chocolate in small bites, and not to hurry. The taste and the mood would linger so there need be no hurry to take the next bite. It was important to choose the timing so that there was a minimum of distraction, so one could simply enjoy the sensations. It was useful to save chocolate until a quiet time.

I continue to believe that women respond to chocolate the way guys respond to single malt scotch.

Does chocolate make the heart grow fonder? I have given a lot of chocolate to a lot of women, and it has made me many friends but it has otherwise done me no good. On the other hand, I have given a lot of chocolate to my wife and I have earned a lot of valuable brownie points. My conclusions for guys are that giving good chocolate to a woman who already likes you is a very good and useful thing, while giving chocolate to female acquaintances is merely being generous. Which is also a good thing . . . .

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