English Rewind - London Life: London chocolate week 🍫

Hello! The programme you're about to listen to

was first broadcast in October 2006 on the BBC Learning English website.

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Hello, I'm Yvonne Archer

and this is London Life from BBC Learning English dot com.

BBC Learning English.

Everyday English every day.

Now, don't get me wrong, chocolate's great,

but I seem to be one of the few people who can live without it.

Here are some of the reactions I got about the news of London Chocolate Week.

It seems that chocolate may be magical —

so try to catch the special chocolate term

that one person uses to describe herself and her family!

Oh, I think that's a great idea to have a chocolate week. Ooh, that's very nice!

I mean, I like chocolate, I don't absolutely adore it,

but I do, I have to say, I'm very fond of 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 a family of chocoholics.

Cath's from a family of 'chocoholics' —

a whole family of people who are addicted to chocolate!

So, they must have it and they really can't do without it.

Cath enjoys very, very 'dark chocolate' —

so chocolate that's made with lots of cocoa

and that reminded me how much I enjoy the odd bit of 'white chocolate',

chocolate that's made with just a little bit of cocoa.

So, what's Nuala's reaction to that?

Ooh, no, ooh, I hate white chocolate.

Ooh, it just gives me the creeps.

No, I have to lick my teeth just to get the taste away.

No white chocolate for Nuala's birthday then!

She hates it so much that it gives her 'the creeps' —

it gives her a very unpleasant feeling when it's in her mouth.

Nuala says she has to 'lick her teeth' after eating white chocolate —

rub her tongue over her teeth to take the taste away as quickly as possible.

Oh, well, more for me then!

Marc Demarquette, a 'chocolatier' — a chocolate maker —

explains what he thinks are the best chocolates.

Listen out for how they're made

and for a very special ingredient that can't be grown or bought.

I would say it's the hand-made chocolates using the best beans

and ask your chocolatiers, where do you source your chocolates from?

You know, you don't just want to look at the percentage,

you want to see that the beans are of good quality

and that there's passion behind it.

Marc thinks that the best chocolates are made by hand rather than by a machine.

He says we should ask our chocolatiers where the cocoa beans come from —

as he put it, where they 'source' the beans —

as well as how much is used in the chocolate.

So, is there a high percentage of cocoa in the chocolate?

But did you also notice that Marc says there should be 'passion'

behind making chocolates?

So, the best chocolates are made by people who love making them.

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The ancient Aztecs from South America discovered chocolate

and thought of the cocoa tree as a source of wealth and strength.

They used the beans like money,

but also crushed them and mixed them with spices

to make a type of bitter-tasting hot chocolate drink.

So, it was very different to the sweet hot chocolate that we enjoy today.

But that's history and London Chocolate Week

is all about what's new in the world of chocolate.

So, have our friends made any recent discoveries?

Try to catch the different types of chocolate they mention.

My favourites I think are orange dark chocolate

and I also really like butterscotch chocolate.

Pepper and chocolate, wonderful combination, delicious.

Cardamom tastes really nice, lavender tastes very good,

rosemary, thyme, oregano.

I think organic chocolate is something that's quite new

and that seems to be very delicious.

Well, as delicious as organic, fruity or even herb-flavoured chocolates are,

people still feel as though they shouldn't eat it.

Try to catch the three main reasons why.

Chocolate is not very good to me.

Not only does it make me put on weight and is bad for my teeth,

but it also, and believe it or not and I am a man in my fifties —

but I still get spots when I eat chocolate.

Well, I suppose because it's fattening

and I suppose I still have in the back of my mind

that it's a bit too indulgent, really, and I shouldn't really be doing it.

Do you also find chocolate 'too indulgent' —

it's so enjoyable that you sometimes you eat more of it than is good for you?

And did you catch the three main reasons

why Kaz and Cath try not to eat too much chocolate?

We heard how it makes them 'put on weight'

— 'it's fattening'.

We also heard how it's bad for our teeth,

because chocolate is made with lots of sugar.

And poor Kaz says that chocolate still gives him spots,

something that mainly young people get!

Hmm.

But somehow, I doubt that Kaz or Cath will ever stop eating their beloved chocolate.

So here's some good news.

There are scientific reports which say that eating chocolate

is good for the heart and that the 'husk' of the beans —

that's the shell that covers each bean — might be good for cleaning our teeth!

BBC Learning English dot com.