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Flavor

There are some things in life that we have all grown to accept. Or at least that is what I’m assuming. Now granted, I don’t think accepting things for face value is a very keen idea. No, in fact I’m pretty much against it, but this isn’t the place nor the time for such ramblings.

One thing that I just can’t seem to understand is our acceptance of the food market. Granted I understand the basic theory behind it all. We need food to live, they supply food, we eat it, and we live. Easy enough. But what I don’t understand is how, in this consumer driven market economy, can we sheepishly accept what we are given to meet our demands? My example, though it might not be the best, is hot chocolate, or should I say hot cocoa. God knows there really isn’t such a thing as actual hot chocolate in the consumer grocery store world. I know that people, namely grandmas, still make hot chocolate the old fashioned way. For those of you too young to know just what that is, or for those of you who are not versed in this type of activity, let me explain. You melt actual chocolate and add it to steamed milk.  Makes sense…hot chocolate. But today, when kids ask for hot chocolate they are getting nothing of the like. Notice how the name has stayed, but the product has veered so much from its origins.

Today we get hot cocoa. Now while this sounds very similar to hot chocolate…it is far from the actual thing. Right on the front of the package in very bold letters, the packaging of my pseudo hot chocolate, are the words “Rich Chocolate Flavor.” Flavor? What is that? The flavor of chocolate? MMMM. How yummy. Why would we actually want, ewww, chocolate when we can get the flavor of chocolate? I’m sold. Fuck the good old days. Fuck your taste buds, they’ll never know the difference. Thanks to the modern science chemical labs, we can create the flavor of anything. “Let’s make’em some pseudo products that will keep them at bay for a while.” They won’ t be disappointed that they are not actually getting the product that they wanted when it ‘tastes’ so real.

Pathetic.

I understand that there actually are some realistic hot chocolate manufacturing companies and actual restaurants that serve a more traditional form of the product, but that isn’t my point. (Not that I usually have a point.) We eat, drink, and feed our faces with products that are produced with flavor. Hot chocolate has gone down the tube along with many other products that I’ll accept and eat till I die. Gotta love that.

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