Delayed Saturday Sacrament

(The following sacramental experience was done on Saturday while your Chocolate Priestess was away for the weekend. Notes were taken by a white chocolate acolyte.)

As some of you may know, Sisters and Brothers, Reese's has had Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs for the Easter season for decades now. These new "Reester Bunnies" claim to be the same thing, only in the form of little bunny shapes. They are sold four to a box, each weighing 1.2oz, and the box is generally around $3, so they are not the cheapest chocolate product on the market. Nor are these the healthiest or simplest products out there. A review of the nutritional information reveals that each bunny has 5g saturated fat, 1g fiber, and 18g sugar. The ingredients list is fairly long.

The paper box opens easily via side flaps to let the four individually foil wrapped bunnies slide out. The little cartoon figure on each fits snugly over the chocolate, suggesting that it too may be bunny shaped. The foil unwraps just as easily, and indeed the chocolate is shaped like a bunny. More importantly, the etched bunny on the chocolate looks exactly like what is printed on the foil itself. These details would make this product excellent as a cake decoration or to highlight a basket of gifts.

When I first open the foil there is no scent, nothing, zero. I bring the cute bunny up and purposely breathe in, and still very little scent reaches me. What little there is is of peanut butter, though this isn't the scent I would expect from Reese's; it's too sweet. I contemplate how best to eat it, which is a real challenge for me when it is shaped like a living thing — do I bite its head off to put it out of its misery, or should I be sadistic and start with its feet?
As I try to decide, it starts to melt in my fingers.

I bite off the right ear, and there is no sound, no snap or crunch as you get with firmer, purer chocolate. I can barely taste the chocolate, but what little I do taste is creamy and smooth, suggesting there is little cocoa content here. The peanut butter flavor dominates, and it is very sweet, almost like the honey-peanut mixtures you can buy. Your Chocolate Priestess was not expecting this sickly sweetness, and I am displeased when it lingers over a minute after I finish with this bite. The left ear is the exact same experience. All the while, what I'm touching is melting on my fingers.

I bite off the first half of the large head and let this melt in my mouth to see if the chocolate can be more powerful. First the peanut taste melts away, leaving what now starts to taste more like cocoa. The buzz is very, very slight, a true disappointment, Sisters and Brothers, when one is using chocolate for spiritual reasons. The rest of the bunny melts even more in my fingers, the light colored chocolate starting to slip down from my fingertips to lower on my fingers. Eating the rest of the bunny in this melting fashion keeps the buzz at a very slight level.

The appeal of these "Reester Bunnies" is not the chocolate; it can't be, because the chocolate taste is so minor. It must be the peanut butter, except that too does not taste like what I expect from Reese's. The appeal must be this sickly, amost honey-like sugar taste that overwhelms every thing. If you are looking for a sugar rush, this might be a good choice, but for our path, for our journey with chocolate, it is not.

Sisters and Brothers, may you too take the time to slowly appreciate what the Divine and human ingenuity have offered you in chocolate.

Comments