Monday, December 02, 2002


chocolate -- music of the tongue?

i've been meaning to mention this study for a few days now: mri scans have revealed that chocolate and music affect the same brain areas. researchers at mcgill university in canada have identified the neural cluster reponsible for processing the sensual pleasures of sex, drugs, chocolate and music.

interesting, no? dr. robert zatorre (and here) published this recent study.

could this mean that chocolate might be used to help treat drug addictions? i wonder. . .could chocolate's delicious power work its magic to soothe the craving for illegal drugs by stimulating this brain area?

and for my readers in the u.k., specifically scotland, rush to edinburgh's famed plaisirs du chocolat. the highly-regarded chocolatier bernard espouy is closing his doors; the long hard work of chocolate-making has taken a toll on his health. get his delights while you still can!

finally, senator pat leahy is still pushing congress to encourage the bush administration to do more about the coffee crisis. at long last it seems that this problem is being considered at the higher levels of our government. but will they do more than pass feel-good "sense-of-the-senate" resolutions? is part of the solution for the u.s.a. to rejoin the "coffee cartel," along the lines of the i.c.o.?

this is a controversial question, dear readers -- to massively over-simplify, ronald reagan withdrew the u.s.a. from the cartel agreement, arguing that we were in effect subsidizing bad coffee with higher prices, and that this amounted to an unfair tax on the american consumer. many coffee experts agree this was what was happening. . .and they argue that a new "opec for coffee" won't serve consumers' interests.

but with new quality standards in place, would the u.s.a. be justified in re-joining the international coffee agreement? with nestle encouraging mexican farmers to pull up high-quality arabica beans to plant low-quality, bad-tasting robusta for contract, is it in the interests of consumers now to do everything to protect and nourish the sources of high-quality, specialty, arabica coffee?

otherwise, the robusta growers with their mega-corporate contracts will scrape by, while quality arabica producers go bankrupt. this leaves us consumers with no choice, no avenue for quality coffee. . .the i.c.o. at least is attempting to raise quality standards, to enforce them on a larger scale. . .a difficult question indeed. . .for the i.c.o.'s take on the crisis, read here.

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