Tuesday, November 16, 2004


don't know what to say about this but

"chocolate is not like a food, it's like a drug. . ."

the italian researcher means it in a very good way. beyond this, i'm letting this chocolate story pass entirely without comment.

because anything i could say would really be superfluous; i mean this information is simply a well-known experiential fact in girlworld. . .

any gentleman who doubts this can turn to the lady closest to him and simply inquire. altho' i guarantee that if he isn't slapped à la hedy lamarr, he will only receive a disdainful raise of the eyebrow, a gesture meaning "amazing discovery, einstein."

wait a minute. let me be fair and balanced by providing a yoga news tidbit from guyworld here too.

i'm actually really intrigued by the early findings of this small study from yale university: that a regular yoga practice can reduce blood pressue by relaxing the linings of the arteries in middle-aged men in just 6 weeks! study participants did yoga 3 times a week, meaning just 18 yoga classes seems to make a dent in heart/vascular disease.

finally, i think everyone knows by now that the coffee market headed for mars yesterday after a rare large earthquake in colombia. the price of coffee on the exchange soared to a 4-year-high.

the fear was that the earthquake would destroy infrastructure and so block exports. but note that not a single story i could find on the subject thru google news remarked as to whether anyone was hurt or killed, which i think says a lot about the mentality of the market here, alas.

for us coffee-loving consumers who worry about the tough market situation our friends the coffee farmers have faced for years now, market increases are welcome. but only if they're meaningful and not one-time events, as this increase appears to be.

since we're discussing market news, i'll also point out that if the unrest in the ivory coast continues, consumers might see increased chocolate prices, since a significant amount of the world's cocoa originates there. . .the market appears to be hoping for the u.n. to take further action.

even if cocoa prices rose a lot now because of the political situation, consumers probably wouldn't see retail price increases until the spring. the biggest bump in the seemingly ever-rising price of premium european chocolate has more to do with the american dollar's continuing slide against the euro, i think.

but it is shocking to see that the cost of a premium european candy bar in my nabe has risen US$0.50 in the last 3 weeks! and since many american artisan chocolatiers use imported european chocolate, i imagine their prices will soon increase as well.

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