HEALTHY CHOCCIE!!

by Katie Forster

I’ve always been a chocaholic – so much so that I went to work behind the scenes for a Swiss chocolatier straight out of university. But I’ve always attached guilt to chocolate – ‘a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips’ and all that jazz, so I generally just climb the walls and shout unnecessarily at innocent people when I have a serious chocolate hankering. So when I heard that there was a new ‘healthy chocolate’ I was extremely excited but also skeptical having tried carob alternatives and such like before; in my opinion substitutes, whether it be margarine for butter or Quorn for mince, are never even close to as good as the real thing. In fact they’re generally pretty pukesville in my humble opinion. But the news from America is that Xocai ‘healthy chocolate’ is the bees knees despite it containing no dairy at all. In fact Xocai is vegan friendly, diabetic friendly, gluten-free, lactose-intolerant friendly, caffeine-free, kosher and loaded with antioxidants… well, I thought, so is cardboard (maybe not the antioxidants) so I asked a few questions such as ‘HOW?’ and here is what they said: Xocai have patented a process that means that the chocolate is cold pressed, thus preserving the cacao’s antioxidants. They then throw in ingredients like blueberries and acai berries (both antioxidant powerhouses) and voila, healthy chocolate. Well, it still all sounded just a little too good to be true to me so I tasted some (for your benefit of course – as if I’d let you munch on cardboard) and it tastes like… CHOCOLATE. The dark kind anyway but that’s what I prefer (less melty).

These days the Nugget and the X Power Squares are available in Hong Kong with a shake on the way. You’re meant to eat three units of either type of chocolate a day to experience the benefits. According to Xocai their customers have experienced a multitude of positive side effects – weight loss, clearer skin, improved allergies, reduced blood pressure, lowered cholesterol etc etc. I can’t vouch for any of this but in terms of taste I’m all over it – you can scoff three choccies a day and not feel the teensiest bit of guilt. No more shouty shouty from me! We’ll be throwing an event on Monday 16th of August on our HipHongKong rooftop so if you’d like to come for a glass of vino and hear more about the science behind Xocai please drop me an email at hipbites@hiphongkong.com with ‘Xocai’ in the subject line. You’ll be able to order chocolate there if you so wish.

Otherwise Xocai is available through the lovely ladies at AFRICA2ASIA. Simply email your name, address and credit card details to claire@africa2asia.net or dominique@africa2asia.net and let them know if you’d like the nuggets or power squares and they will arrange delivery directly to your front door.

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