No Melamine this Easter

A successful egg hunt

We try very hard to keep sweets out of our house, unless of course a holiday is close by. And, no, Saturday and Sunday don’t count as holidays, though I’ve been tempted. As sweets are rare here, my hubby and I decided last year NO CHEAP CHOCOLATE. And good thing since not long afterward there was the whole melamine scare with chocolates made in China and even the Chinese dairy used in other chocolate manufacturers.

The down side: the kids didn’t see any of the themed chocolate found in the stores this Easter, like Star Wars or Barbie.

but why buy what’s cheap when there’s so much really good chocolate available. Some favourites that appeared in this year’s Easter baskets included  Mill Creek handmade chocolate, Green and Black’s organic chocolate and Cocoa Camino fair trade chocolate. These may cost a little more than that solid no-name bunny, but the quality is so much better. And there’s no need to worry about your kids ingesting hidden ingredients.

And really, chocolate is a special treat. If you were going to enjoy a nice glass of wine, you wouldn’t just settle on the cheapest bottle just to get a buzz (well, most people wouldn’t). It’s a treat you deserve and you want it to be the best tasting experience you can afford. Your chocolate should be the same, especially if you’re kids are enjoying it too.

I would like to think my kids appreciate the difference between the cheap stuff in the candy store and the quality chocolate we buy, but who am I kidding. We’re talking about kids. Kids that will eat a jellybean found on the floor from last Christmas or a giant jawbreaker consisting of 23 layers that takes 3 days to work through. I can hope that over time this will change. At least as a parent I can feel that if I’m going to feed my kids something from the forbidden food group, I can feel comfortable that it’s high quality forbidden food.

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