Chocolate Easter Bunnies

I wonder if I am paranoid. I am more and more seeing dark eyes staring at me, summoning me to them, actually asking me to eat them. Wait! Maybe I'm not crazy because those eyes are chocolate Easter bunny rabbit eyes. The annual Easter candy ritual in the U.S. used to be fun for me. There was no guilt then about gorging on chocolate rabbits and other candy. Today guilt rules and I have to pick my chocolate rabbit poison with restraint. My favorite is the hollow dark chocolate Easter Bunny.

The exact origins of the Easter bunny are somewhat a mystery. One theory is that the symbol of the rabbit stems from pagan tradition, specifically the festival of Eostre (a goddess of fertility whose animal symbol was a bunny). Rabbits, known for their energetic breeding, have traditionally symbolized fertility. The Germans are given credit or blame by many for bringing the Easter egg and later chocolate rabbit to the U.S. in the 19th century. In the end it doesn't matter who had the idea. It was a good one.

Those chocolate rabbits do seem to breed at my favorite grocery stores. Anyway, Easter chocolate is here to stay. I should say an Easter prayer to celebrate that. One is never too old or too fat to devour Easter Chocolate.  Even though milk chocolate consumption far outpaces dark chocolate sales my favorite is dark chocolate. Dark chocolate has more cocoa in it and fewer of those nasty additives so many milk chocolate rabbits have inside. I don't even notice when a milk chocolate bunny asks me to eat it. But those dark chocolate rabbits are impossible to resist. Those white "chocolate" rabbits contain no cocoa at al. I walk past them and don't even hear their summons.

There may be a personality style found in people who prefer dark to milk chocolate. I suspect that milk chocolate is favored more by traditional personality types. People who like milk chocolate seem "normal",  kind of mellow; they often go with the flow. Milk chocolate lovers  love to be the center of attention. They seem more sensuous and romantic. I suspect a milk chocolate fans are more reliable people.

We who prefer dark chocolate seem more picky (I like to call it sophisticated). They have strong opinions and tend to get dramatic, chocolate divas. Offer them milk chocolate and they might make a disgusted face and turn away. Dark chocolate lovers are energetic and decisive. They love people and have strong relationships but like controlling others in the relationship.

Then there are people like me who like to add coffee to the chocolate desserts they create. Chocolate brownies made with dark cocoa and a shot of coffee are the best. I guess the bitterness of dark chocolate merges well with the bitterness of coffee. I think I am making too much of all this. Forget all my rhetoric. I think I'll get a dark chocolate rabbit and bite off his head....