Chocolate Teapot

This is really p1ssing me off! We're, supposedly, in the middle of a world-wide caco-caco shortage and these @#@#$@$les are wasting it on this useless sh1t!?!

Last anniversary I bought my Mrs. a 10 pound chocolate bar. At least in 'Merica they still have to put so much cocoa butter in chocolate unlike Europe. Over there it can be totally without and still be called chocolate.

All you need now is a matching chocolate tea set. This one belongs in the Hall Of Useless Projects.

It's no biggie - replace the cocoa butter with paraffin. When it's done you can eat the pot.

Paraffin? URK!

I remember years ago when some engineering or materials firm was given the challenge to make a lead balloon. They did, and learned a little about extraordinarily thin films of lead in the process.

I wonder if anyone actually learned anything from this teapot?

I also remember reading about someone researching the phrase "Mad as a wet hen." They called a chicken farm to ask about it. The person at the farm put them on hold and when they came back a little while later said: "Well, they don't seem to like it much. They just stand there flicking their feathers."

@Phideaux: That chicken thing sounds like anecdotal information and not a scientific answer. I move that we WUvians put in for a $10M grant from the US or a €20M grant from the EU to do a proper study of this phenomenon. We can't have people running around saying things that no one knows the meaning of. Like, "If I'm elected.....(fill in blank)"

BD: I think you have that backwards. I've had "chocolate" from the USA, and... well, it wasn't. Hershey's, yech. Pure tile grout, no cocoa in it at all. I've also had real chocolate; it was all from Europe. You may be confusing continental Europe and the UK, which has opted out of this EU ruling as they do with so many; their Cadbury's doesn't pass muster any more than Hershey's does. If you want real European chocolate, try some Belgian stuff; Dolfin's pink peppercorn bars, for example.

Phideaux: I've seen that led balloon, but not from an engineering firm; it was on Mythbusters.

Expat: why do you want the Europeans to spend four times as much as the Yanks? Surely the Rebel Colonials need a larger budget 😛

And on the main article: that's a waste of chocolate and of tea, and if you don't stir your tea it won't be worth drinking anyway. So... one chocolate teapot, still not much use.

@Richard ... Expat has sent some super good chocolate to Patty over here. It was excellent as I had a piece last visit. All chocolate over here has to have some cocoa butter in it otherwise it has to be called "Chocolate Flavored". I agree Hershey's is crap. I always get the wife a high end brand.

That's right, Expat has sent me some delicious chocolate from Greece before. It was almost as sweet as he is for sending it! 💋
If I had one of those teapots I'd give it 2, 3 days tops before I'd eat it. 😛

@Rich: We're going to hit up the EU because they're easier than the US. Fewer people to
bribe.

@Rich (still): Do I need to send you some REAL dark chocolate? Got a snail mail address?

@You other two: I got the hints.

BD/patty/Expat: but Greece is in the EU! Any good chocolate from Greece is good because of, not despite, EU rulings.
And I've had real dark chocolate. 99% Lindt is not uncommon, and when I was in Cologne's chocolate museum (which, btw, I recommend), I even found some 100%. Those are somewhat too dry to be enjoyable in more than small doses, mind you. For them, I really do recommend one small piece with a mug of tea. Currently I have some 85% German chocolate which is rather better eating on its own.
Nor is it "some" chocolate butter, over here. It's all chocolate butter and no soy, cocos, or other subtitutes. I believe the Brits have finagled an exception for themselves on that rule, too, but I don't think there's a continental brand of chocolate which doesn't use 100% cocoa butter as its fat contents.

Though I have to acknowledge that it's likely that better quality American brands of chocolate really are better than the cheese substitute they export. After all, I've said the same thing repeatedly about Coors et al. vs. proper US beer like Anchor (which I also would see more widely imported over here).

@Rich: Sorry but Greece has had some of the best, award winning dark (confectioner's) chocolate for decades and decades. Way before the EU got involved. I used to be able to buy the stuff in 3kg blocks from Ion. Today I enjoy a 70% dark chocolate from Pavlidis. More than 70% I don't enjoy.