 Chocolate. What's so Special About it?
by _ahre_
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Chocolate is central to Neopia, and not only on Valentine’s Day or the Chocolate Ball. The Chocolate Factory being located in Neopia Central’s Neopian Bazaar proves that chocolate is just as important as a grooming routine, health food to snack on, a bakery to NOT be tempted by (chocolate IS more important! Specifically dark chocolate…), smoothies to sip, fashion to style, Usukis to collect, and more! Something wonderous goes in, chocolate comes out, and is sold to us without ever stopping to ponder its origins. Just observe a day at the Chocolate Factory and the shopkeeper himself is the only one to ever enter and leave. Mysteriously, the chocolate ingredients are procured and then manufactured into chocolate only at these times. Curiously, I took a closer look into the dark-chocolate origins of the inner-workings of the Chocolate Factory. This article will take you deep into the tropics of Mystery Island, into the shocking minds of the creators of living Chocolate creatures, and then back into the heart of it all: the Chocolate Factory. Setting sail to Mystery Island from Neopia Central is an easy journey with chocolate in mind, and we are course-set to the Tropical Foods shop. There we will find some delicious chocolate-like fruits. These must be the source of chocolate ingredients! There are no other shops in Neopia that sell ingredients to make chocolate, like cocoa beans, coco powder, and cocoa butter, and this left me wondering… Cocoa Juppie
Claiming to be the best chocolate fruit around Neopia, this must be why chocolate is so addictive! If you can keep eating these fruits over and over and over, then your brain chemistry is alight with good, positive energy. One of the other main benefits of these fruits is that they are also vegan, meaning they are dairy-free and a true form of 100% dark chocolate. Cocolatte Fruit
A naturally-produced creamy chocolate filling is stuffed within this wonder of the tropics. Wondrously, this is also a vegan-diet treat, since creamy chocolate filling without the use of Kau Kau Farm ingredients is non-existent elsewhere in its true dark form. Darttlefruit
This mysterious little fruit resembles a berry dipped in chocolate, but in fact, it is a berry made of chocolate! Another plant-based substitute for the dairy-free Neopian that longs for an option of a mouth-watering taste of chocolate-drenched-dipped fruit! Shebberries
With a hint of chocolate-coated dried strawberries in this flavour profile, this tropical fruit can replace a dark chocolate bar melted into space freeze-dried strawberries! I know that’s how I’ve been making chocolate-coated strawberries, since it’s the only way to get that vegan version Neopians crave! With this part of our journey fruitful, there still lingers the thoughts of where other forms of chocolate are derived from. While this journey showed us the vegan tropical fruits, will the journey continue to be ethical? Next, we must face our greatest fears, or greatest wishes, and pay a visit to the Lab Ray Scientist to answer some burning questions about Chocolate… Neopets? Behind the Frosting: Tales of the Chocolate Xweetok
At first wish for a Chocolate Neopet, you may realize that you are still making an ethical choice, despite the Lab Ray being intimidating and seemingly lacking in ethics. What I mean by ethics is the dilemma to subject a Neopets to the harsh zap of electricity through a ray. They still come out of the experience with all of their tails and wings and teeth intact, but is it fair to them? If they plead for you not to enter the laboratory, then it is against their freedom if you do force them to enter for their procedure. Instead, try some gentle persuasion, and if they feel excited about a new change, initially, a Chocolate Neopet zap is fair. You get your greatest desire granted before your eyes! But what happens next may shock you! Would it be ethical if chocolate of Neopia is also made FROM Chocolate Neopets? If they give up their chocolate freely, then yes, it would be! They must have the freedom to decide if giving up a piece of themselves for the greater good of chocolate of Neopia is worth it. The chocolate will mysteriously grow back. The Lab Ray Scientist refused to comment on this article. With the Lab Ray Scientist throwing me out of his laboratory for causing an uproar, we must head back to Neopia Central to the source of all of this chaos. The Chocolate Factory awaits our visit. Will we dare venture into the manufacturing centre if an invitation is granted to us? The smell of freshly produced dark chocolate is invigorating! Let’s explore the chocolate market, but be on the lookout for the shopkeeper! He may give us clues to the true source of his fine confectionaries! Dark Chocolate Hearts
Dark chocolate formed into heart shapes by hand? This sounds like it could be made from the very malleable gooey fondant of Cocolatte Fruit! Dark Chocolate Kougra Paw
The Chocolate Factory has declawed this paw before dipping it in chocolate! Looks like a Neopet offered up their paw for the greatness of all things chocolate! A trip to the grooming parlour and the Lab Ray must have made them feel beautiful enough to contribute their fine delicacy! We hope… And just as we inhale the sweet aroma and taste of chocolate swirling in our senses, the elusive shopkeeper makes his long-awaited appearance! Will he spill the cocoa beans? All he could repeat is, Welcome to the Chocolate Factory. Nobody ever goes in...nobody ever comes out, but we sell chocolate by the truckload! Despite not being invited inside his Chocolate Factory, I have gathered enough evidence to show that chocolate of Neopia comes from two sources: dark chocolate-like fruits of Mystery Isle in their original vegan form and… Chocolate Neopets! Both can be ethical choices. If you are a coco-purist Neopian, please try these chocolate alternatives to the Kau Kau Farms milk chocolate. They will not only bring you ultimate bliss, but bring you closer to trying a plant-based lifestyle over a dairy-based one! Even the description of most dark chocolate of Neopia reads: Sweeter than the Milk Chocolates and considered (by some) as the best of all chocolates!
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