One of my little quirks is that I have a set of "rules" about mixing things with chocolate. I’m not sure "rules" is an accurate representation, but it is how my quirk has been named. The rules are just the outworking of my chocolate philosophy.

My chocolate philosophy can be boiled down to the following statement: when mixing chocolate and other ingredients, they should be better together than apart. This means that I frequently dislike certain common pairings.

For example, I don’t care for chocolate and peanut butter together. I like chocolate. I like peanut butter. I just don’t like them together.

Mint is a bit trickier. I think that a small amount of chocolate might improve mint, but I think mint distracts from chocolate. This means a little mild chocolate with my mint (for example a mint candy after a meal could have chocolate), but I don’t particularly like mint with my chocolate. I think size also makes a difference- I don’t care for more than a few bites of chocolate with my mint.

Marshmallow is also complicated. I think a perfectly ember roasted marshmallow is overpowered by chocolate (although I can totally see how chocolate would be necessary to salvage a burnt marshmallow), so I prefer a s’more with less ingredients. In other contexts, the combination works well together.

Chocolate with fruit can be good (pineapple and strawberry come to mind), but it isn’t necessarily a great combination (cherries, rasins). Small pieces of peanuts are ok, but I’m not a huge fan of chocolate covered peanuts. Real nuts are winners (almond, pecan, macadamia, walnuts, etc.). I haven’t met a combination of caramel and chocolate that I don’t like.

In general, my chocolate rules are squishy, just like good chocolate.