Finding Bliss Through Drinking

Along one of my bike routes from Berkeley I kept passing this billboard for Nestle Quik Chocolate Milk with the slogan: You can't buy happiness. But you can drink it. I thought it was kind of silly, but that at least it was sending a partially good message - being a consumer and buying the latest whatever has nothing to do with how satisfied and happy you will be in life.

That took care of the truth to the first part of their claim. But little did I know that chocolate milk could in fact bring about a blissful state. After all, due to a health condition that I've had for over 10 years, I can't have sugar or sweeteners in general. And to top it off, I'm lactose intolerant too.

Nonetheless, I've found my way around these barriers after some experimenting. I started making smoothies a couple of months ago with using raw cacao nibs in soy milk with frozen berries to add sweetness. It wasn't bad, but crunching on the pieces of chocolate bean while drinking was kind of weird. Then my friend, Jen, told me about using raw cacao powder to make hot cocoa. That sounded worth a try. But when it came to heating the soy milk, I got lazy since my pots were dirty. And this is what led to my discovery of the happiness that chocolate milk can tap in to.

I threw a heaping spoonful and a half of raw cacao powder into the blender with Kikkoman's Pearl Unsweetened Soy Milk (I swear that this is the best - and only - good tasting soy milk) and spun it into a frothy chocolate milk. It's so amazing that I should market it. It's simple and perfect for other non-dairy and sugar-free folks.

So the lesson here? There sometimes is an amazing amount of truth in advertisement; you just don't always have to go with their product to discover it.