TRENDING: Which is it, chocolate or vanilla?
By Esther Whang, Staff Writer
These days, the topic trending is the on-going debate: chocolate or vanilla. A poll was taken by Poly students which determined the flavor that people preferred. Out of 100 people, 62 chose chocolate, while the remaining 38 picked vanilla. However, what people don’t realize is that vanilla is incredibly underrated. It’s pushed into the shadows like a dusty old box of receipts no one cares about. Its true beauty is underappreciated.
Everyone is familiar with chocolate, as it’s in pretty much everything. Ranging from chocolate bars, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-dipped strawberries, brownies and chocolate croissants, the list of chocolate delights could go on and on. Chocolate’s dark, indulgent flavor and its bold, confident color announce its presence for all the world to taste. Because it’s so ubiquitous, merely everyone can recall a time when they have walked by a candy store and found themselves being drawn to the tempting smell of chocolate wafting just outside the store doors. This explains another thing; people don’t just love chocolate for the flavor, but for the nostalgia.
Chocolate has existed since the day we were born, and growing up with it has made it a familiar constant in our daily lives— the one thing that, even after we die, will continue on for years to come. Popular movies back when we were born, including the renowned movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (or its precedent Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, released in 1971), released in 2005, and the well-known movie Matilda, released in 1996, had great influence on American audiences. Specifically, these movies, along with many others, have increased America’s love for chocolate. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was about, as said in the title, a lucky boy who gets to tour a chocolate factory. Matilda was known for its particular scene where a boy stuffs himself with chocolate cake. As a result of these repeating themes in movies we watched as kids, we couldn’t help but stay convinced that chocolate was the ‘cool’ flavor. Besides those particular movies, there are a number of shows and movies that also display people eating chocolate, indirectly influencing viewers to love chocolate even more.
However, all this publicizing and promotion of chocolate has pushed vanilla out of the spotlight and into the dark. In other words, vanilla is, without a doubt, underappreciated and underrated. Vanilla has its own unique qualities that deserve to be recognized and loved just as much as chocolate does. Unlike the bold flavors of chocolate, vanilla has its own distinct flavors containing subtle, nuanced undertones. People may say that vanilla’s flavors are too weak to measure up to the strong flavors of chocolate, but their argument is flawed. It is precisely because vanilla has a quieter presence that it should stand side by side with chocolate. While chocolate is indulgent, passionate and loud, vanilla balances out chocolate’s showy presence with its humble one, with it being reserved, cool and original.
In the end, whether one prefers chocolate or vanilla, it doesn’t really matter. Vanilla and chocolate each have their own distinctive qualities that people love. One doesn’t have to choose one or the other, they can just choose both. That’s why one can get an ice cream cone with both chocolate and vanilla flavors swirled together. And guess what? It tastes delicious.