Actor Tom Hanks in the movie Forrest Gump tries to strike up a conversation with a tired nurse seated beside him on a park bench. Holding a box of chocolates in his hand, Forrest offers her a treat, “My mother always said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” You remember the scene. Here is a 38-second clip from the movie:
“Health by chocolate” is one of the phrases that popped up on the web when I researched the health benefits of eating chocolate, which may stem from the antioxidant flavonoids find in the cacao bean. Another website listed 9 benefits of eating chocolate. Rich and delicious dark chocolate especially (at least 70 % cacao, a disease-killing bullet) is “good for more than healing a broken heart” it touts.
Among the nine benefits included in this article were a healthy heart, possible weight loss (because it lessens one’s cravings for other sweet, salty, and fatty foods), stress reduction, and even higher intelligence in the short term because chocolate boosts blood flow to the brain.
The box of chocolates Forrest Gump was holding contains way more calories than this article suggests because the candies were probably filled with nougat, sweet cherries, caramel, and other taste-bud ticklers. But he’s right, unless the box lid is imprinted with the different flavors, you never know what you are going to get. Usually, though, the surprise is pleasant.
In the 2000 movie Choclat, Vianne Rocher, played by Juliette Binoche, tries to guess Roux’s (Johnny Depp’s) favorite chocolate confection. Vianne tries more than once to offer the treat that will get an “Aha” from him, including presenting him with one in a special white box. Later she succeeds unexpectedly as you can see here:
Receiving or giving a box of chocolates (or even savoring hot chocolate) is a welcome experience any time of year.
What is your relationship with chocolate? What is your favorite kind of chocolate?
What do you think of the Forrest Gump quote?
Coming next: Signs and Wonders at Chincoteague!
Plain and Fancy 
Good morning, Marian! Well, you already know I love chocolate. 🙂 I like good, dark chocolate. The other day, I made some early Valentine’s chocolate dipped strawberries. YUM! Today we’re supposed to go to a wine and chocolate event, if the weather doesn’t interfere.
Hope you get some chocolate today!
(I’m not such a fan of the quote, which by now has become a bit of cliche.)
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Yes, hubby did give me another box of choc’lates today to add to the collection I photographed for this post. I hope your wine and chocolate event materializes just as the blessing in “the bleak mid-winter” of Christina Rossetti’s poem
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Lovely post thank you Marian! Oooo I’m yearning. Perhaps I’ll buy my husband a dark chocolate for tonight – especially since it’s Valentine’s Day (and he brought me pink roses in bed this a.m. with a pot of tea ..) and I can have a bite or two – or three …(he’s not so mad on dark chocolate though)
I love dark chocolate: Lindt’s dark chocolate with orange is the best!
Forrest Gump’s quote may be a cliche but there is truth in it… and hot chocolate is a real treat!
Happy Hearts Day!
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Pink roses and a pot of tea – you have keeper of a husband. Tell him I said so – ha!
You mention Lindt’s dark chocolate with orange. I haven’t tasted that in a while, but I remember savoring the citrus taste spiking the chocolate. Happy Hearts Day to you too, Susan where it’s already Happy Valentine’s Day afternoon.
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I like orange and chocolate. I like the Lindt bars mentioned….also dark chocolate candied orange slices…..chocolate with hazelnuts in it…dark chocolate covered angel food.
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Oh Marian, I love that scene from Forrest Gump. It was our opening movie in Kazakhstan, you know. And quite true, I’ve found. We really don’t know what’s around the bend, much as we like to believe we do. My relationship with chocolate is rich (and dark). I travel always with my “emergency” stash of 72% (occasionally 84%, though that is rare) Lake Champlain bar. More importantly, I’ve created a tradition among my grandchildren. When I visit, they know I bring chocolate. At isabella’s first Grandparents Day, her essay about her grandmother (first grade) included the immortal line, “She always brings me chocolate.”
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Again, I love that now I can hear your sassy voice when I read these lines. If chocolate fuels your energy – go with it! Like you, I often check the cacao content of chocolate bars on the rack. The higher the percentage, the more I can eat – right? 😉
Still basking in the wonderful memories of the week we shared!
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My dad’s favorite chocolate treat was chocolate covered cherries! He got at least one box every year on his birthday, sometimes more than one! I prefer white chocolate! I loved Forrest Gump and the scene you put on here. His statement is very true! 🙂
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Because of its buttery taste, I like white chocolate too for a change. My sister has a tradition of giving chocolate covered cherries to her children. They are in their late 30s and 40s now, but she still does it. Spread love any way you can, I say!
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My favorite dark chocolate? Droste in several forms: Dutch shoes, an apple form of slices and the more economical Droste flickers that come in a can. My Dutch grandmother always included Droste dark chocolate among her gifts when she visited us when I was young.
A trip to visit our younger daughter always includes a stop by the Russell Stover factory and gift shop.
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Droste is a new name to me, and I’ll bet to many of my readers who don’t know much about Dutch traditions. I will have to check to see whether chocolatiers in Jacksonville carry it as a specialty item. Informative tidbit – thank you, Georgette.
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Not only the chocolates, but the box in which they came 🙂 My mother saved several of them over the years, no doubt for the memory of the giver/gift as well as the contents. I still keep sewing supplies in a Whitman’s chocolate box which likely came from my Mom. Nowadays I eat the darkest chocolate on the shelf, a daily square.
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As you can tell from this post, I am a chocolate box saver too. They really are useful because of their sturdiness, and the one you have is an almost-heirloom.
I can tell you have more self-control than I – your daily square has become about 5-6 pieces for me already this morning. (Well, it IS Valentines Day.) Thanks for the comment!
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Funny you should write about chocolate on the day when Stuart presented me with a box from our local chocolatier. I enjoyed seeing the Chocolat clip again. That movie has faded in my mind. Time for a little snuggle under the afghans and a box of chocolates!
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I can picture you under a warm afghan this morning, being rather than doing. (Well, eating chocolates requires a little action.)
You can find a tribute to you and Stuart and all chocolate lovers on my FB page just now: https://www.facebook.com/marian.beaman
Enjoy!
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I love pure dark chocolate. The chocolate here in Spain is excellent and you don´t need much to feel satisfied. I love the Forest Gump quote as it is so true. The movie Choclat is one of my favourites. Have a Happy Valentine´s Day!!
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I really keyed in on your phrase “you don’t need much to feel satisfied” referring to chocolate in Spain. American chocolate makes us crave more, more. Enjoy your first Valentine’s Day since your move to Spain. This is one more holiday that is observed world-wide apparently.
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I LOVE dark chocolate, but any will do in a pinch. And yes, I do believe it lessens cravings for other sweets. Today is a chocolate and rose kind of day. Happy Valentines Day!
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May your day be filled with chocolate and roses in any sweet form they take. Stay snuggly warm in Charlottesville. I am still savoring the afterglow of the retreat we shared. Thanks for reading and commenting – and Happy Valentines Day to you too. There is another
wish on my FB page, animated.
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Hubby gifted me with a big bunch of quality 70% dark chocolate for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been enjoying a piece every night. Though I don’t usually buy anything for Valentine’s Day, this year I returned the favour by giving him a box of milk chocolate (his favourite) from the same Canadian chocolatier.
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Two things about enjoying a piece every night: It makes the chocolate last longer. Besides you can feel virtuous instead of guilty – ha! Thanks, Linda.
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Dark chocolate! I grew up in PA so love Hershey’s! But Dove dark chocolate – yummm. Hubby gave me dark chocolate covered strawberries today! I’m trying to share but it’s not easy! 🙂
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PJ, it’s nice to see you here commenting. I grew up about 10 miles from Hershey. PA and close by, my home-town, Elizabethtown has a Dove factory. The aroma of chocolate is strong in that neck of the woods.
Your husband has good taste giving you chocolate-covered strawberries!
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Forrest Gump’s quote is very true. I had always hoped that the ending would be happier, but I loved his optimism. I never saw the Chocolat movie even though I bought the DVD years ago. I must correct that. (Unfortunately, neither of the film clips you posted were available.)
Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your family, Marian. ❤
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Yes, this the perfect weekend to see the Chocolate DVD. By the way, I checked out the links to the movie clips, and they both played. Maybe “refresh” and try again – sorry!
Enjoy the extended weekend as I assume you too have a Monday holiday.
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They both were visible and played this time. Thanks for letting me know. 😉
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😉
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I’v never seen Forrest Gump, I did not realize it was not a happy movie. I always thought is was somewhat of a comedy from all the clips I have seen.
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Marian what are you trying to do to me , Johnny Depp post Valentine’s day don’t tell my husband .
I read that book a million years ago , and was lucky enough to meet the author , not once but twice . I didn’t think it was possible to get the film right …but they did . On my list of the best romantic movies eva…probably because I am secretly in love with Johnny Depp…whoops not a secret any more .
I adore that quote from Forest Gump …what a first class actor . Many years ago my friend and myself felt really down and we decided to go to see the new film called Forest Gump because we thought it was a comedy …where did we get that idea from huh? two boxes of tissues , two under skirts , two pairs of pants minus the elastic and four cuffs of our shirts later we left realizing through our tears we’d dropped chocolate from our Magnum’s down what was left of our shirts …now that made us laugh .
I always knew chocolate was good for you …
Cherryx
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Cherry, you comments always make me laugh – as good as chocolate for regulating mental health, ha!
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I have enjoyed Johnny Depp movies also, especially the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Alice in Wonderland. I have seen Chocolat too and thought very good. We own the other movies I mentioned but not that one.
Johnny Depp filmed part of the movie about John Dillinger in the town where my son was in school. The filming area was just off the campus. He would go to check out every day and one day was able to meet Johnny Depp who would at the end of every day go to talk to the fans who were waiting. I heard he was a very nice person, very thoughtful and left a good impression all around.
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You always add interesting tidbits to the conversation, Athanasia. What a privilege your son had to see a live movie set and filming in your hometown.
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Not my hometown, otherwise I would have been there standing in line also.
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Marian — I loved the movie clips you shared. We saw each of those movies on two different international flights so it not only brought back good movie memories, but great travel memories as well. Thank you!
In Greece we enjoyed fresh clusters of grapes dipped in chocolate of our choosing (dark, milk, white). Oh me. Oh my. What a delectable treat for the tastebuds!
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Reading your comments always lift my spirits – and so I imagine international flights and Greek grapes enveloped in shades of chocolate brown, Yum!
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Well, our weekend away was great. The men surprised us with a chocolate fountain and fresh strawberries with pineapple and bananas. It is so delicious. We all love chocolates anyway it comes. As for hot chocolate, we love Dona Maria, a Mexican chocolate where we boil the milk and then blend it in the blender. It’s nice and frothy.
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Knowing you, you have photos to help you remember the delicious treats and taste of this weekend away. I’ve never tasted Dona Maria chocolate, but I’m sure it’s yummy. Nice to see you here, Gloria!
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I do love dark chocolate – it always makes me feel better.
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And now you know why! 😉
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I love chocolate, especially good quality dark chocolate and my favourite film is Chocolat.
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As I recall, there is/was a reference to your chocolate addiction on your website, Marie. There are worse things – ha! I enjoy the film Chocolat too, obviously. I love all the whimsical elements, and the music still sings in my head.
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Sweet one, Marian, and calorie free. My relationship with chocolate? A little compulsive and addictive, I’d say. I either try to avoid it altogether or I eat too much. I love almonds covered with bittersweet chocolate. Thanks for great photos and movie clips. Forrest Gump was on to something.
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Bittersweet – that’s life and love. I always like your take on things. Thanks for expressing it here.
Stay warm up on Seneca Lake. BRrrrr! (I’m not gloating; it’s even cold in Florida just now.)
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I have a deeply personal and intimate with chocolate. 🙂
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Comments from readers in other countries verify that you are on to something here! Thanks for commenting, Jenn.
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