By now most of you have probably heard some chocolate made in China was found to contain melamine. Last month there was a huge mess with melamine in milk in China which sickened tens of thousands and even killed four children so it's clearly not something you want in your chocolate. Well, now it seems that a lot of chocolate coins sold at Costco and some dollar and bulk stores across Canada are tainted as well. It was sold under the name Sherwood Brands Pirate's Gold Milk Chocolate Coins. Apparently this is the sixth recall for melamine in Chinese made products in Canada - yikes! The levels are supposedly not dangerous, but it's still worrisome. I try to keep things on happier subjects around here, but figure its worth posting a word of warning as it's getting to be more than a localized problem. Keep an eye on where your chocolate is from. In the Western Hemisphere probably all of the name brand chocolate (unless you consider Sherwood Brands to be name brand chocolate) will be fine. It's going to be the chocolate from companies you've never heard of that needs to be watched.

So the long and short of things is that there is bad chocolate from China as close to home (my home at least) as Canada and that would lead me to believe that there is probably bad chocolate in the US as well. If you buy a name brand chocolate you should probably be fine. If you buy from a chocolatier you should be fine. If you buy chocolate with no real name brand you had best make sure it's from someplace other than China. Just to be safe.