As I was tearing it open, I noticed a peculiar bit of text on the wrapper: "Zartherb - Dark - Puur", it said. That's weird, I thought, is this an import? Is it Dutch, like my father? This brought to mind certain former Dutch colonies in the Caribbean. That must be where they got their chocolate reputation from, thought I, not to mention wide access to sugar cane and the coconut itself.
As I chewed my sweetened, dessicated coconut coated in chocolate, I pondered further. "Bounty" is a rather funny name for a chocolate bar, isn't it? It doesn't have the whimsicality of, say, the Curlywurly, or the straight forward explanatory nature of the Coffee Crisp. But it does call to mind things like, The Mutiny on the Bounty, or perhaps a pirate's bounty of olden times. Then there are the pictures on the wrapping of palm fronds and a beach, with coconuts cracked open revealing shiny white flesh under the haze of a desert island sunset. There are even tiny palm tree imprints in the bottom of the chocolate bar itself, as if they are imposing their will upon the consumer.
I suddenly felt disheartened - it's like when I loved Jane Eyre and then read Wide Sargasso Sea and everything was sullied. I have just eaten the Heart of Darkness of confections! They're so subtle sometimes, those Colonialists, trying to make it all seem normal and natural, as if I am supposed to be eating this chocolate and coconut concoction with no thought to the sacrfices made to produce this so-called "bounty".
This doesn't mean I won't partake of a Bounty bar again - they're kind of nice from time to time (though I know a lot of people dislike them - as one should dislike Colonialism). But it does show the dangers that lie with close-reading your chocolate bars: they may never taste the same again.
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