(NC)—When in doubt, a few 'foodie' facts provide safe but interesting conversation around a holiday buffet. Here, for the right time, is some scintillating trivia about chocolate, coffee, and wine:

Did you know...

Dark chocolate ingredients are now available to North Americans due to consumer pressure in Europe? This is why bold percentage figures are now prominently on the packaging of the better dark chocolate brands.

Ritter Sport, for example, explains that the percentage represents the proportion of pure cacao bean components: the higher the true cacao content (including paste, liquor, butter, and solids) the lower the need for sugar and other minor ingredients. Taste may be the final judge on how much cacao your prefer however, so it's worth keeping in mind that with additional ingredients like hazelnuts, almonds and raisins, you will still get a lot of goodness no matter what percentage you choose.

Premium coffee owes its quality to the exclusive cultivation conditions found only in the narrow band on each side of the equator, especially in South America. It is here, with the interaction of warmth, water and sun that coffee beans flourish. According to gourmet brand, Tchibo, the very best flavour of coffee is produced by just the right climate, just the right geographical conditions, and by just the right precision roasting. Tchibo points out that the premium Arabica beans – grown near the equator at altitudes up to 2,100 metres – are the world's best quality for their Exclusive line of premium coffee.

Pressed juice products taste like fresh squeezed because they are free of the heat processes that deplete the natural liquid of regular concentrates. According to leading brand, Wilde: after pressing top quality fruit like oranges, pears, apples, berries, mangos, and red grapes, the fresh juice can be collected and blended with no preservatives or added sugar for the purest, just-squeezed taste.

Wine, at any time, might be spoiled by its cork. Indeed, winemakers shudder when acknowledging that up to 10 per cent of even the world's best wines are 'corked'. Sealing wine this way goes back centuries and while there is romance in the tradition, the pitfalls of using a tree bark derivative can't be denied. Cork is susceptible to impurities and defects, the worst offender being the nasty little organism compound known as TCA, or trichloroanisole. The fact that this material spoils one in 10 wines is the reason many of the world's most prestigious vineyards are changing to synthetic corks and screw caps.

www.newscanada.com