“It’s something we can control in one place during the pandemic when we’re out of control,” she said. “We don’t know when it will end.” The hot chocolate bomb offers a satisfaction to put our hands and thoughts around. “We know something will happen immediately. This is exciting and we can master it. “
For Julie Dugdale, 41, a Denver freelance writer who recently received a set of hot chocolate bombs, the treats actually feel like an antidote to the current chaos of the world.
“It’s this huge, funny, popping, melting ball of – you don’t even know what’s going to happen,” she said. “But you don’t have to worry about it going somewhere, or spilling somewhere, or something that you don’t know is going to happen and that you can’t clean it up or handle it.”
Ms. Dugdale, who has two sons (an 18 month old and a 3 year old), said that her world is currently “very small” and that she is “always looking for new things” to provide “surprise” and joy. “Your youngest child lived half of his life amid the pandemic.
“He doesn’t know otherwise,” she said. With that in mind, simply melting a chocolate bomb in a sea of hot milk, marshmallows floating seconds before their inevitable dissolution can feel like the necessary magic of this year.
In the end, the hot chocolate bomb could be the ultimate memorial for 2020, releasing emotions in a year that it was previously bottled. Everything had to break open under pressure. Let’s call it the perfect metaphor for the moment held together by a fragile chocolate shell.
