#232: The Love Notes
Can chocolates really say 'I love you’?
I was in a supermarket. It was Saturday evening and I just wanted some chocolates to eat in front of the telly. I drifted into the ‘posh’ section and picked up a box that was on offer: ‘Baci’ by Perugina. A whole hazelnut sat atop a bed of praline: these would do nicely. Little did I know I was buying more than just a box of chocolates.
Not speaking Italian, I missed the clue that baci means kisses. Perhaps the dancing couple on the box, or the very clear message:
‘Say I LOVE YOU the ITALIAN way’,
should have given me a hint as to the theme of these sweet treats.
I unwrapped the starry tinfoil, enjoying the feeling of treating myself to something more luxurious than Aldi’s cheapest, and there, beneath the sweet gift, was a slip of paper: a love note.
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Each chocolate was wrapped, beneath the shining tinfoil, in a crinkling slip, bearing a quote from some of Italy’s most famous writers, all on the theme of love. It’s fair to say some of them were a little intense:
“And make thee feel the tenderness of my love for thee.” — Caterina da Siena
“The true immortal is love.” — Giosuè Carducci
“If sight and association are removed, the passion of love is ended.” — Epicuro
And I began to wonder what purpose there could be in these love-coated chocolates. Surely no one, nowadays, would confess their love through the medium of confectionery? The notes felt too serious to be simply a cute gesture, a little too much to be printed by a stranger, rather than whispered from the lips.
But chocolate is widely established as a gift we buy for our loved ones, whether they are ill, or it’s Valentine’s Day, or we’re just feeling affectionate. One of the main reasons for this, as this Harper’s Bazaar article explains, is that chocolate is a well-known aphrodisiac, and has long being associated with desire and passion.
The connection between chocolates and romance goes deeper than its potential physical effects, though. This Independent article explains how, since the Victorian period,
“Etiquette books and chocolate advertisers alike encouraged the view that an exchange of chocolates between a man and a woman was tantamount to a declaration of love.”
The addition of notes into the Baci chocolates turns a gift exchange based purely on the historical associations of the object, into an explicit declaration made in the more communicative medium of words, reinforced by the object they encase.
These chocolates hark back to a time when love worked and was expressed in very different ways. They feel nostalgic, a piece of history, even though they’re being sold in supermarkets today. A commercially printed piece of paper is not enough to express one’s feelings with.
Instead of giving them to someone, I’m going to glue these notes into a scrapbook as a curiosity to admire, and will rely on the method of communication that makes most sense to me: my own words.
