interesting reading

When resting on the couch with the flu and a box of Santa's cherries in brandy dark chocolates, I had plenty of time to read.

The brand was Warner Hudson. The box design was clear, simple, casually elegant. A bottle of "finest superior brandy", a stemmed glass of cherries and two chocolates, all with delicate reflections, over a loosely sketched gold design. On closer inspection the gold line behind the picture turned out to be a rampant lion. Ah ha, I thought. An English brand. But Santa came from Scotland this year.

I turned the box over, for closer inspection. From whence came these luxury delights?

I found two days' worth of interesting reading.

This amused me first. The description. "Plain chocolates with Cherries in Brandy Liqueur". I suppose they were plain, empty!

Everything was in 15 languages. Best before ... 15 times over, and then the date printed convincingly in a different type and ink. Yes, no problem, I will definitely consume these before 26.08.09. In fact, mission accomplished already!

But now the really fascinating part. The nutrition facts, repeated in tiny print in other languages, generously described a serving as 4 pieces. Great! But no, wait! On the opposite side was a slightly bigger panel, especially for Australia and New Zealand. Serving size? A miserly 3 pieces! I felt cheated. Why could the English and French eat more?

I looked closer. On the French and EU side there was fat content of 31%, plus a tiny bit of salt. On the Australasian side there was only 17% fat. And no salt. and 20mg of calcium. The EU had 0% calcium.

Even if this was (heaven forbid!) a typing error, the fat figures (love that!) still showed a difference. EU had Fat lipides (bold type) 11%. Under this was saturated and trans fats another 20%. The Antipodean version of the same chart (on the same box, remember?) had Fat, total (bold print) 17%. Under this was 'saturated, 10%'. The figures just don't add up. Mine certainly will... needing the brandy after all this confusion, I ate them all!

And who actually made Santa's gift? It was a product of Germany, distributed by a German company, for Lolliland, Sydney, Australia.