Famous Last Words: My Kid Doesn’t Like Sweets

Someone commented on a post I made back in 2013, saying that more than likely what I was seeing was genetics shining bright. The post was to highlight how my oldest Paley was not prone to sweets or even desserts. Namely anything chocolate. The post titled My Doesn’t Like Sweets was publish in 2013, when Paley was only 5 years old. Back then what prompted the post was Paley’s dislike of Chocolate which was crazy considering my spouse and I both love chocolate. One thing I failed to really consider is that our egg donor could have had the same reaction to sweets like chocolate. 

Today I am updating this post because over 7 years later, the story has changed. Between the age of 7 and 8, out of the blue, Paley started eating things with chocolate. By age 9, all she wanted was chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. This is where the story gets interesting! Right around the same time Paley started eating chocolate and more sweets. Lochlan who is 4 years younger, started getting turned off by desserts, namely ice cream. At that time Vanilla was about it. 

Again, chocolate was a major standout in Loch’s dislike of sweets. The kid hates chocolate. I think we had about a good 3 years where we were able to give him vanilla ice cream or shakes and he take them. Today he eat cake more than he used to. Here’s the thing, I am thinking this who anti-chocolate is kind of a nervous tick. The reason why, both P&L would eat red velvet cakes like it was candy. No complaints, but as soon as they saw the brown stuff, all bets were off! Ig you go back and look at every birthday cake Lochlan had, it was always white buttercream cake. Margot was always chocolate. She loves chocolate.

On the flip side, Margot (his twin) has taken to sweets and desserts like a moth to a flame at a very young age. I remember giving her cotton candy once when she was a baby, and after that first bite, she grabbed at that cotton candy ball. She was over the moon when we were on Takeshita Street in Tokyo and we got them those massive rainbow colored cotton candy umbrellas! They were huge. Lochlan will be 8 1/2 in April and there is no sign of him liking chocolate. I see him caving one day. Kids taste buds change as they get older, same goes for adults as well. As a child, I loathed spicy food greatly. Today, I am not a habanero lover but I am enjoy a spicy ramen or salsa now and then.

I do believe it lies in the genetics. Kids like what they like and we can change that. Same is true for the interest and talents. You want your kids to be an amazing athlete or play musical instruments like a professional. The list of it, we can’t mold them like that. We can’t engrain in them they are going to college close to home because you can’t bare for them to be far. You especially can’t expect your kids to have the same level of academic excellence. We had so many friends with twins, and we learned a lot from them and their experiences and even watching how they were raising their twins. Overall twins or just kids will take to what they like, show interest in things that make their eyes pop open and head down a path they think is amazing. Do want all my kids to love chocolate, yes!!! Is that going to probably not, just like my kids aren’t going to every school I have dreamed of them going too. Gotta love sweets! 

Joseph Schmidt back in the day!! He was so friendly in the shop to customers.

That said, I have bring up one of the most amazing chocolate treats I have ever tasted in my lifetime so far. For many of you west coast citizens will remember was the rise of a Bay Area chocolatier by the name of Joseph Schmidt. This man has some serious talent. Sadly Schmidt was made an offer he couldn’t refuse by Hershey’s. I fell in love with his shop in 1995 when I found it and I was at that shop every March to get my annual fill of his Corned Beef. I am going to do crappy description of this amazing, St. Patrick’s month treat. Schmidt layered different kinds of chocolates with a puffed rice similar to a rice Krispies but they were really tiny. I would say there were about 10-12 layers alternating chocolate with sugar glaze and puffed rice. I saw them make it once, and the layering was done in a large cookie sheet. The chocolate would then me cut in rectangle cube shapes about 3/4 inch wide and 1.25inches long. These little cubes were addictive. Everyone I gave them too, fell in love. Schmidt named if Corned Beef because his team would only make it once a year in the month of March. That all ended in 2005 when Hershey bought the business and subsequently closed the show in 2006.