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πŸ“• Part 1: Chocolate

Is it okay to be a chocoholic? Maria and Rory discuss their sweet tooth, from protein shakes to Swiss truffles, and Rory reveals why he was 'a large child'!

Maria & Rory

Β· 10 min read

This episode’s vocabulary

Chocolate

noun β€” a sweet, brown food made from roasted cocoa beans. β†’ I love eating chocolate after dinner.

Protein shake

noun β€” a drink made to boost protein intake, often for fitness. β†’ He drinks a chocolate-flavored protein shake every morning.

Flavour

noun β€” the taste of something. β†’ Mint is my favourite ice cream flavour.

Bar

noun β€” a solid block of something, especially food. β†’ I bought a chocolate bar at the shop.

Additive

noun β€” a substance added to food to improve its taste or appearance. β†’ White chocolate contains many additives.

Diabetic

noun β€” a person who has diabetes. β†’ Diabetics need to watch their sugar intake.

Sugar-free

adjective β€” without sugar. β†’ I gave him sugar-free chocolate.

Accessible

adjective β€” easy to get or use. β†’ Chocolate is accessible in most supermarkets.

Rush

noun β€” a situation in which you need to do something quickly. β†’ If you're in a rush, chocolate is a quick gift.

Packed with

phrase β€” full of something. β†’ That snack is packed with sugar.

Cocoa

noun β€” the powder from cacao beans used to make chocolate. β†’ Cocoa is the main ingredient in chocolate.

Dark chocolate

noun β€” a type of chocolate with a high cocoa content and less sugar. β†’ Dark chocolate is considered healthier.

Craving

noun β€” a strong desire for something, especially food. β†’ I had a sudden craving for chocolate.

Sweet tooth

noun β€” a love of sweet foods. β†’ She has a sweet tooth and eats chocolate every day.

Confectionery

noun β€” sweets and chocolates. β†’ The shop sells all kinds of confectionery.

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πŸ“• Part 1: Chocolate
IELTS Speaking for Success
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Questions and answers

Maria

Do you like eating chocolate?

Rory

Doesn't everyone? I probably like it a bit too much, if I'm honest. My protein shakes are often chocolate flavoured and even some of the bars I eat have similar flavourings. So I think it's safe to say that I really enjoy it.

Maria

How often do you eat chocolate?

Rory

Depends on the type. If we mean something like a milk chocolate bar, then maybe, I don't know, maybe like once a week. But if it's something with a chocolate flavour, then that's a daily occurrence.

Maria

What's your favourite chocolate flavour?

Rory

I really like white chocolate, actually, though I'm told it's one of the worst for you due to all the additives in it. I quite like mint chocolate chip as well when I have ice cream. That's a good combination, at least in my opinion.

Maria

Is it good to use chocolate as gifts to others?

Rory

Well, assuming you're not giving it to a diabetic, yes. Then again, you do get sugar-free chocolate these days, so maybe that wouldn't be so bad. It's easily accessible. This is chocolate in general is easily accessible. And if you're in a rush, it should be okay, like 99% of the time.

Maria

Did you often eat chocolate when you were a kid?

Rory

Yeah, again, probably a bit too much since I used to be a large child. But it was so nice, probably because it was packed with sugar.

Discussion

Maria

Chocolate. Mmm, hot chocolate. Yum, yum, yum. Dear listener, are you a chocoholic? Like, you know, shopaholic, chocoholic, like you love chocolate. You can say that I love eating chocolate. I just like chocolate. I'm a chocoholic. And if you like everything sweet, you can say I've got a sweet tooth. My protein shakes are often chocolate-flavoured. So Rory drinks these shakes, which are chocolate-flavoured. Or, for example, you can say my porridge is chocolate-flavoured, my coffee is chocolate-flavoured. What do you have in the morning? I don't know. My fruit is chocolate-flavoured.

Rory

My fruit is chocolate-flavoured because my fruit is chocolate.

Maria

My water is chocolate-flavoured. So if you add chocolate, something becomes chocolate-flavoured because it has this chocolate flavour, taste, chocolate taste. And I have some bars. So we call these little thingies chocolate bars, like Snickers, Nuts, Twix, the other ones, like chocolate bars, with similar flavourings. And what's the difference between a flavour and flavouring?

Rory

Well, the flavour is what the actual thing tastes like, but flavouring is something that's used to make something different taste like that previous thing. It's like a cover, almost, that makes it look different or tastes different in this case.

Maria

We can say like artificial flavourings, when they add something to food or drink. And we can say that I like chocolate flavour. When the examiner asks you how often do you do something, you can say I often, usually, rarely, hardly ever, like almost never, like once a week, twice a week, every day. And you can say that it depends on the type, because there are lots of chocolate types. We can have a chocolate bar, or a milk chocolate bar, or we can have like a hot chocolate, for example, to drink. And usually like once or twice a day, or once or twice a week. Really? You have like a chocolate bar once, twice a week?

Rory

Maybe. I don't think it's a very common occurrence. No, unless the protein bars that are flavoured like chocolate count. But many people would say that doesn't count, that's a different product.

Maria

And the question is like my favourite chocolate flavour is what? White chocolate, Rory told us.

Rory

Although I realise that's the colour, but I think we all know what white chocolate tastes like.

Maria

Or I like mint chocolate.

Rory

Chocolate chip.

Maria

Yeah, mint chocolate chip. Chip is like little thingies, like…

Rory

Little chips of chocolate.

Maria

And when I have ice cream, I usually ask for some mint chocolate chips. It's a good combination. If we talk about different chocolate flavours, for example, we can have spicy chocolate, or lavender chocolate. Lavender is this, what's lavender?

Rory

What is lavender? Is that a plant that's got a particular taste, as far as I know?

Maria

An educated native speaker. Lavender, a plant that has grey-green leaves, and it's like when it blooms, it's beautiful because of these purple flowers. And it has this nice smell. Delicious. And we can say that I enjoy lavender chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, vanilla chocolate, for example, rose chocolate. They put some, you know, like petals of roses in the chocolate. Coconut chocolate. Peanut, also like different kinds of nuts. Peanut chocolate, for example, or hazelnut chocolate. Here, just a good idea is for you to remember two words, very specific words, dear listener. For example, I love lavender chocolate and hazelnut chocolate. Beautiful. Okay, so just remember two specific words for types or like flavours of chocolate. Yeah, then you can also say like, ooh, I enjoy Swiss chocolate from Switzerland.

Rory

Why is Swiss chocolate so good? Or so famous even, I should say.

Maria

Because Swiss chocolate is known for its smooth texture and creamy flavour.

Rory

Ooh, fancy.

Maria

Yeah. And this chocolate, in Switzerland, they make it with a higher percentage of milk than other types of chocolate. So they put more milk and that's why it's creamy. It's, you know, smooth. Ooh. And it's less sweet than other types of chocolate, Swiss chocolate. And you can say that I like Swiss chocolate because it has a delicate and velvety texture, dear listener. Okay, so now you're a chocolate connoisseur. You're like an expert on chocolate. Even if you hate chocolate, dear listener, just use the words.

Rory

If we ever decide to stop doing this, Maria's got a career ahead of her in chocolate connoisseuring or chocolatiering.

Maria

Yeah, you can also say that I like truffles, like chocolate balls, and I like chocolate fondue. Rory, do you say fondue?

Rory

I say fondue, but some people will say fondue and I think that will be fine too. Because as far as I'm aware, that's a French word. So the French pronunciation will also work here.

Maria

Fondue. A cheese fondue or a chocolate fondue. When we have hot chocolate and you put different, I don't know, fruits and stuff in there. Belgian chocolate, Swiss chocolate. Yeah, Belgian waffles, you know. Yum, yum, yum with chocolate.

Rory

And you can have them by themselves or in combination. So that just means together. Like mint and chocolate together.

Maria

You can give chocolate to different people as a gift. So don't say present people with chocolate. No, no, no. Give chocolate as gifts to others or just give chocolate for people's birthdays. And if a person is diabetic, so he's a diabetic. A person who has diabetes. So a disease in which the body can't control the level of sugar. We have sugar-free chocolates or sugar-free chocolate. Well, we have chocolate without sugar. We have dark chocolate, for example. Yeah, it's complicated, you know. Vegan chocolate, soy-free chocolate. I don't know. Do they have chocolate in this chocolate? You can say that if I'm in a rush and I need to give a present, I might pick chocolate, but I don't usually give any chocolates to people. Or I might give handmade chocolate, Swiss chocolate, or a box of expensive truffles. Truffles are these like chocolate balls. Chocolate balls.

Rory

Okay, you've made your point.

Maria

Yum, yum, yum.

Rory

I was hoping you would only say it the one time, but now you've discovered you can get away with it on this episode.

Maria

When I was a child, I ate chocolate probably a bit too much. So I ate a lot of chocolate. We use used to. I used to eat a lot of chocolate. I used to eat chocolate every day. And we know that Rory was a large child. So Rory was fat as a child.

Rory

I was a fat child. Let's face facts.

Maria

Yeah. He was really big. So he ate a lot of chocolate. And I ate chocolate which was packed with sugar. So lots of sugar, lots of chocolate. Yum, yum, yum.

Rory

Well, it might be yummy, but it's bad for you.

Maria

Well, yeah, especially chocolate with sugar. But these days you can get sugar-free chocolate, chocolate without chocolate. I don't know. What can't we get these days? And to wrap it up, we have a chocolate joke. Rory, are you ready for a chocolate joke?

Rory

Do I have a choice but to be ready?

Maria

No, no, no. You don't. It's a rhetorical question. You just say, of course, Maria, shoot. And Rory, the joke has a question. So I read out the question. You keep silent. So you don't have to answer it. Okay?

Rory

I love it!

Maria

Yeah. Instructions and the listener also kind of like you think about the question and then you listen for the answer. So Rory, do you answer the question in the joke? Yes or no?

Rory

No, I don't answer the question.

Maria

Yeah. Rory, do you laugh at the end of the joke?

Rory

If it's funny, yes.

Maria

Right. Okay. So when we talk about sweet products, we call them sweets or candies. So a candy is something sweet. So the joke is, what kind of candy is never on time? What kind of candy is never on time? Chocolate. Did you get it, dear listener? Chocolate. So late to be late. And chocolate has this late at the very end. But we say like chocolate or chocolate, chocolate. So what kind of candy is never on time? So what kind of candy is always late? And we say chocolate. Rory, did you laugh? I didn't hear your laughter.

Rory

I laughed internally.

Maria

Thank you very much for listening. Bye!

Rory

Bye. Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the β€œbehind the scenes” stuff: Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi