And I'm off the carbs again. Thanks, Max.

I first heard about Max Brenner chocolate when I worked with Candy Industry magazine. I first tasted it in Melbourne. And I returned for more in Sydney.

Okay, I'm getting dramatic. It's just chocolate.

But then again, it's not. A Hershey bar is just chocolate. A Max Brenner Chocolate Toffee Frappe? That's more of a borderline narcotic.

Max Brenner, or the bald man as he's affectionately known, is a chocolate freak. I don't really know how else to put it. His life is chocolate--and it's not just about how it tastes, but how it feels, looks, smells, sounds. It's an indulgent, sensory experience that has little to do with moderation.

His cafes are beautiful--rows of pristine chocolate pieces in glass cases, small tables cramped together for a real urban feel. But I enjoy Brenner's unique way of presenting his chocolate drinks almost as much as the drinks themselves. When I was in Melbourne last winter, I tried the dark chocolate hot chocolate with crunchy waffle balls. Unbelievable. But what really set it apart was that it came in a Hug Mug,"a specially designed mug for the chocolate drinking ceremony. The mug is shaped specifically for hugging in both hands so that it creates the ultimate drinking experience of coziness, warmth and fragrance."

Sold!... To the curly-haired chick who is a slave to outlandish marketing tactics!

It was a hot day in Sydney when I returned for round two, so I went for a frappe, which is served in an Alice mug. Brenner drew inspiration from this quote from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland:

"She found a little bottle on it ('which certainly was not here before', said Alice), and round its neck a paper label, with the words Drink me beautifully printed on it in large letters. Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee and hot buttered toast), she very soon finished it off."

I've met a few folks like Brenner before, and they're all men, oddly enough. When you think of chocolate addicts, women mostly come to mind. However, my time at Candy Industry allowed me to meet some men in the biz who were just mad about chocolate. And the strangest part about it all was that these guys were healthy. In fact, they looked great! Leads me to believe that they either have metabolisms like juiced up lab rats or chocolate maybe isn't so bad for us after all.

Regardless, after downing my frappe and inhaling my chocolate chip and almond cookie, I've decided to take it easy on the stuff for awhile. I suspect I just needed one last choco fix before I mustered up the guts to tell carbs to take a hike for the summer (though come to think of it, I am going home in four weeks to winter...).

If you ever do have the chance to stop in one of Max Brenner's cafes, though, I would highly recommend it. Really, if hot chocolate topped with crunchy waffle balls doesn't appeal to you, you need your head--be it bald or otherwise--checked.