Try a cup of hot white chocolate, which has no caffeine. The flavor is as delectable as its cousin, but a bit more buttery, with a hint of vanilla, along with creamy undertones. The color is actually a pale ivory, and, like commercial milk chocolate, it contains milk.

White chocolate drinks vary the way other chocolate drinks do, but all chocolate comes from cocoa beans. When liquefied, the chocolate liquor (which is not alcoholic) contains two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Only the solids contain caffeine. The more cocoa solids are in the final product, the darker the chocolate and the more caffeine it contains. White chocolate contains only cocoa butter, so it has no caffeine.

Yet another ingredient in chocolate is highly stimulating: theobromine, which is a more potent cardiac stimulant than caffeine. (Caffeine, by contrast, penetrates the blood-brain barrier more readily.) Cocoa solids have even more theobromine than caffeine, but white chocolate has neither.

CAN CHOCOLATE BE DECAFFEINATED? I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A CUP OF HOT CHOCOLATE IN THE EVENINGS, BUT MY REACTION TO CAFFEINE IS TOO STRONG. – Marie Travers, Hemet, California

Find solutions to Marilyn’s puzzles and this week’s Numbrix on the next page!